Friday, February 25th 2005 — I got a phone call from my Nikon dealer – Metrofoto in Berchem, Antwerp. My Nikon D2X had arrived, one of the first small batch of bodies for Belgium.

I rushed into my car, broke several speed limits during the one and a half hour drive, but still managed to get there on time, just before closing time. I had a nice talk with Peter who sold me the camera, along with a AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 12-24mm, two Speedlight SB800 flashes and some memory cards. Later that night, I played a little with the new camera in the couch. I guess you'll recognize this kind of scene if you ever bought a long awaited gadget.

Although this was my first digital reflex camera, everything seemed very familiar. Taking pictures felt almost the same as with my (now stolen) Nikon F100. The buttons on the back of the body had the same icons as my wife’s Nikon Coolpix 5400. That helped. Without consulting the manual I was able to do almost anything I wanted, and more. Mirror lockup, histograms for every image, locking of images, voice-memos,... lots of things that are very common these days for digital photographers but were completely new for me. I liked it!

Unfortunately, on Saturday my schedule was quiet tight, I managed to picture a mushroom or two, but on Sunday I had the whole day free for testing. I called my good friend Frederik Vandaele, who is also one of the creators of this website and the dutch Nature Photography Forum. I asked him to bring his Nikon D70, which he had also just bought.

And off we went, to the region of Lorraine, France. With a D2X and 12-24 mm, a D70, a F90x filled with Velvia and all my other regular equipment. It had been snowing over Europe that night, so we were treated to some nice viewscapes.

 

Harsh conditions

My speciality as a professional wildlife photographer is bat photography. These little creatures are hibernating in winter. We looked for some of them in an old French fortress. Temperature outside was approximately minus 5°C (23°F). Under the ground it was about 7°C so the camera was soon covered with water. The damp of my breath made looking at the LCD screen impossible. The protective LCD-cover was completely damped within two minutes. These are difficulties unknown to a film photographer. But this was nothing compared to the advantages of a digital body, as I was soon to notice.

I took my two new SB800 flashes out of their fancy bags and tried to put my system together. Nikon claims wireless TTL with these things. On user forums people pretend this system is not that reliable on longer distances, but for these small bats all the equipment is within 1.5 m (5 ft). Surprisingly I could not make the flashes communicate with each other without the manual. I’m very familiar with all kinds of computer flashes, but the possibilities of this system were to extensive. I consulted the manual (see picture). Within 30 seconds I had a clear answer.

Next problem. I wanted to use a backlight as usual. My funds were not enough to buy more than two SB800’s. I decided to use one of my SB28’s instead. Working with an optical slave was not possible due to the monitor preflashes of the SB800. Bummer. I tried a SC18 cable with the SB28 in A-mode (which seemed like a logical solution to me), but the SB28 kept giving full power. Strange. I will look further into this problem when I have some time.

I took some picture of a Geoffrey’s bat, covered in water droplets, with and without backlight flash (on M this time), which was kept in position by Frederik. He was making pictures of me at the same time! As we experienced some troubles getting the backlight flash right, the pictures made with the D70 are not good enough to compare with the other ones. Bats are quiet easily disturbed, so we tried to get out as quickly as possible. That’s why in this case we don’t show the D70 crop. But in the next paragraf, you’ll get a perfect idea of what this camera is capable of.

Did I tell you about the extremely large and bright LCD-screen of the D2X? After wiping it off I could see the bat in its full glory. Man! I could easily tell the exposure was right on (thanks to the histogram), that the image was sharp (zoom function) and that the backlight flash did its job nicely the second time (bright screen). Although I consider myself a flash specialist, making not too many errors, it is always a relief to see I didn’t make my trip for nothing. In the past, I had to wait for this till I got home and got my film back from the lab.

When I came home and saw the results on screen (view photo in catalogue), I almost went trough the roof! The colors, the sharpness,... it was like this animal was hanging right in front of me. Nothing compares to staring at a slide with a good loupe, but this made my heart tick faster also!

 

Crop samples (PNG) Nikon D2X (1.14Mb) Fujichrome Velvia ISO-50 (2.33Mb) Nikon D70 (failed)

Conclusions

The D2X is a very intuitive camera. As I mentioned before, the LCD screen is very large and bright, but more important: so is the viewfinder. It is small compared to a F90x and all the other quality film bodies, but even in very dark conditions (I only use a small headlight to avoid disturbing the bats) this restriction didn't bother me much. Of course, I would like it to be even brighter and larger, but it is nevertheless very usable. The viewfinder of the D70 is too small for me. In bright light, I can imagine it is good enough, but not deep down harassing bats.

Another remark. I know my film equipment thoroughly. If I put on my 200 mm macro and take position for making a picture of a bat, I rarely have to move back or forward to adjust the composition. I could always ‘feel’ the right distance between subject and lens, due to fifteen years of experience. But with the 1.5x crop factor of the D2X, I was a little lost. It's a very strange feeling. I will have to learn this again.

The body was soon covered with condense water. This did not produce technical or functional problems. I also didn't notice any flaws due to the cold temeratures outside.

The i-TTL system works very well, giving you full control from the master flash only. On this one, you can control the others too, which is great! Another great feature: when pushing the depth-of-field control button, the flashes produce light. This way you can view the scene as it will appear on the image afterwards. A great technique to check for bad shadowing or backlight. Good thing I didn’t switch to another brand.

 

 

Subjects with lots of detail

At first sight, a D2X and some SB800’s seems like a killer combination. But I wanted to compare the D2X with Velvia film and a Nikon D70 in natural light too. On DPreview some people claim there is no difference between images of a D2X, a D100 or a D70. This is possible of course, but saying this without doing any testing is foolish. So let’s take a look.

I find a lot of beauty in mosses. They are some of my most favourite plants. Imagine being a dwarf in a world of giants, that’s what being a moss is probably like. They specialise in surviving in conditions where other plants would simply die.

This time, I used a tripod (a Gitzo 1540 with Arca Swiss B1G), again my 200 macro and the three cameras. With the D2X, I used mirror lockup, and with all camera’s I used f 1/16. This is a little beyond the sweet spot of this lens, but still very sharp and with a great depth of field.

For these kind of tests, it is always a big discussion if you have to recompose with a film body or not. I think you should, as you want to compare the same image. I’m not interested in how many pixels per square inch, how many silverhalogenid crystals per cubic inch, the size of D2X pixels compared to a Canontax 20Xdf* and how many noise-dots one can find on ISO 65324 with a -2 exposition. That's just silly. Go outside and take some pictures. I compare identical images made with different equipment and choose which one suits me the best.

Furthermore, my clients don’t have the habit of pixel counting. If the image gives them the material they need with the right light and the right quality, they pay. It’s as simple as that.

 

		Crop samples (PNG) Nikon D2X (3Mb) Fujichrome Velvia ISO-50 (5Mb) Nikon D70 (2Mb)
		High detail crop samples (PNG) Side-by-side comparison Nikon D2X (3Mb) Fujichrome Velvia ISO-50 (5Mb) Nikon D70 (1Mb) Extra: Nikon D2X RAW image (NEF) (11Mb)

Conclusions

Handling the camera was again a joy. The mirror-lockup (used to avoid movement of the camera body caused by the mechanism) is easy to use. I felt confident when I heard the soft click of the shutter.

The quality of the D2X surpasses that of the the D70, but then again not that much! As you can see in the comparison at 400% the difference is hard to tell. Details in the subject are represented only a little more subtle in the image of the D2X.

Although the Velvia scan seems to be softer (no sharpening was applied to the images), slightly more detail is seen than in the D70 image in the first sample.

The digital images of the second sample were made in soft hazed light. The Velvia picture was taken while the sun appeared again, which explains the moss spore-capsule is being somewhat too light. I waited for a cloud to appear, but with no success.

Overall, the D2X clearly gives the best performance, especially due to a far more pleasing contrast and little more sharpness.

The D2X is said to produce almost no moire. Moire is a strange side effect noticeable in parts of an image with fine repeating patterns, like feathers or hairs. In this picture (Jpeg, 500Kb) of a finch for example one can clearly see these moire effects. Please note that these were also visible in the RAW-version of the image and are not due to compression! Moire will only be obvious in bigger enlargements. I never noticed this on scanned film. I took a lot of pictures of birds lately, but I only had one were moire was this obvious. You shouldn’t exaggerate this problem.

 

 

General Conclusions

Some years ago, when the D100 and 30D appeared, people were very surprised when they noticed I was still using film. This became the most asked question at the end of my slide shows. When I said digital was not yet up to film, I could see them think I was nostalgic to the old times of technical camera’s and roads with horses and chariots. I said I would go digital when bodies had 15 million pixels and costed less then € 4000. I made some calculations and a body like this would economically and technically be right for my needs.

Today I carry a 12.2 million pixel digital body worth € 5000. The only time I won't be using it is when conditions are far too cold or in cases the lack of energy is an issue. Other than that, this is without a doubt my new working horse producing better images in less time with more ease of use.

Now, I just need to think about a solid data backup system, a sensor cleaning gadget, all kinds of noise removing and interpolation software, a new fish-eye, a beamer, a better laptop, X-drives, and some more SB800’s,… (Man, I hope my wife never discovers this page).

Do I recommend this camera?
Yes, if you need its features and have the money to pay for it.
No, if you don’t take hundreds of pictures every week or make prints as large as A2. Then you could as well settle with a D70 or some other newer Nikon-bodies that are in the pipeline. No one will notice which camera you use just by looking at your pictures. But if you are a professional, you need a tool that has superb ergonomics, lots of pixels for big enlargements and flawless functioning. In that case, the D2X is definitely the camera you are looking for.

 

Rollin Verlinde (with the kind help of Frederik Vandaele)
Belgium, March 2, 2005

 

PS: If you have the time, you could take a look at our online portfolio and browse through some 9000 wildlife and nature photos.

 

 

 

Nikon Capture Editor screenshots (PNG)

 

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