Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and Nikon

The CES will start on this coming Sunday, January 7 through Friday the 12th, in Las Vegas. Just received e-mail from Nikon that they'll have live streaming from the Nikon presentations there: Nikon LIVE from CES 2018

 

I would imagine that a number of you have also received such e-mail from Nikon USA.

I would imagine that a number of you have also received such e-mail from Nikon USA.

I did.

Looks like the usual talks from a varity of ambassadors.

 

Where are the new toys? or don't they schedule those?

I'd have expected the rumour sites to pick up on anything due for imminent announcement by now. Except possibly for a new super zoom, the rumours are mostly about lenses. While I'm interested to hear about a 180-400 f/4 if it's really coming, it's not really a lens I'm interested in owning, and it doesn't really say "consumer electronics" to me. There are dedicated photography shows (including Photokina if you wait long enough) which would suit those.

 

That said, it's a winter Olympics year. If a D5s is going to happen for it, it's going to have to hurry. The last Canon rumour I saw suggested an 7DIII in the summer, which would also be too late.

 

Unless things are held up by the D850 production lines, I guess we're looking at the D5s (maybe D500s) and a D610/D750 update next. Nikon may be trying to get mirrorless sorted, and delaying their other bodies accordingly.

 

Or there could be a big surprise next week, because rumours are just rumours and I have no inside knowledge.

Two years ago back in 2016, Nikon had already announced the development of the D5 a couple of months earlier, and it was totally expected for the Rio Olympics anyway, but the D500 was a complete surprise. Concerning the 2018 Winter Olympics, that begins on February 9, just a bit more than a month away. Anything announced during the CES will be too late for wide usage in that short amount of time. Any sports camera announced now is more targeted for the World Cup in June.

 

I would expect a lot of announcements from various brands in the next few days.

Good news on eliminating fulfillment bottlenecks(e.g., D850)might be a good start. Still waiting for something "official" (apart from rumor-site noise)on their long-overdue MILC models.

I'm hoping most for another jaw dropping lens from Sigma!

 

 

Kent in SD

What focal length's do you wish for?

 

I'm hoping for a 30-60mm 1.8 DX to cover the gap between the 18-35mm and 50-100mm 1.8s.

 

These 2x zooms are very useful despite there limited range. Oh, and they're SHARP everywhere, even wide open.

I would like to see the 135/2, 180/2.8 and 200/4 Micro replaced with AF-S or AF-P versions, with updated optics (reduced LoCA, in particular). The D750 and D610 seem most likely in need of updates as these have been in the market a number of years. I would like to see radio AWL and on-sensor phase-detect autofocus (OSPDAF) in the D750's update - Nikon DSLR live view and video AF is lacking behind the competition and should be implemented in a more sophisticated way. Snapbridge would be there, hopefully with improvements to functionality and ease of use, and if possible, support for third party wifi software independently of the use of bluetooth and Nikon's own app. Buffer memory size should be increased and UHS-II and/or XQD card support included. I think 24MP is perfectly fine for a general purpose camera such as this.

 

I fear that the rumored 180-400/4 with built in 1.4X TC would be priced similarly to Canon's 200-400/4 which puts it firmly outside of my reach. I can see the benefits of having a long zoom which doesn't extend physically when the zoom is adjusted, which improves handling especially on a gimbal head compared to "consumer" long zooms that extend substantially and shift the center of gravity when zoomed. I would imagine an internal zoom would also be lighter and easier to zoom which is important if the subject quickly changes distance. A slip-in TC also would not significantly change the balance of the lens when inserted in the optical path or out of it. However, in the end it boils down to insufficient funds and the fact that the kind of sports that I would typically shoot would greatly benefit from a fast maximum aperture more than the ability to zoom.

I've never played with the 200-400mm f4, but I've got the 200-500mm f5.6.

 

Admittedly the AF can be a bit sluggish and it does get a bit softer @ 500mm, but for the gain of 1 stop and the loss of 100mm at the long end, the 180/200-400mm f4 has no attractions for me what-so-ever, esp as Ilkka says, it's gonna cost A LOT!

I was a lot keener to see the 135 f/2 replaced before the Sigma f/1.8 (and Samyang f/2) versions. Maybe a PF version would be interesting. Otherwise, perhaps an STF to replace the DC? Or a cheap and light AF f/2.8?

 

The 180 is very old now. The Sigma 180 macro arguably doubles both for this and the 200 f/4, although it's not really optimised for normal distances IIRC, and it's quite big, so I won't say neither have appeal (though I'm happy with my 150 Sigma and a 70-200 usually). An updated 70-180 macro could be very interesting.

 

As Mike says, a 200-400 f/4 made more sense when the big zooms were f/6.3 on a good day. Unless there's something very special about it (PF?), the 200-500 (or Sigma -600mm zoom) are a lot of lens for much less money.

With so many versions of the 70-200mm/f2.8 AF-S VR around (and some earlier 80-200mm/f2.8), I am not sure there is much demand on another 180mm/f2.8 AF-S, perhaps with VR. If one can't afford the latest 70-200mm/f2.8 with FL, there are plenty of older ones at affordable prices in the used market.

 

The 200mm/f4 AF-D macro is quite old, but it is still a fine lens and somehow in these days, I mainly use the 60mm/f2.8 and 105mm/f2.8 macro lenses.

The 135/2 is a useful lens (even though there are 70-200/2.8 lenses) for the same reasons that a 300/2.8 is useful even though there are 200-400/4 lenses. The primes give one stop more light, nicer out of focus rendering, and can be significantly lighter and smaller. The Canon 135/2 is an excellent lens that weights only 750 grams, one quarter of the weight of the Nikon 200/2 II.

 

I don't want DC (I just never use this feature and it seems to make focusing trickier than usual), STF throws away too much light although the images are pretty (the Sony STF 100/2.8 costs about 2k€ and is reportedly t/5.6; not very good for events in a dim cave-like interior), PF results in a bit compromised bokeh and there is a milky appearance to faces, so I don't want that either. Just a regular Nikon prime would work best for me, something like the 105/1.4 but with less weight, 1 stop smaller aperture and no cat's eyes in the out of focus highlights (neither of the DC Nikkors suffers from this effect). Sigma 135 is several hundred grams heavier than a usual 135mm lens (ok it's f/1.8 so a bit more light) and I don't want the color difference and the in-focus areas "pop" a bit too much out of the images that I've seen from this lens (same effect in the 85/1.4 Art). I would prefer as consistent image characteristics across focal lengths as possible. f/2, f/2.5 or f/2.8 would be ok as long as the weight is reasonable in light of the maximum aperture and focal length. The Zeiss Batis 135/2.8 is appealing to me but won't fit my cameras. With the FL long glass and the 70-200/2.8 Nikon got the right idea: lose weight at the front, keep the excellent image quality or improve upon it.

 

The 200-400/4 type lenses do have the advantage of internal zooming. To me the heavy and extending zooming of the 150-600 and 200-500 type lenses is problematic.