Shooting with a Nikon D3 in 2024 ~ Photos & Thoughts

In December 2023, I ‘side-graded’ from a Pentax K5 to a Nikon D3. With the K5, I used either a 35mm macro limited lens or a 77mm 1.8 limited. The K5 had deteriorated gradually.

First thing that stopped working, was the sd card slot where the cards got stock, which meant that only the USB port could be used. That stopped working too, eventually. And that’s where the Nikon D3 comes into the picture.

Also see: Copenhagen Photographer ~ Kasper Bergholt Photography

Construction & life expectancy

The D3 is in a completely different class from the Pentax K5 construction-ise, the metaphor commonly used to describe its quality is: ‘built like a tank’. It’s obvious why the D3 was the cream of the crop at its introduction in 2007 – with an almost military-grade feel to it.

I got one on eBay with a shutter count of 90,000.The D3 lifetime range is rated at 400,000 – 500,000, which leaves me plenty to work with. Some report shutter counts as high as 1,000,000-1,500,000.

Vintage Nikon D3 with Zeiss Milvus lens on top of Coltrane's 'Love Supreme' inlay from Japanese pressing. — Vintage Nikon D3 with Zeiss Milvus lens on top of Coltrane’s ‘Love Supreme’ inlay from Japanese pressing.

D3 second-hand market prices in 2024

The price being reasonably low at the second-hand market, I’ve had a fair budget for trying different lenses. The Carl Zeiss Milvus 50mm 2.0 is my current favorite. MPB have D3s in the €319-€484 range. US prices on eBay seem to be around $270. Another favorite is the vintage 2.8 macro lens from the Nikkor series (produced around 1985).

What I use the Nikon D3 for in 2024

When I got the camera, I was primarily interested in macro photography of vintage vacuum tubes (valves in British English) for a Leben tube amplifier (see photo below).

This branched out into the ‘Objects for an Ideal Home‘ series which started when I brought the D3 with me on summer vacation to Northern coasts of Denmark – where I did several photos of sea urchins..

The Nikon D3 above is pictured on top of the Japanese pressing of John Coltrane’s ‘Love Supreme’ album mounted with a Carl Zeiss Milvus f/2 macro lens.

Short summary

In short, I am very pleased with the Nikon D3 and it has re-sparkled my interest in the visuals arts in general and photography in particular, including from an academic perspective and as an art form.

Nikon D3 Ratings

Overall Rating: 8.5
Overall Image Quality: 8
Value for money (used): 10
Must have: 7.5
Suitability for intended use: 10
Got what I expected: 10
Autofocus performance: 6
Handling and ergonomics: 10
User-interface: 8

This review was originally written for Photography on the Net, in the latter half of 2022. In November it was announced that the site was closing by year’s end, which lead me to move the review here.

D3 Specs

Nikon D3 release date: August 2007 (23rd)
Country of production: Japan
Sensor type: CMOS
Sensor size: 36 mm × 23.9 mm (full-frame)
Resolution: 12.1 megapixels (4256 × 2832 pixels)
Sensor size: 36 x 23.9 mm
Camera type: DSLR (digital single lens reflex camera)
Field of view crop factor: 1.0
Superseeded: D2Hs and D2Xs
Mount: Nikon F mount
Max shutter speed: 1/8000 sec
Min shutter speed: 30 sec
View-finder: Optical
Memory card type: CF (Compact Flash)
Atuo-focus area: 51 TTL (through the lens)
Frames per second: 11
Built-in flash: No
Frames per second: 9 seconds full frame, 12 frames per second DX
Screen: 3 inches – 307,000 pixels
Weight: 1,240 grams / 2,73 lb
Product color: Black
Photo formats supported: JPG, TIFF,NEF (raw)
Supported video formats: avi, mpj
Replaced by: Nikon D3s (announced in October 2009)
Battery compatibility: Nikon EN-EL4a
Memory card slot: Compact Flash
Latest firmware: 2.03
Maximum size of compact flash cards: Up to 32GB have been reported to work.