New 18 mp Nikon coming in Sept.

Tuolumne

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I was talking to a friend today. Well connected in the Nikon world from previous industry experience. He was telling me about a new high end Nikon coming this September. 18 megapixels, full frame 35mm sensor with no crop factor, backward compatible with lenses made for 1.5x crop factor. I love my D200. I guess I better start saving for this baby.

/T
 
Tell us more. What kind of connection does he have. Any idea on pricing? We have all heard of the d3 but is there any validity to this?
 
I'll believe it when its announced by Nikon

from the rumor mill that is supposed to be on July 25th on their anniversary

but I am really interested in the next Nikon body
 
It will be interesting to see if this is true. I wonder if it will be priced in line with the Canon 5D or the 1DSII and what effect this will have on pricing of Canon's stuff.

Amateur Photographer believes that Sony is preparing a full-frame digital for its Alpha line of cameras. And because Nikon uses Sony sensors, it could very well be that Nikon will offer a full-frame camera.

I was going to make some smarty-pants crack about the "industry source" or "friend with inside knowledge" that gets quoted much too often on Internet forums. Instead, I'll just take a wait-and-see attitude.
 
Tuolumne said:
full frame 35mm sensor with no crop factor, backward compatible with lenses made for 1.5x crop factor.
I have a water filter that is backward compatible with liquid nitrogen. I drink water all the time, you should trust me ;)
 
I wouldn't have posted this if the guy wasn't credible. He used to be a major player in the technology business. I can well-believe he would have connections at Nikon. I prefer not to say any more to protect his identity. Take it for what it's worth. I just thought it was very interesting. I may have to put off buying that ZI film body now! :D

/T
 
Gabriel M.A. said:
I have a water filter that is backward compatible with liquid nitrogen. I drink water all the time, you should trust me ;)

It apparently has a switch that flips it back and forth from full-frame mode to 1.5x crop-factor mode. I assume that means it would have lower resolution in the 1.5x crop factor mode.

/T
 
solaris10 said:
Tell us more. What kind of connection does he have. Any idea on pricing? We have all heard of the d3 but is there any validity to this?

No info on pricing. I assume it would be in the same ball park as Canon's highest-end full-frame senor. I think this is supposed to be the Nikon D3x.

/T
 
Tuolumne said:
No info on pricing. I assume it would be in the same ball park as Canon's highest-end full-frame senor. I think this is supposed to be the Nikon D3x.

/T
There isn't going to be an 'x' or 'h' anymore. After the d2h was released nikon made some statement to the point of there being no further need to having 2 seperate lines.

It should be just a 'D3'
 
You mean it's compatible with the lenses made especially for the smaller sensors? I wonder what the point of that is.. You'd expect immense vignetting with those lenses with a full frame sensor.
 
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ywenz said:
You mean it's compatible with the lenses made especially for the smaller sensors? I wonder what the point of that is.. You'd expect immense vignetting with those lenses with a full frame sensor.

It will crop its full frame sensor to accomodate the DX lenses

its allows those who own the 17-55 2.8 or 12-24 4 DX lenses to still use them on the new body without vignetting

IF Nikon wants to get a big chunk of the crowd it would be wise to make sure the price is below 7 grand
 
Nikon has made such a big investment (financial and psychological) in its DX format and lenses that I just can't believe they'd change course now and revert to a 24x36mm-format sensor.

It would be like admitting that Canon was right and they were wrong, and also, as time goes by, fewer and fewer photographers care about having a sensor the same size as ye old filmme that Grandpa used to use...
 
jlw said:
... and also, as time goes by, fewer and fewer photographers care about having a sensor the same size as ye old filmme that Grandpa used to use...


True - but what they do care about is image quality, and photosites can only be crammed in those smaller sensors to a point before quality suffers (s/n ratio). The bigger sensor would mean that nikon could compete on a pure iq basis, and really take advantage of their wonderful older lenses. Which is an advantage over Canon.

just my $.02
 
jlw said:
Nikon has made such a big investment (financial and psychological) in its DX format and lenses that I just can't believe they'd change course now and revert to a 24x36mm-format sensor.

It would be like admitting that Canon was right and they were wrong, and also, as time goes by, fewer and fewer photographers care about having a sensor the same size as ye old filmme that Grandpa used to use...

Maybe not. Maybe 18MP is just too many sensor sites to get on a 1.5x crop sensor, so the move to full-frame makes sense to keep the cost of the sensor and high-ISO sensitivity under control at that resolution - which is necessary to up the stakes in the megapixel race, esp. with medium-format digital prices coming down.
 
Is it a rangefinder? 18MP??? Who cares? It's not really about megapixels any more. Boring! ;)
 
Tuolumne said:
I wouldn't have posted this if the guy wasn't credible. He used to be a major player in the technology business. I can well-believe he would have connections at Nikon. I prefer not to say any more to protect his identity. Take it for what it's worth. I just thought it was very interesting. I may have to put off buying that ZI film body now! :D

/T

Well, having worked in the camera manufacturing industry, he either has some lose mouth friends in Nikon (not likely as they all sign confidentiality argeements), or he has simply tapped into the rumour mill.

I don't know why you would want to protect his identity. He could have betrayed the trust placed in him by a Nikon employee if his claim is true. If it is not true, he is not credible anyway.

But I will go out on a limb and call it a hoax. If the release in really in September, the press release should be out now (or soon). Nikon should know by now if the camera is going into production and they are not going to benefit by surprizing us when the product hits the shelves. This is going to be a big investment and they need to get the sales.
 
Tuolumne said:
I was talking to a friend today. Well connected in the Nikon world from previous industry experience. He was telling me about a new high end Nikon coming this September. 18 megapixels, full frame 35mm sensor with no crop factor, backward compatible with lenses made for 1.5x crop factor. I love my D200. I guess I better start saving for this baby.

/T
I'll admit that Nikon needs to have this mystery camera in teh worst way but this post is misleading and wrong. I have been hearing about the D3 coming down the pike for the last 2 years and it is always a fantasy. 18 MP is fine but a full frame (24mmx36mm) sensor that will not vignette a DX lens is mathmatically and physically immpossible.

Nikon gets it's sensors from SONY.

Sony does not make a FF sensor.

So where would Nikon be getting it?? Kodak?

You won't have to worry about saving for soon as this is a fantasy.

david
 
igoesmyth said:
I'll admit that Nikon needs to have this mystery camera in teh worst way but this post is misleading and wrong. I have been hearing about the D3 coming down the pike for the last 2 years and it is always a fantasy. 18 MP is fine but a full frame (24mmx36mm) sensor that will not vignette a DX lens is mathmatically and physically immpossible.

Nikon gets it's sensors from SONY.

Sony does not make a FF sensor.

So where would Nikon be getting it?? Kodak?

You won't have to worry about saving for soon as this is a fantasy.

david

Sony has mentioned that their first pro-camera will most likely feature a full frame or a 1.1x sensor

I have a feeling both Nikon and Sony's new cameras will be announced pretty close to each other, mostly likely will be using the same sensor
 
Everyone makes way to big a deal about mega-pixel counts. I shoot with both the Canon 1Ds Mii and the Nikon D2Xs. I pick up the Nikon way more than the Canon. The camera is simply more responsive and ergonomically designed. Plus it's a little smaller (bodies and lenses) and has way better batteries. In comparing final images, the Nikon image quality is just as good. In fact, I think the images have a little more depth to them. The Canon images are a little plastic in comparison.

It's quickly getting to the point where a photographer can just pick his gear based on preference of features other than mega pixel - just like the old days.

I don't ever recall anyone thinking a point and shoot was better than an F3 just becasue the point and shoot was loaded with Kodachrome and the F3 with Plus X.

I will say, "Hey Nikon, how about some fast primes!"

Which reminds me, 18+ mega pixels is pointless anyway. No current Nikon or Canon lenses are good enough to take advantage of the resolution.

Sorry for the ranting....
 
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