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News and commentary of interest to Nikon and Nikon F-mount users
D300 To Go Table of Contents
Apr 22--As requested by some, here's the TOC for the D300 To Go. As I noted on a few fora, the reason it isn't in the final printed version has to do with page count; books get produced in 16-page increments, and that next increment pushed the size and weight into a different category for shipping.
D300 Guide: Good News and Bad
Apr 19 (updated)--Since a few of you are receiving your D300 Guides already, I need to explain what's happening. See the full details here. Short version: all orders on file have been shipped, no confirmations have or will be sent, and it'll be about three weeks before the next batch of Guides is available.
The Buzz
Apr 19--Current rumors out of Japan have Nikon introducing the D90, D3x, plus lenses, in the second week of June. I'm tightening my D90 (or whatever they decide to call it) prediction date to between May 12th and June 16th.
Postal Price Increase Coming
Apr 18--I've finally gotten around to looking closely at the new postal regulations that go into effect on May 12th. For some of my products, I haven't raised the shipping and handling rate for four years, despite two price increases and extra costs incurred for shipping during that time. Beginning in early May I will be revising all the shipping and handling charges to match what my costs will be with the new regulations.
D3 Firmware Withdrawn
Apr 18--The 1.1 firmware update for the D3 has been withdrawn by Nikon due to an image corruption issue. Specifically, when shooting long bursts at 9 fps using 14-bit raw one or more images in the burst may get an offset overlap effect. If you didn't yet update, don't. If you did, set your camera to 8 fps or 12-bit raw. A revised version is due by the end of the month.
Someone Got Part of the Message
Apr 15--Nikon has released firmware 1.1 for the D3. Included in update is one thing I've been harping about since the release announcement: Auto ISO can now be set to have a minimum shutter speed above 1/250 (specifically, now up to 1/4000). On a camera like the D3, but even on the D300, sports users shooting in low light were flummoxed to find that they couldn't use Auto ISO in any meaningful way (most low light sports require a shutter speed of 1/500, so a max of 1/250 in the setting essentially rendered it useless). Meanwhile, the minimum shutter speed setting extended to 1 second! I've yet to find anyone who wants or uses that. In essence, someone guessed at what a useful range for that setting would be, and now their guess has been corrected to something useful. Message to Nikon: Please do the same for the D300.
Other changes in the firmware include a new, crude vignette control. Since it applies only to recent lenses (D and G, with a number of exceptions, including all DX lenses!), you'd think that Nikon could have just built a table and done automatic correction, based upon aperture. Instead, we get Off, Low, Normal, and High settings, with Normal being the default. I'm not sure who asked for imprecise vignetting control, but we've got it now, at least for some lenses while shooting JPEG and TIFF (and NEF if you're using ViewNX or Capture NX for conversion). Message to Nikon: Put the resources on a project to do automatic, lens, focal length, and aperture-specific vignette correction.
Focus point illumination has some new options, and a number of minor issues have been addressed, including making the "Demo" more visible on a reviewed image when you don't have a card in the camera. The change that has me scratching my head is the moving of Highlights from the Basic to the Detailed photo info section in Display mode. Say what? First of all, why do we even have divisions there for only four items? And one could make arguments that highlight display on a professional camera is indeed a basic option. Ever since the F100 came out I've been accusing Nikon of too much meaningless menu name changes and movements. Quick: the Custom Setting number for changing Self Timer on a Nikon camera is? Well, it varies from camera to camera, guaranteed to drive those of us with multiple bodies absolutely bonkers. Names keep changing (sometimes for the better, but sometimes for no good reason). Items move in location. Items come and go. And we still have a SHOOTING menu on the D3 that takes at least 12 key presses just to get to the Set Picture Control item (yes, I know you can add it to My Menu, and in my upcoming book I suggest you do, but there are 21 items on the SHOOTING menu now; combine those with the 40+ Custom Settings and 24 items on the SETUP menu and your My Menu is going to get overburdened, too). Message to Nikon: The D3 menus, like those of the D300, are out of control. Moving something trivial that wasn't really in the wrong place isn't the fix. In some ways, the D40/D40x/D60 alternative select-from-Info-screen approach is better than what's on your professional cameras. Address this, and soon.
The updates are available separate Mac and Windows files on the Nikon worldwide support sites.
Recent Software Updates
Apr 14--More Nikon-related software updates:
- Capture 1.3.3 adds the Vignette control option for D3 1.1 firmware, the Camera Settings palette has new items, and several bugs have been resolved. Note that NikonUSA page says that Microsoft .NET 2.0 is required for the Mac version in error.
- Extensis Portfolio 8.5.2 provides performance improvements.
- Adobe Camera Raw 4.4.1 fixes the EXIF time stamp problem in the withdrawn 4.4 update.
- Lightroom 1.4.1 fixes the EXIF and DNG issues in the withdrawn 1.4 update.
- SizeFixer XL is now universal binary for Mac.
- FotoMagico 2.2 has a number of new minor features.
Archived Front Page News and Articles
Archived 2008 byThom comments and news
Archived
2007 byThom comments and news
Archived pre-2007 byThom comments and news
Nikon announcements summary 2001-2008
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Serengeti Sunset. Ricoh GX-100 DNG converted in Photoshop.