Nikon, hear me!

[greg_barnett]

How about someone invents a digital camera comprising of just a sensor and a memory card that is shaped like a roll of film with the leader out that we can stick into the back of any film camera to make it digital?

 

...dreaming on.

Greg.

[40mm]

Cheaper prices. If by some calamity all my regularly used film kit should be vaporized tomorrow, I could replace it all via ebay/Key/B&H for about $1500. That's a couple of bodies and lenses 20mm-180mm. To get similar functionality in digital kit would cost <i>at least</i> three times that (never mind the compromises on lens speed). I'll be scanning for quite a while yet, I suspect.

[Prof-K]

I want Nikon to go crazy and give 'x' one digital body, 3 film bodies, and 15 lenses of their choice. Here 'x' stands for Nikon SLR users who never ever dream of Canon.

[ilkka_nissila]

Yaron: I figured I'd pay a little for the viewfinder and AF system. I'd have to pay gift tax if I got it for 500�.

 

There is no obvious advantage in reducing the image field of a telephoto to the DX format. The lens size would be about the same. Large format telephotos have absurdly large image circles. Of course, a 50 mm lens in 35 mm format isn't a tele.

[wen_lin]

A magic camera that can make every of my photo GREAT !

 

Oh...make it cheap too

[gilbert_c1]

http://www.metz.de/en/photo_electronics/mecablitz_34_AF-3.181.html

 

This is all I wish for!

 

I hope this thing can work i-TTL on my camera.

It's so little and sexy~

 

No not SB30.

SB30 isnt i-TTL.

SB30 has too small a bulb.

I want this tiny small mecablitz 34 AF-3C to work on my camera. Darn I probably gotta wait for an year.

[david_h._hartman]

This is truly embarrassing.

[jay_.]

A digital back for the Nikon F.

[eric friedemann]

Jim, I'd settle for a 17mm f/2.0 AFSGDX lens. In fact, I'd settle for the current 18mm f/2.8 AFD if Nikon added an "S" motor.

 

Ellis, one of the guys at my store bought the 10.5mm and, with the correction software, it actually displays less barrel distortion than the 18-70mm kit lens at 17mm. But I have the 12-24mm, so it isn't worth it for me to get the lens for the extra 1.5mm.

 

Also, for $700, the cheap bastards at Nikon should have med the 10.5mm an "S" lens. I know the 10.5mm has a short throw, but I hate the whinning focussing on the D100s with the crappy N80 focussing motors.

[megan_forbes]

More AF-S lenses - G or otherwise ;)

[ilkka_nissila]

Eric, your problem is not the lens, rather that you bought a camera which has a whining focusing motor. BTW., the D70 motor doesn't whine. At least I haven't been able to provoke it to whine, although I have 9 screwdriver focus AF Nikkors. I guess they kept the Multi-CAM chip same but replaced the motor. It's quite remarkable how many different in-camera focusing motors Nikon has made. F-601, F-501, F801, F90, F90x, F100, F70, F4, F5, F80, D70. Phew. Now, it may be possible that you'd be able to replace your D100s with D70s if you pay half of the D70 price in exchange. :-)

[eric friedemann]

Ilkka, the D70 usese the same crappy, underpowered Nikon Multi-CAM900 autofocus module as the D100. These motors make noise with even the 10.5mm DX lens.

 

There is no excuse for all of Nikon�s new AF lenses not having internal motors. Canon has motors in all their lenses without substantially increasing the price or size of the lenses.

[ilkka_nissila]

Eric, the motor is not a part of the autofocus sensor module. For example, the F5 and F100 have different motors yet they share the same Multi-CAM 1300 sensor.

[EricM]

Eric, you�re just whining. I can hardly hear any of my bodies.

[david_h._hartman]

Eric Friedemann,

 

If it�s any consolation I don�t think a fast wide angle DX lenses is such a stupid idea or unfeasible. By my calculations an 18.4mm f/2.0 DX should do the trick. Should an 18.4mm 2.0 DX be less feasible than an 18mm f/3.5 or 18mm f/2.8 for 24x36 format? It would need to be a "digital lens" at that short focal length so I would expect it to be expensive.

 

Please forgive this observation: your question sounds like you are praying to a god, Baal or Moloch or whatever. "Hear me oh Nikon!" Anyway I think Nikon management is stoned, err no more responsive than stone (yes probably bronze). Perhaps your idea is too logical to become a reality.

 

Best,

 

Dave Hartman.

[yatish]

Mr. Kobayashi. I hope you are listening. Mr. V.P of Marketing at Nikon, I hope you realize Mr. Kobayashi is listening.

[kelly_flanigan1]

<i>Jay . , apr 14, 2004; 09:35 a.m.

A digital back for the Nikon F.</i><BR><BR>Maybe a Speed Magny 45 or 100; a 4x5 digital back; and a Nikon F could be used!

[david_h._hartman]

Kelly, didn�t the Speed Magny 45 rely heavily on 3,000 ASA Polaroid? I think the 45 could shoot 4x5 cut film with an exposure factor of something like 20.

[eric friedemann]

"Eric, the motor is not a part of the autofocus sensor module. For example, the F5 and F100 have different motors yet they share the same Multi-CAM 1300 sensor." -Ilkka

 

Let me put it this way, I A-B'd the D100 and the D70 yesterday afternoon with the 18-70mm. They both have the same slow AF and quite audible focussing.

 

"Eric, you�re just whining. I can hardly hear any of my bodies." -Eric Milner

 

Cheif, I paid $1,500 a pop for my D100s. For 2/3rds more than an F100, it wouldn't have killed Nikon to use a decent AF motor. This is particularly true as: a. Nikon is too cheap to put "S" focussing motors in all of its lenses; and b. given that the D100 is Nikon's highest-resolving DSLR. (And don't give me guff about the D1x with the upgrades. I've seen images from that camera used with the upgrades and doesn't handle as much detail as the D100.)

 

"Please forgive this observation: your question sounds like you are praying to a god, Baal or Moloch or whatever. 'Hear me oh Nikon!' Anyway I think Nikon management is stoned, err no more responsive than stone (yes probably bronze). Perhaps your idea is too logical to become a reality." -David

 

David, the F5 came out in July of 1996. In early 1997, I spoke with John Clouse, who is now Senior Vice President of Nikon's (USA) Photo Sales Division, about accessory availability issues. I also voiced my dissapointment that the F5 didn't have what should have been an incredibly obvious feature- an electronic version of a guide number flash system, as the would know the film's ISO, the power of the Nikon flash and the distance of the subject. Then, bam, just like that ... well ... seven years later, Nikon introduces the D2h that has a quasi-guide-number flash mode.

 

With the rate of progression in DSLR's and accessories, I figure that if I start making noise now, two or three years from now, Nikon might start using its limited production capacity to make more generally useful lenses than the 10.5mm fisheye. We'll see.

[ShunCheung]

Guys, for those of us who use AF-S lenses, the AF motor inside camera bodies is a non-issue. In fact, from my point of view, it is merely an overhead.

[eric friedemann]

"Guys, for those of us who use AF-S lenses, the AF motor inside camera bodies is a non-issue. In fact, from my point of view, it is merely an overhead."

 

And Shun, I love the focussing on my 12-24mm, 17-35mm and 28-70mm f/2.8. Unfortunately, there is no S focussing in my 28mm f/1.4 AFD or my 85mm f/1.4 AFD. So, either Nikon needs to make all of its expensive lenses S lenses or Nikon needs to make a DSLR with a decent focussing motor and more than 6MP, which mught arguably make such a body worth $3,000 plus.

[photojim]

Continued evolution of film cameras. I don't want to spend $2,000 or $5,000 or $10,000 on a digital camera that will be worth half of its purchase price in two or three years. I've gotten ten years out of my F90 and two out of my F100 and counting - I'd expect to get ten or twenty out of this one. Incorporate the D2h metering. Let it be reasonably small and handy to hold, but very fast with a vertical grip (the F100 model isn't too far off the mark). Make it well. Reinstate the back release that the F90 had, PLEASE (you can use it one-handed but it's still very hard to open accidentally).

[astcell]

I want a puppy.

[david_h._hartman]

<em>"I want a puppy." --Robert McLaughlin</em><br>

<br>

Go to the SPCA. You can get one for $40.00 incomplete with all their shoots.

[l_a_k_h_i_n_d_e_r]

Nikon could in the advanced-amateur to Pro range could easily have a camera:

 

1. which does the MLU in its self-timer mode -- like Canon SLRs or Rollei 6008i.

 

2. Has an exposure meter displayed in its top LCD screen, just like inside the viewfinder (would you believe it even F5 does not, and my trusted 8008s has it). And it preferably show 5 or 6 stops in 1/3 steps.

 

3. Have a self-timer control button somewhere, so that I could set the countdown easily (like on my 8008s). I believe even F100 does not have it that easy.

 

(None of these are beyond what Nikon has done in the past. I could not understand why they displayed only 3 stops in N90. That is + or - 1.5 stops either way. I have not looked at any of the recent Nikon cameras, so who knows all these things might already be on the latest Digital gadgets, now that Nikon is under pressure from Canon. I sometimes wonder if that is why Nikon finally added backward compatibility to AIS lenses in its latest offering: D2H -- i.e because of the competition pressure from Canon)