It’s about time Nikon came out with a high megapixel offering, Canon have had the edge on that market for quite some time with the Canon EOS 1Ds series – the latest being Canon EOS 1Ds MKIII. As the Nikon D700 and Nikon D3 only have 12.1 megapixels it’s lagging a bit in that camp with the new Canon 5D MKII having 21 megapixels!

It seems to be about a 90% certainty that Nikon will be coming out with their latest camera on December 1st 2008 – just a few days from now. The body should look about the same as the Nikon D3.

It’s a good time to come out with it after the very competitively priced Sony Alpha A900 was announced with 24.6 megapixels.

The first slip started in April when a D3 firmware update revealed a new 6048×4032 24.4 MP option, this points soundly at the Nikon D3x.

What I am wondering is will it be an inhouse sensor or something from Kodak or Fuji? The initial rumours were that it was from Sony but with them having their own 24.6 megapixel full frame offering that seems unlikely.

There is a lot of hope on the Nikon D3x, if it can produce such stunning dynamic range and high ISO sensitivity without noise like the D3 and D700 with the additional detail of 24 megapixels it will be a stunning piece of equipment and will definitely rule the high end of the market.

The price of the D3 has been dropping too which indicates something on the horizon.

You can see a whole bunch of clues here:

Nikon D3x – what do we have so far

The main contention a lot of people had with the new Nikon D3 was the fastest shutter speed available for Auto-ISO use was 1/250 seconds. This sounds reasonably fast…but if you are shooting sport or action it’s way too slow, you may need at least 1/1250 or 1/2000. Nikon has released an updated firmware for the D3 which fixes this issues and various other small issues.

The range of settings available for ISO sensitivity settings>ISO sensitivity auto control>Minimum shutter speed in the shooting menu has been increased from 1/250–1 s to 1/4000–1 s.

It also adds vignetting control for most G and D. The firmware is available immediately from Nikon’s website. A pdf explaining the changes is available here.

Please visit the links below to access the firmware updates:

PC users can download here.

Mac users can download here.

The Nikon D3 detailed preview has been released shortly after the Nikon D300 Preview came out as expected.

Still no reviews of either camera, but that’s no surprise.

The Canon EOS 40D came to market extremely fast though, I think Canon is trying to win back some market share before the monster Nikon D300 comes out.

The specs are awesome as from the first release.

• First ever Nikon DSLR with a Full-Frame (36 x 24 mm) sensor (coined FX format)
• 12.1 megapixel full-frame sensor (8.45µm pixel pitch)
• ISO 200 – 6400 (with boost up to ISO 25600)
• Also supports DX lenses, viewfinder automatically masks (5.1 megapixels with DX lens)
• 5:4 ratio crop mode (10 megapixels, up to 9 fps, viewfinder masked)
• 14-bit A/D conversion, 12 channel readout
• Nikon EXPEED image processor (Capture NX processing and NR algorithms, lower power)
• Super fast operation (power-up 12 ms, shutter lag 41 ms, black-out 74 ms)
• New Kevlar / carbon fibre composite shutter with 300,000 exposure durability
• New Multi-CAM3500FX Auto Focus sensor (51-point, 15 cross-type, more vertical coverage)
• Auto-focus tracking by color (using information from 1005-pixel AE sensor)
• Auto-focus calibration (fine-tuning) now available (fixed body or up to 20 separate lens settings)
• Scene Recognition System (uses AE sensor, AF sensor)
• Picture Control image parameter presets (replace Color Modes I, II and III)
• Custom image parameters now support brightness as well as contrast
• Nine frames per second continuous with auto-focus tracking
• Eleven frames per second continuous without auto-focus tracking
• Ten / eleven frames per second continuous in DX-crop mode (AF / no-AF)
• Dual Compact Flash card slots (overflow, back-up, RAW on 1 / JPEG on 2, copy)

The professional Nikon D ’single digit’ series of digital SLR’s started life back in June 1999 with the groundbreaking D1. Groundbreaking because it was the digital SLR which broke Kodak’s stranglehold on the digital SLR market and fundamentally brought prices down to a level which most professionals could afford (around the US$5,500 mark). Since then we have seen a steady progression of this line of cameras, while the core values of a high quality full size body with integrated grip have remained the line split into two halves, one targeted at high resolution photography the other high speed sports type photography (lower resolution but faster continuous shooting); the X and H suffixes. It’s been almost three years since Nikon introduced a completely new digital SLR with a new sensor (the D2X) and there has been much anticipation that Nikon’s next move would be a full-frame chip.

You can find the full Hands-on Preview from DPReview here:

Nikon D3 Hands-on Preview

There are also some new high ISO shots released.

Nikon D3 FX Format Digital SLR High ISO Image Samples

Finally Nikon unleashes the beast, what everyone has been waiting for! A Full Frame Nikon camera – I can’t wait to see the noise handling and the dynamic range. With the D200 already being close being the Fuji S5 Pro I think this camera is going to blow the Canon 5D and the 1Ds MKIII away!

Isn’t it beautiful?

I think Nikon pushed this out according to the recent announcement of the Full Frame Canon EOS 1Ds MKII.

The D3, the result of years of development and feedback from professional photographers, combines many innovative Nikon technologies. These include an exclusive 12.1 effective megapixel FX format (36.0×23.9mm) image sensor with 12-channel read out, a blazing-fast 9 fps frame rate, expandable ISO settings from 200-6400, a completely new 51-Point autofocus system, a 3-inch VGA LCD screen with Live View and a cutting-edge image processing system.

They also announced what I’ve personally been waiting for – the Nikon D300! I’m hoping it’ll have superb noise handling and perhaps slightly greater dynamic range.

Plus some lovely new full frame lenses for the new FX format (Nikon AF-S 14-24 mm and 24-70 mm F2.8G ED).