OT Nikon to launch F6 hybrid film/DSLR at end of 2004?

[terry_rory]

I keep coming across rumblings about Nikon launching an F6 with

interchangeable film or digital back by end of this year.

 

Aren't Leica supposed to have done this already with the R9? What

happened? Has the new Imacon takeover by Hasselblad scuppered the

Leica deal?

 

The 'new' Nikon F6 is also rumoured to be manual focus. (Which I find

unlikely but stranger things have happened.)

[john_r._fulton_jr.]

Trevor---That's about the only direction Nikon can go with a "film" camera.

The F5 doesn't leave much room for improvement. (smaller & lighter?) Nikon

has made a huge commitment to their "AF" --auto focus--lenses. Perhaps the

F6 would be made more compatable with the older non-AF lenses?

Photokina is next month. It should be interesting to see what comes up. End of

this month will be start of "leaks" as to what will be shown at Photokina. Stay

tuned. <grin>

[mskovacs]

I guess its way off topic from Leica, but the F5 could be marginally improved by using the new AF module from the D2H. The D2H will also colour matrix meter with manual lenses if you input the focal length/maximum aperture.

 

I still find this entire F6 story hard to swallow but time will tell.

[el_fang]

Maybe marginally improved, but probably not worth the additional investment into film technology. I'm betting that the F100 and F5 will be the last "pro" film bodies from Nikon.

[ShunCheung]

As far as I know, prices for used F5s have dropped to below $1000 in the last year or so. The demand for high-end film SLRs for professional use is very soft as news, sports ... photography is all digital now. If Nikon ever makes a film or hybrid F6, who is the intended market?

[over exposure]

In reality in Italy we're told that there's still the 60% of photographs made with film....and even tough digital cameras are sure the main market for professionals or "high-end amateurs", there's always that slice for whose this camera can be intended..

 

I don't know really about the interchangeable back, but more easily It will have the dimension of an F100..

 

Like Nikon used the F's parts for realizing the D series, probably will now use the D series innovations on the (ipotetic name) F6..

 

We'll wait and see..:-)

 

Best regards..

[ellis_vener_photography]

<I>"I keep coming across rumblings about Nikon launching an F6 with interchangeable

film or

digital back by end of this year."</I><P>

 

That is the long standing rumor. Apparently a lot of the guts of the technology in the F6

is already in the

D2H body.<P>

 

<I>"Aren't Leica supposed to have done this already with the R9? What happened?"

</I><P>

 

Leica has announced a back for the R9, but it isn't expected on the market until late this

year or early next year.<P>

 

<I>"What happened? Has the new Imacon takeover by Hasselblad scuppered the Leica

deal?"</I><P>

 

Why? Hasselblad makes medium format cameras not 35mm SLRs. At this point in camera

history it makes sense for three very small companies (Hasselblad, Imacon & Leica) to

collaborate

or have some technology interconnections. <P>

 

<I>"The Nikon F6 is also rumoured to be manual focus."</I><P>

 

It will have a manual focus options.

[watts]

<i>Why? Hasselblad makes medium format cameras not

35mm SLRs. At this point in camera history it makes sense for

three very small companies (Hasselblad, Imacon & Leica) to

collaborate..</i><br><br>There will be contractual obligations

regarding the R8/9 back that will no doubt see that through but I

wouldn't presume that Hasselbald will be keen to continue the

relationship with Leica going forward. Remember that many

pros have moved to 35mm digital as a *replacement* for their

MF film systems. It is a mistake to think that there is no conflict

between MF and 35mm digital SLRs. Hasselblad will want to

sell as many of its own systems as possible and stop the

haemorrhaging of its pro base to the 35mm DSLR market. Don't

be surprised if Leica have to look for a new partner in the years

ahead.

[frank_meeker]

I find that many magazines still prefer transparencies over digital files (dammit!), especially the European magazines. Two regional mags here in Denver CO, only accept transparencies. The mags cite not being able to work with such and such file sizes and color spaces (even if you give them Adobe rgb 30mb files at 300dpi)!

I've asked how they deal with the digital files from the scanners (again, Adobe rgb, 16-60mb files at 300dpi) and they always give some nonsensical vague reply. Oh well, it keeps my Leicas, F5's, and Hasselblad in business. This may also be the reason for a hybrid F6...

 

Regards,

 

Frank M.

[ellis_vener_photography]

it makes sense for a Hasselblad/Imacon/leica "partnership" to continue because of the ties

between other high end digital back manufacturers with other medium & small format

companies. For instance Creo/Leaf is already tied to Mamiya, at least in the USA. Sinar

makes it's own backs and a dedicated non-view camera camera body.

 

What will be interesting from a business point of view is how Phase One will deal with the

Hasselblad/Imacon company. phase One and Imacon have been rivals for years and phase

One supposedly has a leading market share in digital back sales especially amon portrait

photographers. most of those Phase One backs are going on Hasselblad 500 /"V" series

camera bodies.

 

Currently all digital back manufacturers make their backs with Hasselblad "V" attachment

adapters, this isn't true for any other camera make or model.

 

Another aspect will be what this means to the Kodak/ Dalsa rivalry. Kodak currently makes

most of the CCD chips used in medium format digital cameras but Dalsa is coming on very

strongly.

[ellis_vener_photography]

<I>I find that many magazines still prefer transparencies over digital files (dammit!),

especially the European magazines. Two regional mags here in Denver CO, only accept

transparencies.</I><P>there are multiple reasons for this: here are three.<P>1.)

technical illiteracy on

the part of some (not all) photographers and production staff on the publishers side.

<P>2.) long established and well & continuously lubricated relationships between printers

(and their pre-production divisions) and the art directors & production managers at the

publishers. <P>3.) A preduction house that is doing the scans is pretty much a closed

loop with that printer -- they know what they are getting in the way of technical quality

and accuracy, <P>Reasons 1 & 3 Can be overcome but it takes a lot of work for both sides

and the photographer has to become tightly integrated into different publisher's systems.

reason #2 is much harder to crack. Printers have very deep pockets and can better afford

to offer "perks" to good repeat clients to keep their business than individual

photographers can.

[richard_milner2]

When I worked in paper publishing the repro house did hi-res scans of slides on drum scanner and gave us lo-res files for positioning and cropping. The hi-res files were fed into the page layout when they went for output to film. This was before digital photography.

 

The costs of doing this were not great. It would have been difficult to justify the expense (equipment, office space and staff) to do hi-res scans in house.

 

This may have changed but big repro houses can probably offer a competitive service given the extra equipment and staff that would be needed to process and correct the digital files in house. If they can't, they will presumably go out of business.

 

Computer equipment is generally more expensive in Europe than the US.

[bob haight]

Regardless of what the digital folks claim, slides still are the best imaging medium. The problem is that at some point all those slides must be digitlaized or scanned and that really cuts the edge slides have to nothing over the latest generation sensors. Nice thing about slides is the publisher can see first hand what the image lookes like on film and then strive to recreate that image in the final digital format.

 

As to the question at hand, a true usable hybrid would be a camera with removable backs so the user could alternate at will the image capture. The proposed R9 module would not do this leaving one to rewind the film completley to put the module on. Seems to me this is of very limtied untility. Hopefully, Nikon has accomplished this utility for a reasonable price.

[blakley]

Bob H. has it right on here - the big advantage of slides is that you have an absolute visual reference for your color management.

[watts]

<i>it makes sense for a Hasselblad/Imacon/leica "partnership"

to continue because of the ties between other high end digital

back manufacturers with other medium & small format

companies. For instance Creo/Leaf is already tied to Mamiya, at

least in the USA. Sinar makes it's own backs and a dedicated

non-view camera camera body. </i><br><br>Not sure I follow

your point. As an independent company there was every reason

for Imacon to pursue links with a whole range of manufacturer's

- both MF and 35mm. Now that Imacon is effectively part of

Hasselblad there are good strategic reasons why Hasselblad

will not want it's digital arm (Imacon) to be helping to develop

35mm based digital systems. Remember that many (most?)

pros moving to 35mm DSLRs are dumping their MF systems.

35mm DSLR systems are now effectively in direct competition

with MF systems in a way that film based 35mm systems never

were. Hasselblad needs to sell MF systems (whether H1 or V-

based stuff) to survive. It's just my opinion, but continuing to

partner with Leica beyond present contractual arrangements

doesn't seem to me to be a sensible way forward for

Hasselblad.

[eugenio.demmenie]

I am not sure Nikon will show such a camera at the coming Photokina. I have heard the stories too, but often reality is different.

 

It would be nice though:

 

- to have a replaceable back so one can upgrade the digital back when a new sensor comes along. It seems the shutter etc. now easily outlives the cylcic time of a sensor (ofcourse this may stabilize in the future)

 

- to have changeable view finders (e.g. for macro photography) again on digital SLRs

 

- to have a "full format sensor", larger than is used now by Nikon. this would mean the same viewfinder (framesize) for digital and film

 

- once having these options, it would be less trouble to have a film back

 

But I am not sure Nikon will come with a camera with a changeable back. They are so proud of their DX lenses and I don't think they have a Mr. Ehrenreich nowadays, who tells them what would be nice and to whom they listen.

[christopher_woodby]

<i>Now that Imacon is effectively part of Hasselblad there are good strategic reasons why Hasselblad will not want it's digital arm (Imacon) to be helping to develop 35mm based digital systems.</i>

 

I thought that Imacon acquired Hassy, not the other way around. The new C.E.O. of the company is Imacon's chief.

[victorpanlilio]

Well, the D2X has been announced:

 

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0409/04091605nikond2x.asp

 

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-6459-7204

 

Drool.... drool....<div></div>

[victorpanlilio]

<a href=http://nikonimaging.com/global/news/2004/0916_02.htm>Official F6

announcement</a>

<br>

<a href=http://nikonimaging.com/global/news/2004/0916_01.htm>Official D2X

announcement</a>

[johnorr]

Wahoo! Finally, Nikon was sure slow to market with these two cameras but it looks like they will lead the market again, for best DSLR anyway. I called my pro-shop and put mine on order and they mentioned something about the F6 having a digital back too. I was surprised to read it hear right after I heard the rumor. It?s time to sell my D100.

 

As far as a hybrid film/digital body, this would be my dream come true. People can say anything they want about which are better and take lines per inch till they are blue in the face. I can tell the difference between the two most of time by looking at the thumb nails on this site, especially black and white images. I like the way certain films look. Fuji?s Velvia and Acros film looks better than any digital image I can produce but I like shooting digital for obvious reasons too. I like to use 64T for light painting images that I just cannot do with digital. The film properties work very well towards producing certain photographic art images, aside from light painting, scanning purposefully scratched or burned negatives makes for some nice prints too. Don?t know how many of you have seen this but it?s really nice if its done well. Anyway, if Nikon makes a 12.4 MP back for the F6, I?ll buy it!