Wednesday, December 3, 2008

What's in Santa's bag?


It's the time of year when kids of ALL ages start making their wish lists for gifts from Santa Claus. For some it's the latest computer game, others dream of a shiny new vehicle to race around the living room.
For photographers invested into the Nikon system, news just came out from Japan of a new beast to send a few extra beats into our hearts. Measuring in at a whopping 24.4 megapixels is the brand new Nikon D3x - a studio photographer's new convenient option to medium format cameras. With a shooting rate of 5 fps at full frame, or 7 fps at a cropped mode, it may even be seen as a decent action shooter.
Images released online so far show excellent image quality, now the question arises: is it worth the price? At MSRP of $9,500 Cdn, it's Nikon's most expensive camera ever - about $4,000 more than the 12 megapixel D3. Sure, that price is still far below medium format cameras or backs, but can it be justified in a tightening economy.
Do I need the extra 40 percent increase in resolution over my current model? Will my computer need replacement to process the huge 75 MB raw files? Will I start filling hard-drives as fast as I used to fill DVDs?
Will the camera be seen in Canada before Christmas?
So many questions ..... I'll have to ponder these things among others - like how long can somebody eat macaroni and cheese before going crazy? Just kidding.
After you look over the photo of this new camera, you can view many more images shot by a "lesser" model on my website.
Merry Christmas all.