I paid for Lloyd Chamber's DAP, and I can report that in his "Pushing the Blacks" review he carefully shot all the comparison cameras at the same exposure value (shuttle speed and aperture), and with the same lens and lighting.
Actually anybody has little scientific training should have learned the very same comparing these DxO measurement curves (go to the far right and click the "Full SNR" tab, and put the both on logarithmic scales):
http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/eng/Image...abase/Nikon/D3Xhttp://www.dxomark.com/index.php/eng/Image.../EOS-5D-Mark-IIWhat the curves in these two charts tell us? The D3x is the first DSLR that produces nearly the linear response of an ideal system. It extends the 3dB/EV slop from the mid-tones well into the shadows region, unlike all the others that bend over to 6dB/EV, because of "dirty" readout pathes.
If you don't want to read the numbers out of the curves, here are my readings rounded up to the nearest half dBs (underscores added here to help -- the server remove the white spaces to make this kinds of text table impossible even with a fixed width font):
DxO Measured SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) in dBs:
Gray Camera +--------------- ISO ----------------+
Level Model | _100 _200 _400 _800 1600 3200 6400 |
----- ----- | ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- |
0.1% _D3x__ | 14.5 11.0 _6.5 _2.0 ---- ---- ---- |
0.1% _5DII_ | _7.0 _6.5 _5.5 _3.5 ---- ---- ---- |
0.1% _D700_ | _N/A 10.5 _9.0 _6.5 _1.5 ---- ---- |
1.0% _D3x__ | 26.5 23.0 20.0 16.5 12.5 _9.0 _4.0 |
1.0% _5DII_ | 24.5 23.0 21.0 18.0 15.0 11.0 _7.0 |
1.0% _D700_ | _N/A 26.5 23.5 21.0 17.0 12.5 _7.5 |
Since I am busy at this moment, let me simply say at twice the pixel area the D700 is expected to have 3dB SNR advantage across the full board, which start to be the case at 1% gray level but not below, and quote what I said this morning in another forum:
"The new D3x price is not a bubble. And the dealers are not going to file bankruptcy because their D3x inventory are just sitting on the shelf and gathering dust. Actually, the major US online houses, B&H, Adorama, and J&R, are all out of them at this moment.
Suddenly everything came together, and everything makes sense now. The DxO measurements, and Lloyd's professionally done tests published last night. When shadown details are pushed up by few stops ("Pushing the Blacks" is Lloyd's title), the amazingly clean D3x low ISO shadow noise beats at least that of one medium format (MF) digital back, the $15,000 Mamiya DL28. The D3s noise at ISO 400 is superior to the 5D Mark II at ISO 100, or 50, and if you pay for Lloyd's DAP to view the whole study (I did), you can make an argument that as a matter of fact the D3's noise at ISO 800 is still better than the 5DII at ISO 100, in deep shadows.
All these confirms the DxO numbers are real, the 13 stops dynamic range (almost 14 stops when scaled down). Even at 18% gray and above and high ISO values the other models (D3 and the Canons) start to catch up, it is in the darker shadows where the D3x really shine, shining alone, in a league of its own in the DSLR world, and become very close to the theoritical limits governed by the rules of physics (which means there will be not much room for possible improvements).
Enjoy the reading for now (and dig into the DAP if you can for more amazing details), while I am writing a long detailed scientific analysis (with a lot of math, unfortunately, to justify what I am saying) titled "When the Numbers Meet Eye" and try to get it published in a better and more rational online place.
http://diglloyd.com/diglloyd/free/PushingT...ndex.html"