No D700x?

A poster at dpReview says that Nikon Austrialia has told him there will not be a D700x:

‘Just talikjng to Nikon in Sydney Australia, (I think that’s where they are, its a 1300 number..), and the technical guy said “We’ve just heard, there will be no D700x!”.

Oh well..

Can you trust this report from RandomInternetGuy(tm)? No, but I think it would be surprising for Nikon to launch a D700x when I’m sure the D3x is selling at around expectations.

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.

Nikon VL1 - 50 Megapixel Super-Rumor

We’ve seen rumors like this before, this one adds in the whole ‘modular digital nikon’ concept:

Supposed specs:

• 50 megapixel
• Integrated SSD holding 250 fullsize RAW shots, can be upgraded
• Removable sensor (back?)
• Built-in Wifi- capable of transferring files as quickly as it is to write to the SSD?
• Eye-tracking AF system
• Entirely new, super awesome-o software to handle it all.
• new line of lenses to take advantage of it, new lens mount?

Supposed Release: September 15, 2009. $10k.

I’m calling big bullshit on this. Even at rev. N wifi speeds, it’d be too slow and this just seems like a wish-list drawn up by fanatics, not like a plausible system designed by Nikon and, apparently, already functioning.

In addition- if they continue to write software like CaptureNX, then this thing will be a pain to deal with unless you’re using LightRoom or something.

Plus, again, there’s 0 reason to launch it in this economy.

Nikon D300s/D3000 Roadmap Rumor Roundup

Lots of rumor about tomorrow and future dates. I’ve been called out for not placing my bets on legitimacy, which I disagree with, but I’ll place my bets. I absolutely guarantee at least a 0% accuracy rating:

D300s: Engadget, Nikon Rumors, et al are reporting (with images) a possible Nikon D300s. Changes? Possibly an SD card and some histogram changes?

D3000: Similar reports of a Nikon D3000.

New 18-200: They sell a lot of this just ok lens- but what’d you expect in a zoom range that extreme. Amateurs love the huge range, no reason not to update it- they’ll sell a ton.

Coolpix’s with a project built-in?

The Nikon Roadmap

I’ve seen this rumor reported a bajillion places and I’m calling bullshit. The chance that the hermit camera kingdom has a corner and decided to get all “open and transparent” is about as likely as a digital Holga. Also, while some of these project may be planned, there’d be 0 reason to release them in this economy. It also has that whiff of some dork’s (like me) wishlist. What’s more, there’re lots of posts in various places stating that this started out as a foreign language gag post to a list that then was translated and lost the “joke” portion of the post.

But here it is:

2009 Nikon Roadmap (Bodies)

Nikon D3000
12.3MP, 7 AF points, ISO 200-3200 extendable to 6400, 3.5fps, Video ?

Prediction: What’s the point- these specs are way too similar to the D5000. This model may exist at some point, but I don’t see it soon.

Nikon D300s
12.3MP, 7fps, HD video (1080p .mov h.264, 24fps), CF and SD cards slots, 920,000 pixel LCD screen

Prediction: Questionable. Maybe a rev’d D300 will come out, but I’d be very surprised if it did 1080p h.264- that takes a lot of horsepower and I don’t see it happening at this price-point.

D700x
24.5MP, 5fps, HD video (1080p .mov h.264, 24fps)

Prediction: I’d bet my minty D2x that the highest cost item in the D3x body is the sensor due to its probably low yields and I get the feeling that the motivation behind this rumor is that people would love to have a smaller, cheaper D3x body. But what’s in it for Nikon? The D3x is still expensive and likely very profitable, plus if you need it, you can afford it. So- I predict unlikely.

2009 Nikon Roadmap (Lenses)

AF-S Nikkor 24 to 135 mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR: Who knows, who cares? Variable aperture lenses are not on my shopping list- I’ve had it with doorstop lenses- well, maybe they’d be fine on that digital holga…

AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II: This will happen, I doubt it’ll be this year, they’re already selling plenty of lenses and I doubt they’re going to dedicate R&D + production capacity to this. When it comes out, I’m expecting a $200-$300 increase to come with it. If it’s 2009, I’m guessing ~ Christmas release.

AF-S Nikkor 35 mm f/1.4G (FX): This will happen, I’ll be surprised if it’s this year, if it is, I’m guessing Christmas again.

AF-S Nikkor 85 mm f/1.4G (FX): A given, possibly this year, but I’m also doubtful.

2010 (Bodies)

Nikon D4
15.7MP (more sensitive and with less noise), Up to 16fps with “double exposure”, ISO 200-12800 (plus extended range), 61-point AF, 1080p video at 30fps, CLS control (although no flash is mentioned)

Prediction: Quite possibly, I doubt 16fps, and hey, if we’re doing 30fps all full HD 1080p (which I doubt), then wtf do I only get 16dfps? While I’d love to get some more focus points out toward the edge, I wonder if that’ll actually happen.

Nikon D400
13.8MP (more sensitive and with less noise), 8fps, Up to 12fps with “double exposure”, ISO 200-6400 (plus extended range), 61-point AF, 1080p video at 24fps

Prediction: I don’t see 1080p, but maybe. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this before the D4 comes out though.

Nikon D4x
30.2MP, ISO 100 – 6400, 6fps, 1080p video at 30fps

Prediction: Hey, wtf not. Doubt it’ll be 2010 though.

Nikon D5000 / D500 Rumors

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nikon D5000 Leaked Shots

See the rest of DTown.

Rumor: Next Nikon SLR is DX Format- D400? D350?sd

A great NIkon listserv posting by a reputable person who very well could know says that the next Nikon SLR will not be a full-frame body, but will be DX format. If you’re interested in the list, please mail me.

What’re the specs, when, what price? All unknown at this point.

I’m going to place a bet on an upgraded body like the D300 with something inexpensive added on maybe better flash, integrated GPS, better LCD, wifi?

Ken Makes it Up: Nikon MX Forecast

Oh good grief- devoid of any serious information, Ken speculates on the Nikon MX medium-format camera system. I’m going to report it because his pointless speculation is now almost funny:

Nikon may have done what we all want, which is use a real 54 x54mm square sensor with a resolution of 6,380 x 6,380 pixels.

This is fantastic; it’s the same size as a mounted 2-1/4″ transparency.

I would sure love my square medium-format back- I miss shooting that way with my hassie. But let’s get real- maybe some day we’ll see something like this, but I think it would surprise everyone.

Nikon D5000?

PMA is March 1st to the 5th this year and there’s only one rumor.  Nikon Rumors is reporting:

…Nikon D5000 is real – it has a swivel display that rotates in all directions; 12.3 Mpx sensor…

Well, let’s just see. Given that we aren’t hearing this from any other source, I’m taking it with a grain of salt- could be another P&S

A swivel display is really nice if you’re taking a self-portrait and while I wanted one on the D3 for live-view, I’m happy to report that the viewing angle on the LCD of the D3 and D3x are still totally usable if you hold the camera at odd angles (like over your head). So it wasn’t as important as I’d thought.

Also, does the fact that it’s number might be 5000 instead of, say, 65 make any difference? Who knows. I’m tempted to bet that if we do see an SLR like this, it won’t be a number higher than 100, but who knows.

Again, I also expect to see lower-priced, less capable cameras being released until we bottom out of the global recession, so I’m not getting my hopes up about anything very interesting being released.

Fake Nikkor 10-18mm

Wanna see some more?

Fake Nikkor 10-18mm

I’ll let the Chinese guys point out the issues here (translated).

In addition- wtf would Nikon make this lens when they just came out with the 14-24mm? If this was a fish-eye zoom or something, then maybe I could see that- but the “samples” from this lens are clearly not fish-eye.

Let’s stop wasting everyone’s time. This is a far better use of 3d modeling skills.

There are also no credible reports of an updated NIkkor 70-200mm f/2.8 with Nano-coating.

In fact, there are -no- credible reports of any new lenses in the pipeline.

Nikon Price Increases?

Well, we’re seeing a lot of chatter about price increases in February. Specific countries like Australia apparently are getting 15-20% increases soon, the UK has also been mentioned. I haven’t seen anything solid on the US though.

But here’s the thing- the economy’s in toilet right now and it’s not going to climb out any time soon and the Yen’s on the rise. Bad economy means fewer sales, products produced with a strong Yen mean they’re pricier for every other currency, thus higher prices and fewer sales.

Nikon, rightly, expects to do sell less product and do worse than they have during the last few years, so they’ve laid off workers. Laying off workers means they’re combating selling less product. I’d expect to see more layoffs in the future.

But notice that many of their consumer-grade products and lenses are made in China and Thailand. China has a fixed currency exchange rate which keeps it artificially low and Thailand’s Baht has moved down substantially vs the Yen too. So, for the cameras at least, the strength of the Yen should have less an impact than you would expect.

This means they’re combating both a stronger yen and few sales.

So predictions: I would be a bit surprised to see significant price hikes for countries whose currency hasn’t declined a lot vs the Yen (that would exclude Australia), and I’d be just as surprised to see a world-wide increase in the price of the D3x (as I’ve seen a lot of chatter about).

The D3x is already too pricey, and unless it’s been flying off the shelves, there’s no reason I can see to make it more expensive. So I’m betting that the prices (in the US anyway) for the D3x will stay the same.

But you know what they say and predicting the future- you only do it if you want to prove yourself a fool…

Nikon Australia Dealer Price List

I’ve run businesses (small ones) so I do understand the costs associated with providing things for the public to buy, especially when your business is located in Manhattan, and I’m ok with paying reasonable markups. But I think it’s also reasonable to know how much I’m being taken for.

That’s why my little heart filled with a small amount of joy when Tim forwarded me a spreadsheet that he got from Nikon Australia with both the manufacturer’s recommended price and the wholesale dealer prices!

Here’s the full price list (xls) with markup added.

What’s the upshot?

* Coolpixs: You’re paying 19% margin

* Bodies: D3, D3x kits ~14%, consumer-grade bodies like D60 kit ~18%

* Still like film? That’ll cost you. That F6 you were looking at? 16%. FM10 26%!

* Lenses: almost uniformly 22% markup. Some are 18%, exotic pro stuff is 14% except the 300mm f/2.8 which is 22%.

* Flashes are basically 25%. If you lose any of those flash accesories and you’ll pay anywhere from 30 to 100+%!

* Binoculars are ~30%

* Chargers are roughly 50% in most cases

* Batteries range from 30-82% for an en-el8!

* Eyepieces (diopter adjustment, etc) at nearly uniformly 100%

* Filters- 30-60%

* Lens hoods- almost all 100%

Thanks Tim!

…898,000yen. [ed: That's $9,431.69 per Google today!]

Whoa, that’ quite a bummer. Basically as of today I could buy 4.5 D700 with a resolution of together 54MP for the price of one D3x.

I guess this prices translates into roughly 8000USD in the USA and 6000Euro in Europe.
…
Tomorrow at 1pm JST will be the official announcement.

Japanese Standard Time (JST) is UTC+9, Eastern Standard Time is UTC -5, that’s 14 hours difference- Japan’s 14 hours ahead of EST. So, if my calculations are correct (and I’m not vouching for them), 13:00 JST is 23:00 (11pm) EST on today- Sunday.

We should get some more info later tonight- but I wouldn’t expect the US price to be that high- I find it hard to believe that they’d sell all that many copies if it’s really that expensive, especially since the Canon’s aren’t quite that pricey. I’m betting that we see a price closer to $7k or $7.5k.

Btw- NO NEW LENSES are expected, despite the rumors, and I’m not expecting any surprises at this point.

D3x Info Released a Day Early On Accident

From a reputable list:

Subject: Re: Nikon pro mag

Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2008 01:09:05 +0900

I phoned Nikon UK earlier today and they said that although they cannot give any information yet, to phone on Monday when they should be able to reveal all.

Apparently the magazines should have been sent out on Saturday so that they would have been delivered on Monday, but some plonker sent them out yesterday by mistake.  They cannot release any further information until the official announcement on the 1st December 2008.

Confirmed. Not Fakes. (click for larger images)

Nikon D3x Scans/info from NikonPro Magazine

Nikno D3x info from NikonPro Magazine

Nikon D3x info from NikonPro Magazine

Summary

So what are we looking at- basically a FF D2x sensor in a D3 body– should make the landscape and studio guys happy, I’ll stick with my amazingly good high ISO capabilities for a while, I think.

• 24.5mp (maybe new anti-alias filter?)
• Native ISO range: 100-1600, 50-6400 possible, 50 and >1600 are LO and HI’s
• 5fps full-res, 7fps 10mp crop mode
• New Active-D lighting mode
• No Movies!
• No Price ($7k-$7500?)

Quicky text transcription of the features:

The Sensor
The D3x has an exclusive 35.9×24mm (fx format) 24.5mp image sensor with unique OLPF (optical sensor low pass filter) and high speed channel readout ISO range covers the equivalent of 50-6400.

The Focus
The widely acclaimed speed and accuracy of the MultiCAM3500 AF system with 51-AF points individual selection assumes a new importance of combination with the high resolution it’s easy to isolate and focus on small details in the scene.

Speed and Response
At full 24.5mp resolution, the D3x shoots at 5fps, 7fps is possible in crop mode. The camera is as responsive as the super-fast D3 12ms start up with a shutter release lag time of just 41ms (CIPA standard). It writes files to the dual CF slots at about 35mb per second.

Image Processing
The D3x’s 16bit EXPEED engine is specially tuned to deliver detail-rich colourful files with low levels of noise and high detail. It is also tuned to minimise the effects of colour fringing with older F-mount Nikkor lenses, and to miminise he effect of unnatural looking (digital) noise patterns. Vignette (peripheral fall-off) can also be controlled for creative effect.

Active D-Lighting
The D3x features a new Extra High Active D-Lighting setting, designed to better manage extremely high-contrast scenes, especially tonal gradation in highlights.

Scene Recognition System
Information from the 1005-pixel RGB sensor with diffraction grating is used to recognise the subject position and colour prior to capture. The results are then used by autofocus, auto-exposure and auto white balance.

Live View
The D3x is the highest resolution digital SLR yet to offer Live View. Allowing photographers to compose and shoot via the 3in monitor instead of the viewfinder brings a variety of practical advantages both in the studio and on location. Two modes are offered, Handheld and Tripod. Contrast-detect autofocus is available in tripod mode.

Monitor
3-inc wide angle (170deg) rear viewing screen, with 922,000 dots, is ultra-high definition and proven to exhibit extraordinary levels of damage resistance.

The Interfaces
USB 2.0 downloads images off the camera fast when tethered, and flexibly when connected with the WT-4 wireless transmitter. With both HDMI and AV/Out ports. GPS data can be captured into the EXIF as before. The new compact Nikon GP-1 GPS unit can also be attached via the 10-pin terminal mounted in the hotshoe, or clip on the camera strap.

Power Management
The D3x uses the same high performance lithium-ion battery (EN-EL4a) as the D3. Thanks to efficiencies in the camera’s on-board EXPEED image-processing system, battery performance is comparable with the D3.

The Body
Extremely durable magnesium construction with egonomically optimised and weather-sealed button, dial, and LCD displays. Extensuve use of highgrade rubber grips means the body is comfortable to handle for long periods of time, and in a wide range of temperatures.

Rumor: Nikon D3X Was Delayed 6+ Months

This is an interesting bit of info from a reputable Nikon list:

It must be 2 or 3 years ago that I heard from somebody who shot an early prototype of the D3x and what he told me about the details he saw in the images made me want one. The camera itself was actually scheduled for release early this year, but due to some last minute glitch, they delayed the launch 6 months and then again some more months. …

That’s really interesting and might explain why Canon/Sony were able to come out with their high-res models earlier than Nikon.

I’m guessing that chip manufacturing or SW was the cause of the delay, but who knows?

[11/28 Nikon Pro D3x shots and info]

There are shots (likely real) of the new D3x along with a wad of info in this post.

[/Update]

[11/27 Price Update]

From a reputable Nikon list:

A friend of mine was in a Kansas City Camera store last week and was told approximately $7500.00.
[/Update]

Ok- we know that “Something BIG” has been announced.

Speculation ranges from a new printer (unlikely, I think) to the medium-format high MP body (the rumored “mx-format”), to a D3x.

I’m guessing it’s the D3x- a new higher MP, decent ISO performance (but not matching the D3) pro dslr body.

Prices are unknown though I’ve just seen 7000euro mentioned. 7kEU in USD is way too high- for that, I could get a digital Mamiya. So let’s presume that it’ll be rouhgly 7k US, which is much more likely, but $6499 sounds better to me.

An interesting note on the price is that if 7kEU is actually the price, and the USD price is a direct translation of about $8750, then that price seems high enough to cover the initial year of likely losses for a new larger chip format like the MX! To make that a little clearer, if Nikon DOES make an MX body, the chip is likely to be extremely expensive since the rejection rates on large chips is high. Typically, the rejection rate goes down over time, so the first year may be a loss, but after that, the process improves and the per-unit cost of the chips go down because there are fewer and fewer rejects. But, I’m dismissing this- I’ll bet $10 on the D3x at 24mp.

We’ve also heard potential: in-body VR (possible… Sony’s been doing it lately and we’ve got it on other Nikon bodies), built-in wifi, weaker anti-alias filter (possible- moving this into software would likely be easy), higher bits per pixel giving us 16bit images (I doubt it), video (not for 24mp, I don’t think), mirrorless body using an electric (EVIL) viewfinder (completely unpossible in a pro body), tweaked AF or more AF points (not going to happen…), higher FPS (not a chance), which items am I missing? Let me know.

I’m intending to keep track as we get closer and closer, if I’ve missing something, please mail me (link at right).

New Lenses? 80-400 AF-S version 35mm 1.8 AF-S 135mm 1.8 AF-S

I’m reporting this because it’s been a while since we’ve gotten anything interesting about lenses since the 50mm AF-S f/1.4g was announced. However, I’m still thinking this is all possible but unlikely:

D3x is what’s expected, but also to be announced:

• 80-400 AF-S version
• 35mm 1.8 AF-S
• 135mm 1.8 AF-S

I heard this from a fellow working at a MAJOR NY shop. Is it true? I dunno. He also claimed the 135 may have VR. The 80-400 would be VERY welcome. Everyone I know wants a better 80-400 lens. I’m surprised Nikon hasn’t released it sooner.

I see a 35mm AF-S eventually, I’m not sure it’ll be announced next. I can’t see why they wouldn’t follow the 50mm replacement with an 85mm replacement, but who knows?

For me, the 35mm is more useful than the 50mm provided the apertures and the close-focusing distance are similar, so I’d rather have the 35mm than the 50mm, but we still don’t have the 50mm in the hands of reviewers even, so we’re looking at 3-6 months before we can get our hands on the lenses regardless.

The 135mm is interesting, especially if it ends up having VR. VR really ought to be everywhere and I’m willing to pay for it.

Everyone seems to want an 80-400mm replacement, but if you’re not on safari or you don’t shoot sports (I don’t…) then the 70-200mm is probably as much as you can regularly use.

We’re seeing more and more rumors flying about a high-res d3x or d4 or whatever other name. Here’s one from some guy who seems particularly sure:

D3x will be launched officially on the local market on december 1st, this year. 24mp, FX (of course). I just had the chance to see and play a bit with it and the camera is awesome ! The detail rendition is incredible.

Hold your breath, it will have a very interesting spec which – now – makes it clear to me why they put on hold the D3 production. I cannot say more, I just promised to the guy (see this thread: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1021&message=29934712) to keep my mouth shut (I managed to keep it half shut), but you will REALLY love it !

Just wait. This will be a delightful Christmas for us, Nikonians.

I don’t tend to trust random guys on the internet though

I’m still really happy with my outrageous high ISO capabilities and the FX format, so anything else we get is just gravy. A modular, or upgradeable sensor body is the only thing I’m really hoping for at this point other than new primes.

Surprisingly to me, and probably others, they delivered. It’s surprising because it’s not at all unusual for a company to come out of nowhere and promise of disruptive technologies and never hear from them again (hey, remember Silicon Film? They went from ~1997 announcement to 2008 bankrupcy?)

Well lately, they’ve been talking about coming out with an SLR, or video camera with SLR-like capabilities using their movie camera’s 25mp chip (presumedly).

This might be nothing for Nikon and Canon to worry about but it sure would be interesting to have a movie camera capable of good stills, that didn’t suffer from Jello-Shots, and could use just about whatever Nikon or Canon (and others with proper adapters) lenses you wanted to throw at it.

Unfortunately though, the RED cameras (so far) don’t have any sort of autofocus, so I wonder about these in fast-action situations.

If I was putting money on it, I’d think this’ll be interesting to watch but won’t give the Dynamic Duo (Nikon, Cannon) and sleepless nights, at least for a few different revisions of their new system.

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 USA’s PR Dept. [said] D3X is coming…slated for December at the moment. Full Frame, Crop features…24.4 megapixels 9 fps and a host of other features. The price? $6499.99 USD (U.S. Dollars) Its supposed to look identical to the D3, and use many of the same D3 addon’s…but have more megapixels, better noise-reduction software and faster high-speed for sports. …”

That all sounds essentially plausible- I doubt the high ISO performance can be far better than the D2x/s, but I’m sure it can be better, I can’t see it matching the D3’s performance though.

I also very much doubt the 9 frames per second (fps) claim. I really think that’s pointless- I still have yet to use that mode on my D3, but ok, someone will.

I’m going to assume that this really doesn’t mean much- it’s pretty well assured that we will end up with a D4, but when?

I’ve been sent a screen-shot and will put it up when I have time.

Interestingly, a D4 ad on google costs ~$.14, which is surprisingly high, if you ask me.

In the comments, Martin points out:

The “crop factor” is wrong. It was roughly 0.5 for my old Bronica GS-1 6×7 medium format camera. The crop factor for a 48mm square chip would be 35 divided by 48, so 0.73.

The comment that MX users would complain about the crop factor… well the reason for DX users complaining was mainly that the two systems were otherwise identical, i.e. both “35mm” SLR systems and used the same lenses, and thus bore direct comparison.

This system would be a completely new format, more along the lines of a MF-lite, like 6×4.5, but square, with all-new lenses made specifically for that format. If no one complained about 6×4.5 or 6×6 cameras in this respect before, why would they now?

I’ll trust his math and basically agree with him- presuming any of the specs are correct (and who knows?)- you’re not going to get cropped on any previous lens you can attach to this camera- your DX and FX lenses will cover just as much sensor as they ever did- it’s just that your sensor is larger than your lens will cover.

It’s like putting an DX lens on your full-frame body- if you only ever have used a DX lens, you don’t know you’re missing anything.

Then when you want to use the full capabilities of the sensor, buy some (very pricey, I’m sure) lenses.

Maybe I’ll finally not have to sell the house to get my beloved square medium-format into the digital age!

Dear Matt

FYI:
On speaking with Nikon [in country unnamed], this came to light with various questions – they already had development plans for a new Nikon digital rangefinder with approx 48mmx48mm size sensor inside it, tentatively called the “MX” format, the camera is not to dissimilar to the older film Mamiya 6 camera philosophy.

The new camera will be backward compatible with DX and FX lenses (via mount adaptor), therefore the lens factor (based on using a FX lens) will be worked out like this:

DX = 1.5x (Half frame)
FX = 1.0x (Full frame)
MX = 0.5x

Custom format choice:
When shooting in FX mode with this camera, you will be able to “rotate” the sensor crop from landscape to portrait rather than turn the camera as well as be able to shoot the full square resolution this camera provides. options for 5:4 etc will also be available.

Viewfinder/Live View:
For more critical cropping (like for still-life and macro work) you will be able to use the live view function for exact framing rather than the rangefinder component.

Sensor:
about 48 megapixels, similar to the Nikon D3 design.

Lenses:
New range of lenses required for the full MX format, zoom option available covering different ranges on different formats, lenses relatively compact for format size.

Summary
A relatively compact traditional “medium format-esque” camera in a new camera line that will be aimed at studio, portrait, landscape and wedding photographers needs, with a more affordable price point than present larger format digital backs. This will allow the continuation of the D line as the sports and news photographers choice, expanding on the D3 with an upgrade to a 24mp sensor (hopefully available for the D3 body!) and future plans for 60 frame rate video recording modes in future models.

Please keep my name, email and location anonymous.

Wow- I really hope this birdie’s right, I’ve love to see something like this- I’ve been missing using my Hasselblad and its square format, which I loved. Can you image the images you’d get from a medium-format sized sensor using pixels the size of the D3. Now add in pixel-binning and you could see ISO’s in the stratosphere!

The red specs at the bottom of the ad say:

• 24.6 megapixel
• Full-frame
• 100% viewfinder coverage
• 3″ hi-res LCD
• 9 point AF – cross sensors
• 5 frames per second
• Body-integrated image stabilization

Wow! Sony delivers! I’m really wondering wtf Minolta was doing- is Sony throwing immense amounts of money at their camera division or was Minolta dragging their heels?

It’s hard to tell if this is good news or bad for Nikon. If Nikon doesn’t have the D3x ready to go, then Sony steals their thunder. If the “D3x” doesn’t have either higher MP or at least a good reason for not being higher (like great ISO and dynamic range), then Sony will have caught Nikon flat-footed, which I doubt since they appear to be working relatively closely together.

So I’m guessing that this really means that the “D3x” will be out after the Alpha 900 and it’ll be higer than 24.6mp, maybe in the 30 MP area?

So let’s take a look at when we can expect to see new offerings ordered by date:

IFA 2008: August 27 through Sept 03, Berlin, Germany.

The D3 as announced for this event last year (Jeez, has it been that long?) This is supposed to be the largest consumer electronics show around.

But there’s zero buzz right now, and since we just got the D90 announced, I don’t think we’ll see anything new.

Photokina 2008: Sept 23 through Sept 28, Cologne Germany.

All the rumors are saying this is the show where we can expect something new. People are saying new AF-S primes but I’m losing hope. Its placement on the calendar means that it’d be well-placed for the Christmas season, but Pros don’t tend to buy high-end gear for their loved ones. I would be surprised if we don’t see some new, uninspired Coolpix’s though.

WPPI 2009:Feb 12 through Feb 19, Las Vegas, Nevada.

This is where Nikon is a sponsor and something “BIG” is supposed to happen according to an ad in Rangefinder Magazine. I’m doubting any significant announcement, but who knows?Maybe BIG means the D3x, but isn’t a show for wedding shooters a strange place to announce a high-res version of the D3?

PMA 2009: March 1 though March 4, Las Vegas, Nevada.

If Nikon has anything huge to annouce, I’d put my money on this show merely due to its place on the calendar- it’s far enough away from the other announcements its made. I’m guessing Nikon will be relatively quiet for a few months, then pull out a D3x or something else interesting to get them back in peoples’ minds.

But one can never predict our favorite hermit-company.

Here’s an example:

It is unsubstantiated, but in conversations at fred miranda from apparently two separate sources, there are reports of a listing of a new nikkor 50 f1.4 AFS

Glad I waited two weeks before buying the AFD, but if it materializes, and the rumoured price is right (650 euros, 1300 australian $) seems like the replacement won’t be competing on price!

Maybe it will have a better build, AFS, more aperture blades etc.

Yikes! I hope that price is off, but if that’s the actual price (~$1200+) I think we can expect it to be a hell of a lens!

Can I get the same thing about 28mm and 35mm?

Also- can you imagine what you could do with f/1.4 with VR2 at 3200iso?

August 18–Nikon’s next scheduled press conference is August 27th. I’ve already noted that the D90 and 18-105mm lens will be introduced shortly, so I think it likely that those two items are on the schedule for that meeting…

…It now appears that my 2008 pro body predictions were backwards. I predicted the D3x would appear and that the D700 would be pushed to a 2009 ship. I’m now thinking that I must have misunderstood my original source and got the products reversed. Even if a high resolution body is announced soon, I don’t see any of the indications I look for showing that it is ready to ship.

So a decent SLR body and an ok consumer-grade lens, nothing to get too excited about really. And he’s indicating that the predictions bandied about by many including the concept of 4 new bodies was just nuts, as I expected.

D3x next year- I’m betting. New lenses at Photokina- and I’m starting to doubt decent AF-S primes, but I’m still hoping I’m wrong- I’ve been hoping for their announcement for more than  a year now though.

Also- PGM points out that Amazon and BHPhotoVideo are now buying google Adwords for D90.

They’re also reporting the following specs:

* 14 bit A/D conversion (compared to 12 bit currently);
* live view;
* the EXPEED image processor;
* self-cleaning sensor;
* 3? LCD (up from 2.5?) with higher resolution; and/or
* 5 fps (up from 3);

The Following Are Guesses:

Notice that it doesn’t mention movies- but looking at the picture, it’s got a microphone grill over the D90 logo. There’s no reason at all to put the mic grill in the front if it’s for recording memos with a shot like on the Dx series, so I’m guessing it’s to record sound with movies (duh).

We’re also seeing a Manual / AF switch on the body, why? Because it’ll be able to use the screw-drive lenses like the 50mm f/1.x and 85mm f/1.x and older lenses– you don’t need that switch on the AFS lenses!

Interestingly, this might also mean that we will NOT be seeing 50mm and 80mm AFS Nano primes – but that’s a toss-up.

There also appears to be a GPS plug-in port, rather than integrated, which continues to be baffling given that the P&S cameras have GPS built-in now.

I continue to think it’s amusing that people are reporting that cameras have the eXpeed chipset in them.

That price, btw, is WITH the kit 18-105mm lens, same as with Circuit City as reported yesterday.

But- the last time I went to Best Buy and asked them to pull up something on their inventory system, I was told, “We might have that…” then after determining that they didn’t, and they didn’t know when they would have it, I was told that I could order it- which is pretty crappy. So I don’t trust their inventory system, but this at least appears to confirm the Circuit City system.

The UPC Database also seems to confirm the UPC that’s shown in the picture.

Wake me when the D3x or something like a digital rangefinder finally shows up.

12 megapixel resolution.  To be honest, the D80 had great image quality with its 10 MP sensor, and you probably shouldn’t expect a huge difference with the 12 MP Nikon D90. …

Video recording.  I’ll be interested in evaluating the video clips produced by this camera.  …

PS compatibility.  With GPS features built into point-and-shoot cameras and cell phones, many dSLR owners will come to expect at least the ability to connect a GPS location tagger to their cameras.  If you go this route, you’ll never wonder where you shot your vacation pictures again….

He also has some conjecture on the Nikon D3x, but honestly, if you read this site, there’s probably nothing public that you don’t already know about all of this.

In any case, that Nikon site that reports any rumor it can find appears to have a scoop submitted by a guy who works at Circuit City.

Nikola writes:

See the link below (this is official Slovenian Sigma dealer and also DSLRs dealer) and you can find a D90 marked as NEW, listed in the price list.

There is no price yet, but it is written that we can expect it this fall.

If you want the higher than standard FPS without the vertical grip, do the following:

First, make the following custom setting adjustments:

e5: Flash only
e6: Flash only
f4: Button press – Bracketing burst
f4: Button + dials – Bracketing mode

Set exposure manually. Activate bracketing with the Fn + Command dial and set 9F (9 frames). Set your shooting mode to single-shot (S). Do not use flash. Then hold the Fn button and when you are ready to shoot, press the shutter release and continue holding the Fn button. The camera will fire up to 9 frames at 8 fps.

To continue shooting after 9 frames, you will need to let up on the shutter release and depress it again. If you fire fewer than 9 shots, you will only be able to shoot the remaining exposures in your 9-frame burst if you continue shooting again, without letting up on the shutter release again.

Since you have set auto bracketing to apply only to flash, your non-flash bracketing burst is fired at your manually set exposure — it is not bracketed.

Have fun, it really works!

Can anyone confirm this?

8. At least two digital rangefinders will be introduced. I’m putting my money on Nikon and Olympus to unveil interchangeable-lens rangefinder cameras based around DSLR sensors. Olympus has already laid the technical groundwork with its announcement of the Micro Four Thirds system, which allows for smaller camera bodies and no room for optical mirror prisms. While the obvious direction is EVFs (see item #3, above), they could drop a bombshell and create a digital rangefinder and a few fixed-focal-length, manual-focus lenses for a lot less than the $5K Leica M8. What do I base my Nikon prediction on? Nothing…I just like to dream.

“Nothing“?! Why must he play with our heart like this? I’m guessing we either won’t see a rangefinder or similar camera or we won’t see it for a long time. I see more P&S cameras like the rumored P6000 to take on the Canon Gx series (like the G9)- My G3 is a gem of a P&S.

…[sensor got dirty and] I had Nikon Service in Missassauga Canada clean it and the fee was substantial!

When I picked the body up from service, I was told that a more robust shutter is available and that while I’m still under warranty I should have the work completed. I was told that there isn’t anything wrong with my shutter, but that a “stronger spring assembly is available” which was not installed on my D3 because it is probably an earlier unit.

I’m really hoping that this is spurious. I won’t hit a high number of shots any time soon (too much work, I’m afraid), and don’t care to pay for a new shutter in a few years that could have been replaced now.

Since Nikon is always unnecessarily tight-lipped, we’ll never know which range of serial numbers could be affected- IF this is true.

…Curiously, at a casual glance the only thing that most people will notice different from a D80 is the presence of a much bigger color LCD on the back…

So what is a D90? Well, a 12mp, ~4.5 fps DSLR, basically. On paper those seem like modest boosts from the D80. In practice, they are a distinct notch forward in performance. The big news, however, is that Live View now has a twist that other DSLRs can’t currently claim: it can record video (thus the microphone grill).

We also get a new lens for kitting with the D90: the 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G DX VR. Modest in size (67mm filter size), … Essentially, this is a 28-150mm equivalent. Not truly superzoom, but a good compromise between size and reach. This new lens also plugs the VR hole Nikon had in the DX lens lineup (essentially no VR in the kit lenses if you wanted more than 55 but less than 200 at the long end).

To my knowledge, Nikon hasn’t scheduled a press conference for product introduction yet…

Movie mode! So- I suppose they’re dispensing with the physical shutter when used in that mode. I wonder how good the image quality of the video will be- if it was good (I doubt it, but maybe), then maybe there will also be a single-shot totally silent mode…

[Update: No clue when, no clue where, no clue what.]

Oh who knows? We get so many reports of this kind… Maybe a D3x will be announced, maybe some more bland, pointless Coolpix’s will be announced (”This one’s in blue! These go to 11!“), maybe there’ll be something that knocks our socks off- trying to predict it is pointless.

I don’t know if it’s true but here it is anyway: Nikon will have a new annoucement this coming Wednesday, August 6, 2008. I have no idea what they will annouce. Might be a new D3X or maybe a new D90 or some other camera or lenses. Let’s hope it’s true and some new equipment is coming.

[Edited for poor proof-reading.]

In any case, from Thom (if you believe it):

Technically, Nikon has been a bit behind on that. In the consumer market, sensor cleaning and ubiquitous VR (via the sensor) and live view all got established by competitors well before Nikon did it. That’s going to shift a bit with the D90, I think, but the D60 is an example of Nikon NOT doing the above. And in the higher lineup, of course Canon beat Nikon to the punch with FX, affordable FX, pixel counts, and high ISO capabilities. It’s only in this current design cycle that we see Nikon now trying to do what you suggest.

In-body VR would be great– if it worked well. I remember way old Sony digicams that would do VR by cropping your sensor and then as you moved the camera, they’d just use a part of the chip that had been cropped until you had moved it-so basically selectively using part of the chip.

Also- Gizmodo and other sites are reporting a possible Sept 3rd Nikon conference, to maybe announce something new like the D90 or maybe D3x… who knows?

Though I think it’d be smarter to simply license any patents Nikon would like, rather than buy Fuji wholesale. Also, Nikon seems to be doing fine in the sensor-design category itself…

Well, a birdie sends a pretty picture of its layout and writes:

– A new type of pixel/micro-lens arrangement allows hexagonal elements (pixels) and a cartesian (x-y) read out.

-Maximizing efficiency (capture area) of every ray of light goes though the micro-lenses.

-There is limit on the smallest size of each micro-lens (due to the mirrors), hence resolution of this type of sensor may limit to the pixel pitch of 10 micro-meters. Still, enough for 135 film formats to deliver nearly 10 million pixels with true R-G-B each.

Of course, this birdie wouldn’t tell me where he gets his info from- so I can’t tell how much credence to give this one…

After chatting with him a little more, this means that the sensor would be roughly 7.2*3=21.6mp equivalent if you try to evaluate it in Bayer-sensor terms:

You can say that. Since the interpretation of pixel counts is quite confusing right now, just say it will provide same if not better detail as the 20mp bayer-sensors, with much more accurate color pattern reproduction.

>[When the D4 comes out]- Will this be when
>a “mirrorless” viewfinder is developed?

When I asked a very senior Nikon person from Japan this same question last year, the answer was that we would be seeing a mirrorless dslr “sooner than you think”.

This is kind of strange, I’m not even sure what “mirrorless dslr” means. I’m really hoping that it doesn’t mean that we get an electronic viewfinder instead- with liveview (finally), I’m not sure what the point would be.

Maybe they’re bringing back the pellicle mirror concept like they had on the F3H- here’s a good shot of the pellicle mirror.

More guessing- if we have great noise-free images at higher ISO like we have on the D3- then the light falloff from the pellicle mirror is no longer an issue- and we have a sensor that can either shut itself off (so we don’t need a moving shutter) or use an LCD or similar to electronically prevent light from hitting the sensor, then we could have a VERY high-speed, camera that is nearly silent!

[Update: Confirmed per the Strobist. See the next post.]

This thread on flickr is stating that the SB-900 flash has a thicker shoe than the SB-800 and similar flashes and apparently, this is causing trouble for people who try and mount the flash directly to various accessories.

The SB-600 not only drops a pin into a hole like David Hobby mentioned, but also raises two (very) small clamps from the level of the metal base, e.g. to prevent falling out of non-Nikon accessories.

It looks like it’s the same for the SB-900 …

I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere else, however, some I’m filing it under Rumors for now.

Although the rumors were strong for an announcement of the 24MP D3x/4 around end of august early september, it looks like its a no show.

I was contacted by an old friend who works for nikon, and even though the 24.4MP camera is going around and will be at the olympics (from what i understood still only as an early prototype), there is no intention of bringing it into production until after the end of 2008.

When I asked him repeatedly if he was sure, he insisted in a very confident matter, that if nikon was going to announce something that big in the time frame given he would have known. I insisted that there had to be some truth in the august rumor, and this time he said: “if its true, then they will surprise everyone, including official dealers – the only thing to come next is the full range of new coolpix cameras” …

Yeah, I also thought August was super unlikely- just too close to the D3 and D700.

After the D700, the D900 will be on the way with more megapixels.  This is a rumor from a friend who has connections to Nikon office in my country.

So maybe the D900 will end up being the “halfway” megapixel camera with ~18mp- halfway between the D3’s/D700’s light sucking 12mp and the (presumably) 24-28mp D3x’s not-quite light sucking sensor.

But who knows? There’s a lot of wiggle room between 12mp and 24-28 or so.

It’d also be interesting to see two body styles from now on- really fast, huge  pro body- D3 and the half-sized, same sensor, not quite as fast prosumer body like the D700.

Nikon shows us having 2 D700 bodies on pending release. That usually means
they will ship any day so expect them to hit the market in the next few
days.

It’s nice to see that Nikon appears to be good about keeping this retail channel!

On some Internet forums I posted that I thought the high resolution FX body might be in the D700-sized body. Apparently not. I received a message out of Japan that the high-resolution camera [ed: presumedly the d3x] is in the D3 body. I trust that message more than my guess, though please note that having one (usually good) source does not mean something is verified. A few f/1.4 primes apparently will appear with that body. A Coolpix with raw capabilities was also mentioned, which would align with the P6000 rumors (13+mp, 28-112mm ED VR, optional GPS and LAN).  Others are predicting a 24-120mm VRII and 70-200mm VRII. That would be nice, but I am not holding my breath. Note that even three or four primes would put Nikon well over their usual yearly lens quota. On the other hand, every one of the next batch of lenses I hear about seem to be just G, AF-S, and/or VR iterations of existing designs…

I see the D3x, I also see the P6000 or something like it to try and compete with Canon’s G9, I’m hoping for the primes but I’m not holding my breath or placing any money on it. The p6000 keeps getting mentioned with “LAN” capability- the French magazine had that in their feature list- I think this needs to be translated as “built-in WiFi” like on other Nikon Coolpix’s rather than an ethernet LAN connection.

I suppose the 24-120mm augment the 18-200mm? I’m betting it won’t be a pro/fixed aperture lens.

Here’s the translated version (in Japanese I’m told it’s Chinese, sorry, they look very similar to me!) I think/hope that they just hosed up the comparison.

My local dealer *wink, wink* told me yesterday that if he had to “cough, cough” guess, then the D3x/D4 would most likely launch in October which will give Sony a month with its A900 camera since they are using the same sensor. It makes some sense.

I have a hard time buying it- dealers don’t seem to know much more than we do these days (as far as I can tell, feel free to correct me).

Otoh- that would make it roughly a year after the D3 announcement so…

Basically- take a few adjacent photo-receptors, get their values, and munge them together. I’m presuming it’ll be much smarter than just an averaging, but who knows, so I’ll use the term “munge”.

In theory, you just increased the sensitivity of the sensor, but decreased the resolution. So maybe if we munge it down to an effective 3-4mp image, we might get a lot less noise than you’d expect, which would be fantastic. Most of the times I’m going to use a P&S are in situations where the lighting is terrible (think parties) and the shots aren’t likely to be worth bringing out the D3.

And over at Luminous Landscape and other places, we’re seeing a shot of a possible new Coolpix P6000 that actually looks like a smaller rip-off of the Canon G series. I’ve got a G3 and it is/was a really cool camera (for 2004).

Ordinarily, I don’t report on Coolpixs because Nikon comes out with Coolpix’s so frequently and they’re so uninspired that it’d be like reporting that I got up in the morning, but this one’s got (supposedly):

• 13.5 MP sensor

• 28-112mm 4X zoom
• VR optical image stabilization
• Raw Mode
• ISO to 6400
• optical viewfinder
• GPS (?)
• Can use the SB-800 (SB-900 too? No reports of CLS though.)
• LAN something or other? (I’m guessing it’s a wifi connection with an up-sell to a hosting service like we’ve seen on the other Coolpix’s)

13.5mp @ 6400iso huh? Remember that paper where the researchers grabbed a couple webcams, taped them over so they couldn’t see anything and then used the images as cheap sources of truly random (though not nec. uniformly distributed) numbers? Yeah, a 13.5mp coolpix would make a really good source of random noise! August release, guess we’ll know soon enough.

But raw mode’s cool! If only Nikon provided a free SDK so that I could make my own intervalometer code, and other fun stuff, then it’d be just about as good as a Canon G-series…

So this birdie clearly had a product price dump from the official Nikon Dealer site and I asked if he could give me the wholesale. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t say, but did say that he’d be very surprised to see it going for less than $4,600 (USD) any time soon (wink, wink).

If you see anyone willing to sell you a D3 for anywhere near that price right now, ask yourself if it’s really too good to be true.

[Update: The birdie that said he was having a problem with the firmware reset everything and was fine again. Do you have any issues with the firmware? Mail me (see address on the right).]

Reports (via dpReview so far) as that it makes the focusing better and more accurate in low-light situations.

The US download site for Windows is here, Mac-heads can get it here.

On the other hand, I’ve got at least one report that the f-stops aren’t being recorded properly into EXIF data.

Also interesting is that while there were confirmed reports of the 1.12a/b firmware, it appears to never have gotten released.

Software’s tricky…

When Nikon sends out engineering test cameras, do they not have the model number silk-screened onto the body? And if they did, why would the D3 not have marking? Strange, tending toward fake?

Here’s the article and here’s the translation:

Just had a puzzling conversation with my very well-connected Nikon mole in London. He says that the SB-900 announcement is imminent, but the D700 is still some time off announcement. Unexpected.

“Ah sheet!”

Not sure what to make of this one. I’ll call it anomalous and see what happens tomorrow, I suppose. Karl’s also not sure how likely this is.

Thanks Karl!

Here’s the translated article for the D700 in photoscala.de. Interestingly, if I can understand the translation, this is just a picture of the previously reported article from Profifoto, another German magazine.

The only interesting thing (to me) that’s in the specs that we hadn’t already seen was the built-in sensor cleaning:

The same 12-megapixel sensor, apparently the same 51-point autofocus system, slightly lower image speed serial (5 fps instead of 9 fps – however, the battery part to 8fps increase), the viewfinder field of 95 instead of 100 percent, but but a built-in flash (also for wireless flash control), a sensor-cleaning system (more about this tomorrow) and an interesting price tag: just under 2,600 euro, the new costs and from the end of July 2008 will be available.

Wow, I hope that price isn’t right for us Americans because we can nearly have a D3 for that (~$4000usd today).

Oh hey, remember that report that the chip was being made by Renasis (? Even I can’t dig up the post or recall how to spell it)- well that’s resurfacing. Someone remind me how to spell it so that I can look it up again!

Nikon will be announcing the new Nikon D700 on Monday 30th June!

Check back soon for details, images & specifications.

Hi Matt,

For your information, [Edited by request. Suffice to say, he knows it's real.]

Release is really soon, by now but not confimed between 1st of july or a week after. There is always a mix up between press conference and worlwide announcement. What you can read about the body is near what it will be for real, some details are still missing.

Take care.

That’s fantastic! I guess we can expect to see an FX body with the D3’s sensor, 1 CF card, lower FPS. Other specifics are probably immaterial for the most part- having the D3’s sensor in a smaller body at half (guessing) the price is the big deal!

It seems like it’ll be a sweet camera, wonder what the official prices are going to be. I’m guess the MSRP is ~$2800 or so. Street will eventually have it at $2499?

Guy pointed me to this Chinese forum post with what looks like a camera-phone shot of the D700:

But Xavier writes:

Hello Matt, I confirm the date of 1st of july to be the one for nikon’s announcement.

A friend who is owner of the biggest selling nikon store in Paris (and France), is going to some places in France, invited by Nikon to try or see the new stuff from them !

The dates are 30 of june to the 1st of july ! In fact he told me about this date a month ago !

So from what I understood, SB900 and “D700″ (whatever the name can be!) as well as the d3x will be presented.

As for the lens, Nikon already had announced the two PC lenses (so no surprise here) but it seems that not much will be said on july. It looks like it is more for the Photokina in Germany, that most of the announcement will be made!

Keep the funny good job Matt. I’m fan of the cover you put each time !

Wow! We’re getting lots of independent “confirmation” on the SB-900- surprisingly, because this was a relatively late development, it hadn’t been on the radar until just recently. Someone please get me some specs!

The “D700″/D10, whatever, is basically expected at this point, and I’m kind of surprised to see the D3x back in the mix, I was starting to think they’d hold off on announcing it, or maybe the private demo will be a prototype and they won’t announce it yet…

Who knows? The ways of Nippon Kogaku are strange and mysterious…

Seems like the 1 July date is for real. David is an editor for a major swedish photoforum and has been to a meeting with Nikon and confirms that he has signed NDA and can’t give any comments to the D700 rumor until the first of july…

“David Elmfeldt (elmfeldt) Redaktör

Varit på möte med Nikon-lasse men jag har skrivit på avtal att vi inte kan berätta något förrän den 1 juli. Håll utkik då. 2008-06-24 15:04″

Here’s the Original D700 thread in Swedish. Thanks Ronin!

I’m guessing we’ll see 2-4 new lenses, the D700 or whatever they call it, that’s probably it. I’m betting the D3x is next year’s big deal.

I know a nikon ex-employee who imports goods directly from nikon japan to the far east, she said she has ordered 50 SB-900 to be delivered next month.

Maybe we’re going to see an announcement of the SB-800 replacement! So what’s the SB-900 got? WTF knows? I’ve begged [edited at his request] to try and get some specs.

It figures too, since I recently bought another SB-800. Arg. Please god, let them dumb-down the menus. Either I’ve lost too many brain cells lately, or working with it is just a bit of a pain. ESPECIALLY when I put it into slave mode and then bring it back.

It SERIOUSLY needs custom menu functionality, it seems that most of the settings I want are hard to get to.

Thanks [edited at his request]!

Quite simply: Due to recent product innovations that are still so secret that professional photo does not even hint may, in what area and from which manufacturer the new products will come, the original publication date of the professional photo 1 July….
…
Conclusion: 7-8/08 professional photo appears on 1 Juli 2008- and worth the wait.

So clearly they’re under a press embargo until the 1st.

D3x? D4? D700? D10? dWTF? Who knows. Come on primes!

What kind of cover-shot is this?

But these pictures of Nikon’s supposed midrange full-frame dSLR, the D700, is so convincing we had to make a call to the Japanese company.

As usual, we were told no comments for now, but that Nikon “will say more when the date draws near”. The spokesperson did volunteer that the pictures were taken at the agency where the brochures were printed.

Photographybay reported that this 12.1-megapixel shooter will have a full-frame (36 x 23.9mm) CMOS sensor, 51 autofocus points, expanded ISO sensitivity of 25,600 like the D3, and accept CompactFlash storage media. The camera body is said to be cast from magnesium alloy, and pricing is US$2,999 for the body.

Nikon refusing to say anything, hmmm. Maybe we could make that into a series of hysterical comedies… a mute company the likes to play a harp, a mustachioed F-body, an FM with an accent, and a completely unfunny D1HS named Zeppo.

…
Two new DSLR cameras; there are two options:
a) a successor to D80 + a new high res FX camera (a la D3x) or
b) a succsessor to D80 + a new FX camera in a smaller body (a la D10/D700)

Can’t say which it will be; dunno.

Two of the other three items are expected to be the remaining two PC-Nikkors; 45/2.8 and 85/2.8. Which is supposed to be the third item remains unknown, but it surely won’t be a newly developed kit lens for the D10/D700 – the latter will initially be sold with the already-known AF-S Nikkor 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR.

What I wrote above is not all 100%, but these “facts” are; release date July 1st, 5 items, 2 DSLR cameras.

How do I know? Can’t and won’t say, but it is true.

Guess the primes are tilt/shifts… not on my list.

After a ‘lot’ of pushing with a pro dealer over here (UK) that is primarily a US dealer, I was told that an announcement was due before the end of the month, and possibly as early as Monday, about a new Nikon pro body.

I have no idea if they are stringing me along to keep my business (and I confess I’m hoping for a D3x so that the D3 falls in pricing a little further) but thought it worth repeating here in case Thom or someone can confirm they’ve heard similar.

AND:

…

However, the dealer has taken the print-out I gave them of the ‘leaked images’ and discussed them with a Nikon rep.

He did not expect any positive reaction, so the most interesting one was a refusal to deny the existence of the camera, and being told to wait until a formal Nikon briefing next week.

Monday’s already passed though, but then:

My London Nikon dealer has today cancelled appointments on Thursday next week, 26th June, to attend a Nikon event/briefing that day. Who knows?

AND:

Nikon Finland has called on a press conference on the first of July. We’ll wait and see.

Well this is exciting, but we’ve been burned by dealers in past who say anything, but who knows… Where the hell is my Nikon digital rangefinder or the D3-sensor-based P&S? And prime lenses are still not off my shopping list.

Here’s the link to the original Chinese post.

Here are the other images:

It doesn’t smell fake to me, but the D700 name doesn’t sound right either. Maybe we’ll see a naming convention where the FX bodies are >100 and roughly mimic their place in the previous hierarchy. For example, if this is the D700 then its place is roughly where the D70 was before.

Then maybe DX bodies stay <100…

Who knows?

Just letting everyone know that a firmware upgrade (v1.12) is on it’s way. I had the pleasure of meeting a senior Nikon (NPS) manager today at my local camera store (in Perth, Australia) and she offered to upgrade both my D3 cameras (I had them with me as I was on my way to a job). She was passing through on her way to upgrade cameras at a national newspaper office.

I asked what was changed but she would/could not tell me, other than to say that I would want the upgrade. I also asked when the upgrade would be released officially, again, she would not say. Strange, I know, but I wasn’t going to argue with her.

I quickly checked one of my cameras to see if there was anything noticeably changed but couldn’t identify anything in the menus. The cameras performed flawlessly (as usual) on the job I just shot after the upgrade.

Sorry I don’t have anymore useful info but I thought I’d let the list know.

So they’re putting it into cameras that are going for maintenance and upgrading important NPS-heavy clients like newspapers now. It must be very close to general release. I wonder what they’ve update…

…My D3 was upgraded to A+B 1.12 firmware by Nikon SA.

I cannot find anywhere on the web this new version for download, or any mention of it. Perhaps a first.

My previous firmware was A1.10 and B1.11 {The new version with New Auto ISO high shutter speeds and vignette control, and firmware bug fixed}

I send the D3 in for Auto Image Rotation, and focus adjustments on 200-400VR.

So far so good, does anyone know what are all the fixes in the new release.

http://www.outdoorphoto.co.za/forum/showthread.php?t=10041

Were there any changes? He says his auto image rotation works now where it didn’t before.

Here’s a shot he took to show us:

Again, remember, that this “Strobist” is not THE Strobist.

Also speed increase in the 51 point autofocus provided by the Multi-CAM3500 chip and an increase in 14-bit analog-to-digital converter now 16-bit analog-to-digital convertor to work alongside the existing 16 bit image processor.

Also Nikon Active D Lighting has also been further refined to increase capturing of high and low lights with a manual mode for setting user defined personal settings.
And finally Nikons CLS and Commander mode has also been tweaked more info on this to come.

Remember you hear it hear first from Digital D here at stobistonline.

Lots of new info here and the Strobist is really well liked, I can very much see him getting info that others haven’t or aren’t will to divulge.

CLS tweaks, eh? Might we see an improved SB-800 (SB-900?) The Command SU-800 could also be made way smaller… and have a built-in radio for god sake.

…Nikon are refusing to comment but I can confirm the new Nikon is going to be their flagship model not a replacement for the D3 and it is based around wait for it! 24.4 megapixel CMOS processor using the same EXPEED processor but this has been upgraded to a newer version EXPEED II and yes increased ISO performance over the existing D3 and increased frame rate at both 12 million pixels now going up to 13 frames per second and at the full resolution of 24.4 million pixels a class leading 9 frames per second…

I’m fine with everything there, except, INCREASED ISO performance? Does that mean that the D3x may be even MORE sensitive to light than the D3? I find that difficult to believe (REALLY difficult) and sad since that means I might consider selling my D3…

We’ve heard 24.4mp before though, and that’s good. I find the higher FPS possible, but why bother?

And they’ve bumped the firmware version from Expeed 1 to 2, big deal – that’s all marketing.

many rumours are circling in pro circles here in London. I trust my source.

There’s also a ‘Canon 5D’ beater, a smaller 16mp Nikon – to trump any Canon 3D that surfaces before Photokina.

The Canon 5d body only has a street price of basically $1900 and is 12.8MP. So if we’re actually going to see a 5d-killer, then I’m guessing it’ll be a DX-format 16-18MP body. I don’t see any FX-based body at this price, but I’d sure love to.

There are, however, some totally fake mockups here.

I don’t know if it’s worth something… But NPS is throwing a party on the 6th of June in Basel to welcome the professionals working at the European Championships. Maybe they’ll announce something there

An NPS party in Basil for the Euro Championships? Hopefully, they’ll show more than the new Capture!

Also- while he originally posted the address for the RSVP form, I’ve removed it to attempt to avoid it being potentially overrun. If you’d like it, mail me and I’ll send it though.

Hi, I was working with another photographer in Munich Germany yesterday. He works for Nikon. During the European Championship in Soccer the next weeks in Austria and Switzerland, the new D400 FX and the D3X will be avaible for the press. D400 [is] 12 mp [similar] to the D3 but at a much nicer price, the D3X has 24.8 mp according to the friend.

There will also be some new [lenses], but he hadn´t seen them yet.

New lenses! Primes, primes, primes. Or maybe they’ll make .5% of their market happy by coming out with more super-tele’s that only news organizations can afford. Would you buy a $40,000 1000mm f/2.8? Me neither.

The Championships he’s taking about start on the 7th of June! Let’s hope we get some more info that week!

Cyril (thanks Cyril!) breaks the story on this blog (translated):

It’s official (and is virtually excluded in here, the news must be dropped there two hours): Following numerous rumors, Nikon announced (and probably used) during the photography fair of the Bièvre Capture NX 2.

Details of improvements and new features are currently unknown.

(Still no word of it on the French Nikon site.)

Well I had to use CaptureNX again today and was cursing its name as I traversed a wad of directories on my drive one by one instead of SIMPLY TYPING THE F*CKING DIRECTORY NAME.

Do neither Nik nor Nikon have a usability lab?

Here’s hoping for vast UI improvements.

Rumour from a well-connected source is that Nikon will be introducing the dream camera for photojournalists shortly…..perhaps it will be a rangefinder that everyone seems to want, including me, of course.

As far as I’m concerned, no one ever knows what Nikon is going to do. Even Nikon probably doesn’t have a good idea what their MBA’s and assorted bean-counters are going to do- occasionally though, they let something wonderful go through even though it won’t make much money.

The idea of a digital rangefinder falls into the category of small numbers and marginal, at best, profit.

On the other hand- if they’d like to kill Canon on the high-end P&S market, they could come out with a digital rangefinder with capabilities similar to the Canon G9 (and Gx series in general) and make us all happy during those times when there’s no way in hell I’m dragging along my D3 to take snapshots a party, but I’d like to have something with me more than a lame P&S.

So I’m reporting on this 1 liner from LightStalkers both because I hope it’s true and also because LightStalkers is a forum for pro photojournalists who tend to be more connected than your average Fat Guy In a Forum ™.

Hi Matt,

Just to give you an extra on NX 2.0.

Official annoucement is schedule for 3th of June for Europe, maybe worlwide. Some nice things inside

Phil.

Boy, let’s hope so- this morning, I opened my maximum of 20 images (come on! It’s a 4gig machine…) and waited 20+ minutes and each image was still being updated… arg.

Rohan in Australia appears to have obtained unusually specific information about the D3x:

Hi Matt. Love the site. I was in the Camera Exchange in Melbourne, Australia today and the rumor is that sometime after July 1st the 24 mp D3x will be announced and that it will retail at $7400 Australian [ed: That's ~$7100us]. That is actually only about $500 more than the D3 retails for here at the moment. All the best and lets hope the reality lives up to the hype, Rohan

Wow! That’s a nice price for 24mp, let’s hope it actually ends up being that low.

In light of the recent flood of AF-S primes rumors, is this a coincidence or just an oop by Nikon Australia?

I want to believe…

Here’s a thread on dpReview discussing the likely soon arrival of a newer version:

talking with a Nikon tech this morning (I was complaining that the dust-off feature in NX doesn´t work with the D3) I was told that no more updates of NX 1 were expected as the NX 2 is about to see the light. I asked if it was a matter of “months” and the answer was “no, much less than months”.

Also, we’re seeing some price cuts to clear the channel of inventory:

In the Netherlands the price of Capture NX has dropped significantly last week…

Might be an indicator. Over here Capture NX used to cost 139 Eur, but now it sells for

89 Euro here:
http://www.buynikon.eu/product_details.php?id_product=16685

or 69 Euro here:
http://www.kamera-express.nl/index.php?page=product&product=18837

Capture is … frustrating? Way better than nothing, I guess. I say, “I guess” because half the time I go to apply a change to my image, then apply another change, it wipes out the first change and I have to do it again.

I admit that I’m probably still not skilled enough with it, but that still doesn’t change things like how it steadfastly refuses to be a Windows application- the windows are non-standard and don’t behave normally, the menus don’t function the way Windows apps are supposed to implement their menus (Alt-f doesn’t open the File menu, for example), they have a funky way to expand and contract, etc, and on a 20″ LCD (at 1600×1200) which is way higher res than a lot of people use, it’s STILL too little real-estate to have a directory view of my images and do some minor editing.

Also- does anyone really use the control-point technology? I get the images into a workable shape and then into Photoshop from there.

Let’s hope the new one is better.

Hi Matt,

The boss of an important Nikon store who has been highly accurate in the past tells me that the next big announcement is due 1st July. Obviously he has his expectations (most of which have been heard here already) but the key thing for me is a very concrete date.

So this is close enough to the timeframe in Thom’s pronouncement that there’ll be an announcement of somewhere between the end of May and June.

Well now we’ve got two rather precise timeframes to look forward to. Let’s hope they’re not going to just announce another few Coolpix’s!

Thanks Stray!

Again, that’s just lame– poorly played by Rumle on dpReview.

Just thought you might like to know that I heard from a camera shop I was in today that Nikon are planning to release 5 new bodies this year one being a D4 while another is a mini D3. Don’t know how true this is but he heard from the Nikon Rep in the area.

Could be worth a look see if this comes true.

A mini D3- that is, a not huge, lower FPS body with the FX chip will definitely happen. But I don’t see it this year. I could see it happening in ‘09. I also doubt a D4 in ‘08, but who knows? Maybe Nikon is launching an all-out offensive on Canon…

This is super-old news from (~11-07?) before the D3 was even released- they were simply getting ahead of themselves.

Thankfully, that appears to now be corrected. Their site now shows “D3″ and not “D3x”.

So I’m posting this simply to make sure we know it’s a fake if we see it again:

At least his production values are way better than last time.

Does anyone read Japanese and want to translate?

According to this article in Kahoku Online Network, the Nikon Sendai plant has increased capacity by several times!

Nikon SLR camera’s only assembly plant in Sendai Nikon (Natori, Miyagi Prefecture City), digital single-lens reflex cameras to meet the rapid market growth this year to 3-4 times the capacity enhancement, and sales High-double. Strong sales of high-end digital SLR cameras flagship model, “D3″ while maintaining production, to introduce several new models to correspond. Production department employees also increase the sources said about 300 people.

Digital SLR market in the world this year, shipments increased more than 20 percent year-on-year, 900 million more than expected in the industry. This according to Sendai Nikon has an annual production capacity totaling about 140,000 units from 500,000 units to increase much.

So maybe this weekends reports that the Sendai plant was getting ready for putting out two new bodies is correct?

Can anyone vouch for Kohaku news?

The Buzz
Apr 19–Current rumors out of Japan have Nikon introducing the D90, D3x, plus lenses, in the second week of June. I’m tightening my D90 (or whatever they decide to call it) prediction date to between May 12th and June 16th.

Others are betting on new AF-S updates to the 50mm and 85mm.
That sure would be nice, I’d love an AF-S 50mm f/1.4 VR (aspherical, please). I’d also love a modern Noct, but I’m not getting my hopes up.

From the images, it looks like parts of one image are being overlayed on the next image (geeks: makes me think ’stray pointer’/buffer issue…) but from what I can see, there’re only 2 reports of this so far so I’m not giving it full credence yet. It could just as easily be a problem with individuals’ memory cards.

In any case, I don’t shoot in full burst except to impress friends, scare children, and get me closer to paying for a new shutter.

Here’re some examples from another guy on a Nikon list.

I like film, I really do. That’s why I love my F5 and my (used) F3 and my Hasselblad and others.

It wasn’t even until the D2x that I even considered digital good enough for shots that I really cared about.

But let’s face it- it’s curtains for the Nikon film bodies. IIRC (and I could be imagining things), Nikon has even said that there won’t be any more film bodies.

That’s why I’m betting that sooner (maybe not the next one…) than later, we’ll see digital models using the F* convention- maybe the F7.

I’m definitely going out on a limb here but I doubt (and I hope) that the F series won’t be discontinued, but will live on in digital when Nikon finally claims one of their digital bodies to be worthy of the F series designation and heritage.