NikonD4
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Remote camera mounts replace AFP photographers at Olympic Games
Remember those robotic camera rigs Reuters cooked up for the Olympic games? They won't be alone -- the AFP have lined the games with their own remote mounts. Traditionally, aerial shots are captured by brave, well harnessed photographers -- but the AFP's acrobatic photojournalists have been grounded by the powers that be. "The Olympics Committee has warned us that, for security reasons, no photographer will be allowed on the stadium roof," stated the AFP's chief editor of technical issues, Francois-Xavier Marit. "We had to come up with a system of remote-controlled photography." Marit worked with Nikon and Mark Roberts Motion Control to build a dozen rigs to pepper throughout Olympic facilities. It's not Marit's first time kitting out the games either -- he's been using remote camera rigs to snap underwater Olympians since 2004. Each mount is equipped with a Nikon D4 and 16 to 400mm zooms, ten will be mounted in the main Olympic stadium with an additional two covering the swimming complex. Worried you won't be able to see the hardware from the bleachers? Mosey on past the break for a quick preview.
Lexar XQD memory cards announced, will duel with Sony for Nikon D4's attention
Nikon's D4 is currently the only belle at the XQD ball, and until now, Sony was its only memory suitor. However, Lexar's just arrived with a new line of cards to compete for the D4's affections. The Fremont-based company says it collaborated with Nikon to build the PCI Express-based memory, and that they'll hit the market sometime in the third quarter of 2012 -- with no mention of specs or prices so far. Unfortunately, that means we don't know how Lexar's offerings will stack up against Sony's H-series or S-series cards already on the market. That said, while you wait for more details about Lexar's new cards, feel free to check out the lovely data the D4 will be putting on 'em when they arrive.
Nikon releases D4 firmware 1.02 with minor display, formatting, network stability improvements in tow
Have you managed to get your hands on Nikon's elusive D4 full-frame DSLR? It should be smooth sailing from here, with the occasional firmware update being your only critical acquisition going forward. D4 firmware 1.02 brings a handful of minor fixes, but if you're in need of any of the enhancements listed below, it's surely a must have: Format memory card can now be added to My Menu. Gamut for Adobe RGB images displayed in the camera's monitor has now been changed. This enables more vivid display of images. The stability of network connections when the FTP upload option is selected has been increased. When recording movies using a lens with an aperture ring in [P] or [S] exposure mode, and Aperture ring selected for Custom Setting f10: Customize command dials>Aperture setting, the minimum aperture was applied. This issue has been resolved. When a still image captured during movie recording with 1920 ×1080; 30 fps; crop, 1920 × 1080; 25 fps; crop, or 1920 × 1080; 24 fps; crop selected for Movie settings>Frame size/frame rate and Live frame grab selected for Custom Setting g4: Assign shutter button was displayed in Capture NX 2 or ViewNX 2, the position of the focus point displayed differed from actual recording position. This issue has been resolved. An issue that caused the camera to freeze when attempting to format a memory card (setup menu > Format memory card) while the camera was connected to a network in HTTP server mode has been resolved. OS X and Windows users alike can hit up the source link below to get their download on.
Nikon pushes out D4, D800 firmware update, fixes lock-up issues and other bugs
It wasn't long ago that we heard about the "lock-up" woes D4 and D800 owners were experiencing on their shiny new shooters, but luckily for them, Nikon just outed a fix to take care of those issues. Aside from solving the aforementioned annoyance, the firmware update (B:1.01) also mends a problem allowing RAW files to be network-transferred while in JPEG-only mode, as well as a bug causing bits like aperture and exposure compensation to change unexpectedly when using certain custom settings. You can grab the updates now via the source links below, and be sure to let us know how it all turned out in the end.
Nikon confirms woes with D4 and D800, joins Canon in high-end doghouse
Okay Nikon owners, stop laughing at your 5D Mark III cronies for their leaky problem. That might be a drip in the pail next to your own worries -- namely, possible "lock-up", focus and viewfinder hitches on your D800 or D4. Nikon verified that a "small number" of units of both DSLRs can lock up and become unresponsive, but until there's a permanent patch you can prevent this by disabling both highlight and RGB histogram displays. The company also verified that a "run" of D800s is suffering from a viewfinder bug, although it has yet to confirm another emerging problem with autofocus in some units, which apparently requires a factory fix. So, if you've noticed any of this with your pricey new D800, or really pricey D4, your best bet might be to reach out to your Nikon repair center post-haste. And don't let the Canon guys see you. [Thanks, Thinh]
Nikon D4 field review
Right around 2.5 years after the introduction of Nikon's most recent game-changer (yeah, we're bragging about the D3S), its proper successor has emerged. Without qualification, the amount of hope and expectation surrounding the Nikon D4 was immense. In a way, most Nikonians were (perhaps foolishly) expecting the D4 to be to the D3S what the D3S was to the D3, and we'll confess that we were cautiously saving up precious pennies in the event that the game was changed yet again. For better or worse, the actual specifications of the D4 ended up as hardly worth writing home about, with an ISO range mirroring that already seen on the D3S, a megapixel rating lower than that of the cheaper D800 and a battery rated for fewer snaps than the outgoing D3S. All at an MSRP that's starting at $800 above where the D3S started. You'll notice a lot of comparisons throughout this article with the Best Camera of 2009, but that's intentional; yours truly has spent the last 2.5 years using the D3S for business and pleasure, and it's only logical to pit the D4 against a camera that has become molded to many palms here at Engadget HQ. Is the D4 a worthy upgrade? Or even a worthy successor? Let's find out.
Nikon D4 hands-on with sample images, video
Remember when we were in a tizzy about the Nikon D4, way back in January? We got to play with this tank of a DSLR a bit, but sadly weren't permitted to actually publish any of the photos or video that we shot with the thing. Sure, we've seen some samples of it in action, but it's not quite the same. Thankfully, the company made our late-February that much better, allowing us to take the D4 on a jaunt around the city, a couple of weeks ahead of its mid-March launch. We strolled around Washington Square Park and 6th avenue, with the beast of a camera in-hand, shooting tourists and scenery, before popping by a subway station to have a go with the camera's purported excellent low-light capabilities that we've been hearing so much about. Click on through to take a look at some sample video.%Gallery-149058% %Gallery-149055%
Nikon D4 and D800 to ship in March, but only in the land of the baguette? (update: US too)
We might not have an official release date for Nikon's new shooters in the US of A, but over in France, well, things are un peu different. Per a Q&A box on the French arm's Facebook page comes the image above, plainly stating its latest twosome will go on sale in March -- the 15th specifically for the D4, and the 22nd for the D800. Following that, tweakers obsessed with finer details will get their fix with the D800E a month later on April 12th. No word on if those dates apply globally, but instead of getting yourself all frothy, we say have a rendezvous with our hands-ons (D4, D800) or lose yourself in some delectable video samples (D4, D800). Go on, we won't judge.Update: We heard from Nikon PR confirming that the D4 will indeed be launching in the US in mid-March as well.
Nikon WT-5 WiFi dongle wins FCC approval, fires off a ring of D4s to celebrate
Okay, so Bullet Time actually used Canon cameras, but Nikon D4 owners should soon have their own means of messing with space and time. The WT-5 dongle can control up to ten of the mammoth DSLRs simultaneously or, in more usual set-ups, allow a single camera to share its shots over a network. This'll mean you're no longer tied down by the Ethernet cable that we were forced to use in our recent networking hands-on with the D4. We don't know if this will arrive in stores at the same time as the camera itself, or how much it'll cost, but at least it's now passed through FCC without getting shot down. Click past the break for a few product shots, and note that the status LED glows solid green when there's a network connection, flashes to indicate a transfer in progress, and radiates nasty orange to inform your lead actor that he'll have to bend over backwards for yet another take.
Canon EOS-1D X and Nikon D4 ISO 204,800 shooting hands-on (video)
With mirrorless cameras offering high-resolution APS-C sensors and consecutive shooting speeds of up to 10 frames-per-second, what's left to make a $6,000 full-frame DSLR a compelling purchase, especially for amateur photographers? Low-light performance, for one -- the Canon EOS-1D X and Nikon D4 are both capable of capturing images at up to ISO 204,800, letting you snap sharp photos in even the dimmest of lighting conditions. The benefits of a top sensitivity of ISO 204,800 are significant -- jumping from one ISO to the next doubles your shutter speed. So an exposure of f/2.8 at 1/2 second at ISO 400 becomes 1/4th at ISO 800, 1/15th at ISO 3200, 1/60th at ISO 12,800, 1/250th at ISO 51,200 and a whopping 1/1000th at ISO 204,800 -- fast enough to freeze a speeding car.Both Canon and Nikon have yet to allow us to take away samples shot with the 1D X or D4 -- the companies even taped CF card slots shut to prevent show attendees from slipping their own card in -- but we were still able to get a fairly good idea of high-ISO performance from reviewing images on the built-in LCDs. At the cameras' top sensitivity of ISO 204,800, noise was visible even during a full image preview. Zooming into the image revealed significant noise, as expected. However, within each camera's native range of ISO 100 to 25,600, noise was barely an issue at all. Both cameras are still pre-production samples at this point, so we'll need to wait for production models to make their way out before we can capture our own samples, but based on what we saw when reviewing ISO 204,800 images on the built-in LCDs, that incredible top-ISO setting may actually be usable. Scroll on through the gallery below to preview some top sensitivity shots on the Canon EOS-1D X (camera poster) and the Nikon D4 (Japanese model), and join us past the break for an even closer look in our video hands-on.
Nikon confirms 36.3-megapixel D800, we go hands-on
Thirty-six megapixels. That's the native resolution of Nikon's long-awaited FX-format digital SLR. The D800 was designed with all professional photographers in mind, but with 36.3-megapixel captures (yes, that also means 36.3 megapixels in RAW, or 15.4 in DX format), the Japanese camera maker's latest DSLR output is likely to far exceed the needs of many. It also limits low-light shooting capabilities -- the D800 is a full-frame camera, but even so, with a standard sensor capturing 36.3 megapixels, its high-ISO performance is unlikely to match the likes of the D4, or Canon's new 1D X. It's for this reason that Nikon limited the camera's top native sensitivity to ISO 6400, or 25,600 in Hi2 extended mode. Want to see more? Thumb through the gallery below and jump past the break for a closer look at the latest full-frame DSLR to hit the market.
Nikon D4 Ethernet tethered shooting hands-on (video)
After getting our eager mitts on Nikon's long overdue D3 successor, aptly named the D4, we got a second chance to revisit our fat-bodied, photo-taking friend at the company's CES booth. The 16.2MP DSLR features a 3.2-inch LCD screen and is capable of 1080p video capture at 30fps. But that's not why we went back for more and it's not why you're reading this right now. We were keen to put the D4's big, bad networking capabilities to the test -- one of which links an array of up to ten of the cameras together for simultaneous, remote shooting over WiFi. Unfortunately, this feature requires use of the WT-5A wireless dongle, which is still awaiting FCC certification and could not be demonstrated. Neither could the imaging company show off the one-to-one connection that allows an auxiliary camera to be controlled from a primary unit. We did get to briefly interact with the camera's native web server running on a laptop, from which you can snap shots, toggle settings (like ISO and shutter speed), playback and download your recordings. You can catch a peek of the interface and an extra look at this sought after shooter after the break.
Here's a seven-minute Nikon D4 sample video: try not to drool
Corey Rich. Might not ring a bell off-hand, but it'll be someone you're insanely jealous of after you head past the break and mash play. Sir Rich was fortunate enough to get hands-on with a Nikon D4 during the company's launch efforts, and he put together an absolutely stunning seven-minute video montage showcasing exactly what the new beast is capable of. We're told that the captures were taken over a grueling 11 day period, with all of the action shots captured directly onto SanDisk Extreme Pro CF cards. The author has posted a reminder that the Vimeo clip is compressed using H.264 at 10,000kbps, and while some have spotted glitching in parts, he assures us the original media was devoid of the stuff. Enough talking -- get to watching. [Thanks, Wynn]
Nikon D4 hands-on and manufacturer sample images (video)
With the onslaught of CES launches still several days away, the big news today is the D4, Nikon's brand new full-frame digital SLR camera. The 16.2 megapixel DSLR offers 1080/30p video capture, an extended ISO range of 100 to 204,800, a 91,000-pixel 3D color matrix meter and a top high-speed shooting option of 11 frames-per-second. And with the D3 first hitting stores nearly five years ago, this FX-mount successor was long overdue. Earlier today, Nikon held its D4 launch event in Asia, previewing the camera before a group of journalists in Hong Kong. We were on hand for a first look at the massive $6,000 pro body, and were quite pleased with what we saw. Jump past the break for our impressions.
Nikon announces D4 DSLR camera: full-frame 16.2 MP sensor, 204,000 extended ISO, $6,000 price tag
More than two years after the D3S began shipping and roughly a half-decade after we first got a peek at the D3, Nikon has finally announced the full-frame DSLR's long-awaited successor. As expected, the Nikon D4 boosts both megapixel rating (to 16.2) and extended ISO (204,800 at Hi-4), and includes a brand new full-frame FX-format sensor. Video capture also jumped from 720/24p to 1080/30p, but so did the camera's somewhat-out-of-reach price tag -- you'll be dropping $5,999.95 when the D4 hits stores in late February. You're clearly not spending all that hard-earned photo dough for nothing, though. There's also a 91k-pixel RGB 3D Color Matrix Meter III, compared to a 1,005-pixel meter in the D3S, enabling the camera to evaluate the color and brightness of a scene with much greater precision, yielding much more accurate results. And since the D4 reportedly offers phenomenal low-light performance, you'll probably be using it quite often in the dark -- letting you get good use out of the new back-lit controls. Photographers can preview images using the 921k-dot 3.2-inch LCD, which offers a 170-degree viewing angle and ambient light sensor. HD video can be previewed on the display as well, or directly through the HDMI port, which also supports uncompressed 8-bit preview video output with optional overlay. Naturally, the D4 is fast. It can power on and be ready to shoot in approximately 0.012 seconds, and can capture 10 fps stills at full resolution with full auto focus and exposure. Willing to lock both AF and AE? The D4 goes to 11. A new 51-point AF system offers full cross-type focusing that's compatible with all Nikon lenses, even when paired with a teleconverter. The D4 includes two card slots with support for both UDMA-7 CF and the recently-announced XQD format, which brings write speeds of up to 125 MB/s -- enough to capture 105 consecutive RAW images at 10 fps. You'll find full details and specs on the D4 just past the break, along with an overview of Nikon's new AF-S NIKKOR 85mm f/1.8G FX-format lens, which is set to ship in March for $499.95.
