Unboxing the Nikon D3S

Fancy dropping close to AU$7000 on a camera? Sure you do. That's the price of the very flashy, very quick Nikon D3S.

Sometimes it's nice to see how the other half lives. Fast cars, beautiful women, expensive cameras ... you get the idea. Nikon's latest high-end professional dSLR, the D3S landed at CNET Towers this week, and we've opened the box, broken the seal and torn the plastic for your vicarious viewing pleasure.

We had our first encounter with the D3S at Nikon's SuperGP on the Gold Coast, but this time we've got all the accoutrements to go along with the camera.

The trademark Nikon gold box looks no different from any of the other boxes the company provides for their cameras. We're half expecting a jack-in-the-box or a rent-a-crowd to pop out. After all, you've paid enough for the camera, what's the harm in a few extras?

The top layer of the D3S package contains the body/carrying strap, nicely stitched with the D3S insignia just to show everyone how professional you are. Documentation is somewhat limited with our review version, though we've seen that the actual retail version may have a few more goodies tucked inside.

Moving a little further into the package, the outline of the camera becomes visible in the custom-shaped protective cardboard.

It's always incredibly satisfying to be the first person to take the fresh plastic wrap off a new camera, and none so more than with a dSLR as fancy as this.

The box that sits to the right of the camera contains a number of extra goodies wrapped in extra Styrofoam packing. It's like a second Christmas! Or first Christmas, depending on when you're reading this.

The battery pack that was hiding inside the aforementioned box, plus the charger, definitely mean business. With room for two batteries to charge simultaneously, there's no mistaking who's boss.

With an enviable maximum ISO of 102,400, this is the D3S sitting pretty outside of its box, ready for all the low-light action you can throw at it.

The D3S is a full frame (FX) sensor meaning that there's no crop factor involved — what you see is what you get in terms of stated focal lengths.

At the back, the controls are all standard Nikon with not much different from its workhorse predecessor, the D3.

Though there's no kit configuration of the D3S per se, Nikon provided us with the new 70-200mm telephoto lens to test out. It's incredibly heavy and definitely means business.

The lens comes in a sturdy zip-up pouch.

Attached to the camera, the lens and camera counterbalance each other nicely.