Nikon D3x

Shooting Modes

The D3x relies on the four standard settings: Manual, Program, Shutter Priority, and Aperture Priority, with none of the automated specialty modes found on consumer cameras. They’re all accessed by holding down the Mode button, and rotating the rear dial.

Focus

As with everything else in this camera, the focusing options offer an in-depth level of control. The D3x has an impressive 51 autofocus points, of which 1, 9, 21 or all 51 can be utilized at a time, for different size focusing areas. When shooting with the full focus-point array you can take advantage of 3D tracking, which is useful for following swiftly moving targets. The autofocus system is rated for a detection range of -1 to 19 EV at ISO 100. You can adjust the brightness of autofocus target illumination, should you need the boost, which is handy under direct bright light, where the standard illumination level might be hard to see.

The autofocus was extremely fast in good illumination, locking on to targets easily. It still focused quickly in our low light tests (20 lux of illumination) but started to really struggle after dark. Street lamps generally provided enough light for it to get a quick fix, but in areas without them, it took significantly longer. Even so, the D3x usually managed to find an appropriate focus eventually, which is good for a camera not designed for low light performance.

The focus modes on the D3x are controlled via a small switch by the lens that toggles between the three settings. On our review unit it felt like there was a non-functioning fourth setting, between continuous and manual modes, which made it difficult to quickly adjust the focus mode. This may have been a problem limited to our particular review unit, though.

The autofocus area can be set to three modes, each with its own options: Single-point, Dynamic-area, and Auto-area.

When shooting with a lens that has a maximum aperture of f/5.6 or greater, you can use the Electronic Rangefinder to assist with manual focusing, which shows a small dot on the viewfinder if the subject is in focus. If any lenses are focusing incorrectly, you can fine-tune autofocus for up to 20 different lens types using the AF Fine Tune capability.

As with every other facet of this camera, the level of control is impressive. You can tell the D3x to only take photos if the shot is in focus, and set the delay between a subject falling out of focus and the camera’s attempt to adjust in Continuous focus mode. The idea here is to avoid having the camera attempt to refocus if something briefly crosses the frame.

Recording Options

The D3x can shoot in three image aspect ratios/crops. There’s FX, for full frame lenses, DX for lenses designed for the smaller sensor, and 5:4, which crops the full-frame down to the image format traditionally associated with Medium Format cameras.

In all image formats, the camera can shoot in RAW, RAW+JPEG, JPEG or TIFF. If you want to shoot on RAW, you can set it to 12- or 14-bit, with three levels of compression (lossless, compressed or uncompressed). Lossless compression is reversible, and you will lose no image quality and shave 20-40% off the size of the image, and compressed will trim 40-55% off the file size, but with some loss of quality. JPEGs can be set to three levels of quality: fine, normal and basic. There are two types of JPEG compression as well: size priority compresses the files to try and provide a uniform file size; optimal quality creates images that may vary in size substantially.

The D3x ALSO has an option for dynamic range optimization called Active D-Lighting. Like every other setting on this camera, there is an extraordinary level of precise control flexibility. Active D-Lighting. It can be set to auto, extra high, high, normal, low or off. If you want to apply this technology after you’ve already taken a picture, you can tweak the dynamic range of a stored image with the D-Lighting tool in both JPEG and RAW.

Other Controls (2.00)

Copyright Information

The D3x lets you embed your copyright info with your photos. You can add an artist name of up to 36 characters, and copyright holder names of up to 54 characters.

Audio Memo

The D3x has a built in microphone so that audio memos can be attached to files. In auto mode, the maximum record time can be set from five to 60 seconds; the camera starts recording as soon as the shutter button is released, and will stop when the time runs out or the microphone button is pushed. Alternatively, the memo system can be set to manual, and it will record as long as the microphone button is held down.