Nikon's lower-end SLR line is due for a revamp, and there are some signs that it could come soon in the form of a model featuring an articulated screen.
Photos of an SLR with a screen that pivots out and twists surfaced Sunday at the Something Awful forum and Monday at Engadget; the photos depict the production of a Nikon commercial in Eastern Europe, according to the forum posting from "indyjb" and Engadget.
Articulating screens are nothing new; some Olympus and Panasonic SLRs feature them, while some Sony models have a pivoting LCD that can be useful. But newer technology developments in the market make them more useful.
First, pivoting screens are helpful with live view, which lets people compose photos using the LCD rather than the viewfinder; live view makes it easier to take shots with the camera held high overhead or down near the ground, for example, where peering through the viewfinder is tough. More significantly, pivoting LCDs make video easier on SLRs. So far video is available only on two SLRs from Canon and on Nikon's mid-range D90.
The shots show what appears to be a lower-end SLR featuring Nikon's 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 VR kit lens.
When might this new product arrive? Perhaps at an April 14 Nikon press conference in Austria whose invitation Nikon Rumors published.
Update 11:52 a.m. PDT: First, Nikon declined to comment. Second, there's a possibility that Nikon's also relatively elderly D300 will be supplanted by the D400, Photography Bay points out.
(Via Cameratown.)
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Pentax's current K10D
(Credit: CNET Networks)The latest rumor has it that Pentax plans to announce two new SLR models, the K20D and K200D, on January 24, a week before the Photo Marketing Association trade show that begins.
A now-defunct discussion thread on a Chinese Web site, helpfully archived at DCHome.net and supplemented by postings at Bigbigcar.com and PhotoMalaysia forums, includes a few supposed details about models that would presumably replace the K10D and K100D:
The alleged K20D has a 14-megapixel sensor of the smaller APS-C size, a 14-bit analog-to-digital converter (for better tonal gradations than typical 12-bit converters but leading to larger raw files), a live-view LCD, the same weather resistance as the K10D, and better sensor-shift shake reduction. The lower-end K200D is supposed to have a 10-megapixel sensor and a bigger memory buffer for longer stretches of continuous shooting.
Also a possibility are three new lenses, all appearing on a Pentax road map document (click for PDF): a 60-250mm f/4 to be announced in December and a 200mm f/2.8 and a 300mm f/4 to be announced with the cameras in January.
Rumors, some appearing derivative, also cropped up at DPReview and PentaxForums.
(Via Photography Bay.)
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