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Nikon Upgrades D5000, Logically Calls It D5100

So, just because the D3000 got updated waaaaaaay back in August, we’re not going to say the D5100 has been due for a little while now. No sir. We’re above that here at Roberts. But, the high-end entry level D5000 has now officially seen an update, called, yes, the D5100.

So, what’s on offer here? Well, the megapixels are from 12.3 to 16.2, for starters. which puts another Nikon camera playing around up there at that resolution, a move they’ve been slow to make. And to go with it, the native ISO range is now 100-6,400, a 2-stop increase (one up, one down). Push ISO will carry you all the way out to 25,600, a number so big I have to double-check it every time I use it. All of which is probably due to the Expeed 2 processor, instead of the older Expeed of the D5000.

The video mode is now up to full 1080 HD finally, and it’ll be a bit better (I feel) for being pumped through a proper, side-swinging tilt-swivel LCD (instead of the D5000′s oft-criticized bottom hinged one.) The resolution on the LCD is up to 921,000 dots, which should pretty much guarantee that your pictures never look as good on your monitor as they did on the camera. Oh, and they added contrast-detect AF in live view mode. Nifty.

Otherwise, 11 points of autofocus, 4 frames per second, a 3-shot HDR mode, and a foray into Olympus’ world with a new “Effects” position on the mode dial, for such fun options as selective color, color sketch, miniature, and night vision. I hear these work in both still and video, for all your artistic vision needs. For you shooters without a bag full of AF-S lenses, the body still doesn’t have an internal focus motor, so your older glass will work, but focusing will be the old-fashioned way (with your hand).

It’ll be available body only ($799), or as a kit with 18-55mm ($899). Press release and images after the jump.

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Nikon Reportedly Recipient of Two Red Dot Awards

So, via Imaging Resource is a press release from Nikon talking excitedly about it’s two Red Dot awards. The Red Dot awards are some design awards that take the idea of design pretty seriously, appearance, ease-of-use, the ease with which one can pick it up and figure it out, etc..

Anyway, Nikon apparently won some awards for the Coolpix S1000pj point-and-shoot with the LED projector, and for the D5000 entry-level DSLR. Not that I can verify this independently, since Red Dot’s site hasn’t updated with this year’s winners. It does look like this won’t be Nikon’s first time winning a Red Dot, the D3 won one last year.



Oh, Lensbaby

The fine people at Lensbaby were kind enough to loan some of their new line to us during the months of September and October. I know I walked around with the 4/3 Composer for a few weeks and if you trundle over to our YouTube channel, you’ll see me fumbling with Derek’s E3, a Composer, and swappable optics.

More about the babies, and some pics, after the jump…
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Nikon Annouces D300s, D3000, 70-200 f2.8 VR II,and 18-200mm VR II

Nikon today, as you may have already heard, announced the long-awaited D300s (for speed! Kinda like the new iPhone), the new entry-level D3000 (which looks to replace the aging D40/D60 series, spec-wise), and two hot lenses, the newest revision of Nikon’s AF-S 70-200mm VR (now the AF-S 70-200mm VR II), and a new 18-200mm.

D300s

D300s

Up front and center is the new DX semi-pro body, the D300s, which now of course sports HD video. It is, probably unsurprisingly given its name, very similar to a D300 in most other regards. Which isn’t bad. The D300 at introduction was an astounding, revolutionary camera and I don’t imagine adding 720p @ 24 fps is going to be detrimental to that legacy.

D3000

D3000

The D3000 is a bit of a curveball, apparently forgoing the movie mode of its other recent Nikon kin (although the specs table still lists AVI as a format, mind fixing that, Nikon?). It is fairly typical specs-wise, sporting just over 10 megapixels and 11 autofocus points. Lacking the swiveling screen of its big brother, the D5000, and movie mode, I feel pretty confident saying this slots into their entry level division, and is priced accordingly, coming out around $600 with the 18-55 VR lens.

AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

In a move many have been waiting for ever since the release of the D3 almost 2 years ago, Nikon has finally announced a revision to it’s 70-200mm 2.8 VR. Part of the holy trinity of pro zooms, the AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II slots in with the other newer pro lenses to (we expect) create a line-up from 14 to 200mm with enhanced performance for the increasingly more-demanding sensors Nikon has been churning out (D3x, anybody?)

AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

And, lastly, the ever-popular consumer super-zoom, the 18-200mm VR, has been revised, and we’re expecting increased sharpness and overall optical performance out of this lens too. If its predecessor was any benchmark, this stands to be one of the hottest lenses Nikon currently offers.

As is the norm around here, these will all have wait-lists for them so we can handle requests in a rational manner. Call us up at 1-800-726-5544, ask for Mail-Order, and let us know which product you’d like. We’ll add you to our list, and once we start getting these in we’ll go through those lists in order, call you up, and if you still want/need it, we’ll do the sale then.



Nikon D5000 Service Recall Begins Today

d5000-service-yar-har-2As mentioned earlier this week, Nikon’s D5000 has experienced a hiccup where a controlled serial number range appears to have issues with turning on. Nikon is holding true to their promise of fixing this problem swiftly, and they have a facility set-up just to handle repairs for those unfortunate few of you afflicted.

If you want to know if your D5000 should be sent in for servicing, check out their page below, where you’ll find a little widget where you can enter your serial number and it’ll tell you if you’re in the affected batch.

D5000 Service Recall Page

To the best of our understanding, this problem has been addressed and all new shipments of D5000′s won’t be afflicted by this issue, so new orders can be certain they’re getting the quality Nikon product they deserve.



Nikon Issues Service Notice for Select D5000 Units

lol5000

Late last week Nikon issued a notice stating that it is preparing to recall and fix a select range of D5000′s which have been experiencing the delightful issue of not turning on. From Nikon:

While Nikon takes great measures to assure high quality in its imaging products, it has come to our attention that an electronic component related to power control in some Nikon D5000 digital SLR cameras does not meet factory specifications and may, in certain circumstances, prevent the camera from turning on, thus preventing operation of the camera.

I haven’t heard any of these issues coming back through here, so I’ll believe them when they say this is a fairly contained issue. They’ll have the list of affected serial numbers and how to send them in up Thursday, so we’ll follow up then. Go ahead and read their service notice, it does sound like they’ll get you fixed as straight-away as they can if you happen to be afflicted with this.

Nikon D5000 Service Notice



Memory’s cheap, kid

I have a steal for you – for $149.97 (plus shipping) you get a Hitachi Microdrive equipped with a cyclopean 2 gigabytes of storage. That’s a basement price $.074 a megabyte.

Shudder.

I’m not kidding about having Microdrives lurking in our warehouse (I think I’ll start referring to them as the Great Old Ones), gathering dust (or inspiring early twentieth century horror). My E-410 will take a Microdrive, but even my chimp-heavy shooting habits beg for better than 2mb/sec transfer rate. And how could I excuse that, what with our steal price of $39.97 for 4gb Ducati CF cards and persistent rebates on Sandisk extreme III and IV cards. And we’ve just added a new family of what I think I’ll have to call candy SDHC cards from easystore (no caps, really).

The easystore SDHC line consists of 2, 4, and 8gb cards for 6.97, 9.97, and 19.97 respectively. That makes for a wallet-busting $.0035 a megabyte on the 2 and $.0025 a megabyte on the 4 and 8 gigabyte units. Ouch.

I understand that they’re rated as SDA2.0 class 2 devices. I figure that means unless you’re the proud owner of a D5000, D90, or Rebel T1i and keen on using that video function or you really like continuous drive -these cards are A-OK for throwing in the bag as a back-up. Or at your 75 year old grandmother who owns an AE-1 and a Kodak Easyshare so old it’s got pictures of your last two ex-girlfriends on it…not that I know anyone like that.



Nikon D5000 Rockin’ the Shelves

Nikon Digital SLR Camera D5000Need a Nikon digital SLR camera with HD video and a tilty, flippy LCD screen? Need a camera with a legendary sensor, advanced 3D Matrix AF, and advanced matrix metering? Need a camera with a bold red triangle inspired by designs from the same man who gave the Volkswagon Golf it’s red stripe around the grill? Need an 18-55mm VR lens with a built-in AF motor to work with the AF-S only drive system of this beastly new camera?

Well, golly be, we have them in stock. Order away to your hearts content, just click ze image above!



Spring Expo 2009: Nikon and the D5000

Part 1 of a series of video demos I managed to grab during day 1 of our annual Spring Expo. This one is with Nikon tech rep Jason, who was good enough to talk a little bit about the new D5000 and briefly about the popular 35mm DX.

But, who wants to read about it, when you could even right now be watching a demonstration of it with your very eyeballs? That’s what I thought. Hit “Play” below.



New Nikon

Nikon D5000Everybody  talkin’ at me, but I don’t hear a word they’re saying.
At least not until I can actually handle the new D5000 Nikon Digital SLR camera offering myself. The previews do look good for this soon to be in stores replacement of the much lauded D80.  Many of the features that are in the D90 are going to be available for shooters on a tighter budget soon.

The D5000 keeps the D80′s 11 point AF and gains a little more continuous shooting speed at 4fps. Another improvement is on the back of the camera, Nikon’s first swivel screen on a DSLR, couple that with Live View and that makes this camera a serious contenderand gives it an advantage ofer it’s direct Canon competition (even the Rebel T1 which is also coming soon).

Nikon also switched to a CMOS sensor instead of the CCD and upped the pixel horsepower at the same time. The D5000 Nikon Digital SLR shares the same 12.3 megapixel sensor as the D90 but gets the latest firmware version on the Expeed processor which features improved Auto Active D-Lighting and face-priority AF) and enhanced Live View AF.  Other neat Nikon Digital SLR accessories that work on the D90 also move down to the D5000 like the GP-1 hot shoe which tags GPS location information directly into the EXIF file data. Nikon’s industry leading wireless flash system also works on the newbie.

The new D5000 is expected to ship at the end of April.
Body only for $729.95 . Body/lens kit with the 18-55mm
VR lens for $849.95.

I’m going to let the D5000 do the talkin’ just as soon as I can get
my hands on one, then we’ll talk some more, cowboy.




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