I called Engadget on the carpet for sloppy reporting (small part of next story). Some of you have tried to call me on the carpet for that. So let me restate things.
First, I wasn't picking on Engadget, per se. They just were the first of what how has become several to commit the sin I was pointing out. Most of the stories about this problem that have appeared to date appear to be paraphrases of the original PDN story. Why a paraphrase? Because then it looks like you're doing your own reporting, not quoting someone else's story verbatim. Worse still, Engadget lists their source as Nikon Rumors, who correctly and clearly quoted the PDN story. Bonus points for Nikon Rumors; Negative points for Engadget.
However, in doing all that paraphrasing, a key word got changed by Engadget, and now by Galbraith's site and others, too: units are not users.
The original PDN story wrote "a small number of users." Engadget wrote "a 'small number' of units." There is a difference, and the nuance is important here in understanding what the problem might be.
Highlights and RGB Histogram are set to a default setting of Off. If you leave your D4 or D800 set to the defaults, you won't experience a problem. If you turn those things on (which is one of my recommendations in my books and something a pro would tend to do), some of you will lock up your camera eventually. Nikon used the term "small number of users" in their response to PDN very pointedly, I think. They meant users who turn those features on, and even then a subset of them.
There are two possibilities: (1) it indeed is a "units" problem, which would tend to imply that there's a part failure in some cameras; or (2) it is a "users" problem, likely meaning that it's a firmware issue that won't be triggered unless you set those two Display settings off their defaults. I'll vote for #2, as I don't think there's a separate part involved in the Highlights and RGB Histogram display.
So let's do some real reporting. I took both my D4 and D800 and ran 2000 frames on both, 1000 first with Highlights/RGB Histogram off (default), then 1000 with those settings turned on. I performed random reviews, different camera settings, photographed a variety of subjects, and a few other odds and ends I'd expect people to do in taking that many images. Neither camera locked up.
So what does that prove? Nothing, really. It still could be "users" or "units." That would be true regardless of whether my camera locked up in my test or not.
However, Nikon is generally careful in their wording, so I'll continue to use the word "users" in the same context they did. That's what the original story that started this all had as the quote, after all. Like me, PDN seems to think it's a firmware problem (they write "[firmware update] seems likely").
This all gets me back to my next story: one problem with the Internet is the tendency towards false positives. Everyone wants to beat everyone else to stories. Plus, because once you start a news site it becomes a black hole (e.g. sucks up all news content constantly), the tendency to jump on a "story" is doubled.
The problem is that the original expression of something might not be fully accurate. Certainly paraphrasing the original ex per es si on can lead to inaccuracies. By the time an actual, accurate statement verifies something, the Internet is often filled with plenty of conflicting information derived from that first "gotta publish" spurt. This is one reason why I believe camera companies need to be more forthcoming when they discover problems: the Internet vagaries can be worse than the actual problem. Nikon probably needed to issue a "Don't use Highlights/RGB Histogram until we fix the firmware" statement. Followed by a "remove the battery and put it back in" statement "if you do encounter the problem." There, done. If someone misquotes it on the Internet, jump on them to fix their mistake. No serious user is going to be upset by that type of problem on a brand new complicated camera, especially if a quick fix is promised. They're going to thank the camera company for making it less likely that they miss a key image.
I'm not 100% accurate. I don't know anyone that is. But I try to wait until I have real information that's useful before passing it on. I try to correct previous misstatements and those of others, as well. I'm not perfect at that, but I think I have a pretty good track record there.
All those asking for me to verify production issues therefore will have a bit of a wait: I can't actually do that until they're really verified, after all. That was the point of the next story. I test, I research, I ask questions of others (including the camera makers), I report what I find when I'm sure of what I've found. Simple as that.
In terms of the problem being reported, this user and his units have not triggered, and thus not verified, the problem yet.