Nikon D850 Announcement of an Announcement of Development

[Ron Scubadiver]

Well, they have had 100 years to get it ready. 

LOL.

[benveniste]

I would be suspicious if a major product was launched at a 100yr birthday. It would indicate that either a) Nikon may be rushing things to meet a calendar deadline, which is never a good thing, or b) they've been holding up a product that has been ready for a while just to announce it at a birthday that occurs every 100 years (losing money not selling it while the product is at its most relevant). I think random announcements throughout the year is the healthiest sign because it shows that they are launching products on their own terms and do not let external pressure influence the launch.

No offense, but you're thinking like an engineer.  "External pressure" is an odd way to describe revenue and market share, since that decides whether a company lives or dies.  Product cycles are very real.  Time to market is very real.  Seasonal purchase patterns are very real.  And the need to get your marketing message out is also very real.  Canon didn't seize and hold the #1 position from Nikon by superior engineering, it did it by superior marketing. 

I might agree with you about being suspicious if a major product was shipped on a red-letter day like the 100th anniversary.  But announcements with an expected ship date aren't as rigid.  If Nikon doesn't have any significant product at that stage in the development pipeline at this point, things are even worse than I thought.  I don't see the D4s nor the D5 as marketing successes, BTW.  Nikon is currently fighting with Sony for the #2 position in full-frame cameras rather than fighting with Canon for #1.

[BEZ]

Strange thread    ....the D810 replacement is not overdue. The pro and semi-pro cameras normally have a 3 - 4 year lifespan.

What has Nikon's hundred year anniversary got to do with the release of a D850. I can not think of any connection whatsoever.

I would like Nikon to  release a special edition digital SP, or other camera significant to the anniversary though. Fingers crossed.

Cheers

[MFloyd]

...

I would like Nikon to release a special edition digital SP, or other camera significant to the anniversary though. Fingers crossed.

...

I'm buying !

[Roland Vink]

Strange thread    ....the D810 replacement is not overdue. The pro and semi-pro cameras normally have a 3 - 4 year lifespan.

What has Nikon's hundred year anniversary got to do with the release of a D850. I can not think of any connection whatsoever.

The D810 was announced in Jun 2014, so it is already three years old. Also, it was not really an all-new camera, it is an upgraded D800 which goes back to early 2012, so the basic model is over 5 years old. On that basis, you could say it is overdue for replacement.

However, I acknowledge the sensor and camera is still one of the best on the market. Digital imaging technology is maturing so the pace of change and improvement is slowing. The market is now smaller since cameras have passed the point of sufficiency for most users. Together this means camera companies may need to keep models in production for longer to recover the production costs, so we may see cameras with a longer life-span than previously.

I think Nikon wanted to have something significant to announce on the 100th anniversary. In the current upgrade cycle, the D850 was the best fit so that is what was announced. But I agree with BEZ and Ilkka, Nikon should release products when they are ready, and not to meet some anniversary or trade show deadline.

[Jack Dahlgren]

So the 100th anniversary is just a "keep moving, folks, nothing to see here" non-event? We will have to agree to disagree about that. Particularly in a shrinking market, any reason to blow your own horn attracts attention, which in turn attracts consumers. Staying silent when you have a legitimate reason to create traffic to your brand is exactly the wrong move. 

The three basic rules for success in business are "Early to bed, early to rise, work like Hell, and advertise!". 

I've spent much of my working career in technology companies which live or die by releasing products as quickly as they are ready. In those companies, people do worry about seasonality and hitting the buying seasons, but they care almost nothing about releasing a product on some arbitrary anniversary. Nikon is still a technology company, and the recent discussions all focus around capabilities and features, not really what year it is released. I'm surely not alone in my bemusement over some commemorative editions. They are generally hideous and useless. I'm glad to see engineers are working instead of marketeering.

[chambeshi]

 Not everyone gives out/receives their birthday gifts on the explicit day of the anniversary. Often the most treasured gifts, such as special parties, visits to priceless sites etc are so often timed by logistical realities to occur later.

These are the ones really worth the wait.

In the case of the Nikon D850, we could hear soon - "I was told that selected dealers already had presentations on the details of the D850 and we should start receiving information soon. Stay tuned."

Currently, B&H lists the Nikon D850 with only two features:
FX-Format CMOS Sensor
8K Time-Lapse Video

https://nikonrumors.com/2017/07/25/continue-discussing-the-nikon-d850-here.aspx/

[Hugh_3170]

I am picking that there will be some initial stock at full price for the fanboys, followed by much larger quantities of stock in time for the lead in to the Christmas/New Year sales period.

[Ron Scubadiver]

I signed up at B&H to receive notification of the D850's availability, thus assuring NAS nirvana.

[OCD]

Poor 'ol Nikon, no matter what they do they can't please everybody.  (smile).   That said...it seems critical that whenever the D850 is released that they get it right.  The D750 is on it's third recall and there's been issues of one sort or another with most their recent camera body releases.  I think this announcement was a success, it has Nikon folks pretty fired up, and it helps build anticipation, which puts even more pressure on Nikon to nail this one.

I agree with Roland, sensor and image quality has leveled out.  Seems to me that camera body updates are more about improving and updating "feature sets" than anything else, which of course can be very meaningful to some people, and to other people maybe not so much. 

[Ilkka Nissilä]

there's been issues of one sort or another with most their recent camera body releases. 

Most means "> 50%". Let's take a look:

D7500 (2017): no known issue, just released
D5600 (2016): no issue
D3400 (2016): no issue
D5 (2016): no issue
D500 (2016): no issue
D7200 (2015): no issue
D810A (2015): no issue
D5500 (2015): no issue
D750 (2014): flare issue for those who intentionally shoot to cause flare (other cameras exist that are worse but not recalled probably because their users are smart enough to use the camera properly); shutter recalls
D810 (2014): initial thermal noise issue fixed quickly
D4s (2014): no issue
D3300 (2014): no issue
Df (2013): no issue
D610 (2013): no issue
D5300 (2013): no issue

How far back do you want to go? Did I miss some issue on most cameras, really?

Okay, I didn't include snapbridge, it doesn't work with many phones but I am not counting it here since pretty much no one expects it to.  Let's just look at features which are expected to work.

D500 got a firmware "fix" for faulty UHS-II cards but those are card manufacturer issues not Nikon and solved by replacing the card.

[Hugh_3170]

Ilkka, you did not mention that there was a certain fraction of the early D600 cameras that had oil splatter issues on the sensor that Nikon was extremely slow to respond to.  The D610 is essentially the D600 built correctly with no oil splatter and a very good performance record.

Fortunately Nikon seem to have learnt their lesson from the D600 debacle and have handled the D750 issues very well.  Credit where it is due, even if a threatened legal Class Action over the D600 was involved in the background.

[OCD]

Also...the D500 has battery issues, among other things: http://www.dslrbodies.com/cameras/the-d5d500-blog/second-week-d500-problem.html  https://www.nikonimgsupport.com/ni/NI_article?articleNo=000004779&configured=1&lang=en_US

D600 oil issue on sensor was significant.

It's a fair list, although several of those camera bodies are super-incremental releases (D5300/D5500/D5600 and D3300/D3400) and nothing really significant differentiates them. 

Anyway, the criticism to Nikon is fair, which is another reason the D850 announcement has struck a nerve.  Let's hope the  D7500 is an example of how new product releases will go in the future....nice and smooth.

: )

[chambeshi]

Likely the first authentic photos of the D850 - leaked off press release apparently. Similarilies in ergonomics to the D500, which many of us will welcome :-)

More on camera specs soonish it appears

https://nikonrumors.com/2017/07/26/breaking-first-nikon-d850-press-photos-leaked.aspx/

[chambeshi]

2nd image of D850