Nikon D3000 Indoor Crops

The 10 megapixels Nikon D3000 is compared to the 15 megapixels K-7. All images below are 100% unmodified crops from their respective cameras. ISO and aperture were set on the camera, the remaining settings were left on automatic. Notice that both cameras show excellent color accuracy but for this scene the Pentax K-7 metered one stop higher than the D3000.

The D3000 had the Nikkor 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 VR lens while the K-7 had the Pentax DA* 55mm F/1.4. Unfortunately we only had the kit-lens for review with the D3000, so image output was very soft. In fact, the usual crop used for our detailed reviews is closer to the edge than the one used below and was way too soft. The moral of the story is not to get the kit-lens, it really cripples the camera in terms of resolution.

Noise levels from the Nikon D3000 are quite good. ISO 100 to 400 are ultra-clean. At ISO 800, a fine noise-pattern is barely visible. ISO 1600 limits maximum print sizes but is definitely usable for small and even medium prints. More noise is present as 3200 but even that setting is usable for small prints, producing a highly recognizable subject.

Nikon D3000	Pentax K7
ISO 100 - 1.6s F8	ISO 100 - 3s F8
ISO 200 - 0.77s F8	ISO 200 - 1.5s F8
ISO 400 - 1/3s F8	ISO 400 - 0.7s F8
ISO 800 - 1/5s F8	ISO 800 - 1/6s F5.6
ISO 1600 - 1/10s F8	ISO 1600 - 1/3s F8
ISO 3200 - 1/20s F8	ISO 3200 - 1/6s F8
	ISO 6400 1/10s F8