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July 4, 2017

Summer release of New Nikon DSLR expected

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Here are some of the topics and news items we're tracking for our community this week. ---
Members react to new Nikon D820 rumors- May contest congrats- $25K lens reviews a hoot--- PLUS more....


1 - Summer release of New Nikon DSLR expected

Our members have been discussing recent bargain prices on the Nikon D810, and the logical conclusion seems to point towards the next camera in the D8XX series. Now, the internet is buzzing with rumors of a D820 unveiling later this month. 

This discussion, started last month, starts to unravel the possibilities. 

A few sample comments:

•  I think it's time for an updated "800" series body and that is likely to be significantly better than the D800/D810. It should incorporate some of the improved focus and processing systems in the D5 and D500 and could be close to 50 MPX (if that is of interest).

•   I will be getting a D820 or whatever the next high-resolution camera is around that price point. Skipping a generation tends to work well and produce more significant updates. 

•  But I'm not going to jump to a 40+ mp D820 - I'll wait for the 40+ mp D830!

Have you been holding off for a generation jump in the D8XX series? If so, what features are you holding out for?  

One more thing--that image we're using of a "D820" - it's a Photoshop fake.  


2 - May Contest Congrats

Nikonians Contest Coordinator David Summers (dm1dave) has posted the results of the May contests.

Congratulations to our winners!

Special congratulations go to Kathy Cavallero (Cavy2) for taking first place honors in two categories.

Check our winning images legend below and scroll down for the names of the winners. Each photo title serves as a link, which will lead you to explanations behind some of the photographs and an overall look at the competition. 


Here are the winners of the May Contests:

1. -- Wildlife - "Interaction between animal species" theme winner Isaac Vaisman (ivaisman), from Florida, USA with his image titled Not this time.

2. -- Landscape - "Coastal Views" theme winner Darryl Hodson (skibreeze7) from Oregon, USA with his image titled Ecola Point at Sunset.

3. -- Macro - "Green" theme winner Roberta Davidson (birdied) from Louisiana, USA with her image titled My What Big Eyes You Have.

4. -- Travel - "Room with a View" theme winner Kathy Cavallero (Cavy2) from Pennsylvania, USA with her image titled Chillon Castle-Switzerland.

5. -- Digital Artistry -  "Lines" theme winner Kathy Cavallero (Cavy2) from Pennsylvania, USA with her image titled Heuchera.

6. -- Assignment -  "Street Photography" theme winner Dan Mitchell (danmitch) from England, The United Kingdom with an image from a series, capturing moments of quiet in busy places. .

Interested in submitting your photos?

If you want to participate, please be sure to enter one of the monthly competitions listed in David Summers' contest guide

The Online Photo Assignments category is coordinated by Rob Migliaccio (rmigliaccio) from Rhode Island, USA. You can check his recap of past assignments here

The current (July) assignment is "The Color White." 

Here is Rob's description:

It would follow of course that since last month's assignment was the color black, this month's assignment would be the color white. Like last month, my suggestion is to Google "the color white" to get a sense of this month's assignment. You will come up with a ton of ideas that are associated with this color - what it means, what it evokes, how it affects us, etc. Your job is to convert what the color means to you into a photograph. The assignment is easy, yet it will be hard.


3 - 100 more millimeters - worth it?

Silver member David Powell (DaveP142) from England, The United Kingdom is wondering if he should invest in a lens that hits the 300mm mark.

He already has a lens reaching 200mm and is looking to find out if that extra 100mm is worthwhile. 

Here's the question:

My "long" lens at the moment is the Nikkor 55 - 200mm. I've been feeling that a little more reach could be handy and looking at 70 - 300mm lenses.

It seems there are three contenders. According to online reviews:

The Nikon VR - Well built, popular, but, apparently, tragically soft at 300mm.

The Tamron SP Di VC USD. Cheaper, not quite so well made but a bit better optically - but I have come across reports that this too is less than satisfactory at 300mm

The Nikon AF-P DX. Thom Hogan reckons it's the best match for a 24MP camera although he apparently hasn't given it a full lab session. I wouldn't challenge his evaluation, but I personally think that f/6.3 at 300mm could be a problem for me.

I'm starting to think that just wanting an extra 100mm isn't such a good idea in practice as the whole point of the exercise would be to use the lens at 300mm.

I understand that I might see an improvement in image quality at 200mm and below but I'm not sure how much and by the sound of things I would end up "paying" for any improvement by having to take constant care to avoid using the dodgy focal lengths.

This is all based on stuff I found on line, and much of that was four or five years old. I'd appreciate some more up to date thoughts on the subject. 

Should have said: Intended use would be nature / landscape - no sports!

We've already had some enlightening responses, including positive comments on a 300mm prime option (instead of zoom).  Join the discussion if you have wrestled with the same problem as you added new gear.


4 - $25,999 lens? Why not?

Scrolling through the many news sources regarding our favorite camera gear, we sometimes run into unusual (and sometimes funny) tidbits.

This is one of those tidbits.

It's an expensive lens that has drawn very interesting reviews. In fact, the reviews are getting funnier with time. 

We're currently discussing the lens and those reviews which are gathering on a famous online shopping site. 

Here's a sample: 

•  I decided to try it out at a nature park near me to look at Saturn. I got some pretty good pics (seen in images) but I accidentally set off the built-in mini nuke launcher and destroyed the entire planet of Saturn! 

•  This lens is great as others have already mentioned so I won't get into that detail, but there is one major flaw with this listing. The lens cap is not included! 

•  I got this for the camera in my iPhone, works great. I took it with me to Vegas and was using it in the casino (I know, not supposed to use cameras in the casino, but I was discreet) I was actually able to read guys security code at an ATM in Detroit. 

And that's just a small sample-- wait till you read the one about the guy who uses this lens for a certain medical procedure. The links can be found here.


5 -  Upgrade decisions - ready for new computer?

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Silver member Neal Nurmi (Wingman) from British Columbia, Canada is researching his next computer, and his question to our members has resulted in a number of insightful appraisals. If you are also considering a computer upgrade, this is a must read.

Here's a small portion of his question:

I'm planning a new computer to replace my aging machine. I know questions like this one get posted here a lot, but I would like some advice on this. It will be a Windows 7 machine.

I've been emailing with a builder who has a good reputation. He himself is a gamer and gaming is what he knows best, but he has worked with photographers and graphic artists as well and is well spoken of by photographers in his area. When I explained my needs to him (high megapixel cameras, HDR, image stacking and panoramas etc. but no gaming and no interest in video) he came up with this possible build: ----

Neal goes on to give specs, and our members are already weighing in with further advice.

Check it out, and feel free to share your opinion Neal's perfect upgrade.


6 - Bye-bye Lexar?

Our thanks to Silver member Colin H Frydrych (colin1957) from England, The United Kingdom for his heads up on some sad news for Lexar memory card fans.

It seems the entire line of Lexar cards and accessories may be headed for extinction. Our members quickly reacted to the news.

A clarification post by Nikonians Academy Director Eric Bowles sheds more light on the topic:

Micron - the parent - is doing well but Lexar and other consumer products are holding them back. Camera sales are down and most smart devices are shifting to cloud storage rather than SD cards.

Micron's new CEO was a co-founder of SandDisk and left SanDisk in 2016. He was named CEO of Micron in April 2017.

It's pretty obvious that the storage business is a concern. Toshiba announced they were getting rid of memory cards last year but just sold the unit to a group including Bain Capital in June. They - like Micron - reported financial results showing the weak unit was a "discontinued operation" - and that presentation boosts operating results and stock price of the parent. So, the timing is partly for accounting presentation. They will likely sell the brand and it will likely continue in some form. There is a big difference between closing the unit and announcing it is being discontinued with plans for sale.

Do you agree with Eric's assessment? Let us know.


7 - D5 time lapse - Pool table install

Silver member Linwood Ferguson (Ferguson) from Florida, USA shares an interesting time-lapse project condensing the steps involved in the assembly of a pool table.

Linwood shares the final product as well as some tech-specs:

I tried something completely different. We were getting a pool table installed, and I set the D5 up with the Intervalometer running at 10 second intervals, and got 1632 images. Put them together in Resolve to a video, and got about a minute worth of the install. 

Maybe this should go under video, but I didn't use the video feature.

Just for your amusement.

I limited it to HD (1080p) but you get really high resolution when you take stills and then make it into a video.  -- Linwood

If you have a similar project in mind and you want to gather some preparation notes, feel free to ask Linwood.


8 - D7500 memory card performance review

Nikonians Academy Director Eric Bowles (ericbowles) has posted a link to memory card performance specs from cameramemoryspeed.com, along with his own assessment of the results.

Here's a brief sample of Eric's thoughts on the published performance specs: 

The bottom line is this confirms that the camera has a UHS-I SD card slot and gets no benefit from using newer, faster, and more expensive UHS-II cards. The SanDisk Extreme Pro 95 MB/s UHS-I cards are identified as the best value with write speed of around 80 MB/s. The fast UHS-II cards are no better in terms of write speed, but can be much faster using a USB 3.0 UHS-II card reader for downloads. 

The buffer on the D7500 is quite large, so the camera can shoot 14 bit RAW lossless compressed files at 6.5 fps and zip off the limit of 100 frames before stopping. It takes a while to clear the buffer if it fills - around 12-15 seconds with the fastest cards. 

Check Eric's full post for details and the link to the performance test. 

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That's it for this week. Make sure you grab your favorite camera and capture some images to share with family and friends (especially us at Nikonians). -- Tom Boné (flashdeadline)

Posted by flashdeadline at July 4, 2017 1:10 PM