Nikon D700x or D800 with 24Mp chip soon? My thoughts...

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Nikon D700x or D800 with 24Mp chip soon? My thoughts...

Post by Stany Buyle »

On Dpreview and other fora there is a lot of fuzz about yes whether no a D3X chip in a D700 alike body will appear soon , my thoughts on this...
TMHO Nikon will use the D3 24Mp chip in a D700 alike body @ one hand because market asks for that, on the other hand because they have to amortize the huge D3X chip development cost by selling as much copies as possible of this chip.... @ 8000$ sales will be too limited, Nikon knows this..
The customers who will buy a D700X (or D800) will buy expensive lenses and accessories to go with, and lenses and accessories is where the big benefits are, as well for Nikon as for its retailers . Upto that the potential of D700X buyers is MUCH bigger than the potential of D3X buyers...

Some people say that "D3X chip in D700-alike body" is wishful thinking. It isn't, it's just a logical step in Nikon's DSLR history, some samples:

D1X, 5.4Mp cam, those days approx 6000, was followed a year later by the D100, 6Mp and 3300€, while D1X was still sold for 5000, D70 with 6M @ 1200 came out...
D2X, 12Mp cam, sold @ approx 4500 until 2 years ago and while D200 @1800 was already there, was followed by D300 @ 1800 which is about IQ, with exception of iso 100 - much better than D2X ever was...
D3 came out on nov 25th2007 @ 5200, followed by D700 @ 2600 7 months later, with flash and with integrated sensor cleaning...

Life cycles of DSLR chips are getting shorter all the time...

In all 3 samples mentioned here above there were a relative big number of early top gear adopters who were very unhappy by seeing the release of an equal camera @ half of the price, but Nikon doesn't care because most early adopters will buy the next top camera anyway and it's the huge consumer market which is very important, not the very limited pro and early adopter market.

To amortize the huge investment in the D3X chip, Nikon HAS to sell huge numbers of it, and they definitely will, with D700X or D800...

(*) The only question that remains about a 24Mp(D3X-) chip in a D700-alike body is "How soon"... I guess june-july 2009, available nov 2009. I guess initial price will be around €3500, 12 months later 2995...

Michel Lammerse, a Dutch professional photographer with relatives in Japan and very reliable sources for upcoming announcements, was mentioning about some kind of D700x with the 12Mp chip, video and some new features AND an D800 as D700's successor with more Mp... Sounds realistic to me...

Just my thoughts...
Thanks for your attention
kindest regards,

Stany
I like better one good shot in a day than 10 bad ones in a second...
http://www.fotografie.cafe
pam.meier
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Re: Nikon D700x or D800 with 24Mp chip soon? My thoughts...

Post by pam.meier »

Stany, I also remember Michel saying that the "D800" will not have the 24 Mpix chip, but 16-18 Mpix.
Personally I´d love to have just that, I already have 24 Mpix and 18 Mpix would be very welcome as a tweener camera.
Really, 24 Mpix are overkill most of the time and only will be fully used if shooting technique is impeccable.
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Re: Nikon D700x or D800 with 24Mp chip soon? My thoughts...

Post by Stany Buyle »

pam.meier wrote:Stany, I also remember Michel saying that the "D800" will not have the 24 Mpix chip, but 16-18 Mpix.
Personally I´d love to have just that
Hi Pam,
I believe that it will be the 24Mp sensor to limit development cost for Nikon. Making another chip is -again- a huge investment... I know that some of their sensors are made by Sony, but the whole electronic structure, software and IQ output is Nikon design, and that's what costs a fortune...
Of course it's possible they make a new chip...Nikon has the financial power, they are n° 1 again in DSLR world...
Personally I would like to see the 24Mp chip, because after what I've seen from Rudy's camera, the 10Mp crop mode is great for what I'm doing..and the 24Mp resolution is tempting for other applications...
Just my thoughts...
kindest regards,

Stany
I like better one good shot in a day than 10 bad ones in a second...
http://www.fotografie.cafe
pam.meier
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Re: Nikon D700x or D800 with 24Mp chip soon? My thoughts...

Post by pam.meier »

When I had that "conversation" with Michel that was also my presumtion, a 24 Mpix "D700X" sounds logical to me, too. But he seems to have contacts in Japanese wholesale and therefore he may have some viable information. It´s hard to predict Nikon, that is for sure.
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