MELVILLE, N.Y. — Nikon officially set the bar higher for both speed and low-light performance for purchasers of its new professional flagship DSLR and its latest Series 1 compact system camera.
The flagship D4S, which is available now at a $6,495 suggested retail for the body only, is the company’s new top-of-the-line professional DSLR, offering an advanced full-frame FX-format sensor and a host of performance upgrades, not the least of which is a significant bump in speed through the entire workflow.
Meanwhile, the newest addition to the Nikon Series 1 mirrorless compact system camera line is the Nikon 1 V3, which was announced along with a new 10-30mm f/3.5-5.6 PD VR lens and the 70-300mm f/4.5- 5.6 VR zoom.
A kit including the Nikon 1 V3 the 1 Nikkor VR 10-30mm f/3.5-5.6 PD-zoom lens, the DFN1000 electronic viewfinder and the GR-N1010 grip will be available in April for a $1,199 suggested retail. The 1 Nikkor VR 10-30mm f/3.5-5.6 PD-zoom and the 1 Nikkor VR 70-300mm f/4.5- 5.6 lenses will also be sold separately for $299 and $899, respectively.
The V3 will include speed improvements across the board and adds an 18.4-megapixel CX sensor, Expeed 4A image processor, eye sensor and a button to switch between the electronic view finder (EVF) and the camera’s built-in 3-inch 180-degree-swivel LCD touch-screen monitor.
The mirrorless camera does not include an optical viewfinder. The optional 2359K-dot EVF mounts on the camera’s hot shoe.
The V3 also includes a built-in flash that can act as a wireless commander for external Speedlites.
Low-light shooting is supported by a wide 160-12,800 ISO range with high ISO noise reduction.
Nikon said the camera offers a 20 fps burst shooting rate, setting a new benchmark for mirrorless interchangeable- lens cameras. This is supported by a high-speed Hybrid AF system with 171 contrast detect focus areas with 105 center areas supporting phase-detection AF.
In a first for the Nikon 1 series, the V3 adds built-in Wi- Fi connectivity, with smart phone or tablet compatibility for instant uploading and sharing.
The camera captures video in up to FullHD 1080/60p resolution with Movie the Electronic Vibration Reduction (e-VR) system. Full-time continuous AF is also possible during video recording. Slow-motion video capture is also possible at up to 120 fps in 720p HD.
Full-resolution still images also can be shot during video recording.
The V3 will include a completely new camera design and features a new grip.
At the other end of the spectrum, the new flagship D4S DSLR will include 11 fps burst shooting at full resolution with AE and AF functionality; a new group area AF that uses five AF sensors as a single focus point; a new RAW image file Size S that is said to increase workflow speed; an up to 10x increase in file-transfer speed using 1000 Base-T wired LAN; 30 percent faster image processing; and energy savings.
The camera has a newly developed 16.2-megapixel FX-format CMOS sensor and Expeed 4 processing engine. The system is said to offer significant enhancements on the 51-point AF system and 3D Color Matrix Metering.
Low-light performance is boosted with an ISO range from 100 to 25,600, expandable to 409,600.
Video is capture at FullHD 1080/60p.
Using an FX-format sensor, a 2.7x crop mode in the camera can extend the reach of Nikkor lenses, the company said.
Additionally, Nikon has announced a beta version of Capture NX-D software for processing and adjusting RAW images captured with Nikon digital cameras.
RAW images (NEF or NRW file extension) captured with Nikon DSLR cameras, Nikon 1 mirrorless compact system cameras with interchangeable lenses, and Nikon Coolpix compact digital cameras can be loaded into the application for processing and adjustment of images.
