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Will You Purchase a D4?


gary_mayo1

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<p>I know I will be looking it over pretty closely. If I can get half the money back out of mine, and the price is around what the D3 cost when it was introduced, I would go for it if the camera is everything we expect it will be. </p>

<p>Will you be purchasing a D4?</p>

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<p>Not in the next 2 weeks off of clist or ebay - since the product hasn't been announced yet (unless I missed it while at work today). </p>

<p>Even then - when announced - I'm going with the it depends answer. Depends on what improvements it has over a D3, D300, D700 and if those are enough for me to write out a check. </p>

<p>Dave</p>

 

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<p>The D4 is a total dog camera. I don't know how Nikon could produce such a piece of crap. No Composition Detection, only 34 mpx when the 1DS mk6 has 35, terrible results with underexposure at ISO 256,000, only 400 focus points, of which only 200 are cross type. Nikon had better get with the program or I'm switching to Canon.</p>
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<p>One intelligent person should be able to make a gestimate in what the D4 or D5 would be like .... Clearly some people have upgraded dSLRs over time from the D100 to the more present cameras. And the answer would be likewise, it's obvious, some people would get the D4 like how they got a D3 and a D2, while some people may prefer a newer D700 or a newer D300 ......<br>

It's not like I would be using my D3 up until 2030. </p>

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<blockquote>

<p>At that point, why not go medium format?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Because a D3s...</p>

<ul>

<li>has liveview, which I find indispensable for macro and product work.</li>

<li>has a lens family that ranges from 8mm to 600mm, including 5 highly respectable macro lenses, two of them tilt/shift.</li>

<li>performs surprisingly well at ISO 3200 and 6400.</li>

<li>has arguably the best autofocus system in the entire camera industry.</li>

<li>costs about half of what a MF costs.</li>

<li>shoots 9 frames/second.</li>

<li>supports tethered shooting.</li>

<li>has a comfortable, integral vertical grip.</li>

<li>has a 1/250 x-sync speed, for double the flash to ambient ratio of the 1/125 sec Pentax 645D</li>

<li>has video.</li>

<li>can beat the 645D in shallow DOF portraits.</li>

</ul>

<p>There's no reason to expect the D4 to not exceed the D3 capabilities in every way, shape, and form.</p>

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<blockquote>

<p>It's not a "bad omen" to Nikon or Canon. Nikon had their film flagships F, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6. Canon has a 1D mk IV.<br>

Odd, that this myth persists a decade into the 21st century...</p>

</blockquote>

<p>What about Canon not making a Powershot G4? It went straight from the G3 to the G5.</p>

<p> </p>

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<p>It is funny to listen to the responses. For most of us who have purchased D3's and D3s' for Sports, the D4 will be very interesting. Looking back on the advances that Nikon has made in the past 4 years since the inception of the D3, it seems to me that the D4 will be incredibly innovative, and to simple dismiss it as silly is, a bit premature.<br>

The D3 and then the D3S have totally changed what the sports shorter can achieve. <br>

For those who scoff at the new technologies and say..."what did you do 10 years ago?", I say, the pictures today are better in low light. I do not apologize that I am taking advantage of the newer technology.<br>

I do not need strobes indoors, where others do. IMHO, strobes look extremely un-natural. High ISO shooting, in my arena is mandatory for good sports shooting. I have found that as you move up the sports chain, the lighting gets better, and the need for high iso camera decreases. There is however, still a great need for sports shooters who can handle crappy lighting. I get called <strong>many</strong> times because my pictures are bright, clear and crisp, when others are not. Equipment has a lot to do with this.<br>

I have seen much written about the possibilities of what the D4 "could" be. If it is 1/2 as innovative as the D3 was, then I will be signing up early. The rest of you can call it silly or whatever. As far as the medium format Pentax? Different horse for a different course. It is not a high ISO sports camera.<br>

Even Shun, who is ALWAYS tight lipped about the release of new Nikon products has hinted (totally between the lines of course), that an upgrade for the D3 could occur during 2011.<br>

I currently shoot with a pair of D3S's. I am constantly shooting with other sports (mostly canon) shooters who can not understand how it is that I am achieving bright crisp shots at ISO16000. I can only imagine that the D4 will raise the bar that much further.<br>

Dave L:<br>

If I remember correctly, you purchase and were very pleased of the results of your D300, and said you would never upgrade. until you saw the results of an FX D700, and then you upgraded. <br>

As I have grown older, I have learned the wisdom of never saying never:)<br>

Personally, I am very interested in the possibilities of a D4.<br>

Respectfully,<br>

Harry</p>

<p> </p>

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<p>Joseph, many of your points are incorrect.</p>

<p>A D3S ... (my responses are in italics)<br>

has liveview, which I find indispensable for macro and product work. <em>Can't argue that. Of course several models do, but putting a digital back on a Hassy won't do it.</em><br>

costs about half of what a MF costs. <em>Not if you want the same number of pixels it doesn't. A D3X is $8,000 body only, compared to a Pentax or Mamiya body and lens for $10,000. If I had the money to spend, I'd gladly give up two megapixels for a larger sensor, even if I didn't have 24 to start. Shoot, I have 12 now and I'd be happy to drop to 6, if my sensor was 'medium format' sized.</em><br>

supports tethered shooting. <em>Every digital medium format I'm aware of, even separate backs for old cameras, does this.</em><br>

has a 1/250 x-sync speed, for double the flash to ambient ratio of the 1/125 sec Pentax 645D <em>Either will sync faster with off-camera flash, and some Canon, Mamiya, or other models sync faster or slower than that with on-camera flash.</em><br>

has video. <em>Can't argue that either. But I can argue that if you're shooting video professionally, EVERY Nikon DSLR leaves a LOT to be desired.</em><br>

can beat the 645D in shallow DOF portraits. <em>I call serious BS on that. Clearly you're not familiar with the difference between film/sensor sizes. As a generality, you get about half the DOF with the larger sensor, and that doesn't even take into account the fact that MF uses longer lenses, which also reduce DOF. I don't have specs in front of me, but I believe a Mamiya with an 80mm f/2.8 has about the same DOF as a Nikon with a 50mm f/1.4 ... so unless you're using a 55mm or 58mm 1.2, you're not losing anything there. And if you were, you'd be losing your autofocus.</em><br>

There's no reason to expect the D4 to not exceed the D3 capabilities in every way, shape, and form. <em>Agreed. There's also no reason to assume it will be a large difference. I found the D90 to be a huge step up from the D80. I found the D80 to be just a D70 with more megapixels and an SD card.</em><br>

<em> </em><br>

I left off the ones I agreed with :) Cameras are like cars. Bigger cameras are designed for bigger jobs - in this case, bigger prints. You can cram 500 horsepower into a Suzuki, but it's still not going to be able to tow a trailor or push a plow as well as a truck with 150 horsepower. It's just not designed to operate that way. But it will accelerate and corner better, because it IS designed to operate that way.</p>

<p>Similarly, you can't say your Nikon D3 is better than a digital MF, because it's not. It's designed to do different things. Now it's good enough to be used for just about everything, but it's not specialized for big prints and wider dynamic range the way a digital MF camera is. Even in the days before digital, MF cameras lacked VR or blazingly fast AF (either because they were usually used on tripods or because the lens elements are so much bigger and heavier), but were the go-to cameras for print and advertising work.</p>

<p>This is not a Leica situation, where they expect you to buy an underwhelming camera just so you can buy their awesome lenses. Regardless of what you'd like to tell yourself, professionals that use digital MF cameras do not purposely handicap themselves with worse and more expensive cameras for bragging rights. If Nikon designs the D4 to compete with digital MF cameras, you'll find many users just switching to the MF cameras.</p>

<p>Personally, I'd like to think Nikon is smart enough to avoid this. Again, if I had $10,000 to spend on a camera and my choices were 'medium format' or 'Nikon D4 that wishes it were medium format,' I'd be an idiot to buy the Nikon.</p>

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<p>Harry, by "that is silly..." I think Andrew meant the question, and the whole discussion about a non-existant camera was silly, and not that the D4 was silly.</p>

<blockquote>

<p><em>As a generality, you get about half the DOF with the larger sensor, and that doesn't even take into account the fact that MF uses longer lenses, which also reduce DOF.</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>Zack, if "that doesn't even take into account the fact that MF uses longer lenses", what <em>does</em> it take into account?</p>

<p>John, you must have a crystal ball. Could you tell me if I'm going to get that job I want so much?</p>

<p>I'm sorry it seems like I am nitpicking with everyone, I just couldn't help it. As for the bad omen, I want a D13! What do you guys think it will be like? Will you buy one?</p>

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