Greg Seitz
New member
Hi Folks,
As a spin off of the D3 vs D300 thread I decided to do some dynamic range comparisons between the two. My approach to testing the dynamic range was to expose a bracketed set of shots on both cameras and then test the ability to push and pull them in Adobe Camera Raw. This gives me a real world idea of how much flexibility and range both cameras have at the extremes which translates to real world shots where I need to pull up the shadows and pull back the highlights.
The test setup was shot on a tripod using the Nikon 70-200 VR for both cameras. I equalized the field of view by using a zoom of 70mm for the D300 and 105mm for the D3 (actually the lens reported 110mm to get the framing as close as possible - probably in reality somewhere between 105 and 110). Both sets of shots were focused using live view. Once focused, I bracketed 9 shots from -4EV to +4EV using mirror lockup with a remote release for each shot. To minimize the depth of field differences I shot the D300 at f/7.1 and the D3 at f/10 (1 stop difference) and adjusted the shutter speed accordingly.
To test the ability to push up the shadows, I pushed the -4EV shots to 0EV by adding +4 in ACR to match the +0 shot.
To test the ability to bring back the highlights I pulled the +2EV shot back to 0EV by setting -2 in ACR to match the +0 shot.
The default settings were used in ACR with the exception of the black level at 0 and I used the following for camera calibration:
D300 calibration:
Shadows: 0
Red Hue: 0
Red Saturation: +8
Green Hue: +11
Green Saturation: +4
Blue Hue: 0
Blue Saturation: -22
D3 calibration:
Shadows: 0
Red Hue: -2
Red Saturation: +13
Green Hue: +18
Green Saturation: +9
Blue Hue: -1
Blue Saturation: -18
I'm also showing the +0EV shot as a reference.
Below I'll post the shots by camera and exposure so you can compare them. For those that want to dig into the raw files I'm enclosing a zip to a subset of each with -4EV,-2EV,-1EV, 0EV, +1EV, +2EV. I've also got a set of shots on the D3 at f/7.1 for reference.
Here is the raw file set for the D300 at f/7.1:
http://www.mediafire.com/?wbcyhqwdtdc
Now the D3 at f/10:
http://www.mediafire.com/?jtwzznvl0tt
and finally for reference but not shown here the D3 at f/7.1:
http://www.mediafire.com/?jtwzznvl0tt
Enjoy!
Greg
As a spin off of the D3 vs D300 thread I decided to do some dynamic range comparisons between the two. My approach to testing the dynamic range was to expose a bracketed set of shots on both cameras and then test the ability to push and pull them in Adobe Camera Raw. This gives me a real world idea of how much flexibility and range both cameras have at the extremes which translates to real world shots where I need to pull up the shadows and pull back the highlights.
The test setup was shot on a tripod using the Nikon 70-200 VR for both cameras. I equalized the field of view by using a zoom of 70mm for the D300 and 105mm for the D3 (actually the lens reported 110mm to get the framing as close as possible - probably in reality somewhere between 105 and 110). Both sets of shots were focused using live view. Once focused, I bracketed 9 shots from -4EV to +4EV using mirror lockup with a remote release for each shot. To minimize the depth of field differences I shot the D300 at f/7.1 and the D3 at f/10 (1 stop difference) and adjusted the shutter speed accordingly.
To test the ability to push up the shadows, I pushed the -4EV shots to 0EV by adding +4 in ACR to match the +0 shot.
To test the ability to bring back the highlights I pulled the +2EV shot back to 0EV by setting -2 in ACR to match the +0 shot.
The default settings were used in ACR with the exception of the black level at 0 and I used the following for camera calibration:
D300 calibration:
Shadows: 0
Red Hue: 0
Red Saturation: +8
Green Hue: +11
Green Saturation: +4
Blue Hue: 0
Blue Saturation: -22
D3 calibration:
Shadows: 0
Red Hue: -2
Red Saturation: +13
Green Hue: +18
Green Saturation: +9
Blue Hue: -1
Blue Saturation: -18
I'm also showing the +0EV shot as a reference.
Below I'll post the shots by camera and exposure so you can compare them. For those that want to dig into the raw files I'm enclosing a zip to a subset of each with -4EV,-2EV,-1EV, 0EV, +1EV, +2EV. I've also got a set of shots on the D3 at f/7.1 for reference.
Here is the raw file set for the D300 at f/7.1:
http://www.mediafire.com/?wbcyhqwdtdc
Now the D3 at f/10:
http://www.mediafire.com/?jtwzznvl0tt
and finally for reference but not shown here the D3 at f/7.1:
http://www.mediafire.com/?jtwzznvl0tt
Enjoy!
Greg