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Author Topic: Nikon's response to 1DS and  (Read 3406 times)

Mark Graf

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Nikon's response to 1DS and
« on: November 17, 2002, 08:16:21 am »

[font color=\'#000000\']No doubt that they will come out with a similar resolution body with just a little bit more in features, just enough to spark thousands of Canon/Nikon debates all over again - the same leapfrog game they have been playing for ages.

As a fellow u/w photographer, the continuing advances in digital SLR's has been the factor preventing me from making a leap to digital u/w.  I certainly don't want to invest 6K plus for an SLR whose housing and body will be obsolete in 6 months!  Plus I wonder about the resale of high end u/w setups like this.  For now I am sticking with my housed F100 and watching the developments closely.[/font]
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Marshal

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Nikon's response to 1DS and
« Reply #1 on: November 17, 2002, 11:24:48 pm »

[font color=\'#000000\']FWIW, there's an u/w housing available now for the Olympus E20. I've heard the write times are slow with that camera, but there is a housing available for it in case you're interested.[/font]
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Stewart L. Sy

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Nikon's response to 1DS and
« Reply #2 on: November 18, 2002, 03:39:18 pm »

[font color=\'#000000\']Well, I've looked into u/w housings for digitals as well. I currently shoot the Canon A2e in a Subal housing.  Aside from the financial considerations the 2 things holding me back are:

1) 1.6 crop of the more "affordable" DSLRs ruin wide angle for me.  We don't have the luxury of moving back a few feet from the subject as that would affect strobe output & lighting.

2) Speaking of strobes, there is no TTL available, specifically there are no u/w strobes that are compatible with the digital TTL language of the Nikon & Canon DSLR's.   Not as big an issue in Wide Angle as most use manual strobe exposure but I have had great success in TTL for both Wide Angle and Macro.

Sure you can review the image on the LCD...AFTER the shot...but how many times has it happened where you're taking a shot of rare fish behaviour that the extra security of a TTL aided exposure let you capture the image?  I've got lots of those....morays with cleaner fish in the mouth, pygymy seahorses.... I think someone said instead of TTL, go TTB (Through The Back) meaning the LCD.... Well, good luck to those who use it.  I like the thought that with my system, I simply set a -.5 EV on strobe output and 98% of my macro and 90% of my WA shots will come out properly exposed the first time....and many times, I only get the 1 shot...

Besides, the smaller viewfinder of the DSLR's make it rather difficult to view behind a mask....magnifier or not!

my 2 cents.

Stewart[/font]
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Marshal

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Nikon's response to 1DS and
« Reply #3 on: November 18, 2002, 11:20:32 pm »

[font color=\'#000000\']Come on David, it's only a $7,999 camera! One gets damaged, you just buy another one when you get back in town.  :laugh:

Someone during a workshop a couple years ago told the story of some rich, retired Dr or CEO who had decided to take up photography as a hobby and throw some money into it with a "cost is no object" attitude. They were getting into a boat one day to go out and photograph whales I think, and as the guy was climbing from the pier into the side of the small boat, he carelessly tossed his large ,bulky camera bag into the boat. Problem was the bag didn't fall into the boat, but hit the very edge and fell off the side into the water and sunk. It was not waterproof.

It had well into the 5 figures worth of photo gear from the storyteller's estimate. Everyone in the boat groaned and started telling the guy how sorry they were. The guy just nonchalantly shrugged and said, "No problem. I'll just buy all new gear when we get back in town today." In other words,  "No big deal. I've got more money then I know what to do with anyway. Gotta burn some cash you know."

It must be nice.[/font]
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John Rangos Jr.

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Nikon's response to 1DS and
« Reply #4 on: November 16, 2002, 11:03:52 am »

[font color=\'#000000\']I am reading the posts on the reports and posts on the 1DS and the 14N and I wonder what is next from Nikon themselves. The 14N in Nikon mount is a plus but one of my main interests is underwater photography. I do not know if housings will be available for the 14N.

What are the rumors of what Nikon's response will be to these two full frame cameras?[/font]
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jgrjr777

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Nikon's response to 1DS and
« Reply #5 on: November 17, 2002, 05:32:57 pm »

[font color=\'#000000\']I am also shooting with an F100 in a housing. I am not going to jump into a housed digital camera either. However Michael's report on the Canon 1Ds is impressive. I really thought that it would be quite a while before 35mm film was over taken by digital. Well with the 1Ds we might be there. Sure $8000.00 and I am dedicated to Nikon glass.

Once detectors match or exceed 35mm for a reasonable price it will not be so important if new systems make them obsolete. I agree resale on a D100 housing will be poor. Why sell the next generation "D200" if the resolution matches or exceeds 35mm? We would be into a more reasonable upgrade climate.

In a year or two we will be looking at price drops that make Digital very appealing. With the lead time for housings I think we might be looking at one or two models past the D100 for digital to be very appealing for underwater photography. I do not mean to start a war over this because of course there are great photos being taken with digital cameras in housings now. Do those photos match 35mm? Probably not. Very soon they will at a price not much higher than an F5.

That's why I am curious as to what Nikon will produce next. The 14N sets the bar pretty high. It will not be long before we see these full frame detectors at half that price. Full frame being important to UW work.[/font]
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Dale_Cotton

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Nikon's response to 1DS and
« Reply #6 on: November 18, 2002, 08:44:22 am »

[font color=\'#000000\']I'm not aware of any rumours, but the place to find them would be on the Nikon SLR forum of dpreview.com.

My guess (for what it's worth) is that Nikon will be late to the full frame high megapixel party, and I don't think they're greatly concerned either. They are struggling with profitability and see the solution as being in the low end digicams.

I also suspect that with the launch of the D1X their high-end team got to work on what would have been the logical next move at that time: 7 to 9 megapixels in an APS size CCD format. They've been holding fast to CCD for a long time, but clearly they have to get out of that technology or come up with a major breakthrough. CMOS is less expensive, draws less current, etc. Contax and Kodak's previous pro line demonstrated that full frame CCD simply isn't a viable option now that full frame CMOS has arrived. That would seem to leave Nikon's high-end team with serious problems.[/font]
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David Lawson

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Nikon's response to 1DS and
« Reply #7 on: November 18, 2002, 07:05:41 pm »

[font color=\'#000000\']I have always admired underwater photography and photographers. But now I admire you even more. If I got a 1DS there is no way I would trust an "O" ring seal and some silicon grease to protect it from the ocean. Just my paranoia and lack of finance I guess, plus I am not the worlds greatest swimmer. David[/font]
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flash

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Nikon's response to 1DS and
« Reply #8 on: November 19, 2002, 01:15:20 am »

[font color=\'#000000\']$7999.00!!! US$!!!!!!

Think just how many EOS 300's I can flood, how much Provia I can expose, how many dive holidays I can go on. Not to mention instant gratification is not important to me. I must agree that the lack of TTL can mean many missed shots. I have shots of claener wrasse in the mouth of a giant Barracudda, schooling sharks and others I just would never have got without TTL. Sea and Sea is bringing out a new "auto" strobe that will have apertures measured by the strobe. Not TTL but better.

And I prefer the look of film, apart from any "quality issues". For the next couple of years my EOS 300's in Sea and Sea housings, with 35 zone metering, TTL, and decent AF will do me just fine.[/font]
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scubastu

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Nikon's response to 1DS and
« Reply #9 on: November 19, 2002, 11:29:30 am »

[font color=\'#000000\']Someone once told me that as underwater photographers, the question is not "if" we flood our camera, it's when....  :D

IMHO, the digital point and shoots are OK for underwater but their abyssmal shutter lag makes them good for nudibranchs and other slow moving subjects.  I was on a dive trip with a friend shooting the Oly 4040 and he had a LOT of fish butt shots due to the shutter lag.

I heard about the S&S Auto Strobe, apparently Ikelite is coming out with a strobe controller, however, if the sensor is on the strobe, that would prove nearly useless if you have the strobe not at the same general area as the film plane....like in 99.99% of the time when shooting UW.  Why bother getting those expensive strobe arms to hold the strobes away from the housing then to have the exposure based on the strobe position, not the film plane?  I could be wrong on the details of these systems though.  I think Ike's is meant to be mounted on the camera...will work sort of like the quasi-TTL sensor on the Nikon Coolpix 5000.

Stewart[/font]
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