Nikon D3 virtual horizon feature

The Nikon D3 “virtual horizon” feature apparently has limited accuracy—pay close attention and don’t throw away that bubble level just yet!

Rotating the image below by 1° counter-clockwise makes it perfectly level. While 1° doesn’t sound like much, it is obviously “way off” to the human eye. To be fair, in other shots it was only off by 0.1° and 0.4°. The 1° figure might be a worst case; Nikon should tighten up the tolerances for what is considered level.

Nikon D3 leveled using “Virtual horizon” feature

Nikon D3 leveled using photographer’s eyeballs