Have you ever tried to imagine the outcome of a battle between two armies whose weapons and military strategies are separated by a century of development? Having recently got my hands on Nikon’s first full-frame flagship DSLR, the famous D3, I decided to try a similar experiment. For its competitor, I chose the Nikon Z9. True, these two rivals are separated by 14 years rather than centuries. But at the current rate of technological development, it might as well be!

So, what are the similarities and differences between the two cameras? First of all, they both represent the best of what Nikon is, and was, capable of. The 12.0MP Nikon D3 launched in August 2007 at a price of $4999. It wasn’t until the following year that the Nikon D3X saw the light of day. The latter had a gargantuan 24.4-megapixel resolution (well, for its time!) and an equally high price tag of $7,999. The Nikon Z9 launched more recently, in October 2021, at a price of $5,500.


Taking inflation into account, the Z9’s price is pretty similar to that of the original D3. What is dramatically different is the resolution, which has increased 3.8 times in fourteen years. Such an increase can be compared to the increase in the capabilities of the human brain over the last few million years, and its decrease over the last ten :)
To make my comparison really tell the story of where technology has gone in those 14 years, I’ve equipped each camera with a wide-angle lens from its era. On the Nikon D3, I used the Nikon 16-35mm f/4.0 AF-S G ED VR lens, launched in 2010. The Nikon Z9 got a similar, but 9 years younger, Nikon Z 14-30mm f/4 S.


But let’s not waste any more time and head out into the field to see how it all works. For my short test, I chose the Jizera Mountains, a remote corner in the north of the Czech Republic. The well-preserved spruce forests, mountain climate, and peat bogs here give the landscape a magical and somewhat mysterious character. On the map, I picked out a small stream away from the tourist trails. After a tortuous descent, during which I refreshed myself with blueberries, I stood at the bottom of a magical canyon. At its bed, a beer-colored stream roared through the rocks. How typical of my country.
My test could begin. The design was simple in principle. Not the sophisticated scientific approach you are used to in our reviews. I set up the composition with one camera, took several variations of the same image, and then repeated the same thing with the other camera. The aim was to get pairs of photos where the main difference would be the camera/lens pair used.


In reality, there were three other variables at play. Firstly, the minimum ISO of the two cameras is different. On the D3 it’s ISO 200, while on the Z9, it’s a much lower ISO 64. This affected the shutter speed and therefore the amount of blur in the water and vegetation. There was also a significant difference in the quality of the polarization filters I used. On the D3 with a 16-35mm f/4 (77mm diameter) I used my high quality VFFOTO filter with 14 anti-reflective layers. On the Z9, I used a borrowed cheap no-name filter because the 14-30mm f/4 requires an 82mm diameter. The difference between the two would make a whole article. (So much so that after the first two shots, I preferred to simply hold a quality filter in front of the 14-30mm lens.) The last major factor that was difficult to control was the weather. Sun alternated with heavy clouds, wind with windlessness. But the biggest problem was the heavy rain that started towards the end of the day.
Whipped by the rain and gusts of wind, I stood on high ground overlooking the bog. As soon as the wind calmed, I removed the lens cap and took a few shots. After a few seconds, the front of the lens became waterlogged, so I dried it off while shielding it from the rain and repeated the process. For this foggy scene, using a polarizing filter didn’t make sense. Thanks to this, the sharpness and contrast were not affected by the bad filter, nor by the vibrations caused by holding the good one in front of the lens. This is where the differences between the two cameras really became apparent.


Well… maybe at web resolution, the differences aren’t apparent at all. Instead you can judge from the 100% crops:


A 100% crop on one camera is not the same as a 100% crop on a lower-resolution body! Perceptually, the sharpness isn’t all that different, but the greater number of pixels on the Z9 means that we are seeing that sharpness much more zoomed in.
And here are two more 100% crops from the same scene to show what I mean:


After returning to my cabin and drying my wet clothes and cameras by the fire, I went out again. It was late at night, and the supermoon had just risen in the sky. Not exactly the ideal situation for star photography, but at least the rain had stopped, and there were some gaps in the clouds.
In the torchlight, animal eyes in the forest shone out at me from the darkness. A fox was running not far from me. A doe, which would have fled during the day, walked around with dignity. A toad was sitting on a stump and two deer were grazing in a meadow surrounded by tall trees. I didn’t notice this until I was processing the photos. It was so dark in the forest that I couldn’t see the tip of my nose. See if you can find the deer in the Z9 photo! Without a lot of brightening in post-production, I expect you can’t.


And here are the crops, if you’re interested:


At a pixel level, there is a bit more noise in the Z9 photo, but there is also far more detail in the leaves and grass. I remember how impressed I was with how well the Nikon D3 handled high ISOs at the time. It’s still impressive from a noise standpoint, but a lot of details are lost in the low resolution. If both photos were printed at the same size, the noise levels would be similar on both cameras, but the detail would favor the Z9.
Two more crops:


For a camera that would be old enough to get its driver’s permit, the D3 holds up really well, but this was never a fair fight and of course the Z9 comes out ahead.
Summary
The Nikon D3 was a fantastic camera in its time, and it still is. Holding it is still a pleasure, and a look through the viewfinder will make you reminisce about the old golden days of photography. But technological evolution has worked its magic, and modern high-resolution sensors like the one in the Z9 are clearly better. Not to mention the other benefits that come with time, like processing speed and video features. Does it make sense to buy a D3 now? Pragmatic arguments are hard to find, except for price. It is amazing how you can get a used full-frame professional camera like the D3 for about $400 used – less than most entry-level mirrorless cameras.

The same goes for the lenses. Especially with wide-angle ones, the move from the somewhat narrow F-mount to the XXL-sized Z-mount has meant an overall improvement in lens quality. However, the real benefits are only apparent at wide aperture values and large prints, or if you expect to do a lot of cropping. Lenses also go obsolete more slowly than cameras. The 16-35mm f/4G that I mentioned is selling used, today, for almost exactly the same price as the D3 is. That’s still a huge decrease from the original price of $1260, but it’s not a 90% decrease like we see with the D3.
What about you, do you have an old digital camera sitting in a drawer? A mate from the old days? Then take it out and stretch its shutter. The mirror will still clap happily, the shutter will rattle, and you might remember your first digital steps. Isn’t it fantastic that we lived through those times?
While cameras from the D3 era are still quite capable of taking wonderful photos, the real technological advancement has come about by the sensor and AF systems.
This test is only half the battle, and does not compare AF systems for both bodies.
Even among a seasoned photographer who has mastered both bodies, the Z9 will fill a card with action shots that are keepers, where the D3 be much more hit and miss, for fast moving subjects.
I have nothing bad to say about the older tech. I love the D300 I started with.
I actually prefer the photos from the D3
If this represents the game-changing leap forward of the mirrorless revolution, you can keep it. Where’s the incentive to ditch my high-mileage D810 and all my F-mount stuff for such a marginal improvement? The 810’s output still dazzles me after all these years. I’ll be sticking with what I’ve got.
For wildlife and action shooters, from D810 to Z9, the AF improvement is HUGE, the silent shutter makes a serious difference in practice, the buffer/continuous speed is very handy, and the video capablities of the D810 are almost negligent whereas the Z9 is amazing. Not for everyone certainly, and in some applications not a big leap, but the difference IS there in certain kinds of photography.
Thanks much for the comparsion. I do prefer the colors & the rendering from the D3, which does have the same Sensor, like into my D700. 12 MP is enough for my needs, i do even take (occasionally) pictures with my (just) 6 MP DX Nikon D40, and still love it’s output. Megapixel and AF speed aren’t everything – something, ppl into DPR forums totally forget, because they’re gearheads, or always do have G.A.S. syndrome. :-)
Thanks for your work.
As long as I’m the bottle neck I’ll stay with D7100/D750 and D800.
Not to forget, how ‘low quaility’ pictures can be ‘improved’ or enhanced by SW or what in future AGI based SW can do.
This could give old equiptment a new life.
BR’S
Jan
Looking at the photos from my phone I prefer the colours and contrast out of the D3. Z9 seems too sterile and lacks character to my eye.
I much prefer the D3.
I’m keeping my D750 … it’s nearly 10 years old … but Nikon gave me a free new shutter last winter when I finally acted in the shutter reflection service call from 2015. It’s hardly shows any wear for a camera that went 120 clicks and its 24 mpx Sony Exmore class sensor gives up almost nothing to current generation sensors …
BTW at screen resolution I preferred some of the D3 renditions
120,000
Thanks for the comment, Fred. Maybe I should have left the photos without captions and let people vote on which ones they liked better. And then I’d sell my Z9 and run to the second-hand shop for an old D3 before they sell out :)
I’m also still using a D750 from 2014, also with replaced shutter a couple of years ago with some well-needed care for the rubber grips at the same service occasion.
It is however being used less these days since I haven’t shot any weddings since before Covid, and that for the more casual family photos and photos for social media the newest phone has been able to cover more and more of the various use cases.
Been thinking of getting a Z6 or Z7 (or now maybe Z8?) for years now, but except for starting to do more video work I can’t really motivate myself to pay for the upgrade to both a new body and at least 1-2 new lenses (the rest of the use cases would have to be covered by adapted FX lenses for the foreseeable future anyway).
Fun read, thanks.
I had a D3 with buffer expansion, was a great camera. Currently, I have a pair of D3x cameras that I like a lot, and paid a good bit less for both than the Z6 I have. Those D3x cameras are not “better”, I think, but do seem to deliver a very nice rendition in good light.
I do like the eye focus in the Z cameras, I think my portrait nailed focus ratio is a bit better with the Z’s.
When I compare the old and newer cameras I have, I find that the 24MP cameras I have deliver visibly more detail than the D3s I still have (was king of sports photog), but the increase from 24 to 45MP did not deliver as much perceived detail increase as one would expect.
I don’t much like spending time in front of a computer manipulating images. So I have adjusted my D850 and Z6/7 to deliver SOOC images that look more like the D3x and D800 I bought to give to a relative but wound up keeping. Possibly less accurate, but I like it.
Thank you for sharing your experience, Robert. The D3x is a camera I would like to try. A comparison with the Z6 would make sense here. Too bad it’s getting harder to service these cameras.
Why do you own so many camera bodies ?
It seems to me that you should have at least used the same lenses on both cameras, so that you were comparing only the cameras. The Z9 can take the SLR lenses, but not vice-versa.
I thought about that too, but in the end I decided to see it as a comparison of two sets of the time. But it’s still a possibility that I would just leave the lens as the only variable. However, that would be a slightly different story.