Nikon House- Ginza Tokyo

This year’s big trip ended up being Japan- I went to Kyoto and Tokyo. Kyoto has too many temples and Tokyo’s got cameras- or at least that’s how I saw it!

We stayed in  the fashionable Ginza district- you should think of it a lot like Japan’s version of shopping in Manhattan.

Within easy walking distance of the hotel Dai-Ichi are:

• Nikon Salon and Service Center (google maps)
• Nikon House
• Leica Boutique

I’ll get into the Nikon Salon in a different post because it actually pales in comparison to what can be found at the Nikon House (google maps).

What’s There

The most minty collectibles- I saw F3’s in near-perfect condition. They had all of the range-finders I knew about and every SLR I’m aware of (excluding whacky variants). For good measure- they’ve got Leica bodies.

But what blew me away was, I saw two of these:

Nikon House- Nikkor 58mm f/1.2 Noct

If you’re not familiar with the spectacular night photography results this lens achieves, Ken’s got a good overview, and here is a great article by Nikon about the more technical aspects of the lens’s lack of sagittal coma flare. Nikon provides a nice example of sagittal coma- compare the Noct to a non-Noct and look at how the cars’ brake lights smear into oblong blobs on the non-noct.

Hey, notice that price? That’s only $3,822 at today’s terrible exchange rate- but they’ve been going for ~$3200 the last time I checked on ebay– IF you can get one and if you’re spending that much on a 30+ year old lens, do you want to trust some random internet guy? I once saw a person offering -5- of these for sale on Ebay, all in different auctions- all the same seller, same picture, same description. I wrote him asking how he could have 5 for sale and flagged it fraudulent and it was down the next day.

If I could blow the cash, I would have bought it- I may still kick myself for not buying one- I’ll probably never see one in person again and Nikon will never make one again (it’s clear due to the dearth new FX primes that they just don’t care to offer the breadth that they once did- nobody who buys a D5000 is going to buy any… Get your 200mm f/2 now, is my advice).

Here are some more examples (click to get a much larger version):

Nikon House- Minty F1

If that minty F1 doesn’t get your heart going, cameras may just not be for you. I think I’m now kicking myself for not grabbing one of those minty black F1’s- I’ll never see another that good probably.

Nikon House- Minty F3's

Nikon House- F5's

Nikon House- D200's

Prices

If you want to know what your used D200 is going to fetch, be prepared for tears. My F5, that I paid a whole paycheck for in ‘98 dollars is now worth even less than I thought. The reality is that the prices were higher than what we can get in the US- but let’s get serious- the dollar’s weak, Tokyo real estate is crazy-expensive and how many other places have -2- 58mm f/1.2’s on hand for you to try out?

They DO take credit card and they’ll hassle you for a passport- this is because they want to have you avoid paying the 5% Japanese sales tax

Getting There

Here’s the exact spot. I highly recommend that you find a map with the Sony Building in Ginza on it- the Ginza Metro had maps with stores on it and so did the street maps and many places are referred to by the building name as opposed to addresses. Closest subway’s where either Ginza (on the Ginza Line- 1 stop from the Tokyo station), or Shimbashi (like 2 stops from the Tokyo metro).  That’s all you really need- it’s Japan, but the area is pretty small, find some map with the Sony Building on it and go there, it’s across the street.

No Photography! This is a Camera Store!

So I spent some time outside getting establishing shots and marvelling, then I go inside and get some shots of the items in the display case like the F1’s above and I hear “NO PHOTO!” Huh? “Oh, ok…” It’s a camera store that only uses clear glass- I can take shots of the inside from the outside and the entire outside storefront is one glass display case. I can’t figure this out- I guess they don’t want idiots on the internet hassling them for mint collectibles.

Nikon S1000pj's Delayed

Engadget finds an article on the Japanese Impress site that says that the S1000pj’s have such strong demand that they are delaying the shipments from September to October:

…[Demand] significantly exceeded the expected number of orders from the original quantity, [Nikon] can not provide a sufficient number…

I wonder if that’s the actual reason though- how are they gauging interest- pre-order channel sales? It would seem to me that you’d release the initial shipment and then head into round 2- that’s what we’ve typically seen with hard to get new items in the past.

If your problems persist more than a couple days, please see you doctor.

Which explains why the few pennies I normally get per day has dropped to -0-. Big brother has not asked me to take it down, let’s not start a silly rumor.

If you want the code, please mail me.

D5000 Service Advisory Serial Number Range

This is very early, I haven’t double-checked these by hand, but here’s what I have so far.

I’ve tested increments of 100 from: 3,015,209 to 3,515,500 and here are the results- remember that “positive” means your body DOES have the problem, “negative” means that it’s fine. Also, I haven’t bothered checking numbers except at intervals of 10. For example, 3032295 has the problem, 3032296 does not, but I won’t bother checking every single number.

3015209 – 3026100: Positive (has the defect)

3023300: Negative

3023400 – 3026200: Positive

3026300: Negative

3026400 – 3029200: Positive

3029300: Negative

3029400 – 3030000: Positive

3030100 – 3030200: Negative

3030300 – 3032200: Positive

3032300: Negative

3032400 – 3048000: Positive

3048100: Negative

3048200 – 3054100: Positive

3054200: Negative

3054300 – 3073600: Positive

3073700: Negative

3073800 – 3084200: Positive

3084300: Negative

3084400 – 3085200: Positive

3085300: Negative

3085400 – 3112300: Positive

3112400: Negative

3112500 – 3114300: Positive

3114400 – 3515500 : Negative- End of run?

D5000 Service Advisory Serial Number Ranges- Start at 3,015,209

I’ve done some poking around and the lowest serial number that appears to work is 3,015,209.

If you’ve got one that’s lower than this and it works, please mail me, I’d like to get a complete list.

I do not yet know the upper bound.

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.

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!

Take a look.

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

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!

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 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.

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.

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

Retail inventory valued at more than $50 million will be liquidated at the stores that are being closed. Store closing sales offering substantial discounts on all inventory at those locations will begin on Saturday, April 4, and are expected to continue until everything is sold to the bare walls.

If you’d like the list of closing stores, you can get it here. California appears to be hit large, mainly in the beach towns, 2/4 locations in my area are going down, Florida looks like it’s getting hit hard, Minnesota has a high count, and Texas also has a large number going down.

As I’ve written before, I shed no tears.

PMA 2009 Dead Nikon Rumors

You don’t mind if I engage in a little childish pointing and laughing, do you?

There were lots of sites predicting lots of Nikon goodies to be announced at PMA 2009.

The biggest ones were:

• D700x
• D770
• D400
• D5000

Then we had a wad of lenses supposedly coming:

• Nikkor AF-S VR-II 200mm f1.8D
• Nikkor AF-S VR-II 300mm f2D
• Nikkor AF-S VR-II 400mm f2.5D
• Nikkor AF-S VR-II 70-200mm f2.5D

Quotes from various well-known sites:

“…potential release of the D700x next week, but I think those are just opinions of famous online personalities. I have not received a single tip for D700x and I will stay with my previous selection: D5000 + D400 (the D400 may be released after PMA, but before July 2009). At that point I will have to drop the D5000 next week release probability to 75% – so far I have received info from only one source.”

I believe that I saw a quote that put this same site saying that the D5000 was a 95% chance.

Another site with a much better reputation wrote:

It is almost a certainty that we will see new lenses from Nikon at PMA.

So why am I pointing this out other than to toot my own horn? To remind you that this site is a service to you- dedicated to trying to figure out what Nikon’s doing- that doesn’t mean repeated every stupid, idiotic rumor that I can find- that’s just pointless- just reporting on some of them

If something’s just unlikely to be true, at worst, I’ll point it out and call it unlikely, but a lot of times, I will just pass.

Nikon PMA 2009 - Wet Matches

Basically nothing, nada, zip.

A 50 years of F-mount logo and some PR blather about the 35mm DX.

Ah well. My digital F3 will have to wait, I guess.

Nikon Japan- Price-hike April 17th

Zachary on dpReview reports that the Japanese are seeing their prices raised too:

There have been lots of threads recently about Nikon price increases, and people have blamed exchange rates. Now, however, there are Nikon price increases in Japan, too. I went to my local camera store here in Kyoto today and there were signs up saying all new Nikon products would become more expensive on April 17. When I asked, they said they had been informed by Nikon this was the case.

Well this is pretty strange actually, I’m better Nikon will see even worse losses next quarter- raising prices right now is probably not a winning strategy.

Guess we’ll find out. Beyond their quarterly filings- when we start seeing pricing gimmicks like mail-in or instant rebates, you can take that as a sign that they know they’ve priced things too high and are hurting more than they expected.

Nikon Non-Bayer Sensor Patent

Anonymous points me to another article by the same guy who found the last patent.

The patent details a non-Bayer sensor which dispenses with the second green pixel in favor of one that senses between red/green or blue/green as a method of increasing dynamic range.

Filed in 2005, I can’t determine when it was accepted- but we’ve seen these things before I can’t imagine Nikon launching a major new sensor anytime soon- with the market what it is. Also the last sensor was said to be used in to the metering/whitebalance sensors, so we could be looking at a very limited-use situation again.

Thanks, Anonymous!

Wonder if the software will have an english translation… otherwise, it might be hard to get the damned raw files converted the way you want- or always use jpg. But this also might mean that the menus are in Japanese…

Epson Digital Rangefinder Analog Dial

Epson has announced that they’re going to update their Leica-mount digital rangefinder!

As a piece of mechanical art, these things are Monets, I just can’t help being charmed by the wonderfully beguiling analog top-plate dials:

Epson Digital Rangefinder Analog Dial

Here’s the main site that’s got all the details in Japanese.

If, like me, you can’t afford that Leica M8, this might be just the ticket. Visit the guys at the RangeFinder forums for more info!

…Ritz Camera Centers Inc., the largest camera-store chain in the U.S., won court approval for $85 million in financing from its existing secured lenders while it reorganizes.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath in Wilmington, Del., authorized the so-called debtor-in-possession financing on an interim basis….

But have received $85 in financing to help it remain a going concern.

It’s really hard for me to cry for them- I first encountered them when they bought up the best mom and pop camera store in my area 10 years ago and their product range went from good to amateur. Then I moved to a different stat- where they soon bought out the best pro shop in the area and the second best pro shop.

Then I started to buy everything from B&H Photo Video.

The last time I walked into a Ritz was about a year ago to buy a D3- they had no waiting list and wouldn’t take my name, but one of the employees said that they had 2 on order for him so that he could turn around and sell them as soon as they came in.

I had a similarily unpleasant situation with RitzCamera.com.

We don’t need these guys.

Did you know that the DeLorean and F3, F4, F5, F6, and the D3 were designed by the same person? Yup- an Italian designed named Giorgetto Giugiaro.

I paid homage to his design tonight (I don’t need any C&C please, I know I’m no product photographer…what should I do with the camera strap lugs though?) with my D3 and the macro flashes. The design of the F3 really thrills me, it’s really a wonderful machine.

Nikon F3 (Click to enlarge)

Oh well- I got some decent prices and I ended up not buying everything I wanted. Well word comes today from the Strobist (you MUST read his site on flashes) that PocketWizard is introducing new, smaller models with added features.

Unfortunately, they’re Canon only for the moment, with Nikon variants to follow.

Both units have pass-through, full TTL contacts in a hot shoe format. Which means no more PC cords needed for hooking them up to speedlights.

Oh thank God! Last night, I had to both hook up the su-800 AND use the PC-Sync to get what I wanted. This would have allowed me to eliminate the use of those really flaky PC cables.

Okay, may as well start with the headline feature: They do remote TTL, and they do it well. They call it “ControlTL,” and it is technologically very different than the way the RadioPopper handles remote TTL.

The PW’s can now be configured via USB to do some interesting things:

Well, the new PWs “know things,” too. Remember how they can replicate the whole light-based wireless TTL operations by jumping the signal timing on the camera-to-flash pre-chatter? Well, what else could you do if you knew the camera was about to fire your flash?

You could tell the flash to fire a little smidge early, is what you could do. And if you could vary the timing on that signal, you could squeeze an extra stop of shutter speed out of most cameras’ sync, too.

Watch their demo:

No, there is no pricing information availabe- damn I hate it when companies announce products and no pricing.

199 for the MiniTT1, $219 for the FlexTT5

Nice!

Fake Canon Blogs Get Takedown Notice

What happens when a company has a dedicated, loyal fanbase who yearn for information and virtually none is forthcoming? Right- they go out of their way to speculate, make it up, and overblow the slightest little hints.

So it shouldn’t be surprising when pointless blogs open up and start filling in the information the companies won’t tell us.

On occasion, it’s taken too far though, and the companies object. Well one of the Canon guys took it a bit too far and has been reprimanded for by it several high-priced, humorless lawyers.

This is a shame all around- it’s up to the speculators to try and not take it too far and it’s up the companies to put enough info in the pipeline to keep everyone appraised of what’s happening. It’s become a whole different world over the last few years- it’s no longer just a few people in a local camera club gossiping and if the companies don’t like what they’re seeing, they should simply give us official information and sites that speculate and put out rumors will simply cease to be appealing.

And hey, what a good time to remind everyone that NikonWatch has no official relation to Nikon Corp or subsidiaries and has not been approved by them. The Nikon Watch logo is a parody of the official Nikon logo.

Every attempt has been made to ensure that NikonWatch is not confused with Nikon itself.

Robert Cristina, Manager of professional products, Europe and Ludovic Drean, Product Manager for lenses, Europe talked to DPreview:

…The concept was to give a 50mm equivalent lens on the DX format. A lot of people have bought the 50 1.8 because it was all that was available. It may seem rather late for the APS-C system, but we believed that entry-level users wanted a standard lens…

It’s about price, size and weight. We wanted this to be a lens for the entry-level. If we’d tried to make an FX 35mm F1.4 it might cost €1400, rather than €200… The main target is D40/D60/D90 owners. They make up 80% of our DSLR sales...

Ok, I’m waiting for the expensive FX-sized f/1.4 for ~$1,499usd.

Click the link to read the entire thing.

Nikon 35mm AF-S f/1.8G Samples

DPreview has posted some sample shots taken with the new Nikkor 35mm AF-S f/1.8G here.

35mm AF-S f/1.8G on FX

Some random Japanese guy was in his local camera ginza (I’m sure I’m using the term incorrectly) and slapped the DX lens on his FX camera to show us what it looked like.

Bjorn Reviews 35mm AF-S f/1.8G

Bjorn’s a well-respected, ridiculously techy photographer so I generally pay attention to what he says- as opposed to the other guys who “review” gear they’ve never touched, for example.

A few test shots confirm – not unexpectedly – that the Nikon wizards know their trade. Of course. The 35/1.8 does project an image circle that is bigger than the bare minimum needed for DX, but is smaller than FX. You get heavy vignetting and severe loss of sharpness outside hte DX format area. If you find the fall-offof the corners acceptable, you could just barely scrape by using the FX camera set to 5:4 format.

Note- when you visit his site- you do NOT see the images if you are not logged in. So register, login, etc.

Japan’s Canon Inc reported an 81.5% fall in quarterly profit as a deepening recession hit demand for cameras and office equipment, and it forecast a bigger-than-expected profit decline for 2009.

Operating profit at Canon, the world’s largest digital camera maker ahead of Sony Corp and Nikon Corp, came in at ¥35.8 billion ($401.7 million) in October-December, down from ¥193.58 billion a year earlier.

…For 2009, Canon forecast an operating profit of ¥160 billion, down from ¥496.1 billion a year earlier and compared with the consensus forecast for a ¥309.8 billion profit in a poll of 16 analysts by Reuters Estimates.
…

So, the hurt is all over the place!  Canon’s definitely more diversified than Nikon though.

What’s interesting to me is that most large international companies hedge currencies so that if there’s a dramatic up or down swing, they don’t lose as much money. I wonder to what extent these companies are doing that.

Some of us are plenty happy to let CaptureNX, Photoshop, and others worry about turning our NEF’s into something usable, but various intrepid people (who’re smart than I am) like lclevy (Dave Coffin) just can’t let a challenge like encrypted whitebalances alone.

So he’s posted a wad of info on the NEF format and its header as well as some C code for you to open up the whitebalance info.

Interesting (to me), it’s based on the TIFF format. Otoh, the TIFF format is so flexible that I shouldn’t have been surprised.

Luckily, he’s hosted it in France, so there’s no change of DMCA take-down notice being filed.

Speculation: D3xs D700x D3x

There aren’t any good rumor around, so let’s speculate!

Trends What general themes have we been seeing over the last few years:

More Megapixels: This is a no-brainer, the market demands.

Better Noise Characteristics: The market really was not demanding this, but we got it anyway with the D3, then we saw much better than expected noise characteristics in the D3x and Canon still has yet to equal Nikon’s abilities.

Thus I’m going to bet that we’ll see more effort from Canon to attempt to catch up than we’ll see Nikon get substantially better. In addition, this is much more a hardware (sensor) design issue than a software-bottlenecked area- the software is only likely to get marginally better, whether inside the camera, or on my crazy 4-core machine.

Smaller Bodies: There’s no good reason we couldn’t get the D3’s sensor in a smaller body, and voila! Since the D3x is a D3 with a different sensor (and software), we’re very likely to see a D700x or similar.

Backfilling Lenses: Nikon knows it’s missing AF-S primes. They threw the beginner SLR (D40, D60, etc) owners a bone with 50mm (those cameras couldn’t use the AF version). Now they can get us an 85mm AF-S and I’ve got money waiting for a good 35mm AF-S prime.

So what’s missing, lens-wise: Primes- 35mm, 28mm, 16mm fisheye, 85mm. Anything else?

[Update: I'd gladly slap down $2k for an AF-S Noct, preferably in the 35-45mm range.]

More Point-and-shoots: God save us from the Coolpix invasion. They’re cheap, you can’t tell one model from the next, P&S buyers are into megapixel, zoom, size, looks. Nikon is likely to crank them out.

More Special Editions: Hey, remember the horrific gold-edition D60? Want a gold-edition D90?

More Gimics: I’m going to go out on a limb here- we’re going to see movie mode slipped into some existing models, or some D*x bodies with movie mode. I can definitely see it on the D3 and D3x- let’s call them the D3s and D3xs models. Maybe with a touch-screens too.

If we’re lucky, we’ll also see upgraded bodies with WiFi slapped into them (or GPS and WiFi)- it’s too easy, it costs next to nothing, the physical is next to nothing, and the battery usage is tolerable. IMO- only Nikon trying to sell us WT-4a’s has prevented this so far.

More Smaller Stuff: I suspect we’re going to see some interesting smaller projetcs. For example- I can’t see any reason we can get a bluetooth adapter for our flashes to get RF into action without buying pocketwizards or similar add-ons. Like wifi- bluetooth is legal frequency spectrum just about everywhere on earth at this point.

Fewer high-end bodies: Why spend the R&D when the sales of the bodies aren’t going to see a quick return?

Fewer high-end lenses: Those missing primes I just mentioned? Unless they’re just about to be announced (PMA?), they’re unlikely to happen. Same reason as the high-end bodies.

Nikon Price Increases

I’m seeing various reports of prices rising from not bad to ok and from ok to ok+a little in the US.

Nothing like the Armageddon that was being talked about. But maybe I’m different- another $100 on $1,800 isn’t going to make my choke because the $1,800 already made me choke.

On the other hand- that 200mm f/2 you had your eye on is now $4599.95 from B&H! I’m pretty sure they were ~$4,000 in December. Yikes. (But you already knew- “Only pro’s buy this lense.“)

I used to think used Hassy lenses at $1,000 were expensive.

In these times of the end-of-days of NIkonians, megapixel-wars, full-frame vs cropped-frame riots, and competing flagship bodies, it’s nice to see a place where both camps can get together and gripe show some shots:

Eric dropped me a messsage and would like me to plug the forums that he’s set up here:
www.mycanikon.com

Full warning though, I’ve let him know that NikonWatch is setting up its own forums- soon as I find the time to monkey with CSS pages and, (ugh not again), PHP.

This means that, presumably and subject to tinkering, any of the bodies supported by the SDK and having Live View functionality can also do the same thing. It’s not full resolution (it’s only what the LCD on the camera body would show), but it’s still remarkably decent.

Here’s an example:

Please see his post for another video and more details.

Nikon D3x Prices Lower in CA

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet- last week, I walked into a pawn shop around where I work and saw the random old Canon and Nikon (FM’s mainly), huge Mamiya, and wasn’t too thrilled. Looked a little longer and saw a MINT F’ing F3! The best one I’ve yet seen in person. Looks like grandpa never used it once.

Price? $498.00. Conversation went about like this:

Matt: I’ll give you $250 right now.

Them: No.

Matt: $300.

Them: I don’t think [the owner] will go for that.

Matt: Look- how often is someone going to walk in off of the street, spot a film-body and offer you cash on the spot?

Them: …(unphased)…

Matt: On ebay, I bought one recently in similar condition for $300, you’re not going to do better than that and if you don’t want to sell it to me now, then I’d recommend you sell it on ebay, because no one else is going to walk in and want to buy it.

Them: …(unphased)…

Matt: (leaves)

I can’t quite understand the shop’s way of thinking- presumably they bought the camera with cash and it’s likely sat on the shelf for a while. They’re paying rent and utilities and labor- having inventory sitting on the shelf does nothing to generate income. Also- while their $100 (let’s pretend that’s what they bought it for) is sitting on the shelf in the form of a mint F3, they’re losing the interest they could have been earning on it. A store’s goal is to have as little inventory as practical- they only make money on product turn-over.

I mention this because Brad points out to me that in Canada, the price of the D3x is actually coming down, probably because shops figure it’s better to get a few hundred less on the D3x than nothing at all- inventory sitting around is actually costing you money:

…by last week a number of western Canadian Pro Nikon dealers have dropped the price by $250 and are now advertising the camera at $9199.00. It would seem that the D3x is NOT flying off the shelves in western Canada (an area quite well buffered from the economic malaise hitting almost everywhere else in the world). I haven’t bothered checking, but odds are this is happening right across Canada (both the slow sales and dealer discounts on the D3x).

I’ll be going back to that shop on Friday- maybe I’ll be able to convince them. Likely as not, it’ll be gone and I’ll be kicking myself for letting a near MIB F3hp get past me. Or maybe they’ll see thinks my way- $300 in hand is better than $500 in the form of a camera on the shelf.

Thanks Brad!

This turned me off- speculating and (preferably) getting rumors on Nikon equipment was the main reason I was there. So I stopped bothering and read dpReview instead.

Well we’ve just been told that they will allow a free registration and entry to their forums for a month and then you’ll have to pay $25 (or slightly less with a code) in order to access the forums from then on.

This is the death of Nikonians.

Invariably, sites do this right before they go under in an attempt to recoup costs. But when they have to resort to this, it means they’re about to die anyway because they can’t make enough money from advertisements, and the reduced ad traffic isn’t going to be covered by people paying for the memberships. Then a death-spiral until one day the site merely says they’re gone.

The only workable model yet to be devised for non-pr0n sites like this and Nikonians is: free access, advertisements and referrals bring in money. If your overhead is too high for the money coming in, then you do it because you like it or you shut down.

While their announcement doesn’t specify what their costs are, I’ve read somewhere it was $2m/year, and I can say from experience, if they were spending $2m/year running their website, they have no business being in business.

Circuit City Owes Nikon

Circuit City was a not so great (in my opinion) ‘big-box’ consumer electronics store.

A couple of years ago, they started to do poorly, got a new CEO who then laid-off their best sales people because they were getting paid too much (in his opinion). Shortly after that, they did a lot worse (surprise!) and have been near death until just recently when they’ve gone totally bust.

The last time I visited, around Christmas, I saw a D40(?) and D60 and some crappy kit lenses in barely working order in the their “camera” gulag. Unfortunately, those crappy lenses and low-end bodies and Coolpix’s will likely cost Nikon nearly $15m.

Nikon-When to buy

In case you didn’t know- there’s another Nikon site out there that maintains a list of where they expect the prices for various bodies and Nikkor lenses to go and when you should buy.

Let’s get this straight: in general, the longer you wait to buy something the less it’s going to cost, with few exceptions.

The main exception is whacky currency fluctuations. The current economy is doing strange things and that’s why we’re seeing Nikon prices tending upward.

The Yen has gone up ~11% vs the USD since the D3 became widely available. Nearly 17% versus the Australian dollar, not quite doubled (if I’m reading the graphs correctly) vs the British Pound, and up >20% vs the Euro.

Recent headlines regarding Yen include: “Nikkei may hover before US data, yen rise a worry” , “Japanese Yen May Strengthen On Declining Global Outlook“, and “Japanese Yen Makes Gains Against Euro, Majors Following Unexpected BOJ Rate Cut“.

Keep in mind though, that currencies fluctuate, meaning that the current runup in the Yen can also go the other way, if you’re being priced out of the market, you might as well wait if the increase is painful to you.

Secondary exceptions are mainly relegated to scarcity and the “Only pro’s can afford this”-tax. Basically, that 600mm Nano VR2 lens you had your eye on is probably not ever going to see any appreciable price reduction. Why? Because “Only Pros Buy This.” That is- businesses that need it can afford it. Amateurs like me generally won’t bother.

Nikon D3x vs Nikon D3 on Noise

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but a bit ago, PBase put up a quick comparison between the Nikon D3x noise and the D3’s noise.

Apparently, the D3 is the low-noise Emperor while the D3x does a respectable job, especially given its megapixel count.

From quickly looking at the shots from the D3x, you produce (what looks to me) like a much sharper shot at a NR setting of “Low” than you’d get without any NR. But that might just be their setup.

I don’t control the advertisers that Google feeds this site.

Some of them will be unscrupulous.

If the price is looks too good to be true – guess what? Either you will avoid that advertiser, or your momma raised a sucker.

One guy actually went around taking pictures of some of these places- guess what kind of operation you might be buying from?

From the previous post:

A Word About Advertisers- Warning.

On many sites, and even this one (because I don’t control what ads Google feeds me) you will see things like “D2xs Camera Kit- $999!!!!!”.

It’s just like your momma told you- if the price is too good to be true, then it’s not true.

If you see ridiculously low prices like this, it means that it’ll likely be imported (Nikon only warrants their stuff if you buy within your own country, with very few exceptions), they’ll not sell you the whole thing- you might get the body then they’ll tell you that it doesn’t include the battery, etc, they might REQUIRE you to spend a wad of money on crappy lenses, they will probably make you wait months before shipping anything (because you didn’t buy their lenses- you’ll eventually cancel your order), etc.

Deal with a reputable outfit only.

That’s why when I go to NYC or I need a big purchase, I deal with B&H Photo Video. While yes, I will probably join their affiliate system, I’m only recommending them because I use them and never have had any undue problems with them.

If I ever have any trouble with them, I will tell you about it. If you’ve ever had any issues with them, please leave a comment or mail me directly, I’d like to know about it.

Which means that there may be some hiccups now and then, no need for alarm.

But you’ve got no time and a pair of:

PC-E Tilt/Shift Axis Change

And you’re all like, “Whatever, I do what I want!” Well, just 4 screws and a 90′ twist and you can conveniently do it at home– MotifNation shows you how!

In fact, it looks so easy, you might wonder why Nikon didn’t make it possible to do on the fly without removing the screws.

Some comments by people who’ve done this here. The screwdriver has been reported to be a Phillips #000 and you might want to use some less-adhesive loctite before you put the screws back if you intend to keep it that way.

It reportedly costs $126 to have Nikon perform the same process.

Canon 5D MarkII vs Nikon D700

Photography Bay has a really quick noise comparison between the Nikon D700 and the Canon 5D Mark II.

No huge surprise, the Nikon does better all around in my view, but this is clearly meant as a cheeseball comparison.

(Hat-tip to Leonardo)

Nikon 14-24mm vs Zeiss 21mm - Comparison /Review

David Clapps pixel-peeps the Zeiss 21mm ZF lens and compares it to the Nikon 14-24mm. Zeiss lenses are generally considered to be great and the 14-24mm has been considereding amazing for a zoom.

While I love my Zeiss lenses, you have to give it to the 14-24mm, it either matches or clocks the the Zeiss everywhere after f/2.8.

Nikkor 50mm f/1.4g AF-S Review

If you follow Ken at all, he’s got a review of the 50mm AF-S f/1.4g up now.

Oh and look! His kid’s growing up You’d expect a guy like Ken to take some more interesting test shots than pictures of his son… At least if he wants to maintain my interest.

The only gotchas are that this new lens has more barrel distortion than the old 50mm f/1.4 AF-D, it has a weird 58mm (not standard 52mm) filter size, and that this new lens is useless on Nikons made before about 1990.

Oh hey, wait a minute- MORE barrel distortion? That’s not cool.

I’m getting sharp, haze-free shots dead-on in-focus at f/1.4 on all of my cameras, where at f/1.4 my old 50/1.4 AF-D often had more veil, bloom or glow (what scientists call spherical aberration) in real shots.

…

This new AF-S 50 has more linear distortion than any other fixed Nikon 50mm ever made.

Ha:

Complain about kid pictures all you want, but unlike shooting Formula One racing or American hero Lance Armstrong, you don’t know where the kid is going next. Just try getting an in-focus shot without AF.

Nikon D3x Noise / Sample Shots / Review

Imaging Resources has some great test shots with the Nikon D3x here.

Lots of difference shutter / aperture combo’s, include standard color charts, etc, gray background this time instead of blue.

ISO 3200 on the D3x in these shots (for example) still looks like a “only when required’ setup and I’m sure it’s meant to be- who’s shooting a high-res camera meant for the studio at 3200? Even the landscape guys don’t need to go that high (I’m thinking).

3200 seems like ~800 on the d2x and something closer to 6400 on the D3 (I rarely shoot that high, I’m likely wrong on this guess)?

Nikon D3x Noise / Sample Shots / Review

iZyz has some still-life studio shots of a doll at all of the Nikon D3x’s ISO speeds.

No noise reduction claimed, no post.

Impressions- without NR, you won’t want to go above 200 iso if you don’t have to. Expose to the right. 3200 iso is only if you can’t get the shop any other way- but you’d be silly to use the D3x at 3200- that’s what the D3’s for.

I mention this for 2 reasons:

1) It’s a hard lens to find in stock because they only make them in batches a few times a year. Nikon does this with all their high-end glass.

2) If you like this site and want to throw a couple of bucks my way to encourage me to continue, you can click a B&H ad on this site (like at the top of the main page) and then complete the order. This way, they know if came from my site and I get a couple of bucks thrown back to me.

They also have the PC-E lenses in stock.

Why do I like B&H? If they say it’s in stock, it’s in stock. If they say it’s $XX, it’s $XX. There isn’t any funny business.

Btw- Remember that thrill you had as a kid when you got to go to ToysRUs or some similar toy store? If you’re ever in Manhattan, go to their store- you’ll get that same feeling if you’re into cameras or video or lighting, etc- they’ve got it all in stock for you to take a look at and play with.

Bob wrote me to ask if the much-loved Nikkor 80-400mm wanted its VR turned off while on a tripod. Ya know what I told him? RTFM! That was the lesson that Brad was trying to teach us yesterday.

Thankfully, Brad did read the f’ing manual (and told me, because I was too lazy to do it for him):

The 80-400 manual says, and I quote exactly:

“When the lens is mounted on a tripod, set the vibration reduction switch to OFF. Set the vibration reduction switch to ON, when using a monopod or if the lens is mounted on a tripod without the head being locked in place.”

Thanks Brad!

As I explained to Brad, and the actual reason that I put up anything on this topic is because the differences between having it on while on the tripod and turning it off were so pronounced!

Matt,

Your entry entitled “On Tripod? VR OFF! Comparison Shots is over-simplified to the point of being extremely misleading.

In short, whether or not you should turn off the VR function when mounted on a tripod varies with the lens. And, it also varies with how sturdy your tripod is and whether or not the head is tightened down. One thing that contributes to the confusion is how poorly it is expressed in the manuals (and, I have found a few typos in the VR sections of the  manuals, which compounds the problems).

Here’s the situation with the VR lenses I currently own and have tested (and when mounted  on a firm tripod with head tightened down):

1. 105 mm VR Micro: Turn VR off when on tripod (as stated in manual)

2. 200 mm f2 VR: Turn VR off when on tripod (as stated in manual – albeit in a  confusing fashion)

3. 300 mm f2.8 VR: Turn VR off when on tripod (as stated in manual)

4. 200-400 mm f4 VR: A-Ok to leave VR on when on tripod (as stated in manual) BUT ensure VR is in “Normal” mode (not active mode)

5. 600 mm f4 VR: Recommended to leave VR on when on tripod (as stated in manual) BUT  ensure VR is in “Tripod” mode – unless you are panning (as in following a bird) with a firm gimbal head (like a Wimberley).

Because of the poor performance of the 70-200 f2.8 VR on the full frame cameras, I have  recently jettisoned this lens and manual and can’t (without downloading the PDF manual) easily confirm what the manual says about this lens. But from my experience with it is that when firmly mounted on tripod you get better performance with the VR OFF.

I don’t expect (or care) if you post this info, but it would probably help a LOT of people if you amend the current info to include the point that the VR ON vs. VR OFF issue varies with the lens (and if people carefully read their manuals there would be no controversy!).

Yours in tack sharp images…

Brad
_
Brad Hill
Natural Art Images
www.naturalart.ca

No Jello- static shot:

But the Fuhrer has some good points here:

Hilter Rants on D3x

On tripod - VR OFF!

The manuals for VR lenses states that if you’ve got the lens on a tripod, you should turn VR off. I’ve read in various places that this is because of possible damage to the VR mechanism, but that’s generally regarded as BS. You’re also supposed to let the VR motors turn off before removing the lens, I doubt this too but haven’t seen anything authoritative.

But I’ve never tried test shots of a VR lens on a tripod with VR on vs off, but David Dyer-Bennet has and we’re the better for it.

Check out his ‘on vs off’ photos and it’s completely clear that the VR has to be turned off if you’re on a tripod.

Shots of fruit here.

…i think the Contrast is a lot better, wide open than the old one was.

Shots of cats with the 50mm f/1.4g AF-S are currently scarce, but I expect to  see bunches landing any day now. blech. Ugh- 2 seconds after posting this, I find a dog thread. Really- why can’t we take pictures of hot chicks with new lenses?

Comparisons between the older AF-D and the new AF-S here. Definitely better at f/1.4 provided the guy’s AF-D wasn’t a bad copy.

Since I only have the f/1.8, I wonder how they compare…

Then I checked the new 50mm lens and while I like it, I don’t get one,
its really quite slow in acquiring AF even with the integrated Silent
Wave Motor…not much of a difference to the old 50mm f1.4 version

That’s pretty interesting- other reports are that it’s relatively light for its size- one wonder if Nikon had to cut the budget a bit on the lens to get AF-S motors in there and still hit a reasonable price.

Nikon D3X Studio Samples - Marcus Bell

Studio Pro Marcus Bell shows us his new toy and gives us a fine example of my first law of photography- beautiful subjects (hot chicks) gives 80% of what you need to make anyone wants to see.

On the D3x:

As you will see with the images I have posted the clarity, sharpness, dynamic range is exceptional.  The images posted are direct from camera without any corrections whatsoever.  I can honestly say I would be happy to send the file to press without any post work.

…

The specifications advise it is 5fps, but during the shoot the buffer never got full and there were times I was hammering it.

Check the shot of the model’s eye- now imagine your favorite pr0n girl put under similar scrutiny…

3200iso looks pretty good to me- no reason not to use it if you have to.

On the other hand, studio pro’s tend to have tons of money sunk into lighting, so the likelihood of them using 3200 is probably pretty damned low.

Nikon Nikkor 50mm af-s f/1.4g Samples

Here. Also says it’s very sharp, with a usable f/1.4. 100% crops look good. He reports that the light falloff vs the 50mm AF-D is much better.

Oh- if you don’t see the shots, then create an account on his site and then login and view the page. I’ll not snipe his shots.

Also- vignette tests at various wide apertures here.

Nikon Nikkor 50mm f/1.4g AF-S review

[Edit- Duh- it's the 1.4, not the 2.8, pardon me.]

Bjørn Rørslett is widely regarded as an authority on Nikkor lenses- the dude even alters the chips in his lenses and throws chips into lenses that didn’t have them before. For me, this qualifies you for LensGod status, so I take his opinions seriously.

He’s somehow gotten ahold of a 50mm AF-S (scroll down) and liked it:

…While the lens barrel does not extend during focusing, there is no internal focusing (IF) to work its magic (and sometimes, adding colour aberaations) – the inner unit moves back and forth as an entity. Thus, the autofocus operational speed won’t set a world record, but for most purposes it suffices well enough…

…The corner fall-off is visible when the lens is set to the widest apertures, but less annoying than seen with the earlier AF-D model. From f/2.8 onwards vignetting is negligible. The barel distortion, typical for this class of lens, is kept under good control…

…The new model is an evolution of the older lens, so you don’t need to rush out to purchase it unless you can only work with AFS, but anyone looking for an excellently performing normal lens should consider the “G” carefully…

It’ll be interesting to see if the D3x has video or when we’ll be seeing a top of the line Nikon body with video.

I’d love to see the same thing compared against the drool-inducing 85mm f/1.2.

Canon EOS5DmkII, One night in Beijing. from Dan Chung on Vimeo.

Red Scarlet Modular Body- 1 possible configuration

This shot simply shows a possible configuration- 7 different sensor backs you can choose from depending on the mount, sensor size, FPS! There’ll even be (presumably, this won’t be vaporware) a 28kMP back that does 25fps in 2010.

Oh hey! Notice something else we don’t see in the camera companies- a F’ING CLUE about what they’re likely to bring out in the future- Red’s actually establishing a baseline roadmap for what they expect to achieve in 2 years!

Want to see the rest of the images that you can attach to this camera?

So- to get a minimal Nikon F-mount-based system, you’re looking at:

Scarlet 5k/39fps @ $7,000

Red Handle @ ?

Lens Mount @ ?

Battery @ ?

Electronic Viewfinder @ ?

Recording Module @ ?

Then what you still don’t have is autofocus, so I hope you’re good at that!

If you want a FF 35mm sensor, you’re going to shell out $12k.

Then because all of this dreamy tech wasn’t enough, they decided to cobble together a 3d setup:

3d Scarlet Setup

If I didn’t already have a ton of cash invested in Nikon- this would leave my wondering if investing in Red gear wasn’t the way to go- the fact that they’re able to come out of virtually nowhere a couple of years ago and even have the audacity products like this tells me they’re not going to sit on their asses while people keep begging to buy things like new AF-S primes, updated 70-200mm, Apheric 28 f/1.4, another Noct, etc.

If I was Nikon, I’d change my pants, then ask how much cash we had on hand and maybe make them an offer. Failing that, I’d be dusting off all those cool ideas we’ve been playing with but not actually seriously considering making into a product, and taking some risks!

After all of that was done, I’d have an extremely frank and open discussion with our customers explaining where we’re going over the next years, produce a truthful product roadmap, and set some audacious R&D goals.

If I was Red, I’d figure out how to get autofocus in there- but I’m not a motion guy, maybe it’s not as useful as I’d think. I’d also think about heavily targeting still photographers as soon as the motion guys are satiated.

Surprisingly, I’ve heard from a lot of dealers. I can tell you that they don’t like this new Nikon rebate program. They pay for stuff up front, sell it to you for a discount imposed by Nikon, apparently have to participate in an advertising program to get the rebates, then have to file absolutely pristine paperwork to get their share of the rebate back (they don’t get US$300) in 60 days or more. Essentially, NikonUSA is getting a loan from your dealer, and at good terms. Given the economy at the moment, putting monetary pressure on dealers is not a smart thing for a manufacturer to do. The manufacturer just might find they have fewer dealers and lower volume when all is said and done.

Carry on.

GPS functionality is well-implemented, but only works sporadically in urban environments and not all all indoors, and it has a significant drain on battery life unless you keep turning it on and off. LAN connectivity is limited to merely uploading pictures to Nikon’s My PictureTown online gallery, and RAW support is plagued by slow processing times and no continuous shooting mode at all.

Well it’s a point and shoot, so suprise, and if it was much more expensive, you’d be into SLR territory.

Samples are here, and I have to say that this isn’t Nikon’s best work.

Nikon 50mm af-s f/1.4g sample

Vilhelm got to attend an NPS event and play with lenses that cost more than old Porsches and also the new (low-cost) Nikkor 50mm AF-S f/1.4g lens and managed to take a few shots.

Unfortunately, there’s just no way to get a sense of how good the lens is from these shots. Some are saying (from these shots alone!) that the bokeh isn’t too hot, that there’s some CA,etc. I suggest we tell them to take a chill pill until we get our hands on some real copies to play with.

Shots like these really make one wonder WTF Nikon is thinking. The lens has been announced, presumably, it’s released in its final form and being manufactured- WTF don’t we get a slew of samples from Nikon themselves so we can avoid the pointless speculation by idiots like me about how good the lenses perform?

Searching Flickr for 50mm af-s also gets us some other shots (of the lens itself, mostly).

However, this claims to be from the 50mm af-s on the D3, homemade shot of the lens itself,

If you can get past the ads between every page, you’ll eventually come to the conclusion- and keep in mind, these are video dorks, not stills-dork (like me):

Comparing the Nikon D90 to HD camcorders may be unfair, but, being the first of its kind, its the only product we could put it up against. The Canon EOS 5D Mark II, the second SLR to record video, has impressive specs—a 1920 x 1080 video quality, stereo microphone input, and an H.264 video compression codec. The question will be, would you rather pay $999.95 ($1299.95 with the lens) to play around with video on the Nikon D90, or shell out $1700 more to get your hands on the Canon? Then, of course, you need to question whether a first generation product is ever a good investment. Stay skeptical.

And while Sony’s clearly kicking ass and taking names in the megapixel race, it still isn’t up to the competition provided by the Dynamic Duo- Nikon and Canon.

Sony a900 @ 6400iso

Nikon d700 @ 6400iso

Nikon tends to make the more advanced lenses in small batches- so when you see them, you want to JUMP on them (or wait 3-6 months sometimes- good luck finding a 200mm f/2, for example).

But right now, BHPhotoVideo (one of the few very reputable, large resellers) has the 85mm in stock for $1,739.95.

If you like this site, and you’d like to buy one and throw me a couple of bucks, do me a favor and click on the this picture below, then buy it and I’ll get a tiny cut:

If you don’t want the 85mm (I’m looking at the 24mm), then Calumet Photo (also reputable, but I prefer B&H and their lower prices and better service) has the 24mm for $1,899.99  and the 85mm for $1,949.99. They’re both currently in stock (according to their system) but it’ll cost you more than you’d pay at B&H. The 45mm is marked as out of stock.

It was a pretty nice survey.  It got a bit weird at the end with the Myers-briggs mini-test, and the “what does the D3 make you think?” Round and Playful definitely what come to mind when I think of the D3. (?)

Wonder what else is on there- it didn’t seem to have any interesting questions on it since there’s been only a tiny bit of chatter about it.

Nikon Capture NX brings out the angry boy in me

Capture NX Gripes

Install Count Limits

I’m a software developer- I get machines and reinstall my OS on a rather regular basis. Each time I do this, I reinstall Capture NX – the last time, it told me that my key was invalid (it’s not). I presume that I’ve hit the install count maximum.

This pisses me off. Over the course of the 2 years (or so) that I’ve had it, it’s been on 2 different machine and about 4-5 different OS installs.

I’ve paid for it and I shouldn’t be treated like a pirate just because I reinstall my OS or upgrade my machines. I’m actually more of a Ninja anyway.

Version Checks During Install

I installed NX2 since I couldn’t get NX1 to activate. Then NX2 expires and I realized that I got a copy of V1 with my D3. So I try and install that only to get an error telling me that a newer version had already been installed on my system! Right- I had installed NX2 and I’d also run the UNINSTALL before trying V1.

Turns out that the only way to reinstall V1 was to nuke \program files\nikon\* and ALSO nuke \Program Files\Common Files\Nikon\* . Then I could finally install it.

Faster vs Better

I didn’t buy a fast machine and a D3 with nearly $2000 lenses because I wanted low-quality shots. For some reason- there are several areas where you can choose between Fast and Better quality. Why can’t I set it up for best quality all the time?

Capture NX Attaboys

Online Key Purchase

You can buy the activation keys online (despite what I’ve seen on some forums). I put in my credit card, bought the upgrade to V2 and the activation key worked.

Capture NX Misc

30″ Monitors Are Crucial!

This sounds stupid- and it is, but a 30″ monitor at 2560×1600 is finally just about big enough to have most of the tool windows (contrast, Camera corrections, etc) on my screen and see my shots big enough to edit them without having to move stuff around or reduce the size of the image.

How would you improve NX?

Nikon D90 Review

dpReview has checked out the D90 and gives you a 37 page review! They give a nice comparison to the d80, and overall appear to like it. Surprise.

Top .5% and developers still here? Ok- we all know Nikon’s using a 32bit shell extension in order to show the preview thumbnails in Explorer when you select View and the icon sizes (like “Large”).

Unfortunately, 64bit Explorer can’t use 32bit shell extensions (what happened to thunking?) so can’t show anything but the NEF-associated icon itself. But I came across a post that said that we can launch the 32bit explorer like this:

%windir%\SysWOW64\explorer /separate

and heck if I didn’t get my previews back!

[Edited for typos- MUST stop posting near midnight...]

Well tell me this- do you like close-up shots of the intimate of kit lenses? Really? Ok, well here you go (Engadget):

Nikon D90 unboxing and nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6g kit lens

Despite my love for Zeiss lenses, I like the color on the Nikkor, however there’s less distortion on the Zeiss- as you’d expect with a prime, but the Nikon definitely looks sharper to my eyes at 100%.

D90 Jello-Shots!

Here’s a great article on why we’re seeing deliciously wobbly jello shots in movie mode on various SLR’s.

I was going to include this picture (mildy racy) to illustrate this story, but decided against it. Leave a comment if I didn’t make the right choice.

Let’s make it another 75!

Nikkor 50mm AF-S MTF Chart

Nikon has put out the MTF chart and the related technical data for the new 50mm AF-S f/1.4g here.

Unfortunately, to my knowledge, we don’t have any test shots.

Nikon D60 Gold (Grillz) Edition

Makes me think of:

Get more info and see more pictures here.

Hasselblad 500cm

“We feel that it’s important to emphasize the 94% coverage, because, although we hear the phrase ‘full-frame’ being used quite frequently, no manufacturer has yet achieved true medium format full-frame,” said Poulson at the huge German photokina show.

My 500cm, dejected, weeps on the corner. “Don’t worry little 500cm, you’re still the only Hasselblad I can afford I’ll ever love. We’ll be together as long as they’re making Provia 120, 100iso.” (I’m not very romantic…)

If you  have a D90, I’m guessing that you’re going to want to use a tripod and I’m also very curious as to how quickly moving subjects are going to show up.

If this “jello” effect is common, then movie mode isn’t going to be too useful.

I’ve read that Canon has similar problems, I’ll try and get some examples for you.

The difference in image quality was astonishing- I’d finally tasted (arguably) the best image quality cameras had to offer and I wasn’t going back.

The difference in image quality between Nikon’s pro lenses and the ZF (manual focus) lenses is not anywhere near as large as I’d seen years ago but I still love the lenses.

The focusing is wonderfully damped, they feel great, they look fantastic and they take great shots. The only thing I can knock them for is their price- the 50mm will set you back ~$5-600, and when they initially came out (when I bought my first), it was $800 wired to Germany to get the 50mm.

I’ve got a 50mm and a 35mm and Zeiss has now come out with the 18mm wide-angle. It’s got a HUGE 82mm filter size to make sure that you don’t chop off part of the image.

Nikkors are tools, Zess lenses are mechanical objet d’art- at least for me.

Click here to read D3Guy’s review of the lens with sample shots.

Zeiss 18mm WA on Nikon D3

If you’re interested, here’re some shots of the D90 and kit-lens being shown in the store.

Not very interesting- appears to have been shot with a camera phone…

Wow! If you haven’t seen this great animation by Jeffrey Friedl’s of shots taken by Marianne Oelund, you’re really missing out (click to go to the animation):

Ok, I’ll admit my ignorance, I had no idea that we had a secondary mirror in order to give the AF module some parallax to work with give the AF system more light.

I’ve altered the image so that the green part is the secondary shutter and the red part is the primary shutter (which has been partially flipped up).

nikon wine

Reminds me of that old Python sketch: “This is a bottle with a message in, and the message is ‘beware’. This is not a wine for drinking, this is a wine for laying down and avoiding.“

But software is HARD and they do a great job!

If you notice any issues, please leave me a comment. I’m working on the RSS feeds as the last outstanding issue I’m aware of. Stand by.

If you’re interested in the old cameras, which I think are utterly fascinating given that they were entirely mechanical and managed to do everything without any computer chips, you really ought to check out the NHS website.

Ken actually has some interesting things to say about the Nikon D90 movie mode:

…Nikon claims, probably correctly, that you’ll be getting much better results than an old-style camcorder because the sensor of the D90 is so much bigger…

…24 FPS means movies will look like movies, presuming you shoot at 1/50 shutter speed. In bright light, shorter exposures will make things look a bit jumpy, and movies at 24 PFS are never as smooth as real video, which is shot at 60 fields per second. The video of the D90 can look like movies, but will never have the smooth fluid motion of regular camcorders…

I’ve been using Nikon’s CaptureNX 2 all day long and I’m frankly about as unimpressed as I was with version 1.x. I don’t know what they’re concentrating on but it’s definitely not workflow.

I think they’re trying to turn it into a lamer version of Photoshop Elements, but it’s not even PaintShop Pro at this point.

* It still doesn’t use Windows metaphors (I don’t know if it’s mac-y on the Mac, but I doubt that too).

* Adjust your whitebalance- then change some other settings and your whitebalance is back where it was before?! STILL?! Why hasn’t this been fixed yet?

*Why am I sitting here waiting for an image to be sent to my printer? Why isn’t this threaded out?

Btw- to get pedantic, it’s should be “process”, not “progress”.

*Still can’t open more than 20 images. How about you let ME worry about how much my machine can handle?! I’m on a high-end machine!

*With a -30- in monitor (2560×1600)- there’s finally enough realestate to do what I need to do.

* It might just be me- but the raw settings have been moved around and I’m finding it harder to find them than when I was new to V1.

It’s time Nik and Nikon admit that this experiement is dead- customers hate paying for the ability to manipulate their RAW’s (thankfully, it was included with the D3, but that didn’t help me with my D2x), and it just needs to be a Photoshop plug-in.

I want to remind everyone that cameras at REPUTABLE shops do not go on pre-sale before they’re announced by Nikon.I also want everyone to remember that yo mama wasn’t lying when she said that if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.

If the price is way lower than the reputable camera stores, I guarantee you’re going to be taken.

Don’t be a sucker.