SAN FRANCISCO--It looks like Nikon, having followed Canon into the market for high-end SLRs with full-frame image sensors, will continue the effort by offering lower-end models as well.
Nikon's $5,000 D3, due to ship in November, employs a full-frame image sensor.
(Credit: Nikon)Nikon's $5,000 D3 camera, announced in August and due to go on sale in November, employs a sensor the size of a full frame of 35mm film. These FX-sized sensors offer higher sensitivity and a broader field of view than the smaller DX sensors Nikon has used in its SLRs until now. Nikon will develop new DX-based cameras, but the company will flesh out its FX line as well, said Steve Heiner, senior technical manager of Nikon SLR marketing.
"I think you'll see other FX products. It's a sensor size we're committed to," Heiner said at a meeting here with reporters.
Heiner wouldn't offer details about timing or models, but extrapolating from his remarks, it looks like Nikon will offer a lower-end full-frame model. Full-frame technology will spread to lower-end cameras, Heiner said. "We have seen so many technologies at the highest end that migrate downward," he said.
The digital SLR (single-lens reflex) market is hot, with electronics giants Sony, Samsung and Panasonic giving new competition to the traditional powerhouses Canon, Nikon, Olympus and Pentax. One reason camera makers are pouring resources into the area is because profit margins and growth are better than with compact cameras; InfoTrends predicts that SLR shipments in North America will increase from 2.2 million this year to 3.2 million in 2011, while compact camera sales will peak in 2009. Another reason: SLR owners can turn into long-term customers because the incompatibility of other companies' lenses and camera bodies makes it expensive to change brands.
SLRs are costlier and bulkier than point-and-shoot cameras, but they offer much snappier response, better performance in low light, interchangeable lenses and the option of extensive manual control. SLRs are particularly popular with parents who are frustrated by the sluggish response time of most compact cameras.
A mid-range full-frame SLR could help Nikon counter Canon, whose full-frame models include not only the $8,000 top-end EOS-1Ds Mark III, to ship in November, but also the $2,300 EOS 5D that's been on sale for two years.
Asked specifically if Nikon plans a 5D equivalent, he wouldn't share specifics, but did add that it "doesn't take a rocket scientist" to see the D3 has tantalized some photographers who aren't served by the D3. "That leaves a lot of other photographers out there intrigued."
One complication of full-frame SLRs is lens compatibility. Because a DX sensor is physically smaller, it has a narrower field of view than an FX-based camera using the same lens. That means, for example, that a DX-based Nikon D300 with a 50mm lens will cover the same scene as an FX-based Nikon D3 with a 75mm lens. One effect of the change was that Nikon photographers buying early SLRs from the company had to buy new wide-angle lenses.
Most folks don't need to worry much about the different sensor sizes, but one group does: those in the DX market today who are candidates who could be interested in an FX camera in the future.
The image sensor in Nikon's D3 camera is just a hair smaller than a full frame of 35mm film.
(Credit: Nikon)Those people, chiefly enthusiasts and pros, should think twice before buying a DX-specific lens. Although it likely will be lighter and cheaper than an FX-compatible equivalent, it'll work only in a limited way on FX cameras. (DX lenses won't necessarily shine light on the full FX sensor, so Nikon's D3 by default crops the image to a lower-megapixel DX-sized patch of the sensor.)
Nikon and Canon took divergent strategies with their full-frame SLRs. Canon made the move first, beginning in 2002, when many fewer professionals had made the move from film to digital. That meant that group was better able to preserve their investment in lenses geared for 35mm film.
Nikon, though, waited until 2007, at which point many Nikon pros had already had to purchase new lenses to cover the wide-angle limitations of 35mm film lenses combined with DX-sized sensors. So now Nikon's push is aimed more at the higher sensitivity of its FX sensor. A physically larger sensor means each pixel can be made larger for a given sensor resolution, and larger pixels are better at distinguishing the light coming through the lens from electronic noise in the sensor.
The Canon 1Ds Mark III has 21.1 megapixels, a tally that should appeal to studio or landscape photographers or others who need very large images. The D3 has 12.1 megapixels, but offers ordinary sensitivity as high as ISO 6,400 and high-range of 12,800 and 25,600. That's likely to appeal to sports photographers who have fast-moving subjects and to news and wedding photographers who must shoot in low-light situations.
One wild card in the SLR future is Sony, which got a running start in the SLR market by purchasing the assets of Konica Minolta. Its current Alpha A100 and imminent A700 models use smaller sensors, but some expect a full-frame option soon when the company releases a professional model in development now.
Update: I fixed a math error in the shutter description.
Nikon's D3 and D300 SLR (single-lens reflex) cameras, announced Wednesday, are complicated and expensive beasts, so few people outside a repair center or Canon's competitive intelligence unit are going to be cracking them open.
Happily, Nikon has provided a number of views into its new $5,000 D3 and $1,800 D300 cameras. Forthwith, a tour of what I find most notable. ... Read more
Update: I added a tidbit about Nikon not manufacturing its own sensors.
Steve Hoffenberg, a camera analyst at Lyra Research, had a ready response to news that Nikon now has an SLR, the D3, whose sensor matches the full size of a frame of 35mm film: "I think it's about time."
A silicon chip wafer from Canon can fit only 20 full-frame sensors, and there's lots of wasted real estate.
(Credit: Canon)Indeed, Canon has a five-year head start in the market and, unlike Nikon, has spread the technology down from professional-level models to the enthusiast category. But it's not simple to add full-frame sensors alongside the more common SLRs with smaller sensors.
One big reason is processor expense. It's hard to generalize, because different sensors can be built with different processes and sold by different manufacturers, but one thing is clear: bigger sensors cost a lot more.
"The larger die (chips) are much more expensive, roughly in the ratio of their area," said Semico Research analyst Morry Marshall. Doing the math, Nikon's full-frame FX sensors, at roughly 36x24mm imaging area, have more than twice the surface area of a 24x16mm DX sensor. On top of that, "The larger the die, the more likely you are to have a defect."
Canon and Nikon full-frame sensors, both manufactured with complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) processes, are gigantic by the standards of the chip manufacturing industry. Canon can fit only 20 sensors onto a circular silicon wafer, and the manufacturing cost is roughly the same as a wafer that can produce many more smaller sensors.
Canon makes its own full-frame sensors, but it's not clear who exactly manufactures Nikon's. The company doesn't make its own sensors, Hoffenberg said, but Nikon wouldn't say who its partner is.
"The sensor for the D3 is an original Nikon-designed sensor, but manufacturing information beyond that is unavailable at this point," a company representative said.
Being late to the full-frame party is not without consequence. The switch to digital is almost complete for most of the SLR market, and lenses purchased in recent years for DX cameras work in a limited way on Nikon's FX-based D3. So moving up to a full frame is not a simple choice for many Nikon users.
"In the formative days of digital, pro- and semi-pro photographers were demanding full-frame digitals because it would have enabled them to make the transition to digital using the expensive collections of 35mm lenses they had built up," said one CNET reader. "35mm full-frame compatibility is yesterday's issue, too late to serve the original need, though such cameras will serve as a poor man's 'medium format.'"
Canon fans didn't have to wait as long for full-frame support. The company started in 2002, with the EOS-1Ds, and its newly announced EOS-1Ds Mark III is the company's third-generation full-frame professional camera. Its full-frame EOS 5D is aimed to appeal to serious amateurs.
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