Nikon D400 – 14MP is FX and D3x – 24.8MP? New Lenses?
Hans has an inside scoop (Thanks Hans)!
Hi, I was working with another photographer in Munich Germany yesterday. He works for Nikon. During the European Championship in Soccer the next weeks in Austria and Switzerland, the new D400 FX and the D3X will be avaible for the press. D400 [is] 12 mp [similar] to the D3 but at a much nicer price, the D3X has 24.8 mp according to the friend.
There will also be some new [lenses], but he hadn´t seen them yet.
New lenses! Primes, primes, primes. Or maybe they’ll make .5% of their market happy by coming out with more super-tele’s that only news organizations can afford. Would you buy a $40,000 1000mm f/2.8? Me neither.
The Championships he’s taking about start on the 7th of June! Let’s hope we get some more info that week!
June 1st, 2008 at 10:28
>>>Or maybe they’ll make .5% of their market happy by coming out with more super-tele’s that only news organizations can afford. Would you buy a $40,000 1000mm f/2.8? Me neither.
But they can’t even get out the 500mm and 600mm VRs, which were supposed to be available in November of 2007.
However, recent rumblings out of Nikon (that you’ve posted) do seem to indicate that Nikon is going to concentrate more on the high end this year and that they’re wiling to give up market share in order to obtain margin. I think part of what’s happened is that Nikon never expected the D200, D300 and D3 to be as successful as they have been and there’s apparently a lot more margin in those cameras than there is at the low end. So maybe those rumors of a D400 and a D3x are real, although it seems very early to be replacing the D300, if that’s the intention of the D400.
June 1st, 2008 at 11:20
I agree. I’d be pretty pissed if they came out with a D400 this early in the life of the D300. I realize it would be full frame so it would have an implication of discontinuing the DX format. That would make a lot of people, including myself, very upset – I own 3 DX lenses already and intend on buying a 4th.
May a sub-D3 type body would be released, but I hope they don’t use the DX00 moniker and maybe use another…just my 2 cents.
June 1st, 2008 at 15:17
[...] Mutta eipä tässä, katsellaan… tuon huhun mukaan vehkeiden pitäisi tulla 7. kesäkuuta… joten eihän tässä enää pitkästi siihen ole. Huhun bongasin täältä -> Nikonwatch [...]
June 2nd, 2008 at 04:42
[...] Gerüchte besagen, dass die Nikon D400 FX (FX = Nikons Abkürzung für das Vollformat) vor der [...]
June 2nd, 2008 at 15:10
Note that this site has settled on english. Please try to respond in kind.
Re new lenses, I’m holding my breath, pleading with Nikon to upgrade their 70-200 VR (DX) lense so that I can use of my D3. Such a pity to have such a spectacular performer unusable for landscapes (20% of my imaging). Though their D3 firmware upgrade can handle patching vignetting, there’s no way that firmware can save you from soft corners. And it leaves stitching out of the question all together. Please NIKON… Upgrade that beauty to FX!
June 2nd, 2008 at 15:18
I think it’s obvious that FX is eventually going to replace DX in the Nikon DSLR market. Not today, not tomorrow but eventually. DX equipment will be around for a long time and will continue to take fantastic pictures; there’s no need for anyone to feel upset. Besides, my understanding is that the D3 can easily use DX lenses and adjust itself accordingly.
June 2nd, 2008 at 23:28
The current 70-200 is not a DX lens, but critics claim it’s not useful as an FX lens because it supposedly vignettes or has soft corners when used on FX. All I know is that I bought this lens originally for my film camera and got great results with it.
That’s not to say that it couldn’t be even better, but if you’re not pixel peeping, I think this lens would be fine. And if it’s not, so crop a little bit.
But if you don’t have one, you probably won’t be getting one because they’ve been out of stock just about everywhere for many months. This is what leads people to believe that a new version is coming.
June 2nd, 2008 at 23:39
I’m guessing that Tom0607 is talking about his 70-300vr?
June 3rd, 2008 at 02:09
I don’t know if it’s worth something…
But NPS is throwing a party on the 6th of June in Basel to welcome the professionals working at the European Championships.
Maybe they’ll announce something there
[ed: URL removed as it appears to be a more private party]
June 4th, 2008 at 22:02
My previous comment regarding the lack of sharpness on the “70-200 VR
(DX)” was indeed in reference to that f2.8 lens… sans my sarcastic “(DX)” appendage. Per an excellent analysis of that lens from DPreview (5/2/2008):
“..The 70-200mm VR gives a less than sublime performance on
FX, essentially doing a very good impression of a lens which was optimized primarily for the DX format. Corner sharpness and falloff (or in this case, more correctly vignetting) are especially problematic… not really an acceptable performance for a professional level lens…”
http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/nikon_70-200_2p8_vr_n15/page5.asp
Another interesting analysis which included actual crops from an offending corner was offered up by Ken Rockwell though he didn’t feel it that important. I suggest you take a quick glance at the 32 pictures he provided without noting what lens was used and pick out the two worst (least sharp) photos:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/200mm-comparison.htm
Any conclusions? Perhaps you’re a “…online weenie”!
And per Ken, “Only an idiot worries about the far corners.”
Here’s from an interesting “idiot”…
“For landscape use on a D3 I would go as far as to say it is useless and it was the ruin of a trip of mine to Utah (from London) last year. When it was established on this forum that the problem was intrinsic to the design rather than just sample variation I sold mine…”
http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00PKhl
Nuff said. I’m waiting for an upgrade.
June 7th, 2008 at 10:51
[...] wenngleich es noch etwas wackliger fundiert ist, als die Panasonic-Meldung, stammt vom nikonwatch-Blog: Während der EM sollen wohl einige Fotografen die Möglichkeit bekommen, mit einer Nikon [...]
June 18th, 2008 at 16:03
[...] seule, en voici une autre (peut-être un peu plus dur à croire), parue il y a quelques jours. Nikon Watch publie en effet une “rumeur” sur une éventuelle présentation et utilisation par la [...]
April 2nd, 2009 at 00:17
[...] Rumor Focus: Nikon Watch keeps the full-frame Nikon mill churning with word of 12mp D400 and a 24.8mp [...]