photo via Gizmodo
Here’s some highlighted specs:
_16.2 effective megapixel, full-frame sensor (16.6MP total)
_10fps shooting with AF and AE, 11fps with focus and exposure locked, 24fps 2.5MP grabs
_1080p30 HD video at up to 24Mbps with uncompressed video output
_91,000 pixel sensor for metering, white balance, flash exposure, face detection and active d-lighting
_ISO Range 100-12,800 (extendable from 50 – 204,800)
_MultiCAM 3500FX Autofocus sensor works in lower light and with smaller apertures
_Two sub-selector joystick/buttons for shooting orientation
_New EN-EL18 battery (21.6Wh capacity, CIPA-rated at 2600 shots)
_Twin card slots – one Compact Flash and one XQD
Please note I HAVE NOT touched one of these cameras, and NO I didn’t shoot the campaign. and I haven’t yet spent the appropriate time with the camera to tell you any gory details. I’m assuming I’ll be able to chat more soon.
So.. I (we) knew this was coming, but rather than me spouting off about having played with the system (I can’t), or telling you what your feelings about this system should be (I won’t), I’m turning the tables on you.
What’s your take? Love, hate, indifferent? Insights?
[Reminder that Nikon plays close attention to this blog, so your comments on this post – glowing or otherwise – might help inform Nikon about what your thinking.]Link to all the Nikon D4 details and/or purchase here via B&H.
NIKON LISTEN UP
the quality button should be assignable…. it can always be changed via a menu…. I’m not going to pay 6k to shoot a basic jpeg. 😉 JMHO
This mean old batteries, chargers from D3 series will no longer usable if I upgrade to D4. The camera seems to make a video person happier, I am not too crazy about that option. What would Nikon upgrade if they make D4s? more video features? I am a long time happy shooter with D3 and thinking of moving towards medium format instead. We will see what D800 spec will be.
I’m sure it will be an awesome camera. If I was shooting more music gigs, I’d go for it. The only thing I don’t like is having two kinds of cards. If the new format is the future, Nikon should have just dumped CF – that’s what Apple would do!
But, for me, based on the rumoured specs, the possible D800 is more attractive – smaller size and higher resolution (especially if there is no AA filter). Most of the time I don’t shoot a lot of frames and as a landscape/portrait guy, the D800 seems like it might be a better fit.
I think it’s a great camera looking at the specs, if I would be a professional I would definitely think about getting one, but I wonder whether the difference with the D3s is all that big. Anyway, I can’t afford this thing by far, so it doesn’t matter to much for me, but I think Nikon produced a beast again 😀
“The fact is that relatively few photographers ever master their medium. Instead they allow the medium to master them and go on an endless squirrel cage chase from new lens to new paper to new developer to new gadget, never staying with one piece of equipment long enough to learn its full capacities, becoming lost in a maze of technical information that is of little or no use since they don’t know what to do with it.”
-Edward Weston, Camera Craft, Vol. 37, No. 7, pp. 313-20, 1930
Edward Weston said that in 1930, but it is even more true today. With a new “improved” camera released every few months, today’s photographers are bombarded with a plethora of choices in sensor formats, mega-pixels and a multitude of other “improvements”. Photographic equipment manufacturers are in business to sell photographic equipment, but it is up to the individual photographer to buy judiciously. Both Weston and Ansel Adams were strong proponents of mastering the “craft” of photography. Only by understanding and mastering the function of the machinery of photography can one move beyond fumbling with cameras and concentrate on visualization and ultimately the creation of art.
The camera is a tool, nothing more.