What Photo Gear

And the more interesting one out of Nikon’s 3 new camera’s today, is the Nikon P80 ultra-zoom digital camera. And this camera’s claim to fame, is going to be its 18x zoom lens featuring a whopping 27mm-486mm coverage (in 35mm terms.) So that’s from decent wide-angle to a paparazzi worthy telephoto range.

The camera looks suspiciously like a Canon S5 IS to me though, and I wish Nikon would’ve been a bit more daring with this one. Although this is a big re-design for Nikon’s P series (P stands for ‘Performance’) of digital cameras as previous P series models weren’t ultra-zooms - there are quite a few ultra-zooms out in the market right now. We’ve got the aforementioned Canon S5 IS, the Fuji S8100fd, the Olympus SP-560 UZ, the Sony H50 and the Panasonic FZ-18.

I wish Nikon would’ve thrown in an articulating LCD, or had taken the lens wider. (I’m still waiting for an update to the Nikon 8400 from 2004!) But all in all, specs wise, the Nikon P80 looks all set to rumble with all the other ultra-zooms. But will it be a case of too little too late for Nikon in this market segment?

The Nikon P80:

• 10.1 Megapixels
• 18x zoom lens (27-486mm equivalence) (f/2.8 - f/4.5)
• Vibration Reduction (And with a lens like that, VR is going to help a lot) (Nikon’s Press Literature only says that the P80 comes equipped with Optical Vibration Reduction, and interestingly, DPreview’s news article claims it comes with CCD-Shift VR, not lens based)
• Full Manual Controls
• ISO 64-1600 (ISO 3200 and 6400 only at 3MP and smaller)
• Available this April with an MSRP of $399.95

Hit the Read More Link to see the full Press Release.

Read more »

Well, we had the sexy Olympus E3 Print Ad from South Korea last time, so why not a few TV commercials this time. Some of these are pretty funny, while some are a bit more serious, like the Nikon one. I don’t watch TV at all, (yes, really) so if you know of any other awesome camera commercials, let me know in the comments.

First up, here’s one from Agfa:

There’s more after the jump - just hit the Read More link.

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Photozone has just published their in-depth review of Nikon’s latest digital-only zoom - the Nikkor 16-85mm VR Lens.

Released just this year, the Nikon 16-85mm is, quite honestly, a lens that did not make much sense to me when it was first announced. Nikon had their basic 18-55mm lens, the 18-70mm, the 18-135mm and the 18-200 VR lens in it’s DX (for 1.5x sensor DSLR’s) lineup.

The Nikon 16-85mm with it’s 35mm equivalent zoom range of 24-127mm is obviously the DX version of the 24-120mm VR ; and at first glance seems to be a replacement for the 18-70mm - but with a price approaching that of the 18-200mm VR I still can’t figure out who this lens is for. The 18-135mm covers the same zoom range at half the price, granted without the very useful Vibration Reduction of course. And just a few dollars more gets you the 18-200 VR.

But the Photozone review does come as a bit of a surprise, as this lens seems to be quite the performer based on their tests. They proclaim the Nikon 16-85mm as probably “the best DX standard zoom lens in the Nikon mount to date.” Even claiming that this lens is even somewhat more desirable than the Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 lens at twice the price.

Surprising results indeed (to me at least.) If it performs as well as claimed in real world shots, then perhaps this lens just might find a home in my bag. And perhaps it’s place in Nikon’s zoom lens line-up will make a lot more sense to me.

If you haven’t already, click here to read Photozone’s excellent in-depth review of the Nikon 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S VR. They also have a few high resolution images shot with the lens mounted on a Nikon D200 for your review.

From: Photozone via WhatPhotoGear

Here’s a great little codec for Windows Vista users who shoot Nikon NEF files - the Nikon Raw Codec for Windows Vista.

If you shoot hundreds or even thousands of NEF files per day or week, and if you’re looking to view your NEF images without converting them, or opening them up in Photoshop or Nikon’s Capture NX - then this codec could be for you.

It’s not a converter or an image editor though, so you will still need Capture NX or something similar - all it does is that it allows you to view your images using the Windows Photo Gallery, which if you’re working with hundreds, or even just dozens of images can save a lot of time. Without this codec, you would need to open your images with Photoshop or Capture NX or some other program capable of reading NEF files - otherwise you would be unable to view the image at all.

From: Nikon RAW Codec for Vista via WhatPhotoGear

Maybe you’ve seen the D3 take a drop from a second-story apartment to a brick sidewalk, and then have it coated with chocolate milk and apple sauce and then have it cleaned off with a bucket of water. And well, the D3 is certainly one rugged little camera. But what if you wanted to take it underwater though?

Well, you can’t just jump into the ocean with your D3 hanging by your neck. Actually you could, but then that’d be one less D3 that you might as well have given to me.

The great news though, is that Liz Hanks, forum member of WetPixel.com - the website dedicated to Diver Photographers has put together a nice little list of current underwater housings for your beloved D3.

From: WetPixel.com via WhatPhotoGear.com

The camera reviews website - DPReview.com have now published their full length Nikon D300 review.

If you haven’t already read the review and are even remotely interested in the D300, then hit the link now. For those not in the know, DPReview.com is the place to go online for in-depth camera reviews (although they focus mostly on DSLRs)

And I’m sure some people would also be very interested in the image comparison of the Nikon D300 vs the Canon 40D, in both JPEGs and their respective RAW output. Or perhaps a look at the high ISO performance of the D300 compared to the Canon 40D, Sony A700 and the Olympus E3.

From: DPReview.com via WhatPhotoGear.com