When you see that you realize why it costs so much money.
To the point where you wonder if it's a camcorder or a camera. It's very impressive, I would say that degree of professionalism beyond those features make it pretty clear: unless you are a full time pro, don't cry about the price (like I did...) it wasn't aiming at you in the first place :)
Let's wait and see how much the D700 costs in a couple of month !
PS: I am not letting go, Nikon, do a 60x70mm sensor !
A lot of hot news today, a good one, a so so one, and a bad one.
The good one first:
Fuji is doing a interchangeable lens compact with a DX DSLR size sensor. The X Pro 1, for March. It should be 1300€ with the 35mm 1.4 lens. It is good because this is in line with the well built X100, because Fujinon lenses are likely to compare to good SLR lenses, they are prime lenses not zooms (18 F2, 35 F1.4 and 60 F2.4). It is probably too expensive but well, for a traveler looking for SLR quality in a compact solid format, this could be the best product around.
The so so news:
Nikon announced the D4. Yeeaaahh.... Available in March for only 5800€ or 6000$. It will shoot very fast, be very very very light sensitive (due to 16mp on a large sensor, a good thing), it will measure light really well, focus really well etc etc.
Why is it so so: if you are a sports, wildlife or war photographer, good for you. It also films really well. And you can expense it as a pro. In that case it's a brilliant camera. For other...more patience.
For every one else, it's useless and too expensive, and certainly not worth the extra 4500$ you'll need to spend to step up from a D700.
It's a good news because soon you'll be able to get a D700 for 1500$ :)
The sad news:
Kodak is nearly dead. They are on the edge of bankruptcy. They completely ignored digital, never believe in it. Plain dumb. However it is sad, because the best B&W film I know is Tri X, and I really really hope they will keep on making film...
Face detection/recognition function that will be working in the viewfinder (maybe some type of a hybrid viewfinder? Nikon had several related patents)
Improved video, I have no other details on that but my guess is 1080p/30/25/24 and 720p/60/30/25/24 similar to the Nikon D800
Uncompressed video out through the HDMI port
Ability to assign the two buttons on the front of the camera to smooth aperture control during video recording
Improved 51 AF points
AF detection range will go down to EV-2.0 (the D3s went to EV -1)
Autofocus system: 9 cross-type sensors that are operational up to f/8"
Why I do like it:
large pixels on a large sensor: excellent dynamic range and high ISO performance, the dream for wildlife
11FPS, the dream for wildlife :)
9 cross type sensors and not just a couple in the center (long story short, faster more accurate focusing)
That's it. It's not much, but it does it all. Large sensor, not too many pixel plus Nikon's superior 2000 RGB dots metering system should make it a killer camera for action photography.
