February 29, 2016
What Any New Nikon 1 Would Have to Be Today. I sort of foreshadowed the DL introduction with my earlier article on what Nikon needed to do to fix the Nikon 1 line. Now that the DLs have been announced—earlier than I expected, though they won’t be available to customers for quite a while—I can be clearer. Article on sansmirror.com
What is Micro Contrast? The camera that was used is a Sony NEX-5 with the kit lens at 18mm. Now the reason why I mention that is that not a soul in the world would claim that the Sony E-mount kit lens is very good at “micro contrast.” Let alone micro contrast at the bottom of the frame (edge of lens coverage). Article on dslrbodies.com
February 24, 2016
Nikon Went DL, Will You? As you know, I included two short poll questions with the article I wrote on the Nikon DL introductions. With thousands of responses, here’s what you said. Article on dslrbodies.com
February 23, 2016
Two More Mirrorless Lenses Announced. Panasonic announced a new 24-120mm equivalent lens that matches up nicely with cameras like the GX8: the 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6 Power OIS. Sigma announced a new 30mm f/1.4 lens for the Sony E (APS-C) mount, providing another fast “normal” lens option for people using cameras such as the Sony A6000 or A6300.
Sigma Joins the Mirrorless Camera Ranks. Sigma today joined the mirrorless camera ranks with the sd Quattro and sd Quattro H cameras, both of which show off many of Sigma’s historical camera idiosyncratic tendencies. Article on sansmirror.com. sd Quattro data page. sd Quattro H data page.
Oh Oh, Nikon 1. With the introduction today of the three DL models, Nikon has effectively taken all that they accomplished in the Nikon 1 space in terms of camera and put that into compact cameras with fixed lenses. Article on sansmirror.com
Nikon Goes DL in Compacts. Nikon today announced a trio of compact cameras with 1” sensors, all under the DL name. In doing so, Nikon is playing catch up with Canon (1” GX models) and Sony (1” RX models) simultaneously it appears, though Nikon has managed to do one interesting thing we haven’t seen before. Article on dslrbodies.com
Another f/1.8 Zoom Surprise. II guess Sigma’s been reading my complaint about lack of DX lenses. Today they surprised a lot of people by getting back into the crop sensor telephoto range in an interesting and exciting way: the 50-100mm f/1.8 DC HSM Art lens. Article on dslrbodies.com. Data page for lens.
February 22, 2016
Tamron Updates and Adds a Prime. Tamron today announced a pair of new moderate telephoto primes. Article on dslrbodies.com. 85mm data page. 90mm data page.
What is Sharpness? I see this term used all the time in comments about lenses and digital cameras. I’m not aware that anyone has actually managed to clearly define the term, though. Thus, what happens is that one person’s “sharpness” is another person’s “unsharp,” and vice versa. Article on dslrbodies.com
About Lens Reviews (Update). I’m about to pop out a bunch of new lens reviews. They might not always seem to fully agree with what you’ve read on other sites. So it’s time to restate a few things. Article on dslrbodies.com
February 19, 2016
Buzz, Buzz, DX Lenses. I've been watching all kinds of unsupported arguments derive from what I’ve written so far this week. I’d like to tackle a few of them directly. Article on dslrbodies.com
Solving the Camera Decline. Overall, it doesn’t seem like Nikon’s biggest problems are at the higher end of their DSLR lineup. While, yes, there has been some lower volume in a few cases, some of that has to do with price increases as much as anything systemic in the market. Article on dslrbodies.com
February 18, 2016
Other Reasons I Thought the D500 Would Do Well. This is the fourth in my series of analysis of a set of numbers for Nikon DSLR sales (previously: overall volume, DX vs FX, Nikon’s own numbers). This time around, I’m going to tackle the “prosumer" models, starting with the ones with the three digits after the D. Article on dslrbodies.com
I’ve added a Canon 80D and Nikon D7200 comparison table to the Canon versus Nikon page.
I’ll be wrapping up the “where Nikon is” series I’ve been doing this week tomorrow. Next week we’ll jump to something entirely different, lens reviews.
February 17, 2016
What Were Nikon’s Reported Numbers? This week I’ve been rolling out a series of charts to illustrate where Nikon is in the DSLR game. Here at the mid-point, it makes sense to look at Nikon’s own published numbers. Unfortunately, they mix Nikon 1 in with DSLRs, and don’t call out DX versus FX. Still, these numbers are illustrative of the real issue Nikon has been juggling. Article on dslrbodies.com
February 16, 2016
How Do FX and DX Sales Compare? The second in my series analyzing a set of Nikon DSLR data (yesterday’s Pro Camera Volume was the first). I’m going to start this time using the full set of data from 1999 through 2015 to consider the DX versus FX question. Article on dslrbodies.com
February 15, 2016
Adobe “Security” Updates. Here’s the rub, if you’re still running Photoshop CC 2014 (any version), the Adobe Creative Cloud updater won’t update you with the similar security fix in the Photoshop CC 2014.2.4 (15.2.4) update. Nor does the update show up when you select Updates from the application. Meanwhile: you don’t want to install the most recent update to the Creative Cloud installer app if you’re a Macintosh user. Why? Because, believe it or not, CC apparently is deleting the first folder alphabetically on a user’s computer after you sign in after the update. Article on dslrbodies.com
How Have the Nikon Pro Generations Fared? I’ve been analyzing a set of specific Nikon unit volume data that dates back to the original D1. As I do, I’ll be posting a few short articles on elements of what I find. Today, we’re going to deal with pro generation cameras: the single digit pro bodies. Article on dslrbodies.com
Panasonic Announces Regional GF8. Article on sansmirror.com
February 10, 2016
An Update on VR and IS Systems. Recently there has been some discussion about the vulnerability of VR and IS that was triggered by something my friend Roger Cicala of Lens Rentals said during a recent interview. Article on dslrbodies.com. Permanent link in lenses section
February 9, 2016
D500 Demand Assessment. I asked those of you reading my D500 Delay article yesterday to answer a snap poll. Ready to be surprised? Here are the results in one table. Article on dslrbodies.com
February 8, 2016
Nikon’s Third Quarter Financials. Nikon late last week announced their third quarter financials, and they were pretty much as expected: “Digital SLR cameras and interchangeable lenses fell short of the planned sales volume.” Article on dslrbodies.com
Canon Versus Nikon DSLRs. This is a new page in the “current camera” database that shows tables directly comparing equivalent Canon and Nikon DSLRs. The initial iteration of this page has 1DxII versus D5, and 7DII versus D500 tables. Article on dslrbodies.com
The D500 Delay Speculations. Nikon has announced that shipments of the D500 will be delayed by about a month from the date originally announced (March 15). This has caused the conspiracy theorists to dust off their keyboards and start typing away. Article on dslrbodies.com
Sell What You’ve Got. Since the D500 was announced there have been a few mumbles about “hey, wasn’t the D7200 supposedly the ‘flagship’ of the DX line?” I guess that makes the D500 the ‘super flagship’, right? Article on dslrbodies.com
Where’s the Story? Recently I wrote about the technical versus the aesthetic. This prompted a lively discussion via my In Box with a significant subset of my readership. But one email in particular asked a question that hits right at the heart of why some images don’t have aesthetic impact. Article on dslrbodies.com. Permanent link in Technique section on dslrbodies.com
February 3, 2016
Sony Announces A6300, FE Lenses. Sony today announced the long-awaited successor to the A6000, surprisingly named the A6300. No, we didn’t get a 28mp sensor, IBIS, or some of the other things that were rumored ad nauseum across the Internets. Instead, we got a well-considered iterative update with a few very key differences from its predecessor. Article on sansmirror.com. A6300 data page
Which Mirrorless Now? As long-time site visitors know, I got into shooting with mirrorless back in 2009 when m4/3 blossomed into multiple models from multiple vendors. Specifically, I was looking for a small/light product I could carry with me alongside my DSLRs when I didn’t want to be always changing lenses on bodies (e.g. wildlife and sports). Article on sansmirror.com
Can We Make Sansmirror Better? Sansmirror is now in its fifth year as a one-man operation. I didn’t intend it to be that way. Article on sansmirror.com
February 2, 2016
This Will be Interesting. With Canon’s announcement of the 1Dx Mark II today, for the first time we actually have a fairly apples versus apples set of products from Canon and Nikon. ˙
February 1, 2016
What Do the BCN Numbers Reveal? BCN, the data monitoring company that reports sales in the Japanese home market for consumer electronics, posted their latest full year market share numbers last week. Rather than just present the 2015 numbers, I thought I’d share with you the full range of numbers for three categories of cameras from 2005 to 2015. Article on dslrbodies.com
Regional Cameras. One thing hidden in plain sight is that cameras are doing different things in various regions of the world. The whole “mirrorless versus DSLR” battle is taking place on differing fronts with dissimilar results. Canon’s recent comments during their fiscal year report clearly indicate that the camera companies are aware of this regionality issue. Article on dslrbodies.com
The Final 2015 Shipment Numbers. No sooner did I post the previous two articles relating to unit volume and shipments, CIPA released the final year-end numbers for 2015. Article on dslrbodies.com