For months we were hearing tons of rumors about Nikon developing a mirrorless system with small sensors (smaller than Micro Four Thirds). But according to the latest rumor from DSLRmagazine this is not true. They had a talk with a “trusted source” which claims to know that Nikon is ready to launch the most professional mirrorless system on market today (NX, NEX and M43). The first camera and lenses should be announced in March 2011!
Now that’s a news. usually DSRLmagazine is well informed about what’s coming next!
8 Responses
Extremely excited to see what nikon brings to the mirrorless market. It would be ingenious for them to enter with an advanced pro model, as this is something they could pull off from a dead start and is what all of the mirrorless users from other systems are clamoring for. Almost equally exciting is that nikon entering the market will almost certainly force canon into the fold. 2011 will be an exciting year for mirrorless cameras!
Here’s hoping they get off their backsides and do something truly innovative, like move to a 4:5 aspect ratio. A 24mm x 30mm sensor size would allow them to shrink lens size somewhat from full-frame while offering their pro (and serious amateur) market an aspect ratio they’ll actually use. Four years in the printing industry tell me that very few pro’s are interested in buying 8×12, 10×15, 12×18 or 20×30 print sizes. I sell far more 8×10’s, 11×14’s and 16×20’s.
For a true revolution in size and image quality, they could go to a 16x20mm sized sensor and put slightly larger than m4/3 sized lenses in front of APS-C quality sensors.
Interesting times.
No way to that! I LOVE the 3:2 ratio! I sell a LOT of landscape prints in this ratio (8×12, 12×18, 24×36). No way would I go for a Nikon mirrorless with a radical 4:5 ratio. Pany had a great idea of making a bigger sensor and offering many ratios optimized for the image circle. I don’t Nikon would be that innovative. (And yes, I’m saying that as somebody who has shot Nikon for over 30 years now.
Wide landscapes and wide-screen movies are the exceptions – tripod panning and edge stitching will produce better wide landscape results than cropping on the sensor. The GH2 is a video-centric camera, so having the full-resolution multi-aspect capability on an over-sized sensor makes a lot of sense for wider screen video output, but for stills the extra sensor area is not essential. The squarer aspect ratios are more desirable for most other areas of still photographer. I have shot 35mm film since the early 60s, and for most of my prints I routinely cropped off the ends, as I generally would have composed for the squarer image.
Bring it on! Hopefully based on sensor at least APS-C size, and with
flange-back (registration distance) less than 28mm.
Launch or announce in March? If launch, then I have to move my Fuji X100 funds for this. 🙂
You should post your comment on 43rumors – this site, although germane, seems to be dead.
With current rumors around a Pentax EVIL development, Nikon must move fairly soon if they want to make a splash.
I agree on the aspect ratio issue – one of the reasons I don’t like APS-C. Something about .75 or .8 is much more practical than anything less than .7
Please fix spelling error in the headline!!!