Nikon D4S review – The professional view
Nikon ambassador and professional sports photographer Mark Pain has been one of the first to use the Nikon D4S
Award-winning sports photographer Mark Pain had been shooting extensively with the D4 before getting his hands on the D4S prior to its official launch. Mark has now used the D4S on a number of assignments, including this year’s Six Nations rugby tournament and FA Cup matches, so he is in a fantastic position to provide some feedback on how the camera performs and compares with its predecessor.
‘The D4S feels massively more dynamic and responsive than the D4, which is quite something as the D4 was a big jump,’ says Mark. ‘In layman’s terms, it’s like the camera has found an extra gear. The D4 was doing everything brilliantly, but you felt like you were pushing it to the limits. With the D4S, thanks in part to the new Expeed 4 image processor, it feels that bit faster and more capable – everything it does seems to be cruising along.’
Delving deeper, Mark reveals that it’s the small things. ‘Going from 10fps burst shooting to 11fps is a boost,’ he says, ‘while the new mirror box sees the mirror travel more quickly, so that the camera’s got more time to acquire focus as well as process that information quicker.’
The AF in particular impressed Mark, especially when it comes to tracking subjects. ‘The focusing is very interesting, especially with the new group area AF mode. We normally choose a central single focus point, but this new mode allows us to use five AF fields that I’ve found deliver much better acquisition of moving subjects.’
The uprated 16.2-million-pixel sensor is also singled out. Mark find ‘files straight out of camera to be much more lifelike. The raw files, for example, need very little or no work whatsoever. I think Nikon understands that sports photographers have to send images very quickly. I don’t want a bigger file size – it’s brilliant as it is.’
Image: The AF system of the Nikon D4S can keep up even with the erratic movement of a rugby match
Future improvements
There’s still some room for improvement from Mark’s perspective: he wants to see the inclusion of built-in Wi-Fi, while he’d also like to see a touchscreen on the back. ‘This would allow me to quickly add a caption such as ‘Rooney hat-trick’ on an iPhone-like keyboard, as opposed to having to go into the menu and do it manually. That would be very useful, but I’m sure the next-generation camera will move that on.’
Visit www.markpain.com for more of his work.
