Two new lenses for Nikon F-mount started shipping today and are already in stock in some retailers:
First test shots from the new 70-200mm f/2.8E lens can be found here and here:
The rumored Nikon D5600 DSLR camera is now officially announced worldwide but not in the US (?).
Nikon D5600 UK pre-order links: Jessops | WEX
What’s new in the D5600:
It evolves the line by adding SnapBridge (Wi-Fi + Bluetooth) while shrinking the size of the camera body. Like its D5500 predecessor, it uses a 24MP sensor and EXPEED 4 processor. The D5600 also maintains a 3.2″ fully articulated LCD, but adds a few new functions: enabling and disabling auto ISO is now possible via the touch Fn button and the D5’s frame advance bar touch interface has been adopted. In-camera time-lapses are also offered with an auto exposure smoothing feature to make varying exposures due to changes in lighting look less jarring. (dpreview)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7OLY4HCctQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVTpAQWor5U
The main D5600 features are:
The new Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art lens for Nikon F-mount is now shipping and is currently in stock at B&H.
Via Sigma Blog
The official announcement of the Nikon D5600 should be near because the first picture and pricing of the new camera already leaked online. As I already reported, I expect the D5600 to be announced this week (most likely tonight). The main improvements from the current D5500 model will be SnapBridge and better dynamic range (still no 4k video). Here is the D5600 Japanese pricing (tax included):
Nikon stock price is up (3 months graph)
Nikon released their financial results for the first half of the year ending on September 30, 2016:
Quote:
“Nikon Corp. reported that its net income attributable to owners of the parent for the first half of the year ended September 30, 2016 was 17.74 billion Japanese yen, up 53.5 percent from last year’s 11.56 billion yen. Earnings per share for the half-year period were 44.65 yen, higher than 29.08 yen last year.” (Nasdaq).
Thom Hogan posted a nice graph showing Canon versus Nikon in terms of unit volume for 2016 (the same scale is used in both charts):
Quote:
“Just a reminder: Nikon is still a profitable company, and according to the numbers, healthily so. They’re not going out of business. But as I predicted, they’re getting smaller.”
Here are some unit sales numbers for the first nine months of 2016 collected and calculated by Thom:
Canon: 3.895m
Nikon: 2.2m
Other: 1.97m (Sony, Fuji, Olympus, Panasonic and Pentax)
Some additional slides from Nikon’s presentation (can be found here):
Nikon released new firmware update version 1.11 for the D500 DSLR camera with two changes/fixes:
An update on the Nikon layoffs fiasco: as part of their financial statements, Nikon released a “Notice of Restructuring” which describes “re-assigning 1000 employees to reduce fixed cost” in the Lithography division. For the Imaging Business Unit, an additional 350 domestic employees that will be “rationalized” and “re-assigned”.
Update: Nikon will actually “re-assign” a total 1,550 employees (including 200 people at their headquarters), but the total headcount will be reduced by 1,000 by March 31, 2017, just what Nikkei reported yesterday.
