Comments on: It’s a Nikon patents Friday (Nikon mirrorless, interchangeable lens camera)

By: camerausercollector

camerausercollector — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 08:00:52 +0000

In body Vibration reduction plus VR in lenses….Sweet… Make it happen Nikon.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:52:38 +0000

Yeah, thats great. I think it will be a 10 x 15 mm Chip in this Camera (may be SX format? Or PX format?). Sounds logical to me. A nice electronic view finder and than some lenses like a 10-35mm (25 x 87,5mm on FF) and a 35-200mm (87,5 x 500mm on FF). With Nikons knowlegde it won’t be a problem to get better ISO results than with 4/3 from the known manufacturers. I’ll start feeding my piggybank T

By: El Aura

El Aura — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:18:57 +0000

But in terms of DOF and low-light performance, a 18/1.4 lens on 2.5x crop sensor gives you what 45 mm f/3.5 on FX gives you (same amount of light but concentrated on a smaller sensor area)

By: Astrophotographer

Astrophotographer — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:01:02 +0000

Unfortunately your math is wrong. f1.4 is the same exposure (e.g. shutter speed) no matter what the format or focal length.

To put is another way. this lens has a ~13 mm aperture, An equivalent 35mm would be a 32mm aperture for a 45mm lens.

By: mike

mike — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:47:03 +0000

I am sick of forum denizens and their bad math:
1.4*2.5=3.5
18/1.4 on a 2.5x crop is a 45/3.5 equivalent. Comparing to the DX format, it is a 30/2.2 equivalent. This is not that difficult a concept, people.

By: Worminator

Worminator — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:54:53 +0000

Check back in 6 months and we’ll see.

m4.3 is a success, Nikon et al. will have to provide an answer or give up major market share as people choose the GF1 etc. instead of either a compact or a dSLR.

I also don’t think Nikon came up with this idea before m4.3 became known to them. Call it a hunch. And no way is this cancelled.

By: Worminator

Worminator — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:49:31 +0000

Given current trends, it will be 12MP CMOS with video. It will cost something about the same as a D3000 kit, and be considered something of a niche product on release. The lenses will be relatively expensive.

By: Worminator

Worminator — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:39:41 +0000

Non-mirror dSLR is one thing, a compact interchangeable lens camera with a sensor midway between APS-C and 1/1.8″ is another thing completely.

Never mind that the R in dSLR means “mirror”.

It’s about whether the expectation is for an optical viewfinder. For a compact, we’ve accepted that using the rear LCD (or a add on finder of some sort) is acceptable. For a SLR, a full-featured optical viewfinder is still (quite rightly I might add) considered a necessity.

By: Worminator

Worminator — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:32:27 +0000

Remember that HD video looks set become a standard feature in ALL cameras, so in that sense Nikon is designing for video… but not primarily so.

These lenses look to be for a mirrorless camera based on a 1″ sensor size. (half way between APS-C and a high end compact) It makes a lot of sense as a camera, and as a way for Nikon to beat the GF1 and u4.3 at it’s own game so to speak. The camera will of course be able to take HD video, but I see no reason to think these are specifically for a video camera.

The idea is so timely that it’s hard to believe that Nikon is just blowing smoke here.

By: Worminator

Worminator — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:23:07 +0000

Ah-ha, so with 17mm, Nikon looks to be targeting 1″ sensor size.

Things are starting to come together: making a mirrorless APS-C camera never made any sense to me, since it would never be much smaller than a reflex design. Drop down to 1″ (about 1/4 the size of APS-C, but 4 times bigger than a typical high end compact camera, i.e. bang in the middle) and the camera and lenses get a lot smaller, even smaller than m4.3, you can still have a adapter to F-mount, and, in short, things get really interesting.

Gentlemen, I think we have a lock.

Expect something from Nikon about the midsize between the LX3 and GF1, with a suite of itty bitty interchangeable lenses. Video of course. DOF and noise being about half way between a high end compact and dSLR.

By: [Ô]

[Ô] — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 08:00:37 +0000

yes it can.
mirrorless also allows the lens mount to be closer to the sensor, which frees up lens design to be smaller ( and easier cheaper sharper wide angles).

both these give a potentially smaller camera.

By: regular

regular — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 07:42:34 +0000

My guess is that some time ago Nikon R&D had designed a small mirrorless system, that was never introduced because of the arrival of micro 4/3 systems. Nikon figured out they did too small, too late.

The project was canceled, but the key inventions are patented anyway. But, hey, that’s just a guess

By: Davey

Davey — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:52:04 +0000

What are the advantages of having a mirrorless camera? Does it make taking a picture more quiet?

By: iamlucky13

iamlucky13 — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:51:40 +0000

I think it’s interesting that the design appears even smaller than 4/3. I’ll be curious (if something materializes…this rumor now has multiple angles to it with possible lenses on top of the X1-equivalent speculation) to see if they:

Retain F-mount compatibility (strong incentive to existing Nikon owners at the cost of a lot of unnecessary size)

Use the 4/3 standard (more versatility, but opens up to more competition in the lens market)

Design a new mount (more technical flexibility, but more development work and no compatible legacy systems).

By: ek

ek — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:59:56 +0000

http://tinyurl.com/yh8k4fn

By: Alex

Alex — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 01:37:02 +0000

What about my D700x ?
Actually I think 15-18MP will be better than 24MP, it will keep the high ISO quality.
Anyway, I bought the D700, I’ll just have to forget about the 16×20 enlargments (
Thank again for the tips about the D3s, I’m still surprise that Nikon put a video on a professional DSLR.

By: [NR] admin

[NR] admin — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:52:39 +0000

I am just afraid that with all that publicity, Nikon may change their patent filing process.

By: Zograf

Zograf — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:46:09 +0000

I have to admit you’ve been right here for what Ive been insisting for some time Nikon doesn’t publish the patents before the real product comes out.

Probably the 85/3.5 micro is an exception as its design is identical to the 105/2.8 VR, so no secrets here. Publishing patent take some time, (1-2-3 tears?) so I tend to believe in case of 85/3.5 is simply bad timing.

I still believe the recently published patents are not directly related to a particular product coming soon or not. They might be simply an IP Nikon want to keep just in case.

By: soap

soap — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 16:03:32 +0000

PHB – ND filters making the scene too dark to focus?

By: john

john — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 15:24:53 +0000

itll still be more $$$ than a P&S and not everyone will want to invest in lenses…….