New 24.5MP Nikon D3X breaks cover
Product news
28 November 2008 11:05
NIKON’S plans to shock the world with a global announcement of a new super-megapixel camera on Monday were scuppered when the camera was revealed in a brochure sent to professional Nikon users three days early.
The camera is the Nikon D3X which essentially features a new 24.5MP full-frame sensor inside the body of the current 12.1MP Nikon D3.
While the D3 has amazing high-ISO performance and 10fps speed which is great for photojournalists or wedding photographers, the new camera is aimed at studio and landscape workers. It will offer increased detail and image quality in its 75MB files, albeit at lower speed and lower ISO.
The base ISO on theD3X is 100 which can be expanded down to 50. The D3’s base is 200, but goes up to a staggering 6400 – expandable to 25,600. The D3X can be expanded as high as 6400, but it’s likely the camera will be inferior to the D3 at higher ISO.
The D3x shoots at 5pfs, but can be used in DX crop mode which ups the fps to seven and drops the resolution to 10MP. This means it could be pressed into service as a sports camera.
The camera looks identical to the D3 and shares all the D3’s features such as Live View, three-inch screen, Multicam AF system and CLS wireless flash system.
The camera goes head-to-head with the £4600 Canon EOS 1DS MkIII which has 21.1MP and the newly-launched 24.6MP Sony A900 semi-professional model which costs justs £1700.
It’s believed the sensor inside the new Nikon may be closely related to the Sony sensor, except with Nikon’s own image processing technology.
Nikon UK were shocked when we called them on Friday with news that the D3X had leaked out, and refused to comment on the camera or reveal a retail price or estimated delivery date.
The price of the D3 has dropped in recent months from its £3299 original list price from a year ago to around £2650 while the £6000 Canon is now £4600.
Nikon recently fitted the full-frame sensor of the D3 into a semi-pro spec camera called the D700 which costs £1650. It’s likely they’ll follow suit with the D3X chip to create a high-MP D700X. This would compete head-to-head with Canon’s EOS 5D II which uses a similar chip to the EOS 1DS III in a cheaper, semi-pro body. The £2300 camera hits the shops this weekend.