An hour with a Nikon D3

It’s not every day someone comes up to you and says, “here, play with this for a little bit” and hands you a Nikon D3 sporting a telephoto AF VR 80-400mm lens. Even if it was only for an hour, I consider the offer a happy treat.

I’m used to controlled environments, preferring studio photography to any other type of scenario. I love the studio lights, oversized cameras and massive tripods. The D3 / lens combination weighs a TON and I found myself wishing I had thought to bring a unipod when I headed outside to “tinker” with the camera.

My experience with Nikon cameras is close to zero. I’ve used Canons and Mamiyas off and on for almost 18 years. I can say this, an hour is not nearly enough time to get to know the D3, but immediately noticed a UI/UX SNAFU. I think being in the internet industry for so long and constantly tuned in to usability issues has made me sensitive to just about everything else outside of the web world.

User Interface/ User Experience Situation Normal All (BLEEP!) Up

What were they thinking? Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fantastic piece of equipment, but what the heck? They designed the on-off switch as a toggle disc switch that circles around the cameras trigger aka shutter release. I kept accidentally taking pictures when I would turn the camera off…who knows, maybe I just have big fingers (?)!

Normally I would find this kind of interesting and it appeals to my artistic nature to take random unintentional odd shots, but after about the 3rd blurry photo of my foyer, it’s mostly just annoying. Sorry Nikon, but if it makes you guys feel any better – I also have usability issues with some of the new Volvo dashboards.

Fowl or State Trooper? Thankfully, not a Foul State Trooper

Despite the goofball placement of the on-off switch, the camera is pretty amazing. The photo of the ducks was taken from about 50 feet away. I know, like the world needs another duck image, but it’s better than the alternative which was a photo of a state trooper. Plus, I’m almost positive the ducks don’t need to sign a model release form.