Well, like nothing Nikon produced previously. Okay, that’s not exactly true. From an external standpoint, the D3 looks and feels like a D2xs with a larger viewfinder prism hump. All the mechanical and user interface things we enjoyed with the D2 series carry over pretty much intact. It’s what’s under the covers that brought all the surprises. Better autofocus. Better metering. Better image quality. Better high ISO performance. Better card write performance. It’s as if someone took a decently regarded high-end sports car and found a miracle engine to put inside that transformed the whole package. Yes, it’s that dramatic.

I should note that Nikon was worried about one thing with the D3 introduction. They knew Canon was continuing to push megapixels, and they knew that other competitors would be, too. The big risk Nikon took was leaving the camera at 12mp, same as the D2xs (and the much less costly Canon 5D, for that matter). For the D3 to succeed, it had to be so much better at everything else that even the pixel cravers would find themselves satisfied. That’s a tall order.

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