Nikon Amazes With the Video-Shooting D4

[mojo]

The D4 is heavy on the video, but it hasn't forgotten the stills shooter

Nikon’s new flagship DSLR, the D4, has just gotten a pre-CES launch. The aging D3 has been losing its lunch to Canon for a while thanks to the rival company’s focus on video, so it’s hard to remember just how impressive the old D3 was when launched. The D4 is of course very video-centric, too, and the camera looks pretty amazing.

First, the video. The D4 shoots 1080p at 30, 24 and 60fps. There’s a stereo mic jack, 20-level audio meter and a 30-level output for monitoring via headphone jack. Not only can the camera capture and show you footage as you shoot, but it can also output uncompressed 720p via HDMI at the same time.

There is also full manual exposure control while shooting, and AF–should you want it. There’s also a neat trick that exploits the fact that a stills sensor has way more resolution than 1080p: the camera can optically zoom up to 2.7x during recording.

Stills-wise, less has changed. The sensor jumps from 12.1MP to 16.3MP, and will now shoot at up to ISO 204,800 (pretty incredible). The additional sensor used metering has gone from measly 1005 pixels to 91,000, and now allows face detection while using the optical finder. The D4 will shoot at 10 fps in stills mode.

Amongst myriad other tweaks, there are a few differences to the physical design, too. Gone is the AF lock button, replaced by a couple of joystick nubbins which allow selections in both portrait and landscape orientations. The rear LCD is slightly bigger at 3.2 inches (up from three), and controls can be illuminated for low-light work.

Finally, the camera now has memory card slots for compact flash and XQD, Sony’s new high-speed format.

In short, if you were impressed by the D3, you will be equally impressed by the D4. Non-video shooters may not need to worry about upgrading anytime soon, but then again, there’s plenty in here for stills photographers, too.

D4 product and specs page.

[mojo]

XQD to displace CompactFlash?

And here's a new memory card format, courtesy of Sony. Just what the world needs, no?  It's the XQD card, and it comes in 16GB and 32GB capacities. Sony is also offering USB 3.0 and ExpressCard adaptors.  The format is aimed at high-end DSLRs, which will have to build the tech in if their manufacturers want to support it. One that already does - or will do shortly - is the Nikon D4.

Sony claimed the XQD format can deliver data transfer rates of up to "1Gbps (125MB/s) write and read" through the PCIe interface.  That enables "stable continuous shooting of RAW images", Sony said, with an XQD memory card writing "approximately 100 frames in RAW format in continuous shooting mode".  XQD's write speed is 1.4 times that of a Compact Flash A card, Sony said.  SDXC cards' write speeds peak at 90MB/s, though version 4.0 of the SD spec calls for speeds to read 312MB/s.

The 16GB XQD costs $130 (£84) and the 32GB card is priced at $230 (£148).