If you're a fly fisherman, you know when you pick up a new rod if it's just perfect for you. When I picked up the D100 for the first time, I had that exact feeling, perfection. This newest DSLR from Nikon is not some digital parts shoved into a 35mm body, not by any means. The D100 is an incredible camera, delivering absolutely beautiful images with incredible ease yet sophistication. Before proceeding, I want to give you something to think about when you read this review. A successful photograph is the culmination of lots of elements: subject, lighting, technical expertise and, finally, equipment. Each one of us sees and communicates differently photographically. The D100 has some great features unique to its design. In some aspects, you'll find it's "missing" features found in other bodies while it incorporates radically new ones. It is the exclusion or inclusion of these features that make the D100 unique and are the factors you need to consider in deciding if the D100 captures and delivers your vision and communicates it to others!
The Basic Package
The D100 is not based on any previous Nikon camera body. It does have a prism and pop-up flash similar to those of the N80, but that's where the similarities stop. In its 24.7-ounce package, the D100 uses polycarbonate for its body construction. In the hands of everyone I've let hold the D100, the first reaction is a smile. It's hard to put into words just how good this light, powerful digital camera feels; it's an important attribute of the D100.
The placements of the controls to operate all of the sophistication of the D100 are handled very nicely. All the basic controls—on/off, exposure modes, exposure compensation, AF-sensor thumb pad and capture advance—are just where you expect them to be on a modern Nikon. But if you're a D1-family shooter, some control placements are different and in some ways, nicer. For example the setting of dynamic focus, file quality, white balance and ISO are on the same dial as the exposure modes. You simply rotate the dial to the function you want to change, rotate the command dial and you're good to go. (You can also set some of these same functions via the menu system.)
Digital functions such as monitor, menu, thumbnails, and the all-important delete button (trash can) are laid out differently on the D100. When coming from the D1 family, these buttons seem "out of place," but that feeling is momentary as their placements make operation a snap. These buttons are to the left of the 1.8-inch, 120,000-dot, low-temp, polysilicon TFT LCD with LED backlighting monitor (what a bunch of words to describe a nice monitor!). The monitor on the D100 is slightly cleaner than Nikon digital users are used to, but you still need to use histograms or blinkie highlights to make accurate exposure assessments from the monitor alone (features that are available in the D100). With the way the buttons are situated on the back of the D100, this is a snap to do, even on the fly!
The D100 includes the Nikon Multi-CAM900 autofocus module, which does a nice job of quickly locking onto a subject (but it's not as fast as the D1-family cameras). The viewfinder appears much less "tunnel-like" than any other digital DSLR I've ever shot with, which is really nice! The viewfinder coverage is only 95%, which means you have to remember you're capturing more of the image than you're seeing in the viewfinder (the monitor displays 98% of the image captured). The D100 includes a DoF button for image preview, which so many photographers desire.
One other basic equipment feature of the D100 could be linked to the N80. You can "turn on" grid lines in the viewfinder (CS#19). But the D100 has a really cool twist to this that I personally really like. The AF sensors as well as the grid are either black or red, depending on the ambient light level. When shooting in regular daylight, these are black and in low light levels, they turn red.
Outstanding New Features
There are lots! The one that most latch onto is the new 6.1MP CCD. There is absolutely no doubt the D100 delivers big, beautiful images and in part this can be attributed to the new CCD. I personally feel, though, that this is due more to the new software and hardware behind the CCD. A good example of what I'm taking about is its new color noise reduction. The smaller pixel construction of the D100's CCD in theory should produce more noise but that's not the case. The CNR and other software/hardware features in the D100 work together to produce images you can stunningly take to 11x14. An option you can add to this is long exposure noise reduction (CS#4). This permits you to take a long exposure, say 30 seconds, and the D100 will, through its magic, take care of what is called Dark Current Noise. It works fantastically; this is a sweet feature!
Nikon hasn't changed the white-balance settings in the D100, as they are basically the same as you'd find in the D1 cameras. So the vast majority of my shooting was done as Cloudy -3. But what Nikon did add to the D100 is white-balance bracketing. For those wanting to learn more about white balance and what works best for their workflow, this is a great learning tool. When you activate this (by using Custom Setting #11), the D100 captures two to three images and brackets the white balance as per your settings. This not only quickens the process compared to manually trying to set different white color balances, but encourages you to experiment and learn!
One of the features I really like on the D100 is its new image preview "zoom" feature. When you preview an image you've captured on the LCD monitor, you can zoom in on that image nine times! The area of the image is increased so you can see exactly what you did or didn't capture in one area of your image. You can also "scroll" around on the image once it has been magnified using the AF-sensor thumb pad. You'll have no problem determining if an image is sharp with this feature!
The D100 permits you to enter "comments" to your images. By using Image Comment in the set-up menu, you can enter up to a 36-character phrase. This comment is recorded on each capture (as long as it is activated) into the image's Exif file (the comment is not seen on the image itself). I entered my name for the comment so each capture is then tagged with my name. This is really a functional feature for the working photographer!
