Friday, August 24, 2007

Nikon Announces D-3 12.1 Megapixel...

Nikon broke the news on Wednesday about 2 of its newest Pro DSLRs, the 12.1 Megapixel, Full Frame D3 and the 12.3 Megapixel D300. At an expected retail cost of $5000.00 ( US ) the flagship D3 comes with all the bells and whistles that you might expect from a camera that costs as much as a good used car, with the D300 expected to be more affordable at approx $1,800 ( US ). Sadly, neither of the two cameras are manufactured by Canon, so you might have to buy some electrical tape to cover the Nikon logo on top of the camera!

Here are a few of the Standout Features on the D3:

  • 12.05 Million Pixel CMOS Sensor, measuring 23.9mm X 36mm.
  • 16mm X 24 mm shooting mode for smaller files ( 5.14 Million Pixels )
  • Proprietary Nikon Designed Full Frame Sensor ( Manufactured by? )
  • Capable of 9 Frames Per Second burst rate with the full resolution.
  • 14 Bit Analog to Digital Capture / Conversion with several choices of Compression Strength.
  • Normal ISO Range of 200-6400 in third stop increments or an Extended Range, dipping down to ISO 100 and peaking at an incredible 25, 600 ISO ( What! )
  • Improved High ISO image quality ( We'll see! )
  • D-Lighting Mode to combat extremes in Highlight and Shadow in an image.
All of this and a free camera strap! Still I don't think it's enough to make me switch back over to the Dark Side. But if you're already there, you might want to sell the D200, D2X, take out a second mortgage and join the 21st Century.

Being a little ( a lot ) more affordable and with a larger Pixel file size, the D300 is by far the Nikon Camera with the most bang for the buck. It features a DX sized sensor and pretty much ( almost ) all the goodies offered on the D3 at nearly 1/3rd the cost. Just think of the lenses you could buy with all that money left over. In fact, you could get yourself a D300, two great Nikon lenses and a Canon EOS 40 D to let folks know that you're serious about photography!

Later...

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