Canon vs. Nikon: Battle of the Titans
I recently bought a new Nikon D3X and after playing with it I’m now ready to let you know how it stacks up against some other comparable cameras on the market, specifically the Canon 1Ds Mark III.
Today in my studio you’ll find the one Nikon D3X, three Canon 1Ds Mark IIIs, two Canon 5D Mark IIs, and one 39MP Hasselblad H3D-II. Because I’m constantly swapping between bodies, a lot of practical experience has surfaced about these cameras. Through time, trial and error, I’ve realized that each body has its own particular place to shine. I also get a lot of feedback from my assistants as to which cameras they prefer to shoot with and why.
Sharpness Results – A Breakdown
You’ve heard me say it before, and I’ll say it again: I am a huge stickler for sharpness. When our new Nikon D3X came in, the first issue my team and I wanted to test was sharpness. How much detail could we capture? Could we use this camera for stock production or maybe even for fashion (which probably has the highest degree of quality concern in the photography industry)? Could we get a similar or maybe even better result than with the Canon (or even the Hasselblad)?
We tested the body with a couple of the sharpest Nikon lenses and the result was surprisingly good. (I must say I was personally quite happy that I had not just wasted $8,000 USD, plus another $5,000 USD on lenses.) Here are the results:
Center Focus
The first thing we tested was the Nikon 85mm 1.4 vs. the Canon 85mm 1.2L. I personally use the 85mm a lot and find this focal range very suitable for stock, so this was a very interesting test for me. We tested the center area in sharpness as the first. Remember that to try to to this comparison we tend to had to downsize the Nikon file to match the canon.We provide your image masking service at low cost
Periphery Focus
The second thing we tested was the Nikon 85mm 1.4 vs. the Canon 85mm 1.2L in its periphery focal abilities. Here are the results:
With the right lenses, the Nikon easily matches the Canon. But if you make the mistake of pushing some Nikon lenses to the edge, they certainly do not do justice to the full 24MP that the D3X is capable of handling. To get great sharpness out of this camera, you really need to know which F-stop range each lens achieves maximum sharpness within. Once my team and I figured out the right parameters, we soon learned to work beautifully with this camera. We ordered a whole bunch of lenses and returned the ones we did not find sharp.
Unfortunately, we did not find any of the Nikon Zoom lenses in the mid-range 24-70mm to be sufficiently sharp for our needs. We were however extremely impressed by the Nikkor 14-28mm f2.8, which was completely in its own league with outstanding sharpness and fringing kept in check. Canon simply does not have a wide zoom lens or prime that matches this lens in sharpness. (In fact, I believe you would have to go to medium format to match this lens.)
Before the new Nikon, I would always go to my Hasselblad prime 28mm if I was doing a wide shot. The wide Canon lenses weren’t worth using because they’d fringe the whole thing so much that it took my outsourcing staff hours per file to fix the issue. Now it seems I can shoot wide without having to get the heavy firearms in position. Great!
So to the big question—in terms of sharpness, could I do stock or fashion with this lens? The answer is yes….but.
The “but” comes in because you really have to know what you’re doing and chose just a few handpicked lenses to work with. If you look at it from an overall perspective, the Canon lenses perform slightly better all around. After much research we settled on using these lenses from Nikon:
Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 (impressively sharp lens)
Nikon 50mm f1.4 (useless below f3.0, sharpness lacking, will be rejected for the stock)
Nikon 85mm f1.4 (too blurry below f2.0, very sharp at f5.6)
Nikon 70-200mm f2.8
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