Nikon D1The D1 WonderCam!<<Video, Power, Software :(Previous) | (Next): The All-Nikon, All-Digital Studio>> Page 13:Test Results & ConclusionReview First Posted: May 12, 2000 |
Test Results
In keeping with our standard policy, our comments here are rather condensed, summarizing our key findings: For a full commentary on each of the test images, see the D1's "pictures" page.
As with all Imaging Resource camera tests, we encourage you to let your own eyes be the judge of how well the device performed: Explore the images on the pictures page, to see how well the D1 performed, and how its images compare to other cameras you may be considering buying.
Overall, the Nikon D1 turned in an exceptional performance. About the best we can say of it is that it's a true Nikon Pro SLR that just happens to be digital. Resolution was very good, verging on exceptional, although some consumer-level cameras actually test slightly better, given their 3.34 megapixel sensors, vs the 2.66 megapixel one in the D1. Likewise, we felt the color could have been a little better, particularly given the excellent color Nikon's new 990 consumer camera produces. The D1's color is more generally more accurate, in that it doesn't tend to over-saturate colors in the way that many consumer digicams do. On the other hand, it produces somewhat odd coloration in skin tones, and we've noticed that blue skies appear somewhat muted. While we didn't get a chance to test it, it appears that Mike Chaney's excellent Qimage Pro program does a superb job of color management with the D1's "raw" format files, straight from the CCD. (Not to say the D1's color was so bad, just that we had higher expectations, given it's premium price and position.) Although we captured almost no images in "raw" format before we had to return the D1 test unit, Qimage Pro is apparently particularly effective in improving the D1's handling of flesh tones. - For $30, no D1 shooter should be without Qimage!(Please note that we have no business relationship whatsoever with Mike Chaney or Qimage Pro.) Addendum: A number of readers have written it to tell us of Eric Hyman's excellent Bibble software, which appears to do even better than Qimage on the color-correction front (although it lacks Qimage's high-ISO noise filtering). At only $50 for Bibble, we'd also put it on the absolute must-have list for every D1 owner! (Which one should you get? - Why not both? Each offers capabilities the other lacks, and for $80 for the pair of programs, you really can't go wrong!)
One of the major strengths of the D1 is its ability to use virtually any Nikon F-mount lens made in the last 30 years or so. This means that resolution will be significantly affected by the lens you choose to use with it. In our testing, we ran through both the lenses we received from Nikon (the new 85mm tilt/shift Micro, and 17-35mm f/2.8 zoom), as well as essentially all the lenses in our own kit. The winner turned out to be our own 105mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor (if only by a nose). As to the specifics of the test, we "called" the D1's resolution as being 800 lines per picture height in both vertical and horizontal directions, although there was a slight amount of aliasing before that point was reached. Significant detail was visible all the way out to 900 lines per picture height, but aliasing became progressively greater. The D1's in-camera sharpening is fairly subtle, so the res target images had a slightly soft appearance relative to some other cameras. (We were in particular comparing images to those from Nikon's own Coolpix 990, which applies a somewhat heavy-handed sharpening internally.) We tried our usual trick of applying fairly strong unsharp masking in Photoshop (300% at 0.5 pixel radius), and felt it created a much crisper-looking image, without introducing any halos or significant artifacts. Bottom line, the images produced by the D1 are very sharp, and it seems to do a particularly good job of reproducing very fine details. (Wires or tiny tree branches against the sky, etc.)
As you'd expect from a high-end Nikon professional SLR, exposure control was absolutely phenomenal. The variety of options and modes are far beyond what would fit in this brief summary, but suffice to say that the D1 offered every exposure option we could conceive of (and a few we couldn't), as well as a very accurate metering system, thanks to Nikon's 3-D color matrix metering. Multiple focus zones, and the ability to have the spot-metering actually track the focus area were an unexpected and very welcome plus.
Because it has much larger CCD elements than typical consumer digicams (big pixels mean more light sensitivity), the D1 does very well when shooting in low-light conditions. At ISO 1600, its noise levels are about equivalent to the better consumer-level digicams shooting at ISO 400. Although the D1 offers special "gain up" settings with ISO equivalents as high as ISO 6400, we felt that the image noise at those settings was too high for the images to be usable. In practice, we obtained very good images down to the darkest level our studio light meter would measure accurately, 1/16 of a foot-candle (about 0.7 lux). This is really dark, to the point it was hard to find our way around the studio! We did notice a slightly odd behavior that we've seen reported by other users: At higher ISO ratings (1600 and above, although very slightly visible at ISO 800), the image noise in the D1 has a slight patterning to it, in the form of vertical stripes of greater and lesser noise perhaps 50 pixels or so wide. A fairly subtle effect, but there if you look for it.
Viewfinder accuracy of the D1 was quite good, as you'd expect from a pro SLR. Nikon specifies the viewfinder accuracy as 96%, which agreed well with our own measurements. Optical performance (distortion and aberration) will obviously depend on the lenses you use: We were impressed though, by just how much better the professional Nikkor glass was than the lenses on the consumer-level digicams we're accustomed to testing. Probably no surprise, when the cost of one lens was more than an entire "prosumer" camera, but the improved quality really was quite remarkable.
As for Macro performance (a category we regularly report on here), what you get from the D1 depends entirely on what lens you use. We did our Macro test with our 105mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor macro lens. Given the stellar performance of this lens in our other tests, it's no surprise that we were very pleased with the D1's performance in the macro category: It captured a minimum area of only 0.95 x 0.62 inches (24.10 x 15.81 mm), with a very comfortable working distance of about 12 inches: Not as "microscopic" as some consumer cameras (the Coolpix 950 and 990 in particular come to mind), but the 12 inch working distance is fantastic...
As a bottom line to our tests, the Nikon D1 is clearly a worth candidate to carry the Nikon legacy into the digital era: It provides all the control and exceptional "build" quality of a professional Nikon SLR, with a high-resolution digital sensor seamlessly integrated. Very highly recommended!
Conclusion
What a camera! The Nikon D1 should be a welcome addition to any photographer's bag of tricks, amateur and professional alike. We found so many superlatives in our testing of the D1 that we're hard-pressed to know how to condense them all down to a brief "concluding" statement. Suffice to say that the incredible exposure control, flexibility of lenses and flash units, and features, features, features lead us to heartily recommend the D1 to anyone looking for a digicam that's truly a professional picture-taking tool. (We recommend at the same time though, that you purchase a copy of Mike Chaney's Qimage software though, to help in situations requiring really critical color translation.) The D1 is evidently in the process of enjoying great commercial success, which we find unsuprising, given its capabilities and likeness to Nikon's popular F5 film camera, and the excellent performance of its digital components. Overall, a phenomenal tool, fully worthy of the name and reputation of Nikon!
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