Nikon D3X DXOMark Numbers Blow the Sony A900 Away!

[David Kilpatrick]

Don, I suggest you get a 5D MkII while the going is good. $2699 is as good as it's going to get. It's nice enough camera, not a patch on the A900 to use/handle but much improved over earlier Canons. The sensor may not suffer from much shoot noise but it certainly suffers from pattern noise, and since you trawl dPreview or other places, you will also know there has been a fairly bad history with sensor quality. Some users have had 2, 3 cameras before getting one which performs well. I certainly would not have paid for the review camera I used, if I had wanted one, I would have taken tried to get a journo discount on a new (different) one.

I can only say that after using the D3X and 5D MkII for a while over the last two months, I am very happy to own an Alpha 900; I've got the best of what I want (you may notice on the graphs you supply that the A900 is the fastest focusing of the three, in typical sunny conditions as required for stock travel and UK landscape work, and studio work). I don't know where those Canon low ISO noise figures come from, certainly not the example I used. Here the Canon is £500 ($750) more than the Alpha 900 and price increases look like making the gap even bigger.

Anyway, I want a rock solid camera - predictable, reliable AF and exposure and consistency - perfect match of finder to final result - fair match between what you chimp on screen and what you finally get on computer. The A900 delivers all this much better than the Canon or the Nikon. The Canon exposure and LCD brightness are real issues (same goes for the 50D, but that's even worse - every shot looks two shots underexposed on the camera screen when it is actually perfect). The Nikon focus, despite the reputation of the MultiCAM 3500 module, is poor. It handles a few situations really well but many badly, and again, it's only necessary to read pro forums relating to the models using the MultiCAM 3500 FX or DX to see the problems (or use the camera, to experience them). The Alpha 900 centre f/2.8 with double cross is just magic, fast, dead accurate and able to focus (despite those low light speed figures) when other cameras run out of sensitivity.

David

[pakodominguez]

I can only say that after using the D3X and 5D MkII for a while over the last two months...
David

BTW David, you think the 24~105 f4L is good or is soft?
A friend had had a couple of samples of this lens and I don't like it (he doesn't care that much...)

Regards

[Javelin]

Hrm well LL is kinda saying the Canon is sort of water soluble wouldn't that be a problem shooting some of the sports you shoot?

[David Kilpatrick]

I can only say that after using the D3X and 5D MkII for a while over the last two months...
David

BTW David, you think the 24~105 f4L is good or is soft?
A friend had had a couple of samples of this lens and I don't like it (he doesn't care that much...)

Regards

The sample I had was barely usable. It has soft patches across the frame even at f8. I think the IS lens is made of wobbly jelly or something - it was totally unpredictable, ranging from dead sharp occasionally to sharpness running off from one side of the frame to the other. It has no place on a full frame camera. I also have been sent files from people who fail Alamy QC - they are nearly always from this, or one or two other specific Canon lenses. Canon shooters for some obscure reason seem to accept very soft image edges as normal, I expect quality from corner to corner and stop my lenses down as necessary to get it. Stopping the 24-105mm L IS down did not improve things. The blurred bits looked different, but still blurred.

David

[Javelin]

ya my F717 too needed it. it took a seal and a retainer for the seal which indicates the camera didn't have that in the first place. of course they did it 3 years after the warranty expired and inside of 3 days too.

[PhotoTraveler]

Hey, at least they got recalled.

Canon has now finally officially admitted to the 5D issue of mirrors falling off, only after it has been going on for years and is no discontinued.

[Javelin]

never heard of that problem. man couldn't that damage a lens ?