It was just before 5PM when the doorbell finally rang. I nearly fell down the stairs in my excitement to get to the door. I knew it could be only one man….Bob, our trusty UPS delivery man. I’d been waiting for Bob all day. In his big brown truck, driving around his Cape Cod route, Bob carried with him my much-anticipated new camera…Nikon’s super fly D3S digital SLR.

Sensing my excitement, Bob asked if the box he was delivering was a new camera. To which I immediately replied, “Yes! I’ve been so excited all day for it to arrive.” “I thought so, since you had to sign for it,” he said. Bob is so cool.

After signing, my hands a little shaky from all the excitement…or perhaps from my sprint down the stairs…I bid farewell to Bob and dashed back up to the office to tear open my treasure box. Taaaa Daaaaa!

Andy is one of those people who likes to take his time opening presents. He slowly removes each piece of tape, one at a time, careful not to rip the wrapping paper. Then, ever so slowly, he unfolds the creases to reveal the contents. Sometimes I wonder if he does this just because he knows it drives me crazy. You see, I am a shredder. I’ve always been one of those people who tackles a present with wild abandon, ripping off paper, popping off bows, and throwing the scraps over my shoulder to see what’s inside.

But, this was different. I found myself taking Andy’s slow approach. I was quick to find a pair of scissors, but that’s where the quick ended. Slowly and precisely, I sliced the brown B&H packaging tape from each side of the box, then cut along the top center. I sat there for a few seconds, wanting to savor the moment before I peeled the box flaps back. Once opened, all I could see was a pile of white packing popcorn.

“It’s in there,” I thought to myself. My innate tendencies were to dump everything out into the middle of the office floor, until my treasure tumbled out. But, I held back. Instead, I moved a few of the popcorn pieces around, revealing what I thought was the top of the camera box…turns out it was the bottom. There on the golden box, in big black letters, I caught my first glimpse.

The excitement was now growing to a fever pitch, so I dug my hands in and found the bottom of the box, pulling it out, popcorn spilling out all over the couch. But, I didn’t care. My new toy was really here. I opened the box and had to step back to take in the view. So much to go through…

But a lover of instructions I am not. I would rather get right to it. Pressing buttons. Turning dials. I would rather do than read. So, I quickly moved the top layer of stuff to the side.

And, then I found her…quietly waiting for me in the bottom of the box, beckoning me to touch her rugged, yet, precisely constructed, sexy magnesium alloy body. Isn’t she beautiful?

And check out that backside? Wooooo hoooo!

Like my D300, the D3S has a gorgeous 3-inch super-density 921,000-dot LCD monitor. I admit, I was a bit hesitant to move up to this camera model because it’s so big! With the built in vertical grip, the camera is about 6″wx6″hx3.5″d and weighs nearly 3lbs. That may not sound like much, but once you add some of the lenses we use on this puppy, the weight and size add up fast. I was considering getting the new D700 instead. But, as it turned out the weight difference between the two cameras was minimal. And, as soon as I picked her up in the store, I knew this was it. It just felt right. She fit…..we fit. And, so it was meant to be.

But, what really drew me to the D3S is it’s amazing ISO capabilities. The D3S’s standard ISO sensitivity ranges from 100 to a stunning 12,800. As if that wasn’t enough, the D3S has three expanded ISO options that can take the ISO up to a shocking 102,400.

For the non-photographers out there, this basically means I can shoot in very little ambient light without using flash. Yes, it’s super grainy at those mega high levels. But, right now, I rarely take my D300 above 1000 ISO because the noise is too much. Knowing, I can easily shoot at 6400 ISO with less noise than the D300 produces at 1000 ISO makes me giddy. This summer I will find myself with boundless new creative options and I am super stoked!

Like the camera itself, the battery for the D3S is on the large size. But, sometimes bigger is better. This puppy has a battery life of approximately 4,200 shots per charge. Thank you Nikon!

It doesn’t have the pop up flash my D300 has, which was good to use as a trigger for off camera flash set ups. I’m not sure why Nikon eliminated that cool feature in it’s pro level cameras.

That said, there are so many other features that more than make up for the lack of built in flash. Did I mention the dual card slots or the super high flash sync speed? What about the full frame sensor, which now brings all of my lenses back to the 1:1 ratio? That could take some getting used to, but I’m ready. Oh, and the piece de re’sistance of the D3S is the new video feature! And, it produces freaking gorgeous video! I did, however, find a few features in my new camera that I couldn’t figure out by merely pressing buttons, so it appears I will need to go read the instructions after all.

Ohhh, the places we will go! Are you ready to join me on my adventure???….. stay tuned …..

Chris xo