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Steve’s Digicams has a review posted of the new Canon 1D Mark III. I’ve linked you to the conclusions page since that’s where the actual review starts; all of the earlier pages are more specifications and controls, and don’t really help from a review point of view.

The camera gets a very good review, although it is an extremely short review once you’ve taken out all of the basic stats about the camera that are available from spec sheets and press releases. The most review-like part of the review is the discussion of ISO noise:

The Mark III’s image quality at high ISO is very good. The image noise appears more like the effect of film grain than the imager noise of lesser consumer cameras. ISO 100 produces images that set a standard for what “noise-free” should be. Traces of noise appear at ISO 400 in shadow areas. At ISO 800, a barely-perceptible amount of noise begins to affect highlight areas.

And, no surprise, they like the 1DMkIII:

The bottom line – They say that you get what you pay for, and in the case of the 1D Mark III, it’s very true. We’ve become accustomed to a trend of new digicams replacing their predecessors with a combination of more/better features and lower price. This camera will not disappoint – the Mark III is an excellent value for the pro who needs its increased resolution and improved performance, and to the extent that the Mark III enables them to earn more income, they will buy it.

Well, there you go — you should buy it! And buy me one while you’re at it, I promise to speak highly of you for at least 7-10 days after I receive my free camera!

There are two sample photos shot at 3200 ISO with the new Nikon D3 over at the DPReview forums.

It’s not a definitive high ISO test for the D3 and D300, of course, but it is extremely impressive. 3200 ISO on the Nikon D3 is clearly very usable, and gives you equivalent noise to significantly lower ISO settings on some older digital SLR models.

Of course, as one poster over there points out, these were shot in a sports stadium, which has very different lighting conditions than where you would normally need to use high ISO settings:

I think it is also important to realize that stadium lighting is actually relatively bright with shooters usually able to get 1/500th at f2.8 and ISO 1600. Wedding photographers often shoot in lighting that requires 1/40 at f1.4 at ISO 1600 and the difference in noise generated in the two situation can be quite different as well as the need for clean skin in the picture without blotches from noise.

But, of course, the sample shots are still very much worth checking out if you’re at all interested in the D3. And if you’re not, it’s probably best to avoid them, because they might just make you wish your camera could do such low noise levels at 3200 ISO, and then you’re likely to just start crying for no good reason at all…

Digital Trends has posted a review of the Olympus E-510 digital SLR camera.

One of my concerns about the camera when I initially read some of the details was the fact that the anti-dust system does its thing when you turn the camera on, which is going to slow down the camera’s startup, minimizing one of the big advantages to a DSLR, the instant turn on time. According to this review, the delay is “slight” but “well worth it.”

This review is also the most negative one about Live View:

It dramatically slows the camera down and images on the LCD screen are a smeary mess (because of poor refresh rates). Auto focus takes a long time and the camera makes a loud clunk every time you snap a shot. I know the Live View is supposed to give you additional shooting angle options but I’d rather crane my neck to use the viewfinder instead of the LCD screen. Olympus does say Live View is best used with stationary objects but I don’t get what the hype is all about. Maybe that’s just me — any happy Live View users are welcome to send an email.

Other reviews have pointed out the drawbacks to Live View, but then conclude that it’s still useful to have in certain situations. Digital Trends is the first I’ve seen to say that it’s just not very good, at least in this first generation of DSLR live view sensors. On the other hand, the reviewer does list Live View as both a pro and a con of the camera in the summary, so there you go.

The review concludes that it’s a good camera, though he seems much less impressed by it than some of the other reviews I’ve seen that called it the perfect introductory DSLR camera and were much more blown away by it. He calls the image quality “solid,” and does recommend it for people new to the digital SLR world:

I have no problems recommending the Olympus Evolt E-510 two lens kit for D-SLR newbies or those who don’t have an extensive collection of older lenses. However if you have a collection of glass, go with similar 10MP Canons or Nikons.

As always, read the full review for all the details.

Rob Galbraith has a good article looking at the newly announced Nikon D3, and was apparently allowed to snap a few photos at the press event, unlike the other hands-on preview that I linked to earlier.

Rob was able to briefly look at the image quality shooting high ISO shots with the D3, and writes that it’s much improved over other Nikon cameras and strong competition for cameras like the 1DMkIII, thanks to the large pixel sites on the sensor:

Larger-pixel sensors tend to have better signal-to-noise ratios than smaller-pixel ones, and based on a look at ISO 1600 – ISO 25,600 frames produced by prototype D3 bodies, including a handful we shot ourselves, the camera looks like it will produce low light photos that are both massively cleaner and more usable than the D2Xs and in the same ballpark as Canon’s EOS-1D Mark III (which is the D3’s primary competition). Nikon promises a dynamic range bump of 300%, and we suspect that this claimed improvement is almost entirely because of the lower noise characteristics of the sensor.

Canon’s 10.08 million image pixel, 10 fps digital SLR is capable of producing great quality in available darkness. We’ll need to shoot with a production D3 under real-world conditions to find out whether it approaches, meets or exceeds the EOS-1D Mark III in high ISO image quality. But based on what we’ve seen so far, it’s safe to say that the D3 will produce photos of dramatically better quality than the D2Xs at ISO 1600 and up.

Rob seems much more impressed with the D3’s awesome-sounding new LCD sensor than the other hands on preview we saw yesterday, which sounded a little disappointed and said it didn’t compare favorably to Sony’s high res LCD display:

A 3-inch (diagonal), 170 degree viewing angle rear LCD that is so crisp and clear you’ll never want to use another rear LCD to review your pictures again. Its 920,000-dot resolution makes it possible to judge critical focus when zoomed in to nearly full magnification. In fact, it’s like looking at a screen without pixels; they’re so small as to be invisible when looking at photos at even abnormally close viewing distances. The only thing we’re not sure of yet is how accurate the brightness of the display is, and as Nikon has typically tuned their rear LCDs to render photos lighter than they actually are (when viewed under typical indoor conditions), even when screen brightness is adjusted all the way down, this a concern for the D3 too. But there’s no question about the clarity of the display, it’s awesome.

And he also has an image of the Virtual Horizon Adjustment, which, to me as a private pilot, looks a lot like an airplane’s attitude indicator. Watch me get my hands on a D3 and fly it around the neighborhood, making airplane noises with my mouth. Just watch me, I’ll do it!

Anyway, check out Rob’s full preview, he has lots of good information in there.