Nikkor 85mm f/3.5g Micro

• £499.99 / USD ?
• 52mm thread

Not a heck of a lot to mention here- it’s a DX lens, unfortunately, and it’s smallish aperture should be fine in the studio and help keep price down.

It’s not a huge surprise that they’re still cranking out cheaper DX lenses- this would imply that they don’t see going full-frame with the lower-end cameras any time soon, and the consumers, even pro-sumers aren’t likely to notice the difference. There are still a good number of people who should know better who still think that the 1.5x crop factor means their 18-200mm zoom is now really a 27-300mm zoom!

Nikon D3s Annnounced

This camera was expected to land tomorrow, but it’s dropped a day early!

Here are the specs that stand out:

• Features a redesigned 12.1 megapixel sensor that has standard ISO’s from 200 to ISO 12800 and CAN get to 102,400 (not a typo) in Hi-3 mode.
• Seven stop ISO range of 200 – 12,800
• Movies: 720p/ 24fps in motion JPEG with stereo sound using an input jack!
• Crops modes: 5:4 (30×24); 1.2x (30×20); and DX (24×16).
• New Quiet shutter release mode
• Extra Active-D lighting modes: Extra High, High, Normal and Low
• Buffer is twice the size of the D3
• Focus appears unchanged
• Same battery
• Same LCD

Here’s a very brief hands-on. Here are some sample movies- complete with low-light examples!

We’ve also got an external mic jack:

There’s also a new lens- more to come.

Capture NX 2.2.2 Update

No doubt, just to give me a reason to post an update, Nikon has released an update to Capture NX.

Basically, the update adds D300s and D3000 support and fixes a crash.

From the press release:

USA Here

Euro-Land Here

Nikon D5000 Recall #2

Unfortunately, there appears to be yet another snag with the D5000’s. The Euro’s appear to have gotten a batch that need an extra special repair and some of you that sent them in got it in before the enhanced procedure started to be performed.

Apparently, it’s the same issue as before though- your D5000 may not power up.

Nikon S1000pj - Projector Camera

Nikon’s finally decided to inject some zazz into their point and shoot category. Instead of getting  another lame CoolPix from their intern’s product comparison write-up,  out of the back of the freezer, they’ve gone and done something interesting by inserting a projector into the front of the CoolPix.

This camera could be a lot of fun- something I’ve thought about periodically is getting a computer hooked up to a projector so that I could get precisely the color of light I wanted instead of using gels. I wonder if I could create “pictures” of color in PS and then put them onto this camera, then project them to get rid of gels. It’s likely not going to be a strong enough light, but might do.

Basic specs: 12.1mp, SD card, ~$650 $430 or so supposedly, available next month.

More info and a quicky demo here.

Overviews: Endaget, dpReview, etc.

Bodies

Nikon D3000

Official Nikon D3000 site

dpReview D3000 specs

dpReview D3000 quicky hands-on

Nikon D300

Official Nikon D300 site

dpReview D300s specs

dpReview D300s quicky hands-on

Lenses

New Nikkor 18-200mm

Official Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G VR II site

dpReview 18-200mm specs

New Nikkor 70-200mm with VR II

Official Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II site

dpReview 70-200mm specs

D300s: I Predicted: “Questionable”, not 1080p HD. Reality: Announced today, due November– 720p.

New Nikkor 70-200mm: Prediction- not this year. Reality: Announced today!

New 18-200mm: Prediction- “no reason not to update it”. Reality: it’s here. Admittedly, my prediction is squishy, so I’ll only claim partial credit.

D700x: Prediction – not likely. Reality- still not announced. Since every other item announced is due in November (as I predicted, for Christmas), I’m doubting it’s forthcoming this year, if ever.

Nikkor 24-135: Prediction – “Who knows, who cares.” Reality- still not announced.

Nikkor 35mm f/1.4 AF-S: Prediction – if this year, ready for Christmas. Reality- still not announced.
Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 AF-S: Prediction – Possibly, but doubtful this year. Reality- still not announced.

The serial number checker is available here. There does not appear to be a specific range, or at least they’re not telling us, and since no link is apparently, I presume that if it says your body is affected, it’ll give you a link to further info an provide you with the 2 day shipping label, etc.

If you’d like to talk to them about this issue: (USA) 800-645-6678, 8am to 2am (Eastern), 7-days-a-week.

A FAQ is here.

[/Update]

You hit all the right buttons on her body, you perform all the right moves, you charge her up, you even tell her the things she wants to hear, “Yeah baby, I’m gonna buy you that 200mm f/2 VR you’ve wanted for so long! I’m gonna get you so hot, your SB-900 will melt!”

But, nothing seems to consistently work. Then you realize, it’s not you, it’s not your moves, it’s her- she’s got some flaw.

Nikon has put up a service advisory on the D5000 explaining that sometimes it won’t turn on even when the battery is fully charged and it won’t turn on sometimes even when the AC adapter is plugged in.

This is not good. So here’s what you need to know:

• On July 23rd, they will have a serial # checker to let you know if your body is affected.
• The fix requires you to send in your body, they’ll start accepting bodies on July 23rd- the website (?) will have a label generator for you to use.
• Shipping both ways will be paid for by Nikon and will be 2-day shipping to minimize inconvenience

Check here for updates.

Kudos to Nikon for taking responsibility and working to make it easy on you to get fixed.

What’s interesting is that this must be a hardware issue since they’re requiring you to send it in, normally, you’d expect software. Also interesting that it’s only some serial numbers- this implies a design change (or manufacturing snafu?) which makes you wonder if they swapped a part or supplier in the middle of the run.

Nikon Spins-Off Firmware Development

Strange… Worrying… Do you know what your precious D3x without good firmware? Yeah- it’s expensive, Italian-designer industrial art.

That’s why I’m a little concerned that Nikon is making a joint venture with Fujitsu to engineer future firmware. It really makes you wonder what’s going on.

The only scenario I can think of that makes sense is:

Software development for devices like this is always a loss-center: you sell the camera, but then you have to upgrade the firmware and you don’t get any more money for it. So if you spin off that cost to a different company, then you’re basically getting the liabilities off your books and the MBA’s are probably telling them that it’ll help the horrible revenue/profit numbers that have been coming in. In addition- you can now hire yourself out, openly, as happy to make firmware for whomever wants it and try to generate some revenue from it.

There may be other reasons, but this scenario or similar ones are the only thing that fits.

The only easily accessible link to the press release is at dpReview.

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…

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.

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 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…

New Capture NX v2.2

After a long, dry (several days at least!) spell of little news is finally broken but (wait for it)- UPDATED CaptureNX! We’re now at V2.2.

Windows Mac

What’s changed?

Enhanced processing capabilities with more advanced functions

Tokyo — Nikon Corporation is pleased to announce that from the beginning of April 2009, they will offer a free download of image-editing software Capture NX 2, Ver. 2.2 to current users of Versions 2.0 and 2.1.1. In addition to providing the features of earlier versions, which allow quick-and-easy on-image photo editing to optimize photographer workflow, this latest version includes more powerful and refined tools to greatly improve image-processing efficiency.

Newly added functions include:

• improved speed in batch processing
• Intel-approved logo permitted for Core 2 Duo/Core 2 Quad support
• NRW (COOLPIX P6000’s RAW data) support
• Vignette control function utilizing lens information
• Axial color aberration correction.

1. Improved operational efficiency with higher speeds for batch processing

With batch processing, pre-set editing information can be applied to all of the image data in a selected folder. By revising the memory control system, processing is accelerated.* Operational efficiency is greatly improved, even with large quantities of image data.

* By about 10 – 20% with Windows Vista, 50% with MacOS; varies according to operating environment and conditions.

2. Intel-approved logo permitted for Core 2 Duo/Core 2 Quad support

This software has been optimized for use with industry-leading Intel processors. As a software application based on Intel architecture, Capture NX 2 has received permission to use the Intel-approved logo.

3. NRW support

NRW, a form of RAW data taken with the COOLPIX P6000, is newly supported.

Note: NRW can be saved in NRW, JPEG or TIFF (not in NEF). Saving data in NRW is not possible from NEF/TIFF/JPEG, but only from NRW data. Also, with NRW data, functions peculiar to digital SLR cameras, such as Image Dust Off, are not supported.

4. Enhanced Distortion Control Functions

Superior-quality distortion-free images are ensured by reducing pincushion and barrel distortions. With the new version of Capture NX 2, more effective automatic control is made possible based on information of compatible lenses.

5. Axial Color Aberration Correction

This newly added function automatically detects axial color aberration and corrects it to provide pictures of higher quality. This can be applied to any image because shooting data that depends on lens information is not used in the process.

Ok- I’ll take any upgrade that makes Capture better or easier. It’s strange to me that they list the Intel logo as the number 2 bullet in all of these mentions (this announcement and others) but provide zero information on what practical application this has. NX appears to have been multi-core (on Windows anyway) aware since V2 (if I remember correctly).

What would -really- help is if they made a 64 bit version- I’m really tired of the 20 open pictures limit.

A while ago, I got tired of this limit and started to think- the NEF format is a modified TIFF, and Capture seems to use the uncompressed TIFF directly (it doesn’t operate natively on the NEF in memory). So its temporary in-memory version of your NEF is ~80 megs (as far as I’m able to discern), so 20*80 = ~1600 megabytes, throw in overhead and the memory required by NX’ code, you realize that it quickly would bump against the 2gig limit of address space for a 32bit process in Windows (I know there are exceptions, let’s not get pedantic).

So, make it into a 64bit process and soon, I can use all 12gigs on my machine and everyone’s happier. I’d even pay another $100 to upgrade.

Nikon DTown

Not satisfied with having a bewildering number of websites, Nikon’s just added NikonDTown whose purpose appears to be to have instructional videos provided by Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski.

The premiere episode a bit over ten minutes long shows us:

• Setting whitebalance in liveview
• White balance control points in CaptureNX
• A pitch for the DIGPS GPS device (not the GP-1, surprisingly)
• D90- using the rear command dial to flick through your shots

Nothing hugely exciting, decently produced though.

Nikon 35mm f/1.8 AF-S DX Lens Announced

In news that will thrill 10’s of people around the globe- Nikon has announced the Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX.

That little “DX” addendum means that you won’t want to use in on a full-frame camera (D3, D3x, D700) unless you want to be stuck in crap crop-mode.

But, if you’ve got a D60 and the angle of view was too little for you with the 50mm, then you’ve now got a cheap way to get your 50mm perspective back.

Your first reaction is probably something like, “Wtf are they spending lens-development resources on the amateurs who buy $300 lenses when the higher-end guys have been asking for a lens like this too?”

But it does make sense, having a 50mm AF-S f/2.8G allows the DX guys to have their near-85mm equivalent and giving them a 35mm gives them a near-50mm equivalent.

Now if Nikon would stop making any new DX lenses, they would be free to concentrate on the fullframe guys.

Otoh- these lenses are relatively cheap and putting them out in a down market makes sense- since they’re probably also made in China or Thailand- the strong Yen actually makes them even more profitable.

But, Nikon would like you to take better pictures and Carson gives you some tips for looking slimmer and other stuff you don’t care about.

Nikon Revenue Down

Unsurprisingly, fewer people and organizations have wads of cash to throw at new cameras:

Per-share revenue was down nearly 45% for the 6 months from April to December! However, revenue was down ~12 billion yen, ~$133m.

The fiscal year ends in March 09 and revenue is expected to be 10%, while profit is expected to be down 68% from the previous year.

Interestingly, revenue isn’t down terrible, but profit is tanking- presumably because the higher-end items with more profit (D3x, exotic lenses, industrial equipment that costs a fortune) aren’t being bought in the volumes they were.

Not good.

Nikon Coolpix's Announced

Nikon yesterday (11pm Eastern) announced a slew of new point and shoots and would like you to know about it:

NIKON ANNOUNCES EIGHT NEW STYLISH COOLPIX CAMERAS WITH APPROACHABLE TECHNOLOGY FOR ENJOYABLE PICTURE-TAKING

POWERFUL NEW L100 PACKS PERFORMANCE, HIGH-POWERED ZOOM AND ADVANCE FUNCTIONS INTO AN EASY TO USE CAMERA

NIKON UNVEILS S630 NEW POCKET-SIZED 7X ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA

NIKON UNVEILS NEW S230 TOUCH SCREEN DIGITAL CAMERA

POWERFUL NEW NIKON P90 UNLEASHES CREATIVE FREEDOM WITH 24x OPTICAL WIDE ANGLE ZOOM, VARI-ANGLE LCD AND ADVANCED SHOOTING MODES

Anything of note? Nope- but having a touchscreen on the back of the camera is way better than a d-pad (that little 4-direction button thingy like on the SLR’s for focus point control) if it works as well as the iPhone’s does.

I’d expect to see touchpads on the back of the flagships for the next generation. The iPhone’s touchscreen (actually a different part from the LCD itself) is AMAZINGLY GOOD at figuring out where you actually pressed. How much better it’d be to pinch the screen and drag it around than use the command dial to zoom in!

Nikon D3 Pro Shooter's Guide

It reviews autofocus tracking, active D-lighting, auto-iso, etc, and tells you which it recommends in most cases.

If you’ve been using your D3 for a year now, it’s probably nothing new. If you just got it and want to shoot football tomorrow, it’ll definitely help.

The Nikon Asia links requires a registration, I couldn’t even find it on the Nikon global site, so here’s the link directly to the PDF.

Nikon SDK

[Update: The D3x is NOT included, yet one presumes.]

Some time ago, I read that there actually was a public SDK for Nikon’s newer cameras. When I tried to find it, I got about as far as Leonard Nimoy did during that episode of In Search Of… Big Foot.

Well today I found an article by someone claiming to have taken movies with his D700. I presumed it was a joke and almost skipped it but it’s real.

He claimed to use the SDK and said that it was easy to get a copy. “Yeah, right,” I said and fondly remembered the intervalometer I coded up for my Canon G3 with the very easy to obtain Canon SDK.

But he was right, some time between a couple of years ago when I got my D2x and today, Nikon put up SDK.Nikon.com. All you have to do is fill out the form and you’ll get an emailed link to download SDK libraries for the D40, D60, D90, D200, D300, D3, and D80, for Win2k – Vista, Mac OSX 10.3-4.

You can also get a NEF decoding library for the D1, D1X, D1H, D2X, D2Hs, D2H, D100, D70, D70s, D50, D200, D2Xs, D80, D40, D40X, D3, D300, D60, D700, D90.

This is the LONG WAY from Nikon deciding to encrypt the white balance info on your nef’s and then not playing nice with Adobe and other companies.

As a coder, I’m really glad to hear all of this, I’ve downloaded it but haven’t cracked it open yet.

Keep in mind, if you don’t know what a compiler is, this is all basically useless to you until other people come out with software that uses the libraries.

License: It looks pretty permissive- you CAN make products that compete with Nikon and Nik, etc, which is normally the problem with this sort of thing.

Btw- when you get your link to the DL site, DOWNLOAD EVERYTHING before the session times out, otherwise, the link expires, you have to apply and get an email again!

Nikon D3/D700 Firmware Updates

Sorry I’m late to this one. No reports on issues with the update that I’ve seen:

D3 for Windows here

The following improvements have been made in version 2.01

- Geodetic information is now displayed in ViewNX Ver. 1.2.0 or later and Capture NX 2 Ver. 2.1.0 or later for images captured with the GPS Unit GP-1 mounted on the camera.
- Autofocus-response performance in focus mode C (Continuous-servo AF mode) with relatively dark subjects has been increased.
- When the AF-ON button is pressed, the monitor turns off and a focus point can now be selected using the multiselector.

- Photo information displayed in full-frame playback has been modified as follows:
HI-, LO- has been changed to Hi, Lo
WARM TONE has been changed to WARM FILTER
COLOR CUSTOM has been changed to COLOR BALANCE

- Manamah, displayed in the Time zone options for the World time item in the setup menu, has been changed to Manama.
- An issue that, in extremely rare cases, resulted in noticeable black dots in images captured with Long exp. NR in the shooting menu set to On has been resolved.
- When the Speedlight SB-800 was mounted on the camera with flash mode set to Distance-priority manual (GN) mode, and then the exposure meters were reactivated or the camera was turned on, the distance information displayed on the SB-800 changed.  This issue has been resolved.
- An issue that, in some rare cases, caused images captured with the following lenses to be under-exposed, has been resolved.
AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED
AF VR Zoom-Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED (5.0x)

I’m interested to see how the black dots issue has been resolved- I’ve seen this on every exposure >8 seconds or so that I’ve taken at night. I figured it was due to the dark-frame subtraction of HOT pixels, maybe they’re detecting the hot pixels and not quite doing an exact subtraction. The effect was noticeable enough that for any shot that I cared about, I had to do PP to fix it.

D700 for Windows here

The following improvements have been made in version 1.01

- When Custom Setting a4 Focus tracking with lock-on was set to Off in Continuous-servo AF, the lens drive moved gradually without achieving focus.  This issue has been resolved.
- When the Speedlight SB-800 was mounted on the camera with flash mode set to Distance-priority manual (GN) mode, and then the exposure meters were reactivated or the camera was turned on, the distance information displayed on the SB-800 changed.  This issue has been resolved.
- When the Multi-Power Battery Pack MB-D10 was mounted on the camera and an EN-EL3e battery inserted in the camera but no batteries inserted in the MB-D10, and SB-900 flash mode set to TTL auto flash mode, the flash mode changed to A mode when the exposure meters turned off or were reactivated, or the camera was turned off or on.  This issue has been resolved.  (This issue has also been resolved with SB-900 firmware Ver. 5.02.)
- An issue that, in extremely rare cases, resulted in noticeable black dots in images captured with Long exp. NR in the shooting menu set to On has been resolved.
- Manamah, displayed in the Time zone options for the World time item in the setup menu, has been changed to Manama.

Basically the same as the D3 except with a battery pack issue.

Changes? Some minor crash fixes, some minor bug fixes, D3x support added.

Full list:

Modifications enabled with 2.1.1:

• Support for RAW images captured with the D3X has been added.
• When images containing GPS information captured with another manufacturer’s digital camera were opened, GPS information was not displayed. This issue has been resolved.
• When RAW images captured with another manufacturer’s lens and the camera’s Vignette control item in the shooting menu set to any option other than Off were opened, Capture NX 2 sometimes froze. This issue has been resolved.
• When attempting to open 1-bit monochrome TIFF (LZW) images, Capture NX 2 quit unexpectedly. This issue has been resolved.
• When attempting to open some images saved in NEF format using Nikon Capture or Capture NX v1.x, Capture NX 2 quit unexpectedly. This issue has been resolved.
• When images were opened in Capture NX 2 v2.0.0 or v2.0.1 with which optional Picture Controls were not installed, and an image Picture Control setting was modified and then a settings file saved, Picture Control settings were not accurately reflected when the settings file was applied to images later opened in Capture NX 2 v2.1.0 with which optional Picture Controls were installed. This issue has been resolved.
• When attempting to save enhancements applied to images in some system environments, the enhancements were not saved. This issue has been resolved.
• When multiple images were opened and white balance adjusted for each image using the Set Gray Point option under White Balance in the Camera Settings palette, an error message was displayed when clicking on the image after clicking the Start button. This issue has been resolved.
• When Color Noise Reduction under Noise Reduction was adjusted and the image saved in NEF format, Color Noise Reduction effects were removed when the image was again opened and the Noise Reduction check box unchecked and then checked again when logged in to a Windows user account with a user name containing 2-byte characters. This issue has been resolved.

Nikon D3x Officially Announced - Product shot

She’s here! There’s an official shot from the product images site in the US.

From the press release:

• 24.5MP
• 6048 x 4032 native
• 5:4 crop mode with 20.4-megapixel resolution
• 5.49 micron pixel size
• 14-bit files (NOT 16 bit as was rumored)
• Processed files are approximately 138 MB (? In what format- uncompressed TIFF?)
• 5 FPS native
• ISO range of 100 to 1600, expandable to 50 (Lo-1) and 6400 (Hi-2)
• NO sensor-cleaner

Release Date /  In Stores:

December 19th

Supposedly. Don’t hold your breath, but get your name on the list.

Prototype Bodies

I don’t like surprises, never have– you can’t plan for them, so I’m happy to report no surprises here.

Nikon does however throw us a bone- check out this shot of the prototype bodies for the D3x, cleverly masked with “D2H” logos:

Nikon D3x Prototype Bodies

Sample Images:

Nikon D3x Sample Images

Wow, notice the small black makeup spot above the model’s eyebrow on the RHS of the image, and we need a little more tweezering… boy.

Price

$7,999.00. What was my guessed price range? $7K – $7,500- So I’m not too far off. Certainly not the $9,500 equivalent that the Japanese home market will be paying!

Lenses

No lenses? No lenses.

Nikon Lays off 1,500 in Thailand

Japanese camera-manufacturing giant Nikon yesterday laid off 1,500 of its subcontracting staff in Ayutthaya province after a slump in orders due to the global financial crisis.

…

All the dismissed workers are under subcontracts and have worked with the company for less than a year, said Pongthai Musikapong, of the Labour Protection and Welfare Office in Ayutthaya.

…

Nikon (Thailand) set up it first factory in Thailand in 1990. There are 8,000 permanent staff and 4,000 subcontracting staff at its four factories.

Well that stinks for everyone involved. Nikon mainly makes the lesser products in Thailand- we I believe that means they expect to see fewer of the low-end cameras and lenses being sold. This makes sense since the Pro’s will largely continue buying what they have to have in order to work, and the amateurs spend for completely different reasons.

So if you learned French (or if you’re a native speaker) or you prefer “whilst” to “while”, then here’s your Windows and here’s your Mac link.

What’s changed? Highlights include:

• The range of settings available for ISO sensitivity settings > ISO sensitivity auto control > Minimum shutter speed in the shooting menu has been increased from 1/250 – 1 s to 1/4000 – 1 s.
• A Copyright information item has been added to the setup menu.  When Copyright information is enabled, the copyright symbol (©) is shown in the shooting info display.
• Focus acquisition performance in dynamic-area AF mode has been improved.
• Focus acquisition performance with contrast-detect AF has been improved.
• Auto white balance performance has been improved.
• An issue that caused an increase in noise with shooting in [M] exposure mode at a shutter speed setting of bulb with the shutter held open for less than 8 seconds and Long exp. NR enabled has been resolved.
  
• An issue that prevented shutter release at the specified shutter speed when no operations were performed for 30 seconds in mirror up mode has been resolved.
  
• An issue that caused abnormal image display when  Image review was set to On and the playback zoom in button was pressed immediately after shooting at the following settings has been resolved.
• Image quality:  NEF (RAW ) + JPEG
  
• NEF (RAW) recording:  Lossless compressed or Compressed
• Image size: S or M

Nikon’s expected MX press event delayed until November Just one day after an announcement of a planned press launch of what many expected to be Nikon’s new MX format comes news that the event has been postponed…. the event is now on for November 20th, though no location has been announced and may point to a location change.

The rumored MX format from Nikon that is likely to be unveiled at the event is believed to either be larger than the company’s existing full-frame FX format or simply upgrade the existing D3 and D3x DSLRs to a sensor with 25 megapixels. Nikon has not informed the press about the reason for the delay.

There’s also been some speculation that Nikon may simply be announcing a printer… also a rumor that it’ll simply be some amateurs.

Nikon up300x - Private Pr0n Viewer

This one is really unexpected- the UP300x and UP300. They’re personal media players (PMP) with 4 gigs of memory and motion tracking. This is a very un-Nikon product and it’s hard to see how it fits into their product offerings. The fact that it’ll only be available in Japan (so they’re saying) normally indicates that the company realizes that it’s whacky and isn’t likely to sell in high numbers.

There’s been some conjecture that it could be used as an electronic viewfinder for various future cameras, but that doesn’t explain the motion-sensing (presumably like a Wiimote).

What might be kind of cool is to hook this in Camera Control Pro and put your camera onto a motion-controlled mount on the tripod (does anything like this exist?) then you could wirelessly control your camera from a fair distance. But that’s a bit silly, isn’t it?

I’m thinking the only swell use for this, at the moment, is to allow you to watch pr0n anywhere and everywhere without anyone knowing– but I could be wrong.

No word on how good that display is though- I’ve seen similar devices- the image is universally crap.

New Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-S G

The Good:

• It’s finally here!
• It’s AF-S – silent wave motor for focusing
• It’s a G-style lens (actually, this could be good or bad depending) so it works on the lesser bodies that don’t support screw-drive focusing
• Available in December

The Unknown:

• Anything about how well it actually performs
• How well it’s new optical system that “corrects sagittal coma flare and chromatic aberration” actually works
• When’s the 85mm and the 35mm or 28mm coming? (Where’s my Noct?)
• Does the regular AF version go away now?

The Bad:

• This isn’t designed to be a high-end lens
• No aspherics
• No ED
• No Nano

Price is $439, which is fine.

Here’s a DPReview look at it- no test shots, etc.

EYE-FI COLLABORATES WITH NIKON TO INTRODUCE THE ‘EYE-FI CONNECTED’ NIKON D90 DIGITAL SLR CAMERA

Mountain View, Calif., August 27, 2008 — Eye-Fi, Inc.(www.eye.fi)…today announced that it collaborated with Nikon Corporation, a world leader in digital imaging and precision optics, to deliver enhanced integration of its Eye-Fi cards with Nikon’s newly announced digital SLR camera, Nikon D90. …

While Eye-Fi cards work seamlessly with conventional SD-compatible digital cameras, the Eye-Fi Connected Nikon D90 gives users an improved out-of- box experience and more control of wireless capabilities. The camera will detect when an Eye-Fi card is inserted and manage its power settings to ensure that photos upload effortlessly for sharing and storing. In addition, the Nikon D90 will include an Eye-Fi menu that allows users to turn the wireless function on or off, giving the user more freedom to customize how and when they want to use the Eye-Fi card. …

Basically, they were able to squeeze a WiFi trasmitter into the size of an SD card and have worked with Nikon to make the D90 more aware of it.

Now if they’d only make this possible on the pro bodies, we could all ditch our WT-$4’s and not look like such big dorks. In reality, the WT-4 is much more capable, but I just want an occasional replacement for that USB tether.

 Microsoft and Nikon Enter Into Patent Cross-Licensing Agreement
Agreement furthers Microsoft and Nikon collaboration on new products and features in digital imaging.

REDMOND, Wash., and TOKYO — Aug. 27, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. and Nikon Corp. have signed a patent cross-licensing agreement to further the development of each company’s current and future product lines.

The agreement covers digital cameras made by Nikon as well as a broad range of other consumer products each company manufactures and sells. The agreement was signed by representatives from both companies at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Wash. Although the contents of the agreement have not been disclosed, the parties indicated that Microsoft is being compensated by Nikon.

Microsoft and Nikon have a long history of collaborating to bring high-quality, cutting-edge consumer products to the market, including wireless cameras and RAW processing technologies. The companies believe that this patent cross-licensing agreement will substantially benefit customers of consumer products including digital cameras. Both parties will be able to innovate openly with each other’s technologies, enabling new features and products to come to market. …

The most interesting bit has to be that Nikon is paying MS (how much?)! Hopefully we’ll get much better RAW codec integration with Windows (Vista64 bit does NOT work with the codec- inexcusable.)

MS has also been doing some really interesting things with their Labs department like PhotoSynth.

Let’s hope we see new primes at Photokina… I would LOVE a delicious Nokt…

I’m sure there’re plenty of people who’d like to use it on their D3 and D700, etc.

[Update]

I was able to find some official info here.

From the product website:

It’s compatible with: D3, D300, D700, D2X, D2Hs, D2Xs and D200 (via 10-pin remote terminal cable GP1-CA10)

Features

• Geotag (image positioning information of pictures such as latitude, longitude [Geodetic System WGS84]) can be added to the image.

• Correlation between pictures and maps is supported by GPS function in conjunction with ViewNX version 1.2 software (no-charge download available Autumn 2008) and my Picturetown.

Power source: Supplied from camera body

Acquired data: Latitude, longitude, altitude, time information

Time required for satellite acquisition: Approx. 45 sec. (cold start), approx. 5 sec. (hot start)

[Update: Movie Mode examples can be found here thanks to Frigggo.]

Nikon has announced the D90 @ $1299.95 for body and lens kit that includes the new AF-S DX Zoom-NIKKOR 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR lens. Nikon expects the D90 kit to be available in September.

Also- there’s a GPS add-in GP-1 unit available in November with no price yet.

Here’s the entire photo gallery and here’s a shot of it with the GPS unit.

Specs (from Engadget)

• New 12.3 megapixel Nikon DX-format CMOS image sensor with Integrated Dust Reduction System.
• Low-noise from ISO 200 to 3200, ISO 6400 available.
• D-Movie mode records in 320 x 216, 640 x 424 or 1,280 x 720 in AVI format.
• Scene Recognition System based on 420 pixel RGB sensor for improved autofocus, autofocus and auto white balance, in addition to Face Detection.
• Multi-CAM 1000 autofocus with 11 AF points.
• 3-inch, VGA Live View LCD.
• 4.5 fps continuous shooting, 0.15 second startup, 65ms shutter release lag.
• SD / SDHC storage.
• HDMI output
• 5.2 x 4.1 x 3.0-inches.
• 1 pound 6 ounces without battery.
• $1,299 kit price.

Interestingly, the leaked shots were no faked this time! Maybe we only see fakes with the higher-end bodies.

Movie mode is a first in Nikon’s SLR bodies, I’d -LOVE- to see some samples if anyone has any, please send them along. Interesting how it doesn’t use the full resolution of the sensor, I wonder if that’s due to processing speed or possibly flash write speeds. If it was simply processing speeds, then we should expect to see this integrated into the pro bodies if the sensors could be made to work this way. It’d be pretty impressing to get high-res movies at 24 fps or better (some might even pay $17,000 for such a camera).

Capture NX version 2.0.1 resolves printing issues that occurred with Capture NX version 2.0.0. To upgrade Capture NX 2, click the Install button in the Nikon Message Center available Messages display.

Modifications enabled with Ver. 2.0.1
* An issue that caused images to be printed smaller than the paper, or only a portion of images to be printed, when paper orientation in the Page Setup dialog was set to Landscape with the following operations has been resolved.-Page Setup… selected from the File menu-Print… selected from the File menu and the Page Setup… button in the Print layout dialog clicked

-The print button in the activity toolbar clicked and the Page Setup… button in the Print layout dialog clicked
* An issue that prevented display of the Print layout dialog with some systems when Print… was selected from the File menu has been resolved.
* An issue that caused an error message to be displayed when the print button in the activity toolbar was clicked with some systems has been resolved.

I’ve got 2 printers on my system and the way I’ve got it set up in order to bridge 2 networks is a little funky. I’m not predicting good things but I’ll be printing a bunch today, let’s see if I run into anything.

Software is HARD!

[Note: zoetmb  rightly points out in  the comments that these are overall Nikon Corp numbers, not specifically related to camera revenue. I hope to get the chance to review the entire filing over the next few days to attempt to glean some more information from our hermit company.]

Nikon Corp’s 1st quarter results are in and no one’s going to get a bonus.

Net income dropped to 18 billion yen ($166 million) in the three months ended June 30, from 23.4 billion yen a year earlier, Tokyo-based Nikon said in a statement today. Sales climbed 6.4 percent to 237.9 billion yen. …

Operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses, declined 21 percent to 28.7 billion yen.

The yen appreciated 17 percent against the dollar in the year ended June 30, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

They’re projecting that sales will go up a bit, but overall profits will go down. Maybe if they put out 10 more Coolpix’s…

[Update: I CANNOT find a picture of the ethernet port- has anyone seen one?]

Whee! New point and shoots and Coolpix’s- we apparently didn’t have enough.

But I’m actually happy to know the P6000 is real- on occasion, I have a pang of guilt when using a Canon- but you can’t argue with results and I love my G3 and would be happy to get a G9.

Here’s the rundown in order of the press-release, meaning that this is the order of items that the Marketing-droids think will most make you want to buy it:

• 13.5 mp
• Built-in GPS for geo-tagging
• added wired LAN support via a dedicated Ethernet port built into the camera. Users can upload their images and data directly from the P6000 with an Ethernet cable to the secure Picture Bank service on my Picturetown
• MyPictureTown easy uploading
• PSAM shooting modes for creative control
• Raw mode via “all-new” NRW format (wtf?), ViewNX updates due in October to handle it
• Some custom button functionality
• Adding even more synergy between D-SLR cameras and compact COOLPIX cameras, the P6000 incorporates a pop-up flash, optical viewfinder for easy composition and the added bonus of system expansion with an optional convertor…
• Plays nice with iTTL and the CLS
• features a quality finish and a front panel constructed of solid Magnesium alloy

P6000 will be available nationwide beginning September 2008 at a MSRP of $499.95.

So what’s notable: GPS included, new NRW raw format, contains the most synergy of any Coolpix.

First: SYNGERY?! Did Nikon invent a time machine capable of taking us back to 1993 to mine corporate-speak?

But even more- OM.F.G- another proprietary raw format. Maybe we’ll be lucky this time- the whole damned file will be encrypted instead of just the white balance.

An ethernet port! My heart flutters- can anyone tell me if I can ONLY upload to MyPictureTown (does anyone use that?) via Nikon software are does the camera show up as an FTP/HTTP server or something? Any clue which speed? (PLEASE 100mb…) 100mb would be on par with fast USB, 10mb would not be a good replacement for a USB card reader.

The only standout feature is the incredibly high ISO settings for a point and shoot which uses pixel-binning to get to 6400-12800 iso’s.

I’d really love to see some low-light images with this thing, but can’t seem to find any and I really don’t expect to be wowed when I put its output next to my D3… or D2x… or, say, my Holga with 400iso Tri-x.

Nikon has also announced the Coolpix S560, for people who have $250usd and need an adequate but largely undistinguished point and soon.

Nikon’s noticed and now they’re providing a buffer upgrade service for $500 starting yesterday.

Highlights:

Fee and Return
The cost is $500.00 plus your state tax. Customer is responsible for all shipping costs. Please allow up to two weeks time for the Buffer Memory Expansion service; should more time be required, the user will be informed.

Fill out this form before sending.

Performance: FX raw 14bit standard is 16 shots, upgraded to 36.

$500 is kind of pricey though- thankfully I don’t need high FPS that much.

If only I could get (for free) the look of Velvia and (my personal favorite of all time) Provia 100iso with a polarizer.

Here are the installation directions- basically, extract it to a card, tell the camera to load it via the menus.

I think I’m a couple days behind on this one, but thanks to Dexter for reminding me about it.

…At 32-nm, Nikon has reportedly won the entire lithography business within Intel, leaving ASML out in the cold, source said. The multi-million-dollar order represents Intel’s initial scanners, based on immersion lithography. Up until now, Intel had been using ”dry” scanners for wafer processing within its fabs.

At 45-nm, Intel has been using a combination of 193-nm dry tools from both ASML and Nikon for the so-called ”critical layers,” sources said. For the non-critical layers, Intel has been exclusively using Nikon’s 248-nm scanners for use in processing wafers at the 45-nm node, sources said….

I’m not a hardware guy, so I can’t speak with any authority, but from what I understand- the features on chips below 45nm are really hard to get right with the typical lithography where the image is projected through gases onto the chip. So they’re moving to projecting the image into liquid which modifies how the light hits the chip and makes it much more likely to get decent yields.

The article says that cost was a major deciding factor in favor of Nikon over ASML.

D700 D-SLR BODY

Description:
Supplied with:

• #25444 D700 Digital SLR Body;
• EN-EL3e Rechargeable Li-ion Battery;
• MH-18a Quick Charger;
• UC-E4 USB Cable;
• EG-D100 Video Cable;
• AN-D700 Strap;
• BM-9 LCD Monitor Cover;
• BF-1A Body Cap;
  BS-1Accessory Shoe Cap;
• Nikon Software Suite CD ROM

Product #: 25444
List Price: $3,260.00
MAP: $2,999.95 [ed: Minimum advertised price- if you want to sell for less, you have to do a 'click to see the price' deal]

So thankfully, despite the deplorable value of our dollar right now, we’re not going to set as badly soaked as or Euro buddies.

• D700 Quick Review and D3 / D300 Comparison
• SB-900 Official Page
• PC/E 85mm f/2.8
• PC/E 45mm f/2.8

European English

• Europe in English

 French

• France

(the rest, I’m sure you can figure out which Nikon site to go to)

As far as I can tell, there isn’t anything that we didn’t know about in the last few days, do we know the price in USD yet though? I’m kind of wondering where this fits relative to the D3. If it’s only about $1000 less, then its placement would appear to be as simply a smaller D3 with less battery (btw- which battery is it using? I’ll have to look).

With respect to the PC/E (tilt/shift but not at the same time) lenses, they were already previously announced, iirc.

The SB-900 is relatively new news and after a quick read of its specs, it looks like it’s about the same but detects FX vs DX, KNOWS if there’s a colored filter over the flash (!), talks to the body more, allows firmware to be upgraded via the body. I can’t tell yet if the menus are at all changed / made simpler or easier, I don’t see any called-out changes to the CLS, no RF, and wtf can’t I use a Nikon camera body battery for the flash? They appear to have made it more energy efficient so that it’ll recharge with 4 batteries in the time it took the SB-800 to recharge with 5, but with even a smaller body battery, we could have shot forever…

I guess we’ll have to wait for Photokina for primes (oh God, please? I’m starting to think this is hopeless… time for more Zeiss maybe) and the D3.

PC Micro-Nikkor 85mm f/2.8D

85mm medium telephoto lens with tilt/shift mechanism and macro capability
• Wide tilting and shifting range (tilt: ±8.3°, shift: ±12.4mm)
• 1/2 life-size macro shooting capability (at 0.39m/1.3 ft.)
• ±90° lens revolving capability for versatile tilt/shift effects

PC-E NIKKOR 24mm f/3.5D ED

High-performance wideangle lens with Perspective Control
• Wide shifting and tilting range (shift: ±11.5mm; tilt: ±8.5°)
• ±90° lens revolving capability for versatile tilt/shift effects
• Maximum reproduction ratio of 1/2.7 (at 0.21m/0.75 ft.)
• Three ED glass elements, and three aspherical lenses
• Nano Crystal Coat reduces ghost and flare for clear images
• Nine-blade rounded diaphragm
• Auto aperture control with electromagnetic diaphragm (with D3 and D300)

PC-E Micro NIKKOR 45mm f/2.8D ED

Normal lens with Perspective Control and macro capability
• Wide shifting and tilting range (shift: ±11.5mm; tilt: ±8.5°)
• ±90° lens revolving capability for versatile tilt/shift effects
• Maximum reproduction ratio of 1/2 (at 0.253m/0.83 ft.)
• ED glass element
• Nano Crystal Coat reduces ghost and flare for clear images
• Nine-blade rounded diaphragm
• Auto aperture control with electromagnetic diaphragm (with D3 and D300 )

Is it even worth it? Leave a comment…

You can download the American trial version here (and the manual).

Global versions can be downloaded here.

What’s new? Not sure yet, I’ll see what I can find and post it later.

Is it for sale yet? No clue, I can’t seem to find a “buy” or “upgrade” link, but I’m sure it’s somewhere.

For a screenshot (in case it’s yanked), click here.

Well, discontinued in Australia, but we’ve seen items like this before. The 17-35mm was discontinued in Belgium, so I guess they tend to do this when their stock is depleted and they aren’t expecting any more shipments.

Please, please, please,  let some wonderful primes be on their way!

Seems kind of odd to me because if you’re buying a D3, I’m betting you’re not too interested in a variable aperture 70-300mm, but I’ll leave that decision to you. I’m not going back to variable apertures for all the Ashton Kutcher’s in the world. What would I go back for, you ask? Kate Moss, definitely, sign me up. 18-19mm f/22-48 zoom, doesn’t accept filters? Yup, I’m ready to go.

There’s $150 off the 70-300mm VR until July 6th.

If you buy a D40, D60, or D80, you can get $100 off a 55-200mm f/4-5.6G, 55-200mm f/4-5.6G, or 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G.

It actually is pretty cool to have wifi integrated into the camera- I can’t see why it is that a $250 camera can have integrated wifi and we can’t get something like this built into the pro bodies. Most of the time, I want to send a couple of shots to a computer right away and worry about others later, I don’t need the full WT-4.

Also- does anyone want to tell me why I need the SU-4 to remotely control speedlights if a $250 camera can have integrated wifi? Why can’t get get wifi built into the pro bodies and get wireless radio communication with our speedlights via adhoc networking mode? Maybe Nikon could siphon off some of the money that would normally go to PocketWizard? Typical wifi latencies of 1-2ms would allow a sync of 1/500 – 1/1000th of a second if my calculation are correct.

Nikon is the owner of a US Patent Application Publication No. US 2008/0084484  (you can read the whole thing on uspto.gov – just do a search for the application number), which details an invention whereby a small display screen is visible through the optical viewfinder.  The photographer can switch back and forth between the optical image and the digital display for a variety of purposes.  According to the patent, one of the most prominent uses will be to enable a wide viewing angle when zoomed in tight on a subject.

Hopefully it doesn’t replace the optical image, but it looks like it does. I’d must rather have an overlay- show me the analog TTL image in the viewfinder and give me an digital overlay in areas so that I can see a real-time histogram get the areas where a channel’s blown out- basically like a live-view through the viewfinder.

Yeah those days sucked, so thankfully, we can now just install new firmware every time someone pulls an “oopsie”- which is the technical term that Software Engineers use to describe situations like the recent problems involving corrupted images in high-speed burst mode using 14-bits.

Thankfully, Nikon was really responsive and offered a quick patch.

I haven’t been able to play with it yet, but no one seems to have seen corrupted images yet (it’s been out close to 24hours now).

–

Also- I’ve read (but not double-checked) that the “D3x” strings are no longer in there! Hmmmm

It’s always sad when you have to do this, but it happens to the best of projects.

Let’s point out that you probably should never update your firmware early (give it a couple weeks at least), and always keep the older firmware versions on your drive in case you need to rollback- I presume this is possible on the D3, but I’ve never had to try…

Termination of D3 Digital-SLR Camera Firmware Ver. 1.10 Download

On April 15, 2008, an announcement was made on the Nikon website that the Ver. 1.10 firmware update for the D3 digital-SLR camera was available for download. However, it has been confirmed that when the following settings are applied with the updated firmware, image data may, in some rare cases, be corrupted. Therefore, we have terminated the firmware update download. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused.

• Release mode: Continuous high speed (CH), or Continuous low speed (CL) with Custom Setting d2 set to 9 fps
• Image area: FX format (36×24) or 5:4 (30×24)
• Image quality: NEF (RAW) or NEF (RAW) + JPEG fine/normal/basic
• NEF (RAW) recording>NEF (RAW) bit depth: 14-bit

  *The issue related to NEF (RAW) recording>NEF (RAW) bit depth may occur regardless of the option selected for NEF (RAW) recording>Type (Lossless compressed, Compressed, or Uncompressed).

If you have downloaded the D3 Ver. 1.10 firmware update but have not yet updated the camera’s firmware, please do NOT perform the update. If you have already updated the D3 firmware, please do not shoot with the combination of settings indicated above. This issue does not occur with other combinations of camera settings (for example, when NEF (RAW) bit depth is set to 12-bit, or when shooting in continuous low speed (CL) release mode with Custom Setting d2 set to 8 fps or lower.)

The download version of the revised firmware update is expected to be available in late April. For more information regarding this matter, please contact Nikon Customer Support.

Again, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused. We hope that you will continue to choose Nikon for your photography needs.

Vignette Control

Depending on the scene, shooting conditions, and type of lens, TIFF and JPEG images may exhibit unevenness or variations in peripheral brightness, while Custom Picture Controls and Nikon Picture Controls that have been modifi ed from default settings may not produce the desired eff ect. Take test shots and view the results in the monitor. Vignette control does not apply to multiple exposures, DX-format images, or images created with [Image overlay]. The eff ects of vignette control can not be previewed in live view and are not visible when NEF (RAW) images are viewed in third-party software. Use ViewNX or Capture NX to view NEF (RAW) images created with vignette control.

Modifications enabled with upgrade of A and B firmware from Ver. 1.00
to Ver. 1.10:

* A Vignette control item has been added to the shooting menu.
For information regarding supported lenses, see the supplemental manual.

* A Focus point brightness item has been added to the a6: Focus
point illumination setting in the Autofocus category of Custom Settings.

* The Highlights playback display option has been moved from
Display mode > Basic photo info > Highlights in the playback menu to
Display mode > Detailed photo info > Highlights.

* When shutter speed and/or aperture are locked with shooting in
live view mode, using the “L” (command lock) button, an “L” icon is
now displayed in the camera monitor.

* The size and color of “Demo” displayed in the monitor with
playback, when No memory card in the Custom Settings is set to Enable
release, have been modified.

* The range of settings available for ISO sensitivity settings >
ISO sensitivity auto control > Minimum shutter speed in the shooting
menu has been increased from 1/250 to 1/4000

* When a compatible Speedlight or Wireless Speedlight Commander
is used, the AF assist illuminator now lights regardless of the focal
length.

* When shooting in hand-held live view mode and the frame is
magnified prior to autofocusing, operation has been modified so that
display returns to the magnified display rather than full-frame display.

* In some rare cases, the image area visible through the
viewfinder and the image area actually recorded differed when Image
area > Choose image area in the shooting menu was set to DX format
(24×16). This issue has been resolved.

* In some rare cases, white balance was not accurately calculated
for images captured at a shutter speed of around 1/4s in P and A
exposure modes. This issue has been resolved.

* When attempting to crop images at an aspect ratio of 4 : 3
using the Trim option in the retouch menu, the cropped image did not
have an accurate 4 : 3 aspect ratio. This issue has been resolved.

But, a week or so ago, I ran across this Nikon interview with an engineer who brought nano-coating to us.

The most interesting bit is the shot of coated glass next to uncoated glass- there’s an obviously huge difference. The problem, is though, that they who uncoated glass next to nano-coated glass and don’t show glass coated with the previous, non-nano coating.

So there’s a very large difference between coated and uncoated, but we don’t know how much a difference there is between nano and regular coatings. Because of this, I can’t totally shake the feeling that the marketeers are trying to something over on us.

I also can’t, for the life of me, see why I have to dig around to find articles like this.

Yes, THAT is likely to get me to spend my money on the uninspired, me-too point-and-shoots.

Ashton Aston Kutcher- waytf better than, oh say, the way Nikon tries to sell the Euros:

The first rule of hack marketing-droids: put a sexy girl next to anything that isn’t otherwise worth looking at.

Seems that it was kind of strange- normally when a large company registers a domain- they immediately point it somewhere, like, oh…, maybe their main page?

When I saw the first post that pointed it out, I assumed it was a link-farm and not an official page until I checked the Whois info.

Then it sat around for a few days up, then down, then slashdot’d by cameras geeks like, um, me- I guess.

So what’s up there? Pros I’ve never heard of talking about their jobs and Nikon. I couldn’t find anything terribly exciting though.

I’d be much more interested in seeing amazing shots that we can take with Nikon and learning more about the technology.
(Man, I have GOT to shrink that logo!)

Various dpReviewers are reporting that it’s up, it’s down, and when it’s up, it’s slow and serving up pro’s talking about Nikon.

Hopefully there’ll be something cool on it!

Damn, if they actually become more open, I may have to remove the “?” in my logo and slap a “!” in there!

PMA 2008, Yesterday, Nikon announces:

D60

AF-S MICRO NIKKOR 60MM F/2.8G ED

WIDE-ANGLE PC-E NIKKOR 24MM F/3.5D ED LENS

AF-S DX NIKKOR 16-85MM LENS 

Well score several for the rumors! There’s nothing new here- amazing!

Does the D60 replace the D40/40x? The press release doesn’t seem to say much. I don’t follow the lower-end SLR’s enough to have much idea one way or another.

A new macro lens sounds tasty. I realized last night that every time I’m shooting a macro scene with my 105mm, I’ve got to stand about 3 feet back, which the 60mm would fix with its .6′ close-focus. I like the f/2.8 also. AF-S would also make it focus a lot quicker than the 105mm.

The new PC lens should make some pro’s happy: “A special tilt/shift mechanism gives users up to +/- 11.5 mm shift and +/- 8.5-degree tilt for perspective control.”

And a new consumer-grade lens that I seem to recall seeing somewhere else…

Oh, and apparently, there are some new CoolPix’s in various colors or something.

Monday, December 24, 2007 at 07:10 EST

TOKYO — Nikon Corp President Michio Kariya says that his company has no intention of competing head-on with Canon Inc in the world’s fast-growing digital single-lens reflex camera market.

Noting that the corporate size of Nikon is much smaller than Canon’s, Kariya said his company thinks it is important to offer new types of cameras to consumers when its chief rival does not do so, instead of vying with similar price-range products around the same time.

Uh, this has me a bit worried…

Subject: Nikon at Imaging USA (Tampa, FL), MacWorld (San Francisco, CA), PMA (Las Vegas, NV)
From: Michael Rubin
Date: Thu, 06 Dec 2007 01:21:19 +0900

Howdy folks,

If you are going to be at any of these shows, so will I. Please stop by and say hello. We’ll have presentations on hardware and software at Imaging USA & PMA and software at MacWorld.

We’ll have experts on the D3, D300 and other products at all 3.

And you can come meet me in person and complain about or compliment Nikon!

If you would like a free pass for MacWorld, please email me privately: mrubin !-at-! nikon.net and I will send you a pass code and registration code.
…
Hope to see a bunch of you soon!

Michael

I’d recommend ignoring everything there except the “OPEN MENU” choice on the left hand side where you’ll get a selection of videos- one even shows a couple images using Active-D Lighting and Picture Control.

The Picture Control System demo is interesting, I didn’t know that the B&W mode also allows you to change the tint so that you can make cyanotype or sepia-tone-like images out of the camera.
For some reason they spend a significant amount of time showing us how to use the MultiSelector to navigate through the menu to access the various choices… No cute Japanese chicks this time.

The download is simply an updater for previous versions.

Eligible Lenses:
1) AF-S DX Zoom-NIKKOR 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED lens;
2) AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED lens; and
3) AF-S DX VR Zoom-NIKKOR 55-200mm f/4-5.6G IF-ED lens.
Qualifying Cameras:
Nikon D40, D40X or D80 digital SLR camera.

Pre-packaged new 2-NIKKOR Lens Outfits purchased from Nikon Inc. and sold and delivered to retail consumers by participating Nikon Authorized Dealers from November 18, 2007 through December 31, 2007 qualify for the Nikon Zoom-NIKKOR Lens Instant Savings Offer.
Qualifying Lenses: Any AF NIKKOR lens other than the 3 Eligible Lenses listed above.

On tbe other hand, it is cool that it’s only $199usd! I suspect that this is the new 50mm for nearly everyone.

If you’re like me and you think you’ll enjoy the manual, download it here.

And THIS TIME, Nikon won’t ask you for a serial number (unless you want the  printable version), how incredibly moronic was it to demand a serial number from you in the past just to get the manual?

Otoh- why are they restricting the printable version?

The D300 manual is apparently not out yet (or I couldn’t find it).

This one’s at ISO 400:

The D300 will be on sale Nov 23th.

The D3 will be on sale Nov 30th.

CaptureNX will be free for the first 300k buyers (come on Nikon, this needs to be free for all D3 buyers at least)

The new lenses OTHER than the 500mm and 600mm tele’s will be for sale on Nov 30th.

The 500mm and 600mm on “January 2008″

WT-4 is also Nov 30th.

Camera Control Pro is Nov 23rd with no price given.

Interesting that the D300 will be for sale first! Also- is this Japan only or for the world?

Today we have released Nikon ViewNX v1.0.2 update for the US and Canada web download, and we will also push this update through the Message Center.

This update adds support for NEF RAW images captured with the D3 and D300, and also corrects an issue with the file naming dialog when using the Convert Files feature. These are the versions for North America. Please check with the Nikon web site in your region for their updates. Thanks

US: Mac, Windows

Canada Mac, Windows

D3 File Size (FX Mode):
NEF Lossless compressed, 12-bit 13.3MB
NEF Lossless compressed, 14-bit 16.3MB
NEF Compressed, 12-bit 11.0MB
NEF Compressed, 14-bit 13.8MB
NEF Uncompressed, 12-bit 18.8MB
NEF Uncompressed, 14-bit 24.7MB
TIFF (RGB Large/8-bit), Uncompressed, 35.9MB
JPEG (Large/Fine), 5.7MB

Of course all figures are approximate and file size will vary
depending on the subject and file format.

The really nice thing here, imo, is that there’s finally a lossless compressed version. The lack of this on the D2’s always kind of mystified me. I’m guessing that there’s enough horsepower in the new eXpeed chips to handle the compression in real-time and still crank out 9 FPS.

I think this is actually how Hurrell got started discovered…

Opportunity to see and try out the new Nikon D300 and D3 along with the new Nikkor 14-24 and 24-70.  The appointment will take place on 23 and 30 October in facilities Casanova Photo Barcelona and Madrid respectively, in sessions of 10 to 12 or 17 to 19 hours.

To register (limited spaces): Barcelona: 9330161 12 Cristina Sirur / Madrid: 9143409 80 Marta Muzas

Here’s the original, untranslated post.

Can anyone point me to the US tour??

“I think you’ll see other FX products. It’s a sensor size we’re committed to,” Heiner said at a meeting here with reporters.

Heiner wouldn’t offer details about timing or models, but extrapolating from his remarks, it looks like Nikon will offer a lower-end full-frame model. Full-frame technology will spread to lower-end cameras, Heiner said. “We have seen so many technologies at the highest end that migrate downward,” he said.

The D300 has a setting on it to choose which battery is used first,
so if you set the camera to use the MB-D10’s battery first and then
just change the MB-D10’s battery when it’s out it will basically
never use the camera battery and you can pretty much forget about it.
I haven’t tested it but I’d bet you could go for weeks without
changing the camera battery…

For what it’s worth, in our testing using one EN-EL3e in the MB-D10
and one in the camera you can shoot about 6000 photos…

Well take THAT, you pricey D3! OTOH- I’ve yet to run my D2x’s battery out.

But I HAVE frequently run my flash’s batteries out, I really wish the flash could use the same battery as the body does. And just think, if it did, we’d end up having arm muscles like body-builders!

The site is really slow and I’ll attempt to mirror them when I can.

However- I noticed that they’ve got an audio interview with Lindsay Silverman, a Nikon Sr. Technical Manager here.

Is there anything interesting in the interview? I have no idea- I simply CANNOT STAND audio on websites. I refuse to listen- it hoses up my music which is always playing when I’m at my machine.

The official English version is here.

Below are thumbnails and mirrors of the images.

1/125 @ 3200iso !

1/160 @ 400iso

1/400 @ 400

1/100 @ 200

1/800 @ 200

1/160 @ 6400iso !

Things to note- the firmware appears to be .18 and I think I’ve linked to shots that were .38 or so last time. Noise reduction (in camera) appears to be on at high ISO and off at low, and we’re assuming that Nikon didn’t do any out of camera processing to make them look better.

If it’s the case that they haven’t been altered, then they look amazing to me.

I wonder why they didn’t post the NEF’s. I’d really like to see them.

D300 sample here.

I can’t get to them though- the server appears slammed?

What is View NX?

View NX is a powerful new software application for viewing NEF RAW and JPEG images.

• ViewNX offers the following 3 modes for viewing images:
  • ” Thumbnail Grid ” mode for viewing image thumbnails
  • ” Image Viewer ” mode displays a selected image at a large size
  • ” Full Screen ” mode displays an image full screen
• RAW+JPEG format images recorded simultaneously can be viewed separately, or treated as a single image for simpler management.
• Exposure Compensation, White-balance adjustment, and other adjustments can be performed on multiple images at one time, using “Picture Controls”, within the supplied “Picture Control Utility”.
• Labels and Ratings can be applied to individual images for simpler classification, management, and display.
  • 10 labels are available for image classification. Labels can specify images displayed, images sent as e-mail attachments or printed, or images copied to another folder.
  • Images may be rated up to 5 stars to indicate importance or priority. Images within a specified span can be displayed, and also Labels and Ratings recorded use industry standard formats so that they are preserved and recognized in other applications using the same standard.
• Focus area, histogram, highlights, and shadows displays are available.
• A convenient quick zoom feature is available for verifying focus.
• Enter information such as Creator, Origin, Image Title, and Keywords in XMP/IPTC Information for managing images.
• Copies of images are easily created for attachment to e-mail messages.
• Resized copies of images can be saved, and images can be converted and saved in TIFF or JPEG format.
• A third-party software application can be registered for smooth integration with a favorite imaging application.
• ViewNX and Nikon Transfer offer smooth collaboration. Use of these two applications together is convenient and recommended.

Here is the download page for Windows. Mac.

Initial reports from the DPReview forums are promising, look in D300 forum, other Nikon
forums on the site haven’t caught on yet.

Here’s the exchange:
Subject: Re: Any image samples from new bodies yet?
From: –
Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2007 20:34:41 -0400
X-Message-Number: 6

Pretty soon…

–

On Sep 7, 2007, at 11:33 PM, Joe McCary wrote:

> David, any indication when we might be seeing some samples from the
> D300 &
> D3?

– — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — – –

–
General Manager, Technical Support
Nikon Inc. USA

Yup- a whole lot of CoolPix’s to give to your relatives so they don’t paw your D3! No, they don’t shoot usable 6400iso shots, but at least one of them includes the AA batteries!

Click the link to see all of the shots from the presentation.

I have to see, that 6400 looks fairly decent in this terrible shot directly from their projector.

Where are the sample images? I’m -guessing- that Nikon is still tweaking things? But their sorely missing at this point!

In his presentation Mr. Okamoto said that Nikon would be spending a lot more on getting their message out to the market in the coming months and years, something I personally see as a wise strategy for them.

It’s a welcome idea, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Until then, I’ll dream about a legit tech roadmap rather than lies from Marketing telling me how whatever they have to sell is the greatest thing on earth and everything else is either useless or lame.

The D3 also features two CompactFlash™ card slots that can be used for consecutive recording (overflow), simultaneous recording (backup), separating recording of RAW and JPEG files or even copying pictures between the two cards. Images can be displayed directly from the camera to a high-definition monitor using the camera’s HDMI port and an optional cable.

Well blow me down! An HDMI port – that came out of nowhere.

The D3 also offers the capability to remotely control the camera while in Live View mode, allowing focusing and shooting from a computer either over a wired or wireless connection, when using the optional Camera Control Pro 2 software.

More software for me to buy… Still no SDK…

God spoke and there was light:

• Nikon USA
• Nikon Japan
• Nikon Events
• Nikon Global D3
• Nikon Global D300
• Nikon Canada

D3: NEAR FULL F’ing FRAME! LiveView! Available November

Responding to this demand, Nikon has developed the D3 as its first digital SLR camera that features the Nikon FX-format CMOS sensor to meet the real-world requirements of its customers. The D3 delivers full resolution 12.1 megapixel images at up to 9 frames per second when used with a conventional NIKKOR lenses. When used with DX NIKKOR lenses, the D3 automatically switches to the DX-format mode that uses a cropped portion of the sensor to generate 5.1 megapixel resolution images. In DX-format mode, the D3 automatically masks the portion of the viewfinder that will not be photographed and enables the capability to shoot up to 11 frames-per-second.

D300: DX Sensor, Dust Reduction System
A new 12.3-megapixel DX-Format CMOS Sensor, in concert with Nikon’s exclusive EXPEED digital image processing technologies, advances handling speed while making possible even greater DX-format image quality.

More when I get a chance, but read the links. Thanks to everyone who sent links!

“Meanwhile, we are concentrating our research and development efforts on DSLR and lens technologies,” Mr Fung * lets on. To that end, Nikon will unveil a new range of DSLR cameras by the end of the year.

He adds: “Eventually, consumers may be able to buy their own DSLR camera for as little as $600 to $700. [ed: SINGAPORE dollars. ~$.66 usd to 1 SG$]”

* Mr Marc Fung, sales and marketing manager, Nikon Singapore.

(Side note: the picture is of Lenin reading Pravda- the official voice of the USSR’s Communist regime. I’m not trying to demean Nikon by association, but this lack of communication does make me feel like there’s a large (22k employees), reclusive entity who occasionally speaks from on high.)