Comments on: D3x and AF-S Primes – Upcoming Shows and Possibilities

By: kellyvanrijn

kellyvanrijn — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 03:23:55 +0000

I am your basic amateur Saturday afternoon photographer who has no need for the vast majority of lenses made by Nikon. I own a D300 which I primarily use to shoot pics of the kids playing sports. I have no need for tilt and shift lenses or fast primes, let alone $8000 superzooms. My only wish is for Nikon to update its dog slow 80-400 to an AFS version I can use during Saturday afternoon football games. Canon had their 100-400 USM version years ago. I wish Nikon would get with the program.

By: zoetmb

zoetmb — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:48:53 +0000

Thom Hogan posted something about the fact that it’s unlikely that Nikon will produce anything else of consequence this year. His numbers are different than my calculations, but I agree that we won’t see anything else, EXCEPT if that’s the case, I’m a bit surprised that Nikon didn’t save anything for Photokina, since they always have Photokina announcements.

Nikon put out 4 Lenses in 2005, 5 in 2007 and 8 so far in 2008:
2006 4 (70-300G VR, 18-55DX without VR, 18-135DX, 105 micro)
2007 5 (55-200 DX VR, 18-55DX VR, 400VR, 14-24, 24-70)
2008 8 (500 VR, 600 VR, 16-85, 18-105, 60 micro and the three Tilt-Shifts)
(Obviously, this assumes that everything listed above is actually available.)

Since 1992, Nikon has released 74 AF lenses (including the Tilt-Shifts and the PC85, but not including other manual lenses) which is an average of 4.4 a year. Of those, I count 50 in current release.

DSLRs: There have been 3 each year in 2006, 2007 and 2008

Coolpix: There were 12 new models in 2006, 16 in 2007 and 16 so far in 2008 including the L16, which isn’t sold in the U.S.

So…based on past history, unless Nikon has got some big surprises up its sleeve, I’m not too optimistic about any more 2008 releases, although I suppose there’s room for another one or two Coolpix models (yawn!). That doesn’t mean they can’t announce something which won’t be out until sometime in 2009 though.

And of course there’s much speculation about the WPPI “Big” whatever as well as continued rumors about a rangefinder, which I don’t believe. But I didn’t think the D3 was coming either.

And if you look at the past lens release numbers, that means we could see anywhere between 4 and 13 new lenses in 2009. Even another six lenses could be pretty interesting!

By: mcdermott

mcdermott — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:13:56 +0000

What about Photo Expo in NYC in Oct.? Wouldn’t that be a good time and place to launch a pro body?

By: Matrix

Matrix — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:48:04 +0000

This is getting a little boring, Nikon is no more hermit, secretive, sinister, mysterious or anything else. If anyone can show me ANY other LEADING camera company that publishes accurate and reliable roadmaps i will eat my D3.