I touched a D3.

[manaheim]

I played with one for a few hours this weekend. My friend's father (who tends to have the model I use as a primary camera as his backup body) has a D3.

Maaaaaaaan that thing is a piece of hardware. The shutter is ridiculously fast. It's absolutely huge. He had it in the redundant write mode "just for fun".

What a monster.

Anyway, felt like sharing.

 

[sarallyn]

drool.
I know someone on a pit bull forum that has one of these... it makes me embarrassed to post my pictures of my dog on there.

 

[Snyder]

Ya, its nice isn't it.

 

[Joves]

So Im guessing it was good for you.

 

[Yemme]

 

[Sw1tchFX]

I've used a D3 and own a D700.

Both are solid bodies, the 700 seems more dense then the D3, kind of like an F6 dense.

I personally think the D700 is a better camera because picture controls are so fast and easy to get to, IMO the ergonomics are better because it's a smaller body, so it takes up less space and has similar controls the D200 brought forward, and it has a pop up flash so I don't need an SU-800.

But if you shoot sports or do alot of PJ work, D3 all the way. 9fps, dual card slots, and a more usable grip for shooting vertically. For everything else, the D700 is just as good if not better.

 

[Ed.]

I saw a guy carrying a D3 on a mountain trail when i was in Colorado, huge is an understatment. i think i might have back problems if i had to carry a body that size around my neck for hiking down a trail.

my uncle bought one eariler in the month, haven't played with his yet, but hope to sooner or later.

 

[manaheim]

Yeah, honestly, the biggest thing about the D3 for me is the dual memory card writing trick. That rocks. The size and whatnot are a big deterrent. I never used the vertical grip I had on my D100 because of the size issue, so the D3 is just as irksome for that.

Aside from that, it was a pleasure to use. Nice camera.

Oddly the guy I stole it from (who is an amazing photog) had it in "auto-focus point selection mode", and auto-iso. Kinda surprising, but I guess if it's just a party full o' random people, why not?