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.

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.

What’s really interesting to me too is that they’re still using those awful photographer’s vests despite the fact that you ‘re not carrying 10 rolls of film and sets of batteries, etc, on you.

I normally to get away with 2 16gb cards and a polarizer- all easily fitting into 2 pockets, but I’m no pro.

Oh- and just to remind you that being in the right time and the right place is important, I give you this gratuitous shot.

I also remind you that … aw never mind, here’s another really gratutious shot that you will not see published (nsfw- includes a boob).

Cheerleaders (sfw)

More cheerleaders (sfw)

Brazil (sfw)

Female power lifter (didn’t know they had them) (sfw)

Another she’s hot- Marilou Dozois-Prevost of Canada.

Wow, I didn’t even know there were different types of connectors. Thankfully, the D3 use the more normal Type-A.

If you’d like to get a cable, here’s where I bought mine for <$10 and they worked quite well. You do not need to spend a lot of money on an HDMI cable- it’s digital so it (more or less) either gets there or it doesn’t- it’s not like analog audiophile equipment.

And if you haven’t tried the HDMI out of your camera, let me tell you that it’s fantastic and wonderful to be able to put up your family snapshots on a huge HD tv instead of emailing them around a week later.

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?

Pete didn’t seem too concerned though. (If you’re using IE, you may or may not see an embedded youtube video. If not, please use the link):

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

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

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

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

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

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

Subject: Re: D3 back from Buffer Upgrade
From: Harrison Diamond
Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:18:40 -0400

One more thing… on the firmware screen there is now a graphic in the
upper right corner showing two memory chips  and a “2X” to indicate
the buffer upgrade.

This is important because when you buy a used D3 or sell yours, you’ll want to know or be able to show that it was upgraded.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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…

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

Highlights:

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

Fill out this form before sending.

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

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

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.

I can only get it to print to a different printer if I set Windows to default to the printer I want to use.

Presuming I’m right-you’re inconvenienced if you have say, a Laserjet for regular documents and a photo printer for pictures.

This is just plain amateur-hour - very lame. Hopefully this is fixed in V2. I also have to give them hell for not using the regular Windows help system- I can’t stand the Mac-type help- it’s just not easy to find anything without doing a search.

If I’m wrong here, please let me know.

Here.

>[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!

…

I got a chance to play with a new Nikon SB-900 speedlight over the last few days and I gotta say, it’s a pretty sweet flash. Long story short: Nikon has just extended their lead in the flash department.
…

First impression: It is much bigger than the SB-800. Didn’t really seem any heavier, but definitely takes up more space.
…

It’s the most sophisticated refractor/reflector system I have ever seen on a flash. They actually modulate the tube with respect to both the front fresnel and the polished, rear reflector. This gives you the ability to shape the internal qualities of the beam, too.
…

Big on the advantage list: Recycle time absolutely rocks at 2 seconds with no accessory battery back.
…

The bar-coded Nikon gel thing is a little gimmicky — it sets your camera’s WB to the “appropriate” setting. The special Nikon gels could easily be duped with a template and some liquid paper. You will not need to re-up with the official Nikon gels ($$) if you do not want to.
…

Goofy, but cool: At full power, the discharge sounds like a blaster from Star Wars (”pew, pew, pew“). Recycling is almost silent. And oh-so-fast.
…

A “thermometer” in the rear display shows you if you are starting to red-line it.
…

The hot shoe is a new, thicker size that will not fit many current accessory shoes. McNally dropped one out of a Justin Clamp, which is a staple lighting tool.
…

The new AS-21 foot must be used because of the new shoe size.
…

[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.

You have to admire their willingness to destroy $30-$50k worth of camera backs. I wish I had one, I wouldn’t treat it half as harshly as that!

This is to try and help this site get a little higher on the list of searches, so do me a favor and go ahead and ignore it.

Sorry to have to be overly verbose, we KNOW a D700 is a Nikon product but most people search for “nikon d700″.

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.

…To flatten the ongoing 95% viewfinder discussions: In my opinion the 95% of the FX (D700) looks *much better* than the 100% of the DX (D300) body - and the D300 viewfinder is actually quite good…

Plug: B&H still doesn’t have them yet though- and they’re the only shop I trust to be truthful about whether they actually have them or not. When their system says it’s in stock, it’s in stock.

If you’d like to support Nikon Watch and give me a few pennies, then do me a favor and click a B&H ad (like at the top of the page) then place your order like normal.

[Note: this is not a request for you to click a google ad. Urging you to do that violates their policies and I won’t.]

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!

Here he shows you the practical difference in coverage between the D3 and the D700:

Hello Matt,
[There] are lucky guys like me that can use new cameras before they are actually on sale….

I “played” with the D700 this week end, taking pictures of my lovely Rose, a 5 and 1/2
month old australian sherpherd, at the park of Sevres, near Paris.
I [used] the camera as it was given to me, meaning, in program, auto white balance, regular
autofocus, etc. I only changed the ISO according to the amont of light available.

I must say that it is extremely comfortable to re-use the 36×24 finder even if this one “only” cover 95% of the frame (frankly for years i used the F100 and 95% never really bother that much. But for some specific photography i can understand the need). the view finder is clear and crisp, and you can see right away if you are in focus or not.

The autofocus is fast and acurate. But really, my D200 was too, and I think Nikon came up with the most reliable autofocus ever. Even in low light and low contrast, the autofocus works perfectly. It is great not to hear anything moving and ending up with sharp pictures.

The lens- the recent 24-70/2.8 - already fantastic on my D200 is being even better. Silence, speed and acuracy along with good control of lens imperfections bring this zoom to the top. (actually today, i’m going to use the 14-24 and the 70-200 so more pix to come)

All combined, a good light measuring, a great aufocus, an excellent auto white balance and, above all, a super fast response when riggering the shutter make this equipment worth to be bought. I am looking forward to use it in extrem cold weather to see how it will react.

Of course, there are little things that people would expect, but overall, this camera IS FANTASTIC, as always with this brand.

What i like: Everything

What i don’t like: the price (of course!)

I send you several shots of puppy Rose….at the park and at home….

Here’s the shot I like the best:

He’s got some nicer shots from his portfolio here. Hey! Is that Paul McCartney?

Thanks X! If you get a D3x before we do, please send us some shots of that too!

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

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

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

After many hours of work, I have come up with a picture to demonstrate the difference:

This isn’t a great thing- if the cleaner works, I need it, but I also need the full image in the viewfinder- I hate having to guess what I’m going to get in a shot with other cameras I have that don’t show you 100% of the image in the viewfinder.

I’m betting we’ll eventually (D3x? D4? F7?) see a huge viewfinder with both sensor cleaner / shaker and 100% coverage.

So for example, this time he’s found out that the way they’re measuring the viewfinder coverage really equates to 90% coverage, not 95% (bolding is mine, making text red is his):

…here is the definite answer to the question of viewfinder coverage: the 95% figure is NOT a planar measure as it should be, but linear. Hence actual frame coverage is 90%. This figure will vary slightly with the actual lens used. I tested with the 45/2.8 PC-E. Traditionally, frame coverage is specified for a 50 mm lens at infinity.
…
A new confirmation: The dust reduction assemblage adds a frame structure inside the mirror box, just in front of the shutter curtain. This might be a stop for the shaking system? Whatever the explanation, it is clear that this frame will mask the finder slightly. This lends support to the explanation I got from Nikon techs earlier that the dust-removal system was responsible for the slight reduction in finder coverage on the D700, NOT the built-in flash since the prism heads appears to be large enough on its own.

I really have no idea what the difference between planar and linear is in this context, but I’ll accept his word for it.

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.

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

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

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

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

His gallery is here.

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…

Here’s a comparison of the noise at ISO’s from 1,600 - 25,600 with both the D3 and the D700 (translated, original).

Looks the same to my eye, but that’s the point, isn’t it?

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.

But that’s rarely the case- most of the time, I’m trying to satisfy a client who’s paying a ton of money to me (or a company I work with) to get that project finished and deployed.

So I have to bend over backwards and do whatever it takes to make them happy because they’re buying from me and I pride myself on customer service. I don’t pull any shenanigans, I’m up front and you know what to expect.

Because I treat my clients this way, I expect others to do the same and the only shop I deal with which consistently plays zero games, has never let me down, and truly plays it straight is B&H Photo Video.

They’re a LARGE store in downtown Mid-town Manhattan. It’s like Disneyland for cameras and electronics of all sorts. It’s truly an awe-inspiring experience to go there and get to play with all the stuff you’ve been thinking about buying.

They’ve even got this amazing over-head trolley system for the stuff you buy- you say you want a D3 and a 24-70mm and about a minute later, it’ll be waiting for you in the checkout area.

Other stores can be hit or miss- lots of them like to charge your credit card when they think they’re going to get a shipment, or tell you that some thing’s in stock when it’s not- B&H does not do this and that’s why they’ve earned my respect and business and why I’m now part of their affiliate system.

If you like NikonWatch and want to help support it, click on a B&H link and then purchase whatever, it’ll cost you nothing extra and I’ll get a few bucks and thank you.

I’m unhappy they didn’t want to do that, but respect their position to handle each item one by one. I also compliment them on their having a specific person on staff to combat all the problems that seem to arise on the various forums.

But there’s only one store I trust with my thousands of dollars of business…(next post)