I think it’s harder to justify the markups on lens hoods though.

For example, a 100% profit margin on diopter eyepieces sounds stiff. But even at that margin, it’s hard to find local dealers who stock them. Considering the different diopter values and eyepiece shapes Nikon uses, and how infrequently the average dealer probably sells a diopter eyepiece, it’s no wonder few dealers want to maintain an inventory.

But if you need a diopter eyepiece, you really do need to find someone who stocks them — since everybody’s eyes are different, and different camera models have different built-in diopter values, the only way to be sure you’re getting the right one is to look through them. Maybe 100% isn’t a high enough margin on this type of item…

May be something similar.

I don’t know how or why he became an authority on Nikon gear. I suppose it is because he speaks to the masses, but that alone doesn’t make him worthwhile to listen to.

Anyways, I find it interesting that Bjorn Rorslett said this regarding the barrel distortion of the new 50:

“The barrel distortion, typical for this class of lens, is kept under good control.”

I suppose that this might be a matter of sample variation. But I am going to take Bjorn’s word on this, no Ken “Top Googlesearch” Rockwell.

matt, the D40 comment has to be one of his comments that is most misunderstood and taken out of context. Perhaps you should ask him what he meant. He must know since he doesn’t shoot exclusively with a D40.

max123, is your sense of self-worth so low that you have to insult him and anyone who reads it. I find his writing interesting, are you saying I have an IQ of 50. You don’t even know me. Get over yourself. If you don’t like his writing style, fine, but having to insult him and his readers is just immature.

Matrix, I enjoy both Bjorn’s and Ken’s reviews for different reasons. Sometimes raw spec numbers don’t tell the story and I want to read actual words instead of just charts and numbers.

For me- seeing the difference between performance in a Sigma lens and a Zeiss lens for a Hasselblad was a defining moment and it appears he’d be plenty happy with Sigma-level performance from that remark.

If your pictures don’t mean much to you- feel free to use whatever quality you like.

even a monkey knows the blue channel has the most noise on every camera…

basically another dumb “test”

I suppose if you understand German it wouldn’t be as funny because you’d hear the original script (I’m assuming it wasn’t over-dubbed). And the way a few words coincided (like Stalin), was absolutely brilliant. I hope they play this at Nikon headquarters because while it may not be accurate, there’s always a modicum of truth in any satire like this.

http://flickr.com/photos/msmelva/3088337514/

Anyway… amusing but of dubious validity. Check the shutter duty cycles on the Sony and Canon 5D and you’ll see they’re not comparable cameras to the D3x. Canon’s comparable heavy-duty, high-megapixel camera, the 1Ds Mk III, sells for about $1,300 less than the D3x, but it has been on the market long enough for the price to moderate a bit.

As for that sample shot, wow. It’s amazing how fast you can detect the change in focus between the eyes, considering it’s shot at f/8 on a 60 micro.

Looks like the wardrobe and make up people are going to have to be upgraded as well. Up close, you can see every imperfection. Her nostrils look like an organ belonging to a woolly mammoth. The pattern design on her skin is revealed to be roughly-cut plastic. Her fake nails look to be hastily applied– with a fingerprint showing on one! Either the set crew will need to go high res or post-processing will become a nightmare.

Yeah, good one- the cat pictures will start any second now…

“to take high-res pictures of their pets and kids”

LOL 100% agreed

Nikon is not about to give this camera away, Canon has already set the price range for a top of the line camera, why would Nikon want to get into a pricing war with Canon? Both would lose.

I can picture it now: “Well. the camera is a bit more expensive than I thought it would be, so do you think it would work well with the 18-55DX VR which is only $180?”

Nikon has also put up some sample pics. Some look incredible, some look no better than could have been done with a D3 or D700 or even a D300 and in the last sample, #10, the reds are completely blown out, at least on my monitor.

I’m a little surprised they didn’t try to price this a bit lower than the Canon 1Ds Mark III, which is currently selling for $6680 at B&H.

Fair enough, but I’ll be shocked if they actually sell it at nearly $9,500.

Guess we’ll find out in a few hours.

While it’s too early to say for sure, Nikon seems to have split the baby here. It doesn’t sound like a magical upgrade akin to the 14-24. And while it probably won’t be compared to Canon’s 50L, it is also significantly more expensive than its AF-D predecessor, making it much less likely to be picked up by the aspiring amateur.

Maybe photo samples will say otherwise, but Nikon seems to be filling a non-existent void. It will be interesting to see this lens stacks up against Sigma’s new 50.

There are lots of people out there who can and will put the camera to good use, but many who will buy it for video are unprepared. At least, the D90 video can be handled by most computers.

Do you really think the original poster “ThomasMiller” at dpreview.com is legit?
“ThomasMiller” is being known to be the main troll account of a guy named Rober E. Brody from Carmel, NY in the USA.
Other dpreview troll accounts of him are “Brian Coles”, “precisionshot”, “Buttes Keeper”, “lordofnikon”, “armando amayo”, “ThomasH_always”, “EricIsDerek”, “touristguy87″, “Bobsprit”, “captRob”, “captRB”, …

So do you think you can trust a proven and excessive liar like Brody???

But I agree that a new 85mm makes more sense to have first than a new 35mm.

Having said all that, there’s no reason to think anyone on a retail floor knows anything about what’s coming. Head buyer for B&H? Maybe. Salesperson on the floor? No way. They’re probably getting info from sites like this one.

The poster you refer to is a major internet troll and one of the biggest trolls on dpreview. com for *years*!
His name is Robert E. Brody from Carmel, NY in the USA and known for excessive lying. He posts under a variety of accounts at dpreview, not only under his main troll account “ThomasMiller” but also under “Brian Coles, “armando amayo”, “ThomasH_always”, “EricIsDerek”, “touristguy87″,
“Bobsprit”, “captRob”, “captRB”, …

So make up your own mind how likely to be true a post from him is…(hint: Look waaaay down below the “0″ mark!)

Nikon produced a roadmap for the introduction of the PC•E lenses. Made sense since it would entice pros to buy the D3 and wouldn’t cannibalize sales of existing lenses (except the 85mm PC-Micro, whose sales were probably negligible).

Nikon could care less like United Airlines doesn’t care about Southwest. They care. Red has a substantial capital backing and I wouldn’t bet on a recession thwarting that. All of it was vaporware 4 years ago, look where they are now.

“Imagine having to post process a bunch of those.” Its a little thing called vision. Imagine digital cameras 8 years ago, 540 x 480? I bet you laughed at a megapixel then too. Much ado about your ignorance and lack of vision.

Of course you can upgrade the camera when the “brain” costs more than most other full cameras. The FF Scarlet brain is going to cost $7K (that’s without viewfinder, power supply, storage, lenses, etc.) The FF Epic “brain” is going to cost $35,000 (without all other stuff.)

Nikon couldn’t care less…this is not a market they would ever want to be in. How many is Red going to sell of these? 50? 100?

And let’s take a look at the other sensors. The 2/3″ sensor is 6.3% the size of full frame. The S35 sensor is 52% the size of full frame (about 20% larger than DX). Now the 645 and 617 sensors are impressive, but they’re just drawings. And the 617 sensor creates a 261 MP image. Imagine having to post-process a bunch of those!!

And best of all, this is all vaporware. None (or virtually none) of it exists.

My bet is that in this recession, some of this never gets manufactured.

Much ado about nothing.

As far as Foveon, I think the technology was overhyped from the beginning. Hopefully, Sigma’s camera division won’t sink the whole company.

More important for me, though is for Nikon to address the foolish lack of focus points in the corners and sides–the center weight works fine for digital specific lenses, but if I’m buying a full frame sensor camera, why the heck would I use anything other than a standard lens? The high speed action that I document means I’m frequently a slave to auto focus, and the inability for me to place my subjects in the corners or or more heavily to one side or another of the frame is a source of constant frustration.

Kodak invented digital image sensors, but the internal experts convinced management thet they would never replace film.

I worked for a large high technology company, and I saw it all the time. The “experts” just can’t believe that anyone else but them could invent something good.

greetings from Vienna

However, it gets more difficult with a large sensor compared to a 2/3 inch one.

I don’t know if this new camera is planning a larger sensor or not. And pro film and video cameras have always featured removable lenses. They just weren’t necessarily Canon or Nikon mount lenses.

Until the last part of the survey, I thought it was “sort of” OK, although it got a bit silly by asking me to provide a detailed rating on lots of different features. I would have preferred some more open-ended questions, like:

List the top three things that you like (or dislike) about the D3.

I would also have liked to be able to comment on the recently announced $550 buffer upgrade, and the fact that Capture NX 2 is not a free upgrade.

However, the Big Picture is that Nikon is surveying owners AND that they do provide firmware upgrades that add functionality (e.g. D2 and D2X)

And if there’s a motion sensor, you could theoretically, with a camera mounted on some sort of servo, control panning or tilting by moving your head.

On the other hand, just as I don’t want in-ear headphones (to preserve what’s left of my hearing), I don’t think I want any video display device so close to my eye.

Happy birthday to Nikon and all Nikonians out there!

I think the movie samples speak for themselves… at least those video’s I have seen in “normal” use doesn’t show this jello effect so it isn’t something which you can’t avoid. It also doesn’t seem limiting except maybe in very high action shoot. Fortunatly I’m mostly landscape and nature photographer so this feature will be used in “proper” manner hehe..

Only thing I wish that D90 have but doesn’t is full HD movie (1080p) but maybe that comes in the more expensive D3x or D4.

I haven’t seen a problem with either camera with videos made in a proper manner. The Canon 5D does appear to have less of the artifacts, but is 2.6 times the price of the D90. As technology advances with faster cmos sensors, expect things to get much better.

but here’s real usage of d90. looks great.

http://www.vimeo.com/1791011
http://www.vimeo.com/1774030
http://www.vimeo.com/1775787

http://nrkbeta.no/bilder-og-video-av-canon-5d-mark-ii/
http://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/2008/09/21/547601.html
http://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/2008/09/21/547601.html
http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2008_08_01_archive.html

Certainly Canon will have a similar one, however, from clips I’ve seen, it appears a little less noticible. Canon has a lot of experience making video cameras, so they may have a slight advantage here.

As long as you learn to use the camera within its limitations, there should be no problem. If you want to wave your camera back and forth, no one would want to see your video in any event.

http://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/2008/09/21/547601.html

I think Canon should have hired me instead, see what I do with my Nikon D80 and Canon G9 on my website at http://www.icelandphotoblog.com

Having said that I love that the movie feature is here… looking forward to try it out when Nikon D90 will be available in stores here in Iceland.

Sincerely,
Stefan

But I’m still happy that Canon did this because it means that Nikon will probably have to put 1080p 30fr into a higher end body, which is exactly what I’d like to see (along with the HDMI output with audio and mic in.) Nikon could take it one step further by also supporting line in, SMPTE Time Code and on the mic in supporting both low-impedance (pro) and high-impedance microphones.