I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays. Here are the Nikon links from this week:
The next interesting Nikon patent filed in Japan is for a zoom that can be controlled manually and through a zoom button on the camera body:
The idea is to use motorized zoom while video recording (for a smoother, controlled transition) and manual zoom for still photography. This patent could potentially be implemented in the upcoming Nikon mirrorless camera.
Update: you may have to run the firmware update twice in order to get rid of all “bright spots”. Here are three examples: before the update, after the first update and after the second update (.mov files may take a while to load).
As previously promised, Nikon USA just published a firmware updated for the Nikon D7000. The update includes a single fix:
“Bright spots were sometimes noticeable with live view mode or movie recording of especially dark scenes or subjects. Occurrence of this issue has been reduced.”
The description says that the “bright spots” issue has been “reduced”.
If you had that problem before, I would like to hear you feedback on the new firmware.
Nikon filed a patent in Japan for interchangeable sensor solution in mirrorless cameras. According to the patent application, the interchangeable sensors will have different AF system, speed (fps) and pixel count in order to suite different shooting preferences:
| AF | Rate | Image quality | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contrast AF | Slow | Good | All pixels and therefore can be used for image output quality |
| Phase difference AF (center point, etc.) | Fast | Normal | AF phase is very small because the pixel is used, less quality degradation |
| Phase difference AF (sensors, etc. Cross) | Fast | Bad | AF phase for a number of pixels used, interpolation is required and can lead to lower quality |
Just few weeks ago Nikon filed another patent for an interchangeable sensor with more connection details:
Nikon Coolscan 9000 ED is now listed as discontinued at B&H as well. The scanner has already been listed as discontinued in Europe. I expect the prices to go up on eBay.
I will be out of town next week with limited Internet access and probably there will be few days without a posts (I do not expect any interesting news). Here are the Nikon related links for this week:
Nikon D5000 is already discontinued and a replacement is expected. The D3000 was released in July of 2009 (three months after the D5000) and it was already replaced in August of 2010. All that means that the Nikon D5000 should be updated any time now. The rumor is that the D5000 will be replaced by the D5500. Here are the D5500 basic specs:
[NR] rating: 40% just because I want to hear those specs from few more places.
I am continuing with the tradition to have a brief hands-on for every new Nikon lens. Next in line is the Nikon AF-S 200mm f/2G ED VRII lens which I got for few days from Borrowlenses. The lens was announced on September 15th, 2010 and is an update (VRII) of the previous version.
This lens is massive – it has almost the same length as the 70-200 f/2.8 VRII but twice the diameter and weight:
Nikkor 200 f/2 VRII compared to 70-200 f/2.8 VRII
This is just a continuation of the previous guest post with some setup and real life pictures. More photographs taken with the Nikkor 19mm f/2.8 Macro lens can be found on fabriziobelardetti.com under the “Macro” section.
Equipment used:
Today’s guest post is from Fabrizio Belardetti (www.fabriziobelardetti.com) who will review the rare Nikkor 19mm f/2.8 Macro lens (you can click on all images for larger view):
Macro-Nikkors comprises four lenses made for the Nikon Multiphot: 19mm, 35mm, 60mm, 120mm. Each lens is optimised for a restricted range of magnifications and together they cover the entire range from 1:1 up to 40:1. The optics are designed to yield top results wide-open and stopping down only serves to increase depth of field (and diffraction effects). Within their specified magnification range the lenses will cover up to 4×5″ format with ease.
The 19 mm Nikkor comes in RMS microscope screw mount and you will need an adapters to convert RMS to Leica thread and then to Nikon mount. The 19 mm f/2.8 Macro-Nikkor has working optimum at 20x and should be used indoor only, as the focusing distance is about 20mm. It is designed to be mounted on a bellow, and it’s range is from 15x to 40x at the maximum extension.
Macro-Nikkors are hard to find today and really expensive (my gem cost me over 1500 €). This lens was made in Japan almost 40 years ago. I usually mount this on a PB-6 with PB 6E, sometimes with PK rings too!
Here is the lens with the original case and Nikon RMS to Leica and Leica to F mount adapters:
