Value For Money

With a current street price of around £5,500 there’s no escaping the fact that the D3x is expensive. You can get the same build and features in the D3 for half the price, and the same or similar resolution in the Sony a900 and Canon EOS 5D Mk II for a third of the price. If you want both, you can get that too in the Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III for £1,000 less. However, although these cameras come close to the D3x in one aspect or another, none can quite trump it in every area. The a900 is great value next to the D3x but is not in the same league as a camera and the images, although almost as good, are a little noisier. Canon’s flagship EOS 1Ds Mk III equals the D3x in build quality, but can’t quite match the D3x’s focusing, metering and other systems, which are state of the art. Image quality however is almost indistinguishable, with the D3x perhaps shading it by a whisker. However, it’s not so much better that Canon owners will change systems for it – after all, there will surely be a 1Ds Mk IV at some point.

The issue of cost is subjective. Many pro’s, for whom a camera is a tax-deductable expense, won’t worry about the price as long as it gives them an extra edge, which it probably will. As for everyone else, I doubt that the small gains the D3x offers over the trio of £2,000 DSLRs will be seen as worth the extra £4,000.

Buy this camera now !