Nikon 100th anniversary cameras & lenses

[Erik Lund]

Thanks, Erik!

But my concern hasn't changed.  If they keep the high(er)-end DX line, they need to add higher-end DX lenses, which should be tough for them in this situation.

Sorry I have no thoughts on DX lenses at all,,,

[Akira]

Okay, I have to admit that I overly reacted.

Now that Nikon just released D3400 and D5600, it should be rather natural for Nikon to concentrate their resource on the higher-end cameras, namely, D7x00 and up.

That said, the most urgent issue for them should be to make SnapBridge work properly.  I don't know if there are any Nikon cameras in any segment whose SnapBridge work flawlessly.

Incidentally, Toshiba announced the renewal of their FlashAir SD cards.  They say that the new 4th generation series were designed from the ground up.  The new FlashAir cards are faster in terms of the connection, read and write speeds.  Also, they are compatible with Keenai apps which inherited the Eyefi services.

This is the link to the report from CP+ regarding FlashAir (sorry, texts are in Japanese):

http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/eventreport/1046038.html

[Ilkka Nissilä]

I'm still curious about the "mirrorless" segment they were referring to (FX or CX).

I also think this is not clear. It could be redesigned Nikon 1 cameras, or a new lineup.

[Erik Lund]

As far as I have been able to wrench out information out of the Nikon Nordic guys, they basically don't know/can't say, however their long ties with Nikon and their decision processes give me/us some hints, I will go as far as to conclude/summarise my impressions re these conversations; Nikon is working on mirror less FX - Nikon management will not settle for sub-performance in the high end segment, they will be waiting until they can actually show a mature product that functionally makes sense and has actual benefits, differences and technological advancements compared to their current offerings in the high and medium-end of the DSLR segment.
Nikon is not willing to loose face over such an important high end prestige project. This is an inherent feature of their cultural back ground.

[Akira]

I've also heard a rumor that Nikon is preparing for the FX mirrorless line.  But apparently this is not possible for Nikon because of its (hopefully) temporary lack of stamina.

I think it is rather a good chance to "restart" the CX line.  The current Sony 20MP 1" sensor is very capable and promising.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

I still hope for the AW Fisheye 3.8 mm lens. Nikon has filed the patent some time ago.

If they ever come out with a Df2, preferably titanium-fortified, I'll buy it in a jiffy. Or an FX mirrorless with option for mounting 'S' lenses. Make my day.

Just envision a mirrorless system on which you can mount any F or S lens, and program the interface/adapter to get all the basic EXIF parameters. What a treat.

[Akira]

One of the bigger mistakes Nikon has made on Nikon 1 series is that the metering with the adopted lenses via third party adaptors are disabled.  A and M modes should work without problem as any other mirrorless system.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Couldn't agree more on that topic, Akira. The enforced lack of metering is very annoying and takes away a lot of the fun these small cameras engender on their own.

[Bill De Jager]

Or an FX mirrorless with option for mounting 'S' lenses. Make my day.

Just envision a mirrorless system on which you can mount any F or S lens, and program the interface/adapter to get all the basic EXIF parameters. What a treat.

But then you'll want to install chips on your S lenses, if that's possible. 

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Nah. One should have an easily programmable interface to the adapter itself.

[bjornthun]

Nah. One should have an easily programmable interface to the adapter itself.

Such an adapter already exists for Sony full frame mirrorless. It's made by a Chinese company and is called "TAP adapter", and even provides AF to unit focusing MF lenses. The programming is done via a BT interface. I suppose the guys behind it will happily reverse engineer a new Nikon mount too, since the haven't licensed the Sony protocol and swap the mount from Leica M to Nikon S.

[Akira]

Exif data aside, metering in A or M mode should be easy enough, because in these modes, the camera only have to deal with the brightness of the entering light and adjust the shutter speed accordingly (in A mode).  In a nutshell, it is a stop-down metering which is the matter of the camera.   Unlike the S or P mode, the camera doesn't need to operate the aperture in the lens.  Another advantage of mirrorless cameras is that they don't need to worry about the stray light entering from the optical viewfinder at all, which should make the metering easier.

I've read somewhere that Canon uses the very common RS232C protocol for the communication between the camera and the lens.  The relative easiness of adopting Canon lenses on Sony bodies suggests that Sony also uses RS232C protocol which may be easy to reverse-engineer.  Nikon should use more proprietary protocol.

[bjornthun]

Novoflex already makes an adapter for mounting Nikon E type lenses on the Leica SL.

[Akira]

Then that should be the first one ever.   

[Øivind Tøien]

I've read somewhere that Canon uses the very common RS232C protocol for the communication between the camera and the lens.  The relative easiness of adopting Canon lenses on Sony bodies suggests that Sony also uses RS232C protocol which may be easy to reverse-engineer.  Nikon should use more proprietary protocol.

I believe I read somewhere in the past that Nikon uses an I2C communication interface that is very common way of not so fast communication between a microcontroller and devices like memory chips, real time clocks etc. The other common microcontroller communication interface called SPI is faster and requires more wires. Both are serial interfaces but not RS232, which requires some change of voltage levels and inversion to be done correctly. Perhaps Canon also uses I2C or SPI serial interfaces and someone misinterpreted that as RS232? None of these are too complicated to implement (except the extra level shifters for true RS232, also RS232 relies on certain fixed transmission frequencies, baud rate, while SPI/I2C transmits a clock pulse on one of the lines), but of course in all cases one need to know exactly what is to be sent and how it is coded. To that end many of us benefit from the knowledge Bjørn has been able to obtain that makes lens chipping possible.