Nikon Announces the Development of the D5 and SB-5000 Flash

[ShunCheung]

<p>This is essentially a non-announcement announcement. Today Nikon announces the development of the D5 flagship DSLR, a new SB-5000 flash, and a WT-6 transmitter. However, there are no details at this point, nor any time frame or pricing. Obviously the D5 is hardly a surprise. It is well expected that it will be available several months ahead of the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, which begins on 5th August, 2016.</p>

<p>The following link is Nikon Japan's news article:<br>

http://www.nikon.com/news/2015/1118_dslr_01.htm</p>

[Dieter Schaefer]

<p>I quite doubt that Nikon started developing the D5 just now - if it is to be released as Shun suggested, then it should already be in the last stages of development, if not already with some beta testers. So what prompted this non-announcement announcement? Just a particularly slow day in Nikon's PR department? They could at least have announced the non-development of the D500, which represents the next generation of non-professional Nikon DX-format models (aka the replacement of the non-existent D400) too ;-)</p>

[ilkka_nissila]

I am sure the D5's development started many years ago. This announcement may mean that there is a delay and the

product may take a few months longer than expected, so they made this announcement to confirm customers that inspite

of lack of a product release, they are working on it. Canon and Nikon have made this kind of announcements before and

the products did eventually reach the market.

 

Maybe the new flash will have radio control built in. I hope.

[Andrew Garrard]

Well, there's one tiny bit of information - they do call the

D5 a dslr, so Nikon haven't gone mirrorless yet. Unless

this is deliberate misdirection, of course.

[Wouter Willemse]

<p>Maybe Nikon is getting so tired of the endless speculations online that they just decided to admit they're doing that everyone already could have guessed they were doing.... But Ilkka's idea that it's because of a possible delay sounds likely too.<br>

New naming scheme for the flashes, isn't that headline news? :-)</p>

[rodeo_joe1]

<p>I strongly suspect that Nikon will follow Canon's lead and incorporate radio communication in their "next generation" flash models. Optical communication is really lame in this day and age, not to mention wasteful of flash power. Hopefully they'll also have looked at what Godox and Nissin are offering, and incorporate a Li-Ion power source and better heat-resistance. Or at least easily swappable battery cartridges.</p>

<p>As for the D5. I doubt it's been years in the making, since sensor technology improves almost monthly. And in the hands of beta testers? From Nikon's recent record it seems the only beta testing that gets done is when the first few poor fools leap to buy their stuff retail. Either that or beta testing is done by a bunch of chimps.</p>

[chuck]

I think there might be two reasons why Nikon is doing this "development announcement" about D5.

 

1. to preempt an immanent major release announcement by perhaps Sony, or more likely Canon. Nikon may not be ready to release the D5 right away, but wishes to prevent the new rival product from Sony or canon from siphoning off users while they are still working on the D5.

 

Canon has abused this strategy quite successfully in the past. See for example it's "development announcements" for a 100Mpixel DSLR, or the 200-400f4 L.

 

2. Nikon is ambarasses at the end of the year that it has announced nothing in the way of a significant DX or FX camera body all year.

[ShunCheung]

<p>Not that I am trying to parse every word in this "non-announcement," but Nikon is announcing the development of the D5, not the beginning of its development.</p>

<p>Of course the development of the D5 has been underway for at least 2, 3 years, most likely even before the D4S was introduced early in 2014. Nikon's designers would project which technologies are to become mature enough to be on an up-coming camera in late 2015, early 2016 while keeping the cost at a manageable level. I am sure the D5 will be expensive, i.e. in the $6000 range or perhaps even a little higher, but even that is not an unlimited budget.</p>

<p>If you read Nikon headquarter's news web page: http://www.nikon.com/news/2015/index.htm, you will see that Nikon announced the D5500 in January this year, the special astro photography D810A in February, and D7200 in March. So far that is it for DSLRs in 2015. Since the D810A is merely a slightly modified D810 and is for a very special purpose, it is not really a new model. The fact of the matter is that Nikon has announced very few new DSLRs in 2015. On the lens side, there are some exciting new lenses from January to August, including the 300mm/f4 PF, new 500mm and 600mm/f4, 200-500mm/f5.6 and 24-70mm/f2.8 with VR. Again, so far there is nothing after August.</p>

<p>Therefore, I view this "announcement" is to generate some attention since there is not much real Nikon equipment news in the last 5 months of 2015 (or at least from September thru November, and I don't expect anything in December during the holiday season in many areas in the world).</p>

<p>Again, if we are allowed to parse model numbers, obvious the D5 is completely expected. The SB-5000 may indicate a new flash technology. Recall that the film TTL Nikon flashes have two-digit model numbers, e.g. SB-24, SB-28, etc. The digital iTTL flashes have three-digit model numbers such as SB-800, SB-900, and SB-910. The new SB-5000 may indicate a drastic change. But we can speculate all day long what four-digit means.</p>

[dan_brown4]

<p>Surely it will be a lovely camera. Curious about the new flash and what thatwill bring? Also, I wonder if a Df(5), with D5 sensor and processor, will be in the offing?</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>Dan, again, I think Nikon used the D4's sensor for the Df because at the time of the Df's introduction, that was the "current" Nikon FX sensor with the fewest number of pixels. The likes of D3, D4, and presumably D5 are designed for fast frame rates for sports and action photography; the Df is anything but that.</p>

<p>Since a lot of people tend to mount old lenses onto the Df, 24 or 36MP will easily reveal optical flaws from those old lenses. IMO that was why Nikon picked 16MP. Unlike wine, those old lenses are not getting better over time. The Df is a one off product. I don't think it makes sense to improve it. It wasn't meant to be state of the art in late 2013 anyway.</p>

[Peter_in_PA]

<p>There is no doubt that this is Nikon's way of saying "Hey sports pros! Don't switch to Canon, we got your back."<br /><br />I don't mean that as a criticism either.<br /><br />And I wouldn't be surprised if there was a Df-II actually, myself.<br /><br />So let's take bets on sensor resolution. I say 24MP and 2 more stops of usable ISO, which, when you think about where we were 10 years ago... is total insanity. (in a good way...)</p>

[chuck]

<p>Will you buy me an D5 if I win?</p>

[dan_brown4]

<p>Df sales have been good (maybe better than expected), so it may make marketing sense for Nikon to improve it and try to sell some more of them.</p>

<p>I think 24 M is a pretty good bet on the D5. I would expect it to function as a WiFi host so that wireless high data-rate comms could be employed, assuming the power issues could be reasonably addressed. We'll see.</p>

[Peter_in_PA]

<p>Chuck Fan,<br /><br />No, I won't, but I have it on good authority that the moderators and administrators here make six figures off this site, so maybe they will (sarcasm alert).</p>

[ShunCheung]

<blockquote>

<p>Will you buy me an D5 if I win?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Check, you win what? If you hit the lotto jackpot, I think you should buy everybody who posts to this thread a D5. :-)</p>

<p>That prospect should boost participation on this thread.</p>

[chip_chipowski]

<p>Thanks Chuck, I would like to sign up for the D5 lotto special. Just in case anyone is wondering, I do not have any plans to purchase a D5 if Chuck fails to come through. However, I warmly greet news of the D5 like other Nikon announcements, because shiny new gear hopefully means old Nikon gear moves towards the used market :)</p>

[Andrew Garrard]

<blockquote>The new SB-5000 may indicate a drastic change. But we can speculate all day long what four-digit means.</blockquote>

 

<p>Well, my suspicion is that it means they got to 9xx and needed another digit!</p>

 

<blockquote>I think Nikon used the D4's sensor for the Df because at the time of the Df's introduction, that was the "current" Nikon FX sensor with the fewest number of pixels</blockquote>

 

<p>You could argue that the Df got the D4 sensor because the D4 was about to be upgrade to the D4s, which allegedly has some sensor changes. Maybe. It was more obvious when the D3 sensor got put in the D700 before the D3s was introduced. Nikon have a habit of releasing a consumer model that "mops up" spare sensors from their high-end bodies. That is, of course, entirely my own dubious interpretation and a vast over-simplification.</p>

 

<blockquote>I think 24 M is a pretty good bet on the D5</blockquote>

 

<p>Completely speculating, I'd expect either 24MP if only to stop people (Daniel!) complaining that the halo body has fewer pixels than the D3300, or a much higher number that could enable 8K shooting - or pefect oversampling in 4K. The latter is much more speculative, and assumes that some magic is possible to allow on-chip binning of data to permit a fast transfer rate. I'd be marginally more confident of this if Nikon's "small RAW" had been more convincing. It might stop Thom Hogan complaining about the lack of replacement to the D3x, if we're lucky. Back in the real world, 24MP is only a 50% increase over the amount of data the D4s is already shuffling around, and storage media has been moving foward. I'm not so aware of photojournalists (if there are pros left) feeling the need for more resolution - if anything, the "shoot bursts of 4K video and pull a frame out" argument is quite appealing if you're trying to time a perfect shot. Frankly, I'm far more interested in what the autofocus system may be than in the sensor, and whether Nikon stick with XQD: I'm not limited by my current 36MP, at least until I decide I want to shoot video in more than HD.<br />

<br />

I'd be a little surprised by a Df-II, but I don't know the sales figures, and I was surprised by the original. I have absolutely no objection to Nikon producing a camera with the aims of the Df, I just didn't like the specifics of their implementation. I might actually be interested in a successor!</p>

[chuck]

<p>I think you might have better luck waiting for a brand new D5 without any serial number to fall off the back of a black, unmarked van on the street in front of your house, than for me to win the lotto jackpot.<br /> <br /> But I will gladly hand out D5s to my favorite photo.netters in the interest of supporting Nikon should I suddenly and inexplicably find myself on the receiving end of the perverse wealth redistribution scheme where the givers are selected based entirely on a lack of working grasp of probability.</p>

[chuck]

<p>BTW, my guess is the extra digit in SB-5000 indicate a substantial change to the underlying flash control mechanics from i-TTL.<br>

When last Nikon added a digit to speed light designation, it was because digital required the abandonment of the off-the-film TTL metering, so d-TTL was jettisoned.</p>

<p> </p>

[paul_b.1]

<p>I only hope The D5 will no longer have a Toyota sensor, like D4/4s...<br />Just a joke : Toyota owns 2.49% of Renesas Electronics (Runesasu Erekutoronikusu Kabushiki Gaisha) the makerof D4's sensor.<br>

After only 3 weddings I sold my D4 (in 2013).Everything was wrong with that camera : noise, focus and WB.<br />Maybe mine was a lemon !?</p>

[eric_arnold]

<blockquote>

<p>So what prompted this non-announcement announcement?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>the holiday season, duh. actually, im only commenting here so Chuck can gift me with a D5 when he hits the lotto. </p>

[rod_phillips1]

<p>Nothing is really new .</p>

<h4>Nikon Development Announcement is Not New</h4>

<p><a href="http://i2.wp.com/thenewcamera.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/nIKON-d4S.jpg"><img src="http://i2.wp.com/thenewcamera.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/nIKON-d4S.jpg?resize=570%2C195" alt="nIKON d4S" width="570" height="195" /></a><br /> Take a look at the history, Nikon announced Nikon D4s development announcement on Jan 6, 2014 and its official announcement was made on Feb 24, 2014. So the Nikon D5 arrival is not too late, we can expect its arrival on CES 2016.</p>

[Gup]

<p>I agree with Shun, it'll be here in time for the Olympics.<br>

And I agree with Chuck,</p>

<blockquote>

<p>1. to preempt an immanent major release announcement by perhaps Sony, or more likely Canon.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I don't have a clue what Canon has up their sleeve, but this tactic has been true in the past. </p>

<blockquote>

<p> </p>

</blockquote>

<p> </p>

[chuck]

It would have to be something fairly major and prestigious if Nikon felt Itnecessary to deploy the teaser about d5 to steal

the thunder.

 

Maybe yet another new eos1d iteration? Or less likely, a full fledged professional body from Sony with some important

new trick?

[Dieter Schaefer]

<blockquote>

<p>On the lens side, there are some exciting new lenses from January to August</p>

</blockquote>

<p>You didn't mention the AF-S DX NIKKOR 16-80mm f/2.8-4E ED VR that apparently is so exciting that I was the first at our local Samy's to have asked for it a couple of weeks back - to play with, not to purchase. It's still on the shelf, not exactly like the proverbial hot cakes (#634 on amazon's best sellers list for digital camera lenses). Even the old 17-55/2.8 that costs substantially more sells better (#495)<br>

<br /> The 200-500 has not found a place on that shelf yet - because every single one they have gotten in so far had been pre-ordered (deposit needed); its currently #12 on amazon's best seller list for camera lenses (not just digital).</p>

<p> </p>