Nikon has released updated firmware for its flagship D3 DSLR. The firmware adds vignetting control for most G and D type lenses, and the ability to specify faster minimum shutter speeds to trigger Auto ISO. As well as these headline changes are a number of obscure feature tweaks and corrections. The new firmware is available immediately from Nikon's website.

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A pdf explaining the changes is available here.

Update: the firmware update has been pulled due to data corruption issues under certain circumstances:

Termination of D3 Digital-SLR Camera Firmware Ver. 1.10 Download

On April 15, 2008, an announcement was made on the Nikon website that the Ver. 1.10 firmware update for the D3 digital-SLR camera was available for download.

However, it has been confirmed that when the following settings are applied with the updated firmware, image data may, in some rare cases, be corrupted. Therefore, we have terminated the firmware update download. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused.

  • Release mode: Continuous high speed (CH), or Continuous low speed (CL) with Custom Setting d2 set to 9 fps
  • Image area: FX format (36x24) or 5:4 (30x24)
    Image quality: NEF (RAW) or NEF (RAW) + JPEG fine/normal/basic
    NEF (RAW) recording>NEF (RAW) bit depth: 14-bit

*The issue related to NEF (RAW) recording>NEF (RAW) bit depth may occur regardless of the option selected for NEF (RAW) recording>Type (Lossless compressed, Compressed, or Uncompressed).

If you have downloaded the D3 Ver. 1.10 firmware update but have not yet updated the camera’s firmware, please do NOT perform the update. If you have already updated the D3 firmware, please do not shoot with the combination of settings indicated above. This issue does not occur with other combinations of camera settings (for example, when NEF (RAW) bit depth is set to 12-bit, or when shooting in continuous low speed (CL) release mode with Custom Setting d2 set to 8 fps or lower.)

The download version of the revised firmware update is expected to be available in late April. For more information regarding this matter, please contact Nikon Customer Support. Again, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused. We hope that you will continue to choose Nikon for your photography needs.

Information from Nikon:

The following improvements have been made in version 1.10:

- A Vignette control item has been added to the shooting menu. For information regarding supported lenses, see the supplemental manual.

- A Focus point brightness item has been added to the a6: Focus point illumination setting in the Autofocus category of Custom Settings. 

- The Highlights playback display option has been moved from Display mode>Basic photo info>Highlights in the playback menu to Display mode>Detailed photo info>Highlights. 

- When shutter speed and/or aperture are locked with shooting in live view mode, using the “L” (command lock) button, an “L” icon is now displayed in the camera monitor.  

- The size and colour of “Demo” displayed in the monitor with playback, when No memory card? in the Custom Settings is set to Enable release, have been modified. 

- The range of settings available for ISO sensitivity settings>ISO sensitivity auto control>Minimum shutter speed in the shooting menu has been increased from 1/250–1 s to 1/4000–1 s.  

-  When a compatible Speedlight or Wireless Speedlight Commander is used, the AF assist illuminator now lights regardless of the focal length. 

- When shooting in hand-held live view mode and the frame is magnified prior to autofocusing, the display now returns to the magnified display rather than full-frame display

- In some rare cases, the image area visible through the viewfinder and the image area actually recorded differed when Image area>Choose image area in the shooting menu was set to DX format (24x16). This issue has been resolved.  

- In some rare cases, white balance was not accurately calculated for images captured at a shutter speed of around 1/4 s in P and A exposure modes. This issue has been resolved.  

- When attempting to crop images at an aspect ratio of 4:3 using the Trim option in the retouch menu, the cropped image did not have an accurate 4:3 aspect ratio. This issue has been resolved. 

Please visit the links below to access the firmware updates:

PC users can download here.

Mac users can download here.