Played around with both dynamic AF 21 pt and 51pt 3d AF. My impression is that the 21 dynamic is much better compared to 3dAF for tight situations such as under the basket where players are bunched together and moving quickly. I found the 3D AF often locked on to adjacent players where as the 21dynamic AF was almost perfect and extremely fast. However, when i shot a soccer game, both modes were excellent. i think 3d AF would be good for situations where you can isolate the subjects such as a soccer player dribbling down field in more or less predictable manner. I would bet it would work well for track and field events such a 100meters,high jump, pole vault, etc where subject isolation is good. But then again, dynamic AF so far works extremely well and my impression is that compared to my D2X, i have more keepers.

For those interested, a gallery of a recent game i shot using D3 is below. All shot in RAW and minimal NR was applied in lightroom.

http://www.pbase.com/shc52/westillinois07

http://www.pbase.com/shc52/image/90697429.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/shc52/image/90697484.jpg

scott