Nikon D4S Review - The Nikon D4S sits at the top of Nikon's DSLR tree, aiming to offer everything that the professional photographer could need and more. The question is - does it build on its predecessor?

Product Overview

Overall rating:

93%

Nikon D4S

Overall score:93%
Value:90%
Performance:95%
Image Quality:95%
Design:95%
Features:90%

Pros:

  • High ISO performance; Improved continuous shooting; Enhanced video performance

Cons:

  • Weight

Product:

Nikon D4S Review

Manufacturer:

Price as reviewed:

£5,200.00

Nikon D4S Review – Image Quality

Nikon D4S Review - image quality

Colour and white balance

Nikon DSLRs can be said to have quite a specific colour palette and way of capturing the colours in a scene. The Nikon D4S – as you would expect for a camera at the top of the range – exhibits all of these hallmarks in delivering a natural and realistic set of colours.

If you’re looking for a more vibrant set of colours, it could be an idea to switch to the ‘Vivid’ colour mode for certain settings.

In terms of white balance, you can rely upon the D4S’s auto white balance system to deliver an accurate setting in most scenes. As well as a host of presets, professional photographers will no doubt welcome the 6 customisable white balance settings which accompany them.

Exposure

As mentioned previously, the camera’s metering system and scene recognition set-up works fantastically well, delivering accurate exposures in a range of different settings.

The D4S is intelligent enough to take highlights right to the point of clipping in a scene, and thus allow for a great deal of detail to be captured in shadow areas, and as a result the balance between highlights and shadows is almost perfect.

Resolution

As you might expect for a camera with a 16.2MP resolution, the Nikon D4S doesn’t particularly excel in this regard, resolving at around 28lpmm in our test charts at base ISO.

The fact is, however, that for most professional photographers high resolution isn’t the key concern – it’s speed. Most images will either be used in newspapers or online, rather than large scale reproductions, and as a result the 16.2MP images offer more than enough scope for cropping where needed.

Noise

While resolution might not be a pressing concern, one area that certainly is is noise at higher ISO settings, and the good news is that this is an area where the D4S excels.

Throughout the ISO range there’s very little sign of noise, with a key reference point for this being that the model resolves almost the same amount of detail at ISO 12,800 as it does at ISO 100.

Raw vs. JPEG

It’s worth noting that the D4S delivers excellent JPEG files straight out of the camera, a fact worth noting as a lot of professional photographers will rely upon JPEGs so they can get their images to their employers as fast as possible.

  1. 1. Nikon D4S Review - Features
  2. 2. Nikon D4S Review - Design
  3. 3. Nikon D4S Review - Performance
  4. 4. Nikon D4S Review - Image Quality
  5. 5. Nikon D4S Review - Verdict
  6. 6. Nikon D4S Review - Sample Image Gallery
  7. 7. First Look
Page 4 of 7 - Show Full List