Nikon D3S Taking The Heat
Sitting here at USA TODAY the other day talking about the D3S during a visit with Nikon’s Design Department General Manager Koichiro Kawamura and Technical and Engineering Liaison Kenji Suzuki along with Nikon’s Bill Pekala and Mark Suban, I realized the D3S has pretty much all the bells and whistles I really want and need from a still camera.
Well, maybe a better quiet mode that really is quiet would be nice.
I really am a huge fan of the new Nikon D3S. Everything from the higher ISO’s and image quality make this still camera nearly perfect.
Did I say I was a huge fan?
The funny thing about talking to both Mr. Kawamura and Suzuki was that we were not talking about the D3S as a still camera. All of the discussion focused on the D3S as a video camera and all the pieces we added to the D3S to make it into a workable video camera.
We explained our likes and dislikes. We talked about the things we would like to see added and fixed as still photographers focusing more and more on capturing video on a daily basis.
I don’t think we offered up any brilliant revelations that haven’t been discussed by other more knowledgeable professionals but I hope the next Nikon version coming off the line will address many of the issues regarding not having 1080p video, live view auto focus and viewing along with audio issues and length of video recordings among other things.
The one thing that I brought up that seemed to spark some interest was the fact the Nikon D3S shuts down in extreme heat. It has happened to me a few times but was really prominent in southern Afghanistan in August.
NIkon D3s in the heat of Kunjak, Afghanistan
No big surprise here. A well documented issue and I knew about the extreme temperature problems with the D3S going into the assignment. Working with it in the field while walking on patrols during the 100+ degree heat with marines in the Helmand Province, I never had an problem with the camera shutting down. Not once.
The heat problem only came to light when I set the camera up in a makeshift outdoor studio to interview each member of the marine platoon for a video project.
Almost immediately the stationery D3S wedged between cots and MRE boxes heated up under the intense Afghanistan sun and the camera stopped recording all but short length clips.
Uh oh.
The only thing I could think to do after having started the interviews and needing to keep things moving was to shield the camera from the sun with anything available.
Sleeping bags, overturned cots and boxes. All of this helped but it was just too hot. The camera just wouldn’t work in the extreme heat.
In a last ditch effort with plenty of bottled water around, I soaked my travel towel down and used it as a cold compress wrapped around the camera body.
Probably not in the D3S manual but the fix worked. I was able to limp through the interviews which took nearly four hours and quite a few bottles of water. Most of the marines actually appreciated my ability to adapt to the conditions. They were also taking great pleasure in passing the time watching and mocking me while I scampered about trying to keep the “Beverly Hillbilly” rig from blowing away in strong, gusty winds.
This is the published version of the video “Voices: If you could bring an American to Afghanistan, what would you show them?”
