Nikon listed on their website that the new D5300 ($796.95) is made out of a “newly developed monocoque structure with carbon fiber reinforced plastic material“, similar to the material used in Formula 1 race cars and in the new Boeing Dreamliner 787. The new material is called Sereebo carbon fibre reinforced thermoplastics and is produced by Teijin:
DxOMark published their test results for the Nikon Df camera ($2,746.95) and it seems that Nikon were able to further improve the low light performance of their 16Mp sensor: the Df score is 3279 vs. 2965 for the D4 (the D3s score was 3253). The Df’s sensor dynamic range performance is identical to the D4 (the D610/D800 still have better dynamic range). Few other comparisons:
→ The Mitakon Lens Turbo Focal Reducer Adapter (Nikon Ai-s to MFT) is now shipping and can be ordered from eBay.
→ Two new deals on refurbished Nikkor DX lenses:
→ The lens design and MTF charts of the new Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD lens are now available online. The price is still not officially announced.
Several readers emailed me with reports that their third party EN-EL14 batteries no longer work after the last firmware update for the D3100, D3200, D5100, D5200 and P7700 cameras. It also makes it impossible to use Nikon batteries in third party battery grips. Of course Nikon did not mention anything about that in the change log. I am not aware of any way to revert a firmware update and Nikon does not provide download links on the their website for old firmware updates.
Update #1: some third party batteries work even after the firmware update.
Update #2: few readers have successfully downgraded the camera firmware to the previous version without any issues. Older firmware updates can be found on Nikon USA support website. For direct links, check the posts under the firmware tag on NikonRumors. Please not that you can brick your camera by downgrading the firmware.
In this guest post Jackson Hung describes his documentary project on urban exploration in Korea he did two years ago with a Nikon D7000 camera and Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens:
This aurora time lapse movie and VR experience guest post is by Göran Strand (Web | Facebook | Twitter):
My name is Göran Strand and I work as a photographer in Östersund, Sweden. My main area of photography is astrophotography and landscape photography. I’ve been hunting auroras for several years and on March 17 I had one of the greatest aurora experiences ever.
That night I actually went out to take photos of the lovely comet PanStarrs with my small refractor telescope and my Nikon D800E camera. Here you can see a shoot of the location from that night, out on the ice on Sweden 5th largest lake Storsjön. In the foreground you can see my gear for doing astrophotography, a Celestron CGEM mount with a small William Optics Megrez 72 telescope mounted on top:
Nikon published an update on the lawsuit against Sakar over the Polaroid iM1836 digital mirrorless camera – the court issued consent injunction and both parties agreed that “Sakar will no longer manufacture, import, advertise, promote, offer for sale, sell, or ship the Polaroid iM1836 digital camera in its present configuration“:
