I am almost ready to say “it has begun”, I just need to verify few more things and go through some translations. Stay tuned!
Here are just two of the reports I got in the past 24hr:
“I work for a big retailer in ***. Today all stores have been told to remove demo Nikon D90 bodies from display and send them back to head office.”
“I have had a Nikon SB-600 in order for about 3 months now at a big electronic store in ***. I know a guy that works there. He made a call to the head office, and they told him they expect Nikon to announce a replacement at Photokina.”
Photokina is almost two months away, the end of July is approaching and all this could only mean one thing – we should start getting some reliable rumors. The Internet is currently full of speculations and I will continue to filter out the nonsense and post only credible information. We may have few “filler” posts to keep us entertained in the mean time (a new “Nikon in 3D” article is coming up this week). In the worst case scenario, we should have a new line of Coolpix cameras in the first half of August (this is almost a tradition for Nikon). Looking at previous years, Nikon also likes to schedule a more “serious” announcement a week or two before or after the Coolpix press event – either way we are entering the “golden time” of 2010.
I already started noticing few interesting comments on Asian forums from some of the posters I have been following for years. Nothing specific at that point, but the first signs of an upcoming Nikon announcement are present.
On the blog site: soon I will unveil a new “Page 2” of Nikon Rumors – that way I will be able to cover everything Nikon related without cluttering the main blog page.
I have covered the Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 lens light leak few times in the past (see blog and forum posts) and it seems that Nikon is responding to this issue, at least in Korea. This is what we have so far: Nikon Imaging Korea issued this service notice (in English) which basically says that they acknowledge the problem and will fix it for free. My understanding is that Nikon will provide free 24-70 rentals for the duration of the repair (not sure, but I think this offer will be valid for the first 300 claims).
Here is the direct Google translation, you get the idea:
“This phenomenon, under limited conditions, the phenomenon is extremely rare. In normal shooting is not a problem. However, depending on your discomfort occurs if you want products that can be done after the necessary measures.”
This is the video illustrating the problem:
No word for now if other countries will follow this service advisory.
Patent Application 20090270125 and granted US patent 7646417 are for “Mobile phone equipped with a camera”. The drawings are of a conventional, rotating screen cell phone:
Patent Application 20050096019 is to enable a mobile device to access networks that use different programing languages. This would be particularly helpful when traveling in “in some countries and geographic regions” that use different network technologies:
This invention relates to the field of wireless communications. In particular, the invention relates to wireless communications exchanged between a mobile device and a network site using a language conversion engine. Wireless technology now enables mobile devices to wirelessly couple to networks such as the Internet. The mobile devices can couple to the networks to receive information and content.
Typically, mobile devices are programmed to use a single language. The language use by the mobile device determines which network sites can be accessed. In some countries and geographic regions, mobile devices favor one type of language. Information providers typically structure network sites to provide content to the mobile devices using the language that is more prevalent in that geographic region. This makes it difficult for devices using other languages to have the same breadth of network access. One advantage of the invention is to enable mobile devices programmed in one language to access network sites structured to provide information using a second language.”
“A digital camera comprises an image-capturing unit that captures an image of a photographic subject and acquires image data, a communication unit for sending and receiving electronic mail data including image data, a recording control unit that records the image data acquired by the image-capturing unit as photographed image data upon a recording medium, an email for sending creation unit that creates an email for sending, to which is attached an image based upon the photographed image data recorded upon the recording medium, and an email address setting unit that sets an email address as the destination of the email for sending. The email for sending creation unit creates a title or a text of the email for sending, based upon at least one of the photographed image data and the email address that has been set.”
In an interview with Pen News Weekly, Nikon’s president Makoto Kimura made few more comments on the upcoming mirrorless camera from Nikon (see the previous interview, where he dropped the bomb about an upcoming Nikon mirrorless concept):
Nikon plans to retain its “top position” in the DSLR market and create an “entirely new domain” at the same time.
“It will be a camera that may take photos of the world that the traditional SLR cannot reach.”
“Nowadays digital cameras take movies, performance of cameraphones is rapidly advancing and demand for simple movie cameras for uploading video on the Internet is on the rise. Redefinition of photography may become necessary.”
I find the last comment particularly interesting, since last week Nikon announced that they are looking for cooperation with online and mobile device companies. Based on those developments, I think we can expect some kind of Internet connectivity built-in in the upcoming Nikon EVIL camera for uploading photos/video online. I’ve seen also few related patent applications filed by Nikon.
Nikon UK announced that Simon Coleman (General Manager for Imaging) has left the company to pursue other interests.
Rumor: Nikon met their quarterly goal in the US and sold out their warehouse. The rumor is that Nikon actually closed their warehouse facilities for two weeks (until July 5th, 2010). They were not taking orders of any types during that time, which may explain some of the recent shortages. This seems to be a common practice – I have reported similar closures in the past.
Some failure rates stats for Nikon equipment after the break:
Update on the latest patents applications from Nikon – this is a long post, make sure you “read more”.
First, the patent applications from Japan (no direct links possible) – the first set of patents appears to be for the upcoming EVIL system:
Patent application 2010-054660 – “To provide a camera for reliably closing a mount opening upon detaching an accessory for the camera”:
Patent application 2010-044228 is for a 10-29mm zoom lens for the 17mm format sensor:
f = 10.25 to 17.30-29.30
FNO = 3.35 to 4.27-5.86
2omega = 82.8 degree – 52.8 degree – 32.4″
Overall-length 67.70495 62.46001 67.54250
Patent application 2008-214916 – “To provide a lens barrel capable of preventing the operating noise of a diaphragm blade from leaking outside, and to provide a camera”. This patent is about sound reduction (aimed at video). If you compare the optics outline to the design in 2010-044228 patent application, it looks like a match (including the location of the aperture). If this assumption is correct, the dimension to the lens barrel will be about 49mm diameter and 39mm for the flange – this lens will be tiny! Flange to sensor is 18mm. Attached is an image of the two images together – scale is ~8 pixels/mm :
Nikon D700 is currently out of stock @ B&H. This is either a regular supply shortage or really good timing on Nikon’s part. It will be interesting to monitor the availability in the next few days/weeks. Nikon shortages are usually for new products – the Nikon D700 is already 2 years old. In addition, the rebate program has been running for few months already and I expect whoever wanted to take advantage of it, already did.
Bloomberg reports that Nikon will revise its US Dollar and Euro foreign exchange estimates:
“The yen has gained about 19 percent against the euro and 5 percent against the dollar this year. Nikon, which earned more than 80 percent of its revenue outside Japan in the 12 months ended March 31, is using currency hedging and increasing overseas procurement of parts to become less vulnerable to fluctuations in exchange rates, Kimura said. The Tokyo-based camera maker assumes a yen exchange rate of 90 yen to the dollar and 120 yen to the euro for the fiscal year to March 2011, it said May 11. The yen traded at 88.36 to the dollar and 111.82 to the euro at 12:45 p.m. Tokyo time. A stronger yen erodes the value of overseas earnings at a Japanese company when repatriated.”
It remains to be seen if this will lead to any price adjustments for the US and European markets.
Update: Nikon is planing to ship this new camera “as early as this fiscal year”. The Nikon fiscal year end on March 2011.
I am away from my computer for the next few hours but you can read the whole article at Bloomberg:
“The new concept model will probably have an enhanced function for video recording and may adopt the so-called mirrorless structure. It could be any time this fiscal year or the following year, as new models are starting to sell.”
Those were the words of Nikon’s President Makoto Kimura from an interview with Bloomberg.
