Practical Matters

Bill Frakes is a pragmatist. The bells and whistles don't impress him; getting the job done is what counts. So when Nikon asked the award-winning photojournalist and staff photographer at Sports Illustrated to put the new 12.1 megapixel, FX format D3S to the test, Bill set out to see how this latest addition to the toolbox would perform in the real world of the working pro.

The test track was Australia—with an incredible range of features to check out, he needed a place that offered a variety of settings and situations. He shot for 24 days and came back with an impressive multi-media production and absolutely no inclination to let go of the D3S.

The camera's D-Movie capability fit right in with his role as a storyteller. Bill's been shooting video with a D90 for close to two years, incorporating clips into his work for Sports Illustrated Kids and other clients. "Still photography is my principle function and my main joy," he says, "but storytelling is really what I do—I want to take content and deliver it to the reader and the viewer in the most exciting, interesting, informative way I can. What I'm trying to convey is emotion, and sometimes that means using motion and sometimes it means using the motion stopped in a still photograph. Combine those two and you have an ultimate package. Video and stills...together they increase the power of the story. And with this camera, going back and forth between the video and the stills is seamless. It's sensational."

And it's a game changer. "I love having the additional ability to tell stories in another way. Now I can do film documentaries at the same time I'm shooting a still-life documentary. I'll never go on assignment again where I don't have a camera that will do video imaging."

Perhaps even more important to his storytelling is the D3S' low light capability. "It's stunning what they've done here," Bill says. "You can make technically excellent images now in light that was unheard of prior to this. The 6400 ISO files look as good as 800 ISO files did on the first digital cameras."