Anyone think Nikon will do a FF in a smaller sized body?

BPerron

I have been wondering lately if Nikon would kind of take the route of Canon and do a FF in smaller body, like the 5d? I know it is all speculation, but I know that there are some people who know the industry fairly well and might have some insight?

Harryb

Nikon has said that they are going to be concentrating on higher end bodies this year. I would expect them to release the D3X uber camera before October. There are rumors that a FF prosumer body will also be released before the end of the year.

BPerron

Harryb wrote:

Nikon has said that they are going to be concentrating on higher end bodies this year. I would expect them to release the D3X uber camera before October. There are rumors that a FF prosumer body will also be released before the end of the year.

Yeah I would really like to see a FF prosumer for sure!!!! Thanks Harry B

SavedByZero

BPerron wrote:

I have been wondering lately if Nikon would kind of take the route of Canon and do a FF in smaller body, like the 5d? I know it is all speculation, but I know that there are some people who know the industry fairly well and might have some insight?

If you can wait another 3 or 4 years I'd bet they all go back to FF bodies from the mid level on up. Leaving APS-C for the basic DSLR kits. It's just a matter of production costs for the FF sensor. Just look where we were 3 or 4 years ago in terms of pro body DSLR sensor sizes.



If the new Sony A900 24.6mp FF DSLR is under $4k, as it's rumored to be, the race will be on for Canon and Nikon to be the next to come down in price and up in MP to stay in the lead or a head of each other. It's just going to take some time.

BPerron

SavedByZero wrote:

If you can wait another 3 or 4 years I'd bet they all go back to FF bodies from the mid level on up. Leaving APS-C for the basic DSLR kits. It's just a matter of production costs for the FF sensor. Just look where we were 3 or 4 years ago in terms of pro body DSLR sensor sizes.



If the new Sony A900 24.6mp FF DSLR is under $4k, as it's rumored to be, the race will be on for Canon and Nikon to be the next to come down in price and up in MP to stay in the lead or a head of each other. It's just going to take some time.

Yeah I know at some point that most will come with FF, but I was thinking with in the next year or so...So I thought some one might be able to guess at it or read somewhat valid rumors...The sony looks pretty impressive, I agree Nikon and Canon will have to figure something out to compete...

If anyone has any other insights into this I would love to hear them...

jziegler

SavedByZero wrote:

If you can wait another 3 or 4 years I'd bet they all go back to FF bodies from the mid level on up. Leaving APS-C for the basic DSLR kits. It's just a matter of production costs for the FF sensor. Just look where we were 3 or 4 years ago in terms of pro body DSLR sensor sizes.

That's not very likely. FF will likely remain a high priced niche product for a long time. Production costs for the sensors will be high for a long time because of the size of the chips. With a chip that size, the defect rate will be a problem, unless something big happens to chip fabrication (and I haven't heard of such a thing, and being in electronics, I would probably hear about it quickly). It's not an economies of scale issue, it's a physics issue with being able to create enough defect free sections of silicon large enough for big sensors.

Matthew Saville

Three cameras coming: D3X, D90, D10...

BPerron wrote:

I have been wondering lately if Nikon would kind of take the route of Canon and do a FF in smaller body, like the 5d? I know it is all speculation, but I know that there are some people who know the industry fairly well and might have some insight?

There are three cameras that are "inevitable", regardless of rumors:

The D3X will be 24 megapixels, full-frame FX, basically a D3 with Sony's A900 sensor swapped in. High-resolution fashion / landscape lens, made for use at lower ISOs and slower speeds, while the D3 continues as the high-speed, high-ISO sports camera. This is such a no-brainer guess. The unknown is the price, but most guesses put it at $5-6K...

The D90 will replace the D80, duh. The D80 is getting old, so it's only a matter of time. Some say it will come this year. It should be to the D300 what the d80 was to the D200. Figure it out... About $1K...

The D10, as it is code-named, is the wild card. The name comes from the MB-D10 vertical battery grip that the D300 currently uses. The guesses at WHAT the camera will actually be are all over the board. Some speculate that if they simply made a D300 witth a D3 sensor, that D3 sales would fall like a rock. This camp argues that a D10 will be more amateur-oriented, maybe plastic, more D80 / D90 like, just a D3 sensor in as cheap of a body as possible. The rest of us hope NOT. Nikon needs a strong, no-compromises answer to the 5D, heck it actually needs to compete with the 5D mk2 now. If they're going to make a D10, it would indeed be this. The MB-D10 grip is magnesium framed, weather-sealed, accepts D3 batteries, etc. This points to the D10 being nothing less than what Nikon officially calls a "semi-professional" body. The problem here is the price. If they made a "super-cheap" FX body, they could maybe get it down to $2500. But if they go with the full-fledged semi-pro body, you're looking at $3500 easily.


Take care,
=Matt=

BPerron

Matthew Saville wrote:

There are three cameras that are "inevitable", regardless of rumors:

The D3X will be 24 megapixels, full-frame FX, basically a D3 with Sony's A900 sensor swapped in. High-resolution fashion / landscape lens, made for use at lower ISOs and slower speeds, while the D3 continues as the high-speed, high-ISO sports camera. This is such a no-brainer guess. The unknown is the price, but most guesses put it at $5-6K...

The D90 will replace the D80, duh. The D80 is getting old, so it's only a matter of time. Some say it will come this year. It should be to the D300 what the d80 was to the D200. Figure it out... About $1K...

The D10, as it is code-named, is the wild card. The name comes from the MB-D10 that the D300 currently uses. The guesses at WHAT the camera will actually be are all over the board. Some speculate that if they simply made a D300 witth a D3 sensor, that D3 sales would fall like a rock. This camp argues that a D10 will be more amateur-oriented, maybe plastic, more D80 / D90 like, just a D3 sensor in as cheap of a body as possible. The rest of us hope NOT. Nikon needs a strong, no-compromises answer to the 5D, heck it actually needs to compete with the 5D mk2 now. If they're going to make a D10, it would indeed be this. The MB-D10 grip is magnesium framed, weather-sealed, accepts D3 batteries, etc. This points to the D10 being nothing less than what Nikon officially calls a "semi-professional" body. The problem here is the price. If they made a "super-cheap" FX body, they could maybe get it down to $2500. But if they go with the full-fledged semi-pro body, you're looking at $3500 easily.


Take care,
=Matt=

That all makes alot of sense to me...I am really hoping Nikon makes a FF pro-sumer body really soon, I want FF, but do not want the size or need nearly the options that the d3 offers right now...so I am hoping this will happen soon, or I will have to break down and get a D3...

Thanks for offering your insight...Are there any guesses when this stuff will come out?

Matthew Saville

BPerron wrote:

That all makes alot of sense to me...I am really hoping Nikon makes a FF pro-sumer body really soon, I want FF, but do not want the size or need nearly the options that the d3 offers right now...so I am hoping this will happen soon, or I will have to break down and get a D3...

Thanks for offering your insight...Are there any guesses when this stuff will come out?

We will without a doubt see the D3X by Photokina, this fall. The D90 probably a bit before, and the D10 most likely at the very end of the year, or in Jan. 2009 right before PMA. That's my wager.

I really do agree concerning the D3 and how much "overkill" it is for any who simply want full-frame, and don't need a behemoth speed-demon of a camera, and the $5,000 price tag that comes with it. In my field especially, wedding photography, we just do NOT need the full $5K worth of camera. I can't even imagine shooting a wedding at 9 FPS, it would be a joke. I'd set CL (continuous low-speed) to 4-5 FPS and leave it there, probably even switching to single shot during the ceremony.

That is why I'm rooting for a D300 with the D3 sensor. Make it $3K, and I'll buy at least one...

=Matt=

Mitchell

A lot of speculation here, but nobody really knows for sure what they are talking about.

Nikon holds these cards very close to the vest.

Will there be a Nikon FF prosumer body? Yes. The only question is how long we will have to wait for one.

BPerron

Matthew Saville wrote:

We will without a doubt see the D3X by Photokina, this fall. The D90 probably a bit before, and the D10 most likely at the very end of the year, or in Jan. 2009 right before PMA. That's my wager.

I really do agree concerning the D3 and how much "overkill" it is for any who simply want full-frame, and don't need a behemoth speed-demon of a camera, and the $5,000 price tag that comes with it. In my field especially, wedding photography, we just do NOT need the full $5K worth of camera. I can't even imagine shooting a wedding at 9 FPS, it would be a joke. I'd set CL (continuous low-speed) to 4-5 FPS and leave it there, probably even switching to single shot during the ceremony.

That is why I'm rooting for a D300 with the D3 sensor. Make it $3K, and I'll buy at least one...

=Matt=

Great thank you very much...I am with you on this, I am wanting to get into wedding photography and for sure needing a better camera.

BPerron

Mitchell wrote:

A lot of speculation here, but nobody really knows for sure what they are talking about.

Nikon holds these cards very close to the vest.

Will there be a Nikon FF prosumer body? Yes. The only question is how long we will have to wait for one.

Yeah, I understand this...however there tends to be trends in every consumer market when it comes to technology especially with the rivalry of cameras, so that is what I am looking for...thank you for your comment.