Nikon Watch

Nikkor-S 5.8 cm f/1.4 vs. Nikkor AF-S 50 mm f/1.4G

This is total win- the guys at LensTip have made a detailed comparison between the OLD Nikkor-S 5.8 cm f/1.4 (58mm f/1.4) and the new Nikkor AF-S 50 mm f/1.4G as used on the D3.

What’s not surprising is that the modern lens is better. What IS surprising is that the ancient lens gets very, very close to the new lens’ performance in resolution once you’re at f/8 or above and that the old lens is a good deal better with CA.

Very fascinating article!

Nikkor 50mm AF-S f/1.4G Review

dpReview takes a look at Nikon’s Nikkor 50mm AF-S f/1.4G lens on both DX and FX format and finds it to be largely OK.

Olympus E-P1- Almost a digital rangefinder...

It’s not a digital rangefinder, it’s also not a Nikon product, but I’m betting that most people arent’t going to worry about it too much– I’m certainly not. Olympus will be getting my money.

What they been able to do is squeeze a micro 4/3’s sensor into a tiny metal camera with a pleasant retro look with interchangeable lenses.

That last bit about changing lenses is the tipping point between “Matt keeps the money in the bank” and “Matt gets to explain why there’s another camera in the house.”

This one goes to 11.

Engadget China has a hands-on review here. See everything Engadget’s got here.

dpReview has a full review here and video from London here.

In a brilliant move that Nikon’s Ashton-Kutcher-loving marketing agency could learn from, you can watch it get destroyed in a blender here. Oh yeah- the Olympus engineers have thought of everything, even making sure it blends.

You can find the full specs in the dpReview or on the Olympus site, but the main items are:

• Max resolution: 4032 x 3024
• Max Video Res: 1280×720
• Has a full-manual mode
• ISO to 6400 (if you’re crazy, (I’m betting that it’s decent until 400 or so)
• There is a raw format
• Top shutter is 1/4000
• Weighs less than a pound without lens and battery
• $799 for the body and 14-42mm zuiko zoom.
• $899.99 for the body and 17mm pancake lens
• $749.99 for the body only (that zoom must be CHEAP!)
• Buy it all here.

The only thing missing is a built-in flash (there’s an accessory, hot shoe mounted flash) and I’d love to see a range-finder like viewfinder, but the liveview should handle it alright.

There are aftermarket adapters for Nikkor lenses, and maybe more interesting, there’re adapters for Leica M-mount right now.

Ship date? Julyish through September depending on what you’re trying to get.

Nikon D5000 SLR Review

If you’re dying for more a more in-depth look at the D5000, then dpReview has a 30+ page look at it.

The best part may be on the front page where there’s a comparison matrix between the D500, D90, and D60. Most of the other info is just a rundown of the features and specs, menus, product shots, and a bunch of sample shots.

Nikon SB-600 Flash Tube Replacement

Steve saw the previous post on replacing your SB-800’s melted fresnel lens and pointed me to this link that shows you how to replace the busted flash tube on your SB-600, if you’re handy with a soldering iron.

Sadly, the only thing I can do with soldering irons is burn things and make nice round beads of solder- which I enjoy, but it’s not very productive.

Kudos to Steve, nicely done!

Mike Kobal continues to impress with his movies taken with the D90 and now D5000. He’s good enough that I’m starting to wonder why he bothers with cameras and doesn’t just get a dedicated video camera.

Take a look.

SILENTIUM EST AUREUM Nikon D90 + Lensbaby from Mike Kobal on Vimeo.

Nikon says "Sayonora" to 1000 workers

Nikon Corp is not doing too well right now- in addition to cameras, they make really expensive precision steppers that make your computer chips. Well no one has any money, no one’s buying computer equipment, no one’s upgrading their steppers.

Nikon Will Cut 1000 Workers to Save $84 Million Annually

Nikon (OTC:NINOY) said Tuesday that it will terminate 800 non-regular employees from its domestic manufacturing unit by March 2010 and another 200 from marketing and servicing departments in Japan as well as overseas. It said the cuts will likely save the company 8 billion yen, or $84 million dollars annually. Nikon is expecting an FY 2010 net loss of 17 billion yen, or $179 million. In a statement, the company said, “Nikon has decided to implement drastic measures for fixed cost reduction in every business step of production, marketing and servicing.”

Here’s a sampling of the latest headlines:

Nikon Corporation To Reorganize Japan Precision Equipment …

Nikon Corporation Expects Extraordinary Loss

Nikon Profit Falls 63%

Nikon Corporation to Apply for Delisting from OSE, SSE and FSE

I was worried about that last one- you either delist because it’s too expensive to continue paying the fees and associated costs, or because you’re not going to be able to maintain the listing requirements (stock price, volume, etc) until I saw this:

Nikon separately said it will delist its shares from the Osaka, Sapporo and Fukuoka stock exchanges due to low trading volume on these bourses.

Oh- and we’ve got yet another advertising firm. I believe this makes 2 new advertising agencies in the last year or so. And they’re still coming up with idiot ideas like:

LIVE FROM THE RED CARPET…NIKON, THE OFFICIAL CAMERA SPONSOR OF 2009 MTV MOVIE AWARDS

Nikon, the Official Camera Sponsor of the 2009 MTV Movie Awards, will reveal all the fun, stylish moments of this year’s award show from the red carpet. This includes a 30-minute televised special, “MTV Movie Awards Confidential presented by Nikon,”…

The kids are coming to want something more stylish and interesting than the blah CoolPix’s…

Replace Melted Nikon SB-800 Front Lens

Son Ton melted the front fresnel lens on his Nikon SB-800 flash.

Not being the pussy that you and I are, I mean, uh, being more manly than me and my fist full of Craftsman screwdrivers, he decided to tackle the repair himself.

Check out his site for very interesting shots of the repair in action- normally, you only get to see these parts if you destroy your SB-800, so my hat’s off to him.

Front Fresnel Repair of Nikon SB-800

Almost even more interesting is that he somehow was able to dig up the exploded parts diagram for the SB-800:

Nikon SB-800 Exploded Parts Diagram (Click to enlarge)

Kudos again to Son Ton!

Carrying case recall for Nikon AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G IF-ED (CL-L2)

Word from Nikon’s USA Product Manager David Dentry is:

Just a heads up, we’re announcing a Service Advisory on the CL-L2 case which
ships with the 200-400 lens and is available separately for other lenses.

The bottom part of the case may crack and possibly fall out… See:

http://www.nikonusa.com/cl-l2sa

Check with your local Nikon office for information on getting a replacement bag.

Apparently, a fault in the bag may cause it to come apart at the bottom and you’d really hate to see your 200-400mm f/4g to drop onto the floor!

While this case comes with the 200-400mm, it was also available separately, so if you bought one, you’d better replace it.

How do you know if your case is ok? Does it look like this? Notice the “T” on the bottom of boths variants? If it says “T”, then you’re ok, according to the official release.

You may apply for a replace here. They’ll ship you a container to send in your old one and pay the FedEx in both directions. You can also call them if you’d like to discuss the issue: 800-645-6687.

Nice to see Nikon taking quick responsibility and handling the return in an honorable fashion.

Sample Shots:Nikon 10-24mm AF-S Nikkor f/3.5-4.5G DX ED

TBower (flickr) has managed to get ahold of the lens and posted some sample shots taken with Nikon’s Nikkor 10-24mm AF-S f/3.5-4.5G DX ED and here.

CA and fringing appear to be bad as shown here. Even the central image area appears to lack detail to me- maybe his technique wasn’t so hot?

Nikon 10-24mm AF-S Nikkor f/3.5-4.5G DX ED

Ken has a funny deal- he gives reviews to Nikon items that he either hasn’t held in his hands before, or as it appears in this case, he’s taken one shot outside of an office complex with!

But if you must know what he’s got to say, then take a look.

Basically, he says it’s better than the 12-24mm.

Either I’m missing something (hey, could be)- or the 12-24mm is going to go bye-bye. They’re basically similar lenses in every way that I can see. The question is “why”- why did Nikon release two lenses that compete against each other in almost every way?

Nikon Releases Camera Control Pro 2 V2.5 Update

Nikon has released an update to Camera Control Pro 2 here (Windows), Mac here.

Changes:

Support for the D5000 has been added.

Mac OS X version 10.3.9 is no longer supported. DO NOT update to this version if you are currently running Mac OS X 10.3.9.

When a camera control settings file was loaded with the Image area: Auto DX Crop box in the Storage tab checked while shooting with a D3, D3X, or D700 camera and a DX lens, a warning message was displayed and the image area and image size could not be specified.  This issue has been resolved.

In some rare instances, Camera Control Pro 2 displayed an error and quit unexpectedly when any of RAW and/or JPEG images recorded at an image quality of NEF(RAW)+JPEG was moved from the destination folder specified in the Download Options dialog to the Trash from the Finder.  This issue has been resolved.

Nikon D5000 18-55mm Sample Shot @ 6400iso

The Japanese website dcWatch has a nice review of the D5000 and 18-55mm kit lens (translated) that includes studio and outdoor comparison shots are various ISO and noise reduction levels.

Unsurprisingly, everything looks pretty good.

Engadget’s just all over the mid-level camera market lately. In this article, they compare the D90 and D5000.

It’s hard to compare the quality from their images. The D5000 comparison shots are underexposed and at slightly different magnifications, so you can’t really conclude anything from those shots.

Engadget has a quick head to head with the T1i and the D5000: they seem pretty well matched in general.

The Engadget site takes a look at the unboxed D5000.

It doesn’t really say much, but take a look at how the screen can be articulated.

PhotographyBlog has a quick hands-on review here and dpReview also has a general overview (the same stuff you find in the press release) and sample images.

The D5000 is official:

Nikon D5000 Officially Announced / Shown

From the release:

NIKON’S D5000 DIGITAL SLR CAMERA EXPANDS POSSIBILITIES FOR PHOTO AND HD VIDEO CREATIVITY WITH D-MOVIE MODE, VARI-ANGLE LCD MONITOR AND 19 AUTOMATIC SCENE MODES

…Easy one-button Live View activation now features Subject Tracking autofocus (AF), which automatically locks onto a moving subject…

…Subject Tracking AF maintains focus, making the D5000 ideal for capturing fast moving children and pets. In addition to Subject Tracking AF in Live View, the D5000 features Face Priority AF, which automatically detects up to five faces in a scene and focuses on the closest subject; Wide Area AF, which offers a large AF area for optimal hand-held shooting; and Normal Area AF, which provides pinpoint accuracy when shooting with a tripod…

…The D5000’s D-Movie Mode allows users the exciting ability to record HD movie clips (1280 x 720) at a cinematic 24 frames per second with sound …

…With the broad range of automatic Scene Modes, including Sports, Portrait, Candlelight, Silhouette, Autumn Colors and more, D5000 is the perfect camera for anyone looking to make inspiring images in challenging photographic conditions…

…Price and Availability
The D5000 outfit, which includes the AF-S NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR lens, will be available at Nikon Authorized dealers beginning in late April 2009 at an estimated selling price of $849.95.** For consumers who want to configure their D5000 system or for photographers who need an additional D-SLR body for an existing system, the D5000 will also be offered as a body only for an estimated selling price of $729.95.…

So basically another consumer-grade SLR with movie mode, NOT full-frame- the notable features seem to be the articulated (not fixed) LCD and some updates to the autofocus tracking to make it easier to use in movie mode!

Still confused about the model number though- maybe we’ll be seeing single digits for Pro bodies, triple digits for advanced amateur to pro range, and double and quadruple digits for consumers?

New Nikon Nikkor 10-24mm DX Lens!

From the release:

…the new AF-S DX-NIKKOR 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED lens, giving photographers the opportunity to capture a unique perspective in a variety of shooting environments. Compact and lightweight, the new 2.4x zoom DX-NIKKOR lens offers a focal length of 10 to 24mm,(FX-format equivalent of 15-36mm) creating a picture angle ranging from 109-degrees to 61-degrees making it ideal for a variety of applications including restrictive interiors, architecture and sweeping landscapes…

…The AF-S DX-NIKKOR 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED will be available at Nikon authorized dealers beginning May 2009 at an estimated selling price of $899.95…

Nikon D5000 / D500 Rumors

The void that surrounded this camera back in the PMA 2009 timeframe is starting to take form.

Engadget has found a shot from a retailer in Japan that was up then taken down.

The primary interesting item is an articulated LCD and possibly enhanced in-camera video editing. Otherwise, seems a bit like a D60 maybe. Price should be ~$600-800?

Also, you hopefully didn’t miss these (presumably?) real product shots of the camera .

I’m still pretty confused about the product name and tempted to say that D5000 may not end actually being the name, but there aren’t any signs that point to any OTHER name so….

Interestingly too- the screen is attached at the bottom of the normal LCD  place which means that it swings down instead of to the side like many movie cameras:

Nikon D5000 Leaked Shots

See the rest of DTown.