Three quick things…

First off, Nikon has announced their new studio camera, the D3x. A 24 megapixel beast that stands poised to challenge the Canon EOS-1Ds. Well at least if it wasn’t so underwhelming. The D3x doesn’t have nearly the ISO range the D3 and D700 do, and while it does finely give Nikon a serious studio camera there’s a lot to be unhappy about; the $8000 price tag is a good place to start. Thom Hogan has posted a fairly in depth commentary on the D3x here.

Personally I find the D3x a bit underwhelming, partially because Nikon raised the bar so much with the D3 and D700 when it comes to image quality and high ISO performance and partly because it’s really nothing revolutionary in and of itself. They also can’t seem to figure out how to make a self cleaning sensor work or fit in their top end body either.

To wit Canon countered the high ISO IQ of the D3 quite effectively with the 5D Mark 2 and demonstrated that such performance can be achieved in a 20+ MP sensor. So why isn’t it in the D3x? Clearly Nikon must have known that after the D3′s stunning success with high ISO it was just a mater of time before the competition put out a similar camera with higher resolution. At a minimum, I think Nikon needed one more stop on the top end on the D3x. Sure the D3x has a stop more ISO than the EOS-1Ds Mark 3, but this isn’t the same market place as when the 1Ds Mark 3 was released. While I doubt Canon will take the 1Ds Mark 4 all the way to ISO 25,600, I have doubts that the top end will only advance a stop to ISO 6400.

But, by having made the D3 such a leap over it’s predecessor Nikon has inadvertently set the bar for their successor quite high. I don’t think it’s possible they could have put a D3x out with out it seeming seriously underwhelming. Either way it’s likely going to be a seriously good piece of kit. Here’s hoping they stick to tradition and have a new 70-200 VR coming along shortly as well.

For more information visit Nikon USA’s product page by clicking here.

Following the news, I’ve posted my gallery for the Miami Auto Show. I’m also working on an article for the show, including some tips and tricks on making the best of marginal situations.

Finely I have also posted an interesting experimental gallery of long-exposure night driving photographs. No these weren’t done hand held, the camera was locked off on a tripod in the back seat, with an ultra wide angle lens and a cable release so I didn’t have to take my hands off the wheel. One thing I noticed in these experiments is that images rounding curves are significantly more interesting than ones on straight roads and you need between a 10 and 15 second exposure to get enough blur to gather something interesting. Oh ya, and the roads are a lot more bumpy than you realize.

Until next time…