Amazon stopped taking pre-orders, Adorama still is (Nikon 35mm f/1.8G DX)

By [NR] admin | Published: February 13, 2009

Amazon stopped taking pre-orders for the new Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX lens. The good news is that now Adorama has it on their website for pre-order:

Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX from Adorama.

Posted in Nikon Flashes| Tagged | 5 Comments

Happy Valentine’s Day from NR

By [NR] admin | Published: February 13, 2009

Happy Valentine’s Day with this free download of “Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye 🙂

Posted in Other Nikon stuff| 4 Comments

Nikon D40 discontinued in Canada

By [NR] admin | Published: February 13, 2009

d_d40_01

Nikon D40 is now semi-officially discontinued in Canada – Nikon reps sent out an email today to local stores.

Nikon D40x has been unofficially discontinued for few months now (refurbish only available  from Adorama).

This opens the door for a new entry-level Nikon DSLR @ PMA. In fact those are some of the rumors floating around the Internet: a new entry-level DLSR at PMA and the D400 will come short after. One thing we know for sure that the D400 will be released before July 2009. Why – see here.

The question remains – what will be the model of the new Nikon DLSR camera: D65, D60x, D10…

Update: there is a thread on dpreview that confirms this rumor.

Posted in Nikon D5000| Tagged | 30 Comments

New type of build-in flash in the next entry level Nikon DSLR?

By [NR] admin | Published: February 13, 2009

Email from an anonymous reader:

I can confirm that Nikon has in the works something a little different for their next entry level point and shoot DSLR.

You’re going to see a much improved built in pop up flash. Look for something a little wider and flatter than what’s currently built in.

SB-400 sales are paltry at best. This new pop up flash makes sense- it won’t kill off the market for the SB-600 / SB-900‘s (soon to replaced by the 700 and an improved version of the 900 that doesn’t overheat so badly). It won’t be a stretch to say that the new built in flash is going to be equivalent to the SB-400. Don’t be surprised if it has a separate battery unit that it draws some (but not all) of its power from.

Most notably, the flash will be able to point more upward for a better bounce.

The reason I found this plausible is that Nikon does not have a lot of tricks left in their hat for their next DSLR model (video, LV, few more MP, what else?), so they have to innovate and come up with something really new. I am just a bit sceptic about the external “battery unit”. It make sense also to introduce such a feature in the entry-level DSLR and see how it will be accepted – or maybe should be the other way around: new feature usually get introduced in the top of the line DSLR and then they propagate down the product line? Video, for example, got introduced in the mid-level DSLR (D90). What say you?

Posted in Nikon D5000| 35 Comments

More Nikon AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX sample images

By [NR] admin | Published: February 13, 2009

Dpreview has some new Nikon AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX  sample images here.

Posted in Nikon Lenses| Tagged | 12 Comments

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX reviewed by Bjorn + more sample images

By [NR] admin | Published: February 12, 2009

The new Nikon AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX lens gets reviewed by Bjorn (a min-review I would say). The original post was in nikongear which I think requires registration, but you can also read the full text at dpreview:

“The 35/1.8 goes straight off at f/1.8 with a high-contrast image rendition, totally unlike the f/1.4 lens. It keeps the high contrast fairly well up to f/5.6 or so, from which setting the contrast gradually declines. Yet, even at f/22, wholly acceptable sharpness is observed.”

More (new) test shots of the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX lens are available here.

Posted in Nikon Lenses| Tagged | 17 Comments

Nikon prices still going up?

By [NR] admin | Published: February 12, 2009

Few readers emailed me that Nikon prices went up again in the last few days (the last time I updated the Price Watch section was a week ago, so you can clearly see the difference). Pretty much every DSLR body went up in price with $10-$20. For example the D300 is now (was $1489.95 a week ago):

Amazon: $1499.95

Adorama: $1499.95

B&H: $1499.99

The price jump is bigger in the UK (email from a reader):

“I am looking for adding a new Nikon to my collection but am waiting to get paid at the end of the month. However, I am keeping an eye on the prices twice a day. I have just noticed that Warehouse Express in the UK,  who are usually very cheap, have just put up the price of a D300 from £998 this morning to  £1159.”

nikon-d300-price-going-up

What’s going on?

Posted in Other Nikon stuff| Tagged | 38 Comments