Nikon D90 listed as “clearance Item, limited availability”

By [NR] admin | Published: July 14, 2010

One of the big US retailers, J&R, has listed the Nikon D90 body only as “clearance Item, limited availability”:

The Nikon D90 kit (with 18-105mm lens) is listed as “Limit 1 per customer”.

Posted in Nikon D90| 82 Comments

Don’t forget the “G11 killer”

By [NR] admin | Published: July 14, 2010

Few months ago Nikon’s UK Senior Product Manager Kevin Egan told AP that they planned to release a Canon G11 competitor with the last batch of Coolpix cameras back in February, but the camera was not ready. Expect this new “G11 killer” to be released with the next batch of Coolpix camera somewhere in the middle of August (unless Nikon decides to make a separate announcement for it).

Today I received also this tip:

“I work at ***. The Nikon rep was in the store and I was pressing him for any info… He told me that Nikon had 3 big cameras to be coming soon, and a G11 competitor had been in development for a while… probably this fall for a release…”

Nikon reps have proved not to be reliable source of information in the past, but this rumor reminded me of the statement Nikon made few months ago and I think it is worth sharing.

Posted in Nikon Point and Shoot| Tagged | 31 Comments

I am almost ready to say “it has begun”

By [NR] admin | Published: July 14, 2010

I am almost ready to say “it has begun”, I just need to verify few more things and go through some translations. Stay tuned!

Here are just two of the reports I got in the past 24hr:

“I work for a big retailer in ***. Today all stores have been told to remove demo Nikon D90 bodies from display and send them back to head office.”

“I have had a Nikon SB-600 in order for about 3 months now at a big electronic store in ***. I know a guy that works there. He made a call to the head office, and they told him they expect Nikon to announce a replacement at Photokina.”

Posted in Nikon D90, Nikon Flashes| 99 Comments

A note from the admin: the best of 2010 is in front of us

By [NR] admin | Published: July 13, 2010

Photokina is almost two months away, the end of July is approaching and all this could only mean one thing – we should start getting some reliable rumors. The Internet is currently full of speculations and I will continue to filter out the nonsense and post only credible information. We may have few “filler” posts to keep us entertained in the mean time (a new “Nikon in 3D” article is coming up this week). In the worst case scenario, we should have a new line of Coolpix cameras in the first half of August (this is almost a tradition for Nikon). Looking at previous years, Nikon also likes to schedule a more “serious” announcement a week or two before or after the Coolpix press event – either way we are entering the “golden time” of 2010.

I already started noticing few interesting comments on Asian forums from some of the posters I have been following for years. Nothing specific at that point, but the first signs of an upcoming Nikon announcement are present.

On the blog site: soon I will unveil a new “Page 2” of Nikon Rumors – that way I will be able to cover everything Nikon related without cluttering the main blog page.

Posted in Other Nikon stuff| 67 Comments

Service advisory for Nikon AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8 lens in Korea

By [NR] admin | Published: July 13, 2010

I have covered the Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 lens light leak few times in the past (see blog and forum posts) and it seems that Nikon is responding to this issue, at least in Korea. This is what we have so far: Nikon Imaging Korea issued this service notice (in English) which basically says that they acknowledge the problem and will fix it for free. My understanding is that Nikon will provide free 24-70 rentals for the duration of the repair (not sure, but I think this offer will be valid for the first 300 claims).

Here is the direct Google translation, you get the idea:

“This phenomenon, under limited conditions, the phenomenon is extremely rare. In normal shooting is not a problem. However, depending on your discomfort occurs if you want products that can be done after the necessary measures.”

This is the video illustrating the problem:

No word for now if other countries will follow this service advisory.

Posted in Nikon Lenses| 71 Comments

Nikon patents that could be related to the upcoming mirrorless camera

By [NR] admin | Published: July 13, 2010

With the latest news about the upcoming mirrorless camera and Nikon’s search for online and mobile partners, I mentioned that there were some related patent applications filed by Nikon in the past. This is what I found:

Patent Application 20090270125 and granted US patent 7646417 are for “Mobile phone equipped with a camera”. The drawings are of a conventional, rotating screen cell phone:

Patent Application 20050096019 is to enable a mobile device to access networks that use different programing languages. This would be particularly helpful when traveling in “in some countries and geographic regions” that use different network technologies:

This invention relates to the field of wireless communications. In particular, the invention relates to wireless communications exchanged between a mobile device and a network site using a language conversion engine. Wireless technology now enables mobile devices to wirelessly couple to networks such as the Internet. The mobile devices can couple to the networks to receive information and content.

Typically, mobile devices are programmed to use a single language. The language use by the mobile device determines which network sites can be accessed. In some countries and geographic regions, mobile devices favor one type of language. Information providers typically structure network sites to provide content to the mobile devices using the language that is more prevalent in that geographic region. This makes it difficult for devices using other languages to have the same breadth of network access. One advantage of the invention is to enable mobile devices programmed in one language to access network sites structured to provide information using a second language.”

According to patent applications 20090307322 Nikon is thinking about integrating an email client into a point and shoot camera (Samsung announced similar camera last year):

“A digital camera comprises an image-capturing unit that captures an image of a photographic subject and acquires image data, a communication unit for sending and receiving electronic mail data including image data, a recording control unit that records the image data acquired by the image-capturing unit as photographed image data upon a recording medium, an email for sending creation unit that creates an email for sending, to which is attached an image based upon the photographed image data recorded upon the recording medium, and an email address setting unit that sets an email address as the destination of the email for sending. The email for sending creation unit creates a title or a text of the email for sending, based upon at least one of the photographed image data and the email address that has been set.”

nikon-lan-coolpix

The whole menu, including the different screens layout, are described in details here:

nikon-email-camera-menu

Read More »

Posted in Nikon 1, Nikon Patents| 27 Comments

Nikon’s President comments on the upcoming mirrorless camera again

By [NR] admin | Published: July 12, 2010

Artist's view of Nikon EVIL (photoshopped)

In an interview with Pen News Weekly, Nikon’s president Makoto Kimura made few more comments on the upcoming mirrorless camera from Nikon (see the previous interview, where he dropped the bomb about an upcoming Nikon mirrorless concept):

Nikon plans to retain its “top position” in the DSLR market and create an “entirely new domain” at the same time.

“It will be a camera that may take photos of the world that the traditional SLR cannot reach.”

“Nowadays digital cameras take movies, performance of cameraphones is rapidly advancing and demand for simple movie cameras for uploading video on the Internet is on the rise. Redefinition of photography may become necessary.”

I find the last comment particularly interesting, since last week Nikon announced that they are looking for cooperation with online and mobile device companies. Based on those developments, I think we can expect some kind of  Internet connectivity built-in in the upcoming Nikon EVIL camera for uploading photos/video online. I’ve seen also few related patent applications filed by Nikon.

Via AmateurPhotographer/Image source: Focused

Posted in Nikon 1| 166 Comments