D700 replacement gets pictured, won't be long now

November 22, 2011 – 2:31 pm

Finally, some interesting developments in the ongoing quest for information on the successor to Nikon's D700 DSLR. Nikon Rumors have uploaded a couple of shots of what is purported to be the D800, Nikon's much-awaited followup to its successful FX shooter.

Nikon D800 front lighter full

The images are fairly convincing, though debate is (as always) raging as to their authenticity.

The camera is widely expected to have a full-frame 36mp sensor, full video capabilities, and of course all the goodness of the D700 turned up a notch. Me, I just hope it does indeed have a 100% viewfinder rather than the D700's 90%.

Whether these turn out to be true images of the D800 or not, I have little doubt that we'll know all about this camera for sure soon.

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Amazing time-lapse from the International Space Station

November 16, 2011 – 1:20 am

Wow. Just wow. Check out this timelapse video created by Michael König from images shot by astronauts aboard the ISS. EXIF from the original photos shows that they were taken using a D3s.

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

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Nikon "Young Designer" video

November 12, 2011 – 2:47 pm

P300OK, so this YouTube flick may be a little cringeworthy in places, but also offers an interesting insight in to the human aspect of Nikon we don't often see.

The video tells the story of a 26-year old industrial designer working at Nikon who was responsible for the Coolpix P300. It has been around for about a month now, but worth a view if you have 9 minutes and your saccharine tolerance isn't too low...

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Nikon Q&A on financial results

November 10, 2011 – 11:05 pm

Nikon have published a Q&A on their latest set of financial results, and there are some interesting bits of information in there. For the full article visit the Nikon site, but here are a few highlights:

Q:What can you tell us about extraordinary losses and insurance coverage on the damage from the floods in Thailand?

A: At present, facilities are still submerged and we are unable to obtain an accurate damage bill and as a result, extraordinary losses resulting from damage caused by the floods in Thailand have not been included in these forecasts. Thorough survey of the damages will commence once the water has receded. Further, the facilities are covered by insurance therefore we do not expect the impact will be excessive.

Q:What can you tell us about the impact of the floods in Thailand and what measures are you implementing?

A: Nikon (Thailand) Co., Ltd., our production base for digital SLR cameras and interchangeable lenses, suffered damage as a result of the recent floods and has suspended its operations since October 6. In order to recover production as soon as possible and fulfill our supply responsibilities as a manufacturer, we have already started the process of procuring new production equipment and procurement from alternative suppliers as well as production at our own other manufacturing facilities. From December 2011, we will commence production at alternative facilities of the Nikon Group both in Japan and overseas as well as at other partner facilities in Thailand with the aim of resuming the operation and increasing production at Nikon (Thailand) Co., Ltd. from January 2012 and production of digital SLR and interchangeable lenses will return to the normal level by the end of March 2012.

Q:What can you tell us about the Nikon 1 series?

A: Following the launch on October 20, sales have been strong in all regions and at present, our supply cannot keep up with demand. Product assembly for the Nikon 1 series is conducted at our Chinese facilities and as a result, the floods in Thailand have had only a minimal impact. In order to compensate for the drop in sales due to our loss of production of digital SLR cameras, we are increasing our efforts to ensure production and increase sales of the Nikon 1 series.

Q:How are Imaging Products business earnings?

A: Following our rapid recovery from the impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011 in the 1Q period, sales have continued to perform strongly in the 2Q period for digital SLR cameras, interchangeable lenses and compact digital cameras. As a result, we posted record sales units across all product categories. Sales showed increase from the same period of the previous year while operating income recorded highest ever for the first half period. Annual sales units are expected to fall due to the restricted supply of digital SLR cameras and interchangeable lenses as an impact of the floods in Thailand. Every possible effort will be made to recover these losses by securing alternative production sites and with the help of strong sales from the newly launched Nikon 1 and compact digital camera sales. As a consequence, we have made a downward adjustment of unit sales for digital SLR cameras and interchangeable lenses and an upward adjustment of unit sales for compact digital cameras in light of the current environment. We have also made a downward adjustment of annual sales and operating income to 65 billion yen and 23 billion yen respectively due to the impact of the recent floods in Thailand and an upward revision of the yen exchange rate by five yen against the dollar and the euro.

Full results are available here.

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Nikon wins five 2012 iF Design Awards

November 10, 2011 – 4:17 am

Not one but five Nikon products have won iF Design Awards 2012. Notably absent is anything from the 1 range, perhaps the awards were votes for/finalized before it was introduced.

iF_awards

The "iF design award" has been sponsored by International Forum Design GmbH of Hanover Germany since 1953. Each year, recipients of these prestigious awards are selected from worldwide industrial products exhibiting superior design. The awards include the product design award, communication design award and packaging award, etc. This year, 4,322 products from 48 countries were evaluated and the awards are presented to 1,218 products. In selecting recipients, product aspects including quality of design, functionality, degree of innovation, simplicity of operation and environmental impact are considered for the product design award, while usability, look and feel, and uniqueness are accounted for the communication design award.

The awards are as follows:

  • Product design awards for:
    • COOLPIX P3000
    • COOLPIX AW100
    • D5100
    • ShuttlePix (Digital Microscope)
  • Communication design awarded to:
    • COOLPIX S100
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New firmware out for D7000 and D5100, fixes issues

November 10, 2011 – 4:10 am

D7100Just available, updated firmware releases for the Nikon D5100 and D7000 DSLRs.

The D5100 moves to version 1.01 with the following changes:

  • An error recognizing some memory cards has been addressed.
  • When Selective color from the retouch menu is performed on a picture taken with the image quality set to NEF (RAW)+JPEG and an image size of M or S, the edges of the image may not have changed color. This issue has been resolved.
  • When Metering was set to Matrix metering, the exposure mode set to M (Manual), and the HDR exposure differential set to Auto, the exposure differential was fixed at a value equivalent to 2 EV. This has been changed to enable automatic adjustment of exposure differential so that it is appropriate for the scene.

The D7000 update is version A 1.02 and B 1.03 (the D7000 update is in two parts, but is one download):

  • An error recognizing some memory cards has been addressed.
  • The following issues occurred when the mode dial was rotated from U1 or U2 to another shooting mode or from another shooting mode to U1 or U2 when the power was off or when the exposure meters are off (Auto meter-off). These issues were resolved.
    - A new folder is sometimes created despite the fact that the current folder does not yet contain 999 files and none of the files are numbered “9999”.
    - The number of remaining exposures may not be displayed as specified in the settings.
    - The setting for Role played by card in Slot 2 may change between Overflow, Backup, and RAW Slot 1- JPEG Slot 2.
  • An issue where Battery info in the setup menu sometimes showed sufficient remaining charge even when the remaining charge for the AA batteries inserted in the MB-D11 battery pack was low has been resolved.
  • An issue where a saved photo may not have been displayed properly when a movie was displayed in playback mode while saving the photo has been resolved.
  • An issue where zoom in or zoom out may not have performed properly when the playback zoom in or playback zoom out button was pressed while in Live view has been resolved.
  • The message displayed when the internal memory of the Wireless Transmitter WT-4 is formatted from the Format transmitter's memory under Device settings in Wireless transmitter of the camera’s setup menu was changed from Done to Built-in memory formatted.

European support links for firmware downloads: D5100 and D7000.

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