Nikon retro-inspired camera

[olakiril]

https://nikonrumors.com/2021/05/24/...ld-be-retro-inspired-and-df-like-camera.aspx/

There are rumors for a new Nikon camera with a unique retro design.

Personally, I don't mind if it is APS-C or FF but the huge Z mount on small camera though looks awful and makes lenses unnecessarily big. What I would like to see is a relatively clean camera not full of buttons and dials like Df or PenF, proper manual focus lenses, a good quality side EVF and finally (and most unlikely of all) the ability to load custom 3DLUTs.

I wouldn't get my hopes up and most likely I will end up with a Fuji again once my X-Pro1 dies.

Just for fun, what do you think the design will be?

 

[Michalm]

I would rather want to see digital Nikon SP with high enough resolution EVF to be able to quickly focus manually without having to use magnified view.

 

[Archlich]

Would be amazing if it's fixed lens...an updated Coolpix A.

Doesn't look very likely though.

 

[jsrockit]

I would rather want to see digital Nikon SP with high enough resolution EFV to be able to quickly focus manually without having to use magnified view.

You and many others here, but it’s never happening.

 

[css9450]

The trouble is, "retro-inspired" means something different to everyone.


For example.... How about a nice large EVF.... In a viewfinder prism shaped exactly like the big Photomic heads of the Nikon F! I personally think that would be awesome but some here would think it would be an abomination.

 

[Larry Cloetta]

John’s right, when Nikon starts talking “retro” (again) most of the retro people (like me) want, and have wanted, a digital SP. Then Lucy pulls the football away. And we get a Df, which had an exceptional sensor but was otherwise no one’s retro dream camera. Now best guess seems retro is going to mean a mirrorless Df. Which is a bit meh.

 

[vytasn]

Instead of another body I would like to see some more lenses, like maybe the 28mm and 40mm small primes that have been promised for the last two years and not delivered.

 

[Archlich]

I'm good as long as it's something different. Not just Nikon, the "mainstream" makers do seriously need some identity on their offerings.

 

[Larry Cloetta]

https://nikonrumors.com/2021/05/24/...ld-be-retro-inspired-and-df-like-camera.aspx/

<snip>…..
but the huge Z mount on small camera though looks awful and makes lenses unnecessarily big (highlight is mine)...

I understand that “unnecessarily” here is just a word choice, but it’s one which comes up quite often in the context of new generation mirrorless cameras and their new lenses. I’d submit that they are not at all unnecessarily big if your desire or need is for the most “perfect” lenses. Roger Cicala has done the best explanation of that I’ve seen, that was more than marketing talk, though there are likely others. It’s an interesting read.
https://www.dpreview.com/opinion/9236543269/why-are-modern-50mm-lenses-so-damned-complicated

Peter Karbe at Leica, who has designed both the 35 APO Summicron-SL lens and the newer 35 APO Summicron-M lens has acknowledged that the SL lens is a better lens, and it’s a better lens because larger diameter mounts, all other things being equal, make better lenses more possible. His assumption is that people would take this for granted.

“Better” in today’s lens world, where manufacturers need to keep “doing something” in order to keep selling something new, which is the only way they survive, mostly means sharper to the corners at all f stops. It’s not an attribute I necessarily find to be worth the trouble, from the standpoint of the esthetics of the resulting photos, but that’s where we are. We do have other options, like the aforementioned Fuji APS-C options.

But, bigger lenses are not “unnecessarily” big if the results they make possible are the results one feels one needs. They are very much necessary in that case, which is why Nikon, Leica, Panasonic, Canon have all gone that way. It’s optical physics. It’s also the only way forward to make the “better” lenses that they can use to convince some people they need to buy something else, and it’s the buying of something else that’s the only thing that keeps companies around.

But, yeah, I’d rather have a digital SP with lenses to match, because I don’t care about sharp to the corners, because there’s rarely anything in the corners I find particularly interesting in my “work”. Work, LOL.

 

[gavinlg]

Sign me up for that digital SP too. Manual focus or very small AF primes if possible please.

In the meantime I'm actually really liking my Z6.

 

[olakiril]

I’d rather have a digital SP with lenses to match, because I don’t care about sharp to the corners, because there’s rarely anything in the corners I find particularly interesting in my “work”. Work, LOL.

Yep I agree, a digital SP would be great. The unnecessarily was specifically about the large diameter Z mount which if anything is optimized for FF. So using it for APS-C cameras forces APS-C lenses to be that large at the mounting point. Maybe it is a fixed lens camera like X100 who knows.

 

[Erik van Straten]

I don't get it. The SP was not a very succesfull camera. Horrible viewfinder.

The Nikon S2 was a great camera (and still is). Why not a digital S2, with all its viewfinders, lenses and accessories that also can be used on the original S2?

Erik.

 

[PaulDalex]

My preference would be for a digital Nikon F with F mount compatible with non AI lenses.
AF is ok but also focus confirmation for manual lenses like the F4
Full frame sensor of last generation with at least 50 MP

Of course Nikon F in mirrorless disguise

 

[splitimageview]

Horrible viewfinder.

Horrible? LOL

An S-style rangefinder would be interesting to see, with that HUGE Z lens mount. Nearly any lens would dwarf the camera.

 

[Out to Lunch]

Nikon's survival is hanging by a thread. My two cents: I don't expect it to venture into the niche 'retro' market anytime soon. Cheers, OtL

 

[BillBingham2]

Inspired = Market Chatter

B2 (;->

p.s. Remember the last Yashica Inspired Camera.........

 

[Phil_F_NM]

I agree with OTL. I'm hoping that the "retro" part of Nikon is for them to stay afloat, not bring out some niche camera, made in cooperation with Cosina but Nikon branded, that only a few thousand people in the world will purchase. If they do, the model may be indeed called a Nikon 'S2' for Swan Song. My opinion, of course.

Phil Forrest

 

[f.hayek]

Look, Nikon isn’t going away. In the very worst case scenario, some CCP Princelings will snap up the earthly remains just as happened with Hasselblad and Volvo.

 

[Larry Cloetta]

I don't get it. The SP was not a very succesfull camera. Horrible viewfinder.

Erik.

Horrible viewfinder? Whoa. That’s an opinion, it’s not a fact. And it’s an opinion that’s only valid for people who mostly confine themselves to the 50mm focal length, in which case the S2 is better, cheaper, option.
But, the ability to see 28,35,50,85, and 105 framelines, instantly, without having to futz with carrying around a sack full of clip on viewfinders, that’s a genius viewfinder, especially at the time.
I had a S2 and agree it’s cleaner for someone who only uses a 50 or 35, but never had a second’s worth of problem with the view through the SP, in actual usage, and felt the viewfinder was the best thing about the SP, and the biggest reason to own one.
Definitely not horrible.

Anyway, not going to happen, either one.

 

[agentlossing]

Would be amazing if it's fixed lens...an updated Coolpix A.

Doesn't look very likely though.

I want to see anyone make a 40-50mm fixed lens compact with a good size sensor. We have enough 28mm equivalents, but more of a fixed nifty fifty would be amazing, if they could make it small.