where there’s smoke there’s fire

Real Nikon news today. Was Ken Rockwell correct in this post (see also here)? Is this going to be the BIG announcement next year? NR reports, you decide:

Nikon and Hewlett-Packard Collaborate to Develop a High-Resolution Digital Image Reproduction System

September 24, 2008

Nikon Corporation (Michio Kariya, President) and HP (Hewlett-Packard Company, 3000 Hanover Street, Palo Alto, CA 94304-1185 USA; Mark Hurd, CEO and President) have been working together since 2005 to develop high-resolution digital imaging technologies. The result of this collaboration is a new high-resolution digital imaging system for reproducing fine art.

The digital fine art (DFA) market, the field concerned with the capture, preservation and digital reproduction of artwork, has expanded incredibly in recent years with the steady increase in digital image resolution. However, the faithful digitization and printing of artwork demands a clear knowledge of the entire workflow, from capture to image processing and final printing, as well as the necessary technologies.

Nikon and HP are proud to introduce their new system, which offers a total capture-to-print solution. This system optimizes and improves the digital fine art workflow by reducing total production time from hours to minutes. The system is comprised of the Nikon D3 digital-SLR camera for capture, a special edition of ErgoSoft’s StudioPrint photo RIP software for image processing, and HP’s Designjet Z3200 Photo Printer for printing. This system enables faithful reproduction of originals with optimization of a variety of aspects, including those of the camera and lens used for capture, lighting conditions, white balance, and the paper used for printing. Moreover, this system offers the added benefits of minimal initial cost as purchase of a large-format digital camera is not a requirement, as well as significant improvements in workflow and efficiency.

The result of collaboration between Nikon and HP is a single capture-to-print system that maximizes the capabilities of devices and software for digital reproduction with an unprecedented fidelity to the original and superior workflow and efficiency.