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Nikon Loves You All, Rewards You With New Wide-Angle Lenses

Nikon has today announced two new lenses, the AF-S NIKKOR 24mm f/1.4G ED and the AF-S NIKKOR 16-35mm f/4G ED VR. Now, those of you used to Nikon’s nomenclature will already know all this, but for those unsure, the AF-S designation in both of those means they’ll auto-focus on any body, and the lack of “DX” anywhere means these are designed for use on FX (and will still work, albeit with crop factor, on DX). They’re both G series lenses and both use ED and aspherical elements and Nikon’s new nano crystal coating to handle optical phenomenons like diffraction, ghosting, etc…

As those of you with a grasp of modern optics and physics might expect, the 24mm f1.4 is rather chunky, basically a 3.5″ cube and weighing in closer to 1.5 lbs. It’s also not a budget prime, and it’ll enter the market at just under $2,200. The 16-35mm f/4, being a slower aperture zoom, slots in as Nikon’s affordable alternative to the 14-24mm f/2.8 (well, sorta, it’s obviously not apples-to-apples), weighing in at $1,260, or approaching 600 bucks cheaper than it’s bigger bro.

They’re both up on our preorder waitlists, so you should go here and add your name: https://www.robertsimaging.com/preorder.jsp

Nikon Announces AF-S 300mm f/2.8G ED VR II, AF-S TC-20E III Teleconverter

AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/2.8G ED VR II

So, Nikon has announced two more optics ending in “II,” a refresh to their 300mm prime and their 2x teleconvertor. Let’s see the press release:

New AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/2.8G ED VR II

Nikon is pleased to announce that a long-trusted, potent and productive tool in the NIKKOR arsenal of professional lenses has been further improved.

The newly-improved AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/2.8G ED VR II Super Telephoto enables spectacular photography, even in the most demanding conditions encountered by pros or passionate enthusiasts. Safeguarding the qualities that have, for decades, made this lens a natural choice for photographers specializing in fast-action sports, live entertainment, nature and wildlife and more, this newest edition of the 300mm f/2.8 NIKKOR features additional performance and handling enhancements.

Of course, a fast f/2.8 maximum aperture allows photographers to work in a wide variety of situations and offers the important ability to shoot at higher action-stopping shutter speeds and to more effectively obscure distracting backgrounds. But simply enabling these functions isn’t nearly enough—a NIKKOR Super Telephoto must provide necessary core functionality, along with genuinely superior image fidelity. Painstaking and experienced engineering, combined with the use of the finest raw materials, fuel “NIKKOR” optical performance. Unmistakable NIKKOR image quality can also be traced to a design that features 3 high-performance ED glass elements to virtually eliminate chromatic aberration and Nikon’s exclusive Nano-Crystal Coat to further reduce image-degrading internal reflections.

Nikon VR II (Vibration Reduction) Image Stabilization

Like all NIKKOR lenses featuring Nikon VR image stabilization, the 300mm f/2.8’s VR II was designed for the specific requirements of its host lens. The VR II incorporated in the new 300mm enables shooting at up to 4 shutter speeds slower than otherwise possible, assuring dramatically sharper images, while the Tripod VR Mode detects and compensates for specific vibrations often encountered with tripod shooting.

AF-S TC-20E III Teleconverter

New AF-S TC-20E III Teleconverter

Nikon Teleconverters, renowned for extraordinary performance, extend the versatility of NIKKOR Super Telephotos and other select NIKKOR lenses. The new 2x AF-S TC-20E III joins the 1.4x AF-S TC-14E II and 1.7x AF-S TC-17E II, offering photographers effective solutions for demanding assignments. The AF-S TC-20E III is the world’s first Teleconverter to feature an aspherical lens that, along with a new optical formula, raises performance to meet the increased imaging demands of FX-format D-SLRs.

Sandisk Announces Extreme Cards So Fast That Peregrine Falcons Feel Underendowed

extreme-pro Sandisk has gone official with its new lines of high-performance memory cards. At the top of the pack (if not at the top of the world) is the new Extreme Pro line. Available only in CompactFlash, the Extreme Pro line sports maximum write speeds of up to 90 megabytes per second (that’s 600x, for those of you used to the older terms). It’s also the not only UDMA, but it’s the newer UDMA 6 spec (which means it’s actually faster than your hard drive, very likely). As if to reinforce that these are, indeed, just for pros, they come in three sizes starting at 16 GB and working up to 64 GB.

extreme-cf

Next up are the new “Extreme” line cards. No “III”, no “IV”, just plain old extreme. Apparently slotting above the Extreme IV line, but below the Extreme Pro line (and just-as-apparently replacing the discontinued “Ducati” line), the Extreme line comes in both CompactFlash and Secure Digital High Capacity flavors.

The CF flavors sport a jaunty 60 MB/s maximum write speed (400x), and are obviously UDMA-enabled (although since they don’t specify they’re probably the slower UDMA 5 spec). Oriented to be a bit more consumer-friendly, they come in three sizes from 8-32 GB.

extreme-sd And, lastly, we have the Extreme line in its SDHC flavor. Now extending up to a rather impressive 32 GB in capacity, these new SDHC’s feature 30 MB/s maximum write speed (200x), and, if Sandisk is using its classes properly, the note that it’s Class 10 should intimate that the slowest it’ll go is 10 MB/s. The SDHCs are available in four capacities.

4 GB Extreme SDHC
8 GB Extreme SDHC
16 GB Extreme SDHC
32 GB Extreme SDHC

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 D3X

The rumours were getting hot and heavy, but this isn’t what I call a rumour. Nikon has made the official announcement of the Nikon D3X.

It boasts FX-format and a 24.5-megapixel (6048 x 4032) CMOS sensor.

No word on new Nikon lenses though.

We are maintaining a list for this new Nikon digital camera. Email us at [email protected] with D3X in the subject and your contact info in the body.

Go Wide. No, Wider!

There was a time once when the most common lens going was the, dare I say, stalwart 50mm. 50mm lenses are famous for matching roughly the same way human eyes see (OK, they don’t have as much peripheral vision, but that’s more a film/sensor thing, the perspective is right.)

These days, most “standard” zooms, especially those on point-and-shoots, go wider, typically around 36mm. Which is nice, but nicer still is the new trend of going all the way out to 28mm.If you look at the diagram I made there, you can see the difference in field of view between these lengths. As you can see, a 28mm lens will let you capture considerably more of a scene than 36mm will. So, if wide is your thing, this is one of the digital camera comparisons you’ll be wanting to make and keep you eye out for the new wave of point and shoots with these magical 28mm lenses. They come in a variety of types, including Nikon Coolpix cameras like the S610 and S710, Canon PowerShot digital cameras like the SX10 IS and SD880 IS, and the Panasonic DMC-FX150.

28mm just not wide enough for you? Check out the Panasonic LX3, it packs an even wider 24mm lens. And we’re throwing in a free bag and SD memory card with it right now, too.

Kings of Wide Angle

If you have been paying attention in Mr. Martin’s classes you have learned a lot about bokeh, apertures and focal lengths. Well since the principles of photography change very little from one type of image capture to another, those lessons apply to consumer point and shoot cameras as well as professional digital cameras.

I like wide angle. The ability to capture more in an image from less distance. That’s wide angle. The accepted focal length for a camera approximating the human eye is 50mm on a conventional 35mm camera (I know it’s numbers and some of us are already getting lost in the weeds), actually 45mm is closer to the way the human eye perceives objects, but we’ll follow the accepted conventional norms (Norm likes to hang out at conventions?) for the sake of argument. Given that 50mm = normal perception in optics, any focal length smaller than 50mm begins to show more information from the same vantage point (at a wider angle than the human eye). Bingo! Wide Angle. Regardless of brand: Nikon Coolpix cameras, Powershot Digital Cameras from Canon, Sony Cybershot cameras, Olympus Stylus, cameras you name it most digital cameras start at about 35mm’s of wide and go up from there, a 3x optical zoom will usually be a 35 to 105mm equivalent, a 4x will go to 140 and so in 3 times or 4 times the starting focal length. Each brand may offer one or two models at a wider starting point mostly a 28mm equivalent. Mostly. This is a good place to review equivalent focal lengths through the magic of the internet.

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