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Nikon D100 Nikon ups the ante with 6 million pixels, superb color and resolution, at a 'bargain' price! Select a topic Reference: Datasheet D100 Sample Images --------------------------------- 1. Intro and Highlights 2. Executive Overview 3. Design 4. Viewfinder 5. Optics 6. Exposure & Flash 7. Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests 8. Operation & User Interface 9. Camera Modes & Menus 10. Image Storage & Interface 11. Video, Power, Software 12. Test Results & Conclusion --------------------------------- Print-Friendly Review Version Additional Resources and Other Links Reader Comments on D100 Review --------------------------------- Digital Camera Comparometer (TM) --------------------------------- <-- Digital Cameras (Home) <-- Digital Camera Reviews Index <<Video, Power, Software :(Previous) | (Next): Reference: Datasheet>> Page 12:Test Results & Conclusion Review First Posted: 5/31/2002

Test Results

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From Dave: Read our shootout article, comparing this camera to 3 other digital SLRs!

I've had the D100 for less than a week now, so haven't had the time to do my usual full analysis of its images. - Stay tuned, I should the full treatment up within a week. Meanwhile, I've uploaded a representative sample of images, along with a collection of random shots I snapped with it. - These should give some idea of the camera's performance under a variety of shooting conditions. (Sorry, no night shots yet, but I'll try to get to some pretty soon.) There is one sequence of shots snapped with a blue-sky background at a range of ISO settings, from 200 to 6400, for the noise-analysis fanatics out there though. ;-) Look for the sample images page to be posted soon!

Conclusion
As I said at the outset, there's no question in my mind that the D100 is going to revolutionize photography even more so than the original D1 did when it first appeared. While its advent was made a little less startling by the near-simultaneous announcement of Canon's competing D60 model (selling for only a couple of hundred dollars more), these cameras will together open "no excuses" digital photography to thousands upon thousands of photographers for whom it was previously out of reach. I haven't done any sort of a complete analysis on my test images yet (stay tuned for about another week for that), but the early results are very impressive. Even beyond the image quality though, what stands out in my mind about this camera is how completely I can forget about the mechanics of shooting while using it. It facilitates the creative process by offering an almost totally transparent photographic tool, a rare quality. This impression may reveal some of the bias of my experience, since I've been a duffer-level Nikon shooter for years, making the generalized Nikon user interface more natural to me than that employed by Canon. I'll have a more detailed comparison between the D100 and D60 as I update this review, but my general impression is that the two cameras are pretty much on par with each other in most areas. Neither will cause devoted shooters of the other persuasion to switch sides, but the advent of the D100 means that many thousands of Nikon fans will now have an opportunity to enter the high-end digital world at an attainable price point. (I do think that both cameras will draw in a lot of people who've used film SLRs from other manufacturers in the past. - It's that segment of the market where the most competition will occur between these two titans.)

While a full analysis is still a week or more off, I can confidently say that Nikon has really delivered on its promises with the D100. My advice to anyone remotely interested is to get in line with a preorder as soon as Nikon begins letting dealers take orders for it. - The popularity and demand for this camera are going to eclipse anything we've yet seen in the digital world. Highly recommended!