Thai camera store has listed the Nikon D4 for sale (update: the date 11.08.09 is when the site was last modified):
Another site has also listed a Nikon D4 for sale:
I have no reasons to believe that we will see Nikon D4 any time soon. The date is interesting…
Those are the Nikon rumors I did not consider to be important enough for a separate post, so lower your expectations or skip this post all together:
“I live in Bangkok, Thailand and while I was at my local store asking about the D300 i heard an interesting rumor. The store owner said his friend at the Nikon factory (as you probably already know much of Nikon is manufactured in Thailand) told him Nikon is going to unveil the D500. his friend told him to wait on getting the D300s. It’s all hearsay but you never know.”
Will the D500 be a cheap full frame camera (a stripped down D700)? With video? Sony is ready to release the α850 which will be full frame, below the α900. Will Nikon follow?
“Yesterday at my local Calumet in Escondido, CA, I asked about the 135 DC and whether it was really discontinued. They looked it up in their inventory system and said they have a couple on order. But they said that while most of the inventory numbers was the same there was a number 5 added at the end. They told me this means it is a new model. I don’t know if this reflects Calumet’s corporate guessing, or that they actually have inside info. If they are right, I presume we’ll get a new 135 DC with Nano coating, but likely made out of mostly plastic rather than metal, but that’s just a guess.”
"ED" tag
"N" tag
It seems that Nikon D5000 owners that have sent their equipment to Nikon for repair and got it back (see Nikon D5000 service advisory) started to receive letters from Nikon stating that it is “strongly recommended” to return the camera for “an additional and enhanced procedure.” Here is a copy of the letter:
There is an update on Nikon’s website from August 12th (yesterday):
“As of August 12, 2009 additional product serial numbers have been added to the list of “Affected Product Serial Numbers”. If you have previously checked your camera’s serial number prior to August 12, 2009 we recommend that you try again with the updated list.”
If you are a Nikon D5000 owner, check your serial number here.
Can someone from Nikon confirm that this is not a scam?
More Nikon patent applications became public in the past few days. Here is what I found to be interesting :
Another flash related patent from Nikon describes a wireless connection and data synchronization between the camera and the flash unit (or other external devices). A third Nikon flash relatged patent even mentions a “the image-capturing system is a portable device equipped with a camera” with a reference figure of a cellphone. Check this site for more info on LED lighting: litepanels.com.
“An image processing apparatus includes: a storage unit that records position information for a defective pixel; a setting unit that sets the defective pixel as an interpolation subject pixel, on the basis of the recorded position information.”
Please note that most of those are just patent applications and may or may not lead to a final production model. Following Nikon patents does make sense – take a look at patent application 20080212957 “Camera with built-in projector and projector device” (they even had a drawing of the camera) and 20090086321 for the new 70-200mm. Those patents were filed just few months before the official release, unfortunately I do not know when they became public record. I have been following Nikon patents in the past and will continue to do so in the future.
A reader (thanks Brian!) compiled a list of Nikon patents for the past few years and matched them with the existing lens releases (table after the jump):
#2168 – PC-E NIKKOR 24mm f/3.5D ED
#2169 – ???
#2170 – AF-S DX Zoom-NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II
#2171 – AF-S NIKKOR 400mm f/2.8G ED VR
#2172 – AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/4G ED VR
#2173 – AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4G ED VR
#2174 – PC-E Micro NIKKOR 45mm f/2.8D ED
#2175 – PC-E Micro NIKKOR 85mm f/2.8D
#2176 – AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR (announced November, 2007)
#2177 – AF-S Micro-NIKKOR 60mm f/2.8G ED (announced January, 2008)
#2178 – AF-S DX NIKKOR 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR (announced January, 2008)
#2179 – AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR (announced August, 2008)
#2180 – AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4G (announced September, 2008)
#2181 – AF-S DX NIKKOR 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED (announced April, 2009)
#2182 – ???
#2183 – AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G (announced February, 2009)
#2184 – ???
#2185 – AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II (announced July, 2009)
#2186 – ???
#2187 – ???
#2188 – ???
#2189 – ???
#2190 – ???
#2191 – ???
#2192 – AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II (announced July, 2009)
#2193 – ???
A lot of skipped/missing model numbers – that’s a lot of lenses folks! The question is when will they get filled? I went few years back and there are few missing number here and there (for example #2169).
You can check the lens model number by changing the 4 digits in this URL: http://www.nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Nikon/Product/Camera-Lenses/2192/NikonRumors_is_great.html (the last part of the URL doesn’t really matter – it’s used for the product name).
