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| Kodak DCS 760 | Nikon D1x | |
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| Price | US$8,000 | US$7,000 |
| Dimensions | 158 x 194 x 88 mm (6.2 x 7.6 x 3.5 in) | 157 x 153 x 85 mm (6.2 x 6.1 x 3.4 in) |
| Weight | 1.86 kg (4.1 lb) - with battery, no lens | 1.4 kg (2.9 lbs) - with battery, no lens |
| Body | Magnesium alloy | Magnesium alloy |
| Based on | Nikon F5 | Nikon F5 / F100 |
| CCD pixels | 6.35 million | 5.24 million |
| Filter | IR filter | Anti-alias filter |
| Image pixels | 6.09 million | 5.90 million |
| Image size | 3032 x 2008 | 3008 x 1960, 2000 x 1312 |
| Image format | RAW (.DCR) *1 | RAW, TIFF (2), JPEG (3) |
| Interpolated *3 | No | Yes |
| Colour space | Standard / Pro Photo RGB (acquire only) | sRGB / Adobe 1998 (in-camera option) |
| ISO sensitivity | 80 - 400 (1/3 EV steps) | 125 - 800 (1/3 EV steps) + 1600 / 3200 HI *2 |
| DAC | 12-bit | 12-bit |
| Lens mount | Nikon F mount | Nikon F mount |
| Lens compat. | Full Nikkor compatible (some caveats), some lenses can not be used as they would break the IR filter | Full Nikkor compatible (some caveats) |
| Portrait grip | Yes | Yes |
| Picture angle | 1.3x | 1.5x |
| DOF preview | Yes | Yes |
| AF | Nikon Multi-CAM1300 | Nikon Multi-CAM1300 |
| AF Servo | Single, Continuous, Manual | Single, Continuous, Manual |
| Focus Areas | Five | Five |
| AF Area Mode | Single Area, Dynamic | Single Area, Dynamic |
| Metering | 3D Color Matrix, Center Weighted, Spot | 3D Color Matrix, Center Weighted, Spot |
| Exp. Modes | P, S, A, M | P, S, A, M |
| Exp. Compen | +/-5 EV in 0.3 EV steps | +/-5 EV in 0.3 EV steps |
| WB Fine Tune | No | Yes |
| White Balance | Auto, 4 presets, manual (unlimited) | Auto, 6 presets, manual (3 max.) |
| Shutter speed | Bulb + 30 sec - 1/8,000 sec | Bulb + 30 sec - 1/16,000 sec |
| Continuous | 1.6 fps for approx. 24 images | 3 fps for approx. 9 JPEG / 6 RAW |
| Self timer | 2 - 60 secs | 2 - 20 secs |
| LCD Monitor | 2 inch | 2 inch |
| Status LCD | 2 of with backlight | 2 of with backlight |
| Viewfinder | TTL Optical ~ 99% frame coverage Interchangeable type |
TTL Optical ~ 96% frame coverage |
| Flash Sync | Up to 1/300 sec | Up to 1/500 sec |
| Flash contact | Hot-shoe & Synch terminal | Hot-shoe & Synch terminal |
| Play mode | 1 frame, Thumbnail, Magnify, Histo, Over exp. | 1 frame, Thumbnail, Slide show, Magnify, Histo, Over exp. |
| Storage | 2 x PCMCIA slots (2 x I/II or 1
x III) or 2 x CF Type I/II with PCMCIA adapter |
1 x CF Type I/II |
| Microdrive | Yes, compatible | Yes, compatible (1 GB / 512 MB) |
| Write speed | Flash card: 1,202 KB/s Microdrive: 1,603 KB/s |
Flash card: 1,645 KB/s Microdrive: 1,137 KB/s |
| Video out | 1 frame | All modes |
| I/O | IEEE 1394 (Firewire) | IEEE 1394 (Firewire) |
| GPS serial | Yes | Yes |
| IPTC Job track | Option in-camera / Photo Desk | Nikon Capture 2 only |
| RAW conv s/w | DCS Photo Desk (included) | Nikon Capture 2 (option) |
| Microphone | Yes, for voice annotations | No |
| Battery | NiMH battery pack 7.2 V / 1700 mAh | NiMH battery pack 7.2V / 2000 mAh |
| Battery charger | Docking station type (can take 2 batts) | Plug - charger - wire type |
| Remote control | 10-pin remote terminal | 10-pin remote terminal |
| *1 | In-camera JPEG / TIFF for the DCS 760 is supposed to be coming as part of a firmware update some time around September 2001. It wasn't available at time of review. |
| *2 | The D1x's ISO 1600 and ISO 3200 sensitivities are 'pushes' of what the camera is calibrated to achieve (they are menu options). The DCS 760 can be pushed to ISO 800 and ISO 1600 equiv. by deliberately underexposing. |
| *3 | The D1x 'creates' the final image from a source image which has twice as much horizontal resolution as vertical. It down-samples horizontally and up-samples vertically (using some of the additional horizontal pixels to assist in the vertical up-sampling). |
Based on specifications alone the D1x takes the lead, it's physically smaller and lighter yet just as well (better?) built than the DCS 760, has better white balance options, in-camera JPEG/TIFF *1, in-camera colour space, higher sensitivity support and a faster top end shutter speed. The D1x also has a built-in anti-alias filter which I do see it as an advantage as long as it doesn't have a large detrimental effect on the image. And it's less expensive than the DCS 760 (for now).
On the positive side for the DCS 760 it has slightly higher sensor resolution (in a square pixel layout) which isn't being 'created' by in-camera processing, the sensor is physically larger (better for those who like to shoot at wide angle focal lengths), it has dual storage card support and a built-in microphone for voice annotations.
The charts below were shot in natural light (daylight next to a window) with the same lens at the camera's lowest ISO setting (80 for the DCS 760, 125 for the D1x) as native RAW format. They were then loaded into each camera's RAW conversion application and saved as TIFF with the following settings:
Thanks to a problem with JPEG files created by the reviewed version of DCS Photo Desk (1.2.0b) the DCS 760's JPEG files were created by re-saving TIFF's in Photoshop. There is also no way to save DCS 760 images directly into the sRGB colour space. The 'standard' colour space is supposed to be a slightly wider version of sRGB and so should look approximately the same (a little duller). Saving from Photo Desk as ProPhoto RGB and then doing a profile conversion in Photoshop did not help the colour.
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| Kodak DCS 760 - colour space 'Standard' (1,161 KB JPEG) |
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| Nikon D1x - colour space 'sRGB' (1,316 KB JPEG) |
Also available:
A simple visual comparison of the two charts shows that the DCS 'standard' colour space is fairly close to sRGB, it does appear to be slightly wider and that will leave the D1x's colour looking better on your web browser. That said the differences are more pronounced loading the two wider colour space, calibrated images (ProPhoto RGB / Adobe RGB) into a colour space 'smart' application such as . If you don't have the ProPhoto RGB ICC profile you can download it here.
Overall it's a very close run thing, the D1x appears to me to have slightly more accurate reds (DCS 760's tend towards orange) and a better overall grasp of the balance of the gray scale - dark grays being dark. Both cameras can produce excellent, accurate colour. With the addition of Adobe RGB to Nikon Capture 2 and ProPhoto RGB to DCS Photo Desk (1.2.0 onwards) you can now be sure you're getting matched colour out of either of these cameras.
BONUS: The bonus of course with the D1x is that it can produce JPEG's in-camera and that you can select their colour space in-camera. That means you can shoot into a known colour space without having to do any post-processing. Lets hope Kodak's in-camera JPEG is going to be this good...
