Exactly one week ago we reported that Nikon is rumored to release a version of the D810 which will be optimized for astrophotography, and today the camera’s specifications have leaked.
Adding new features useful specifically for astrophotographers, the camera will be usable for daily photography as well.
This information was reported by Nikon Rumors, who was able to track a post about the D810a by a French website called Les Numeriques. The post was quickly removed, but Google’s cache came to the rescue.
The astro-camera will have a 36.3MP sensor and a max ISO of 51,000, like the regular D810. It will also share the D810’s FHD 60p video recording capabilities, but is expected to offer FHD 50p video as well.
Among the D810a’s unique specs are a long exposure shutter speed of 900 seconds (15 minutes) and a customized IR filter that makes the camera 4 times more sensitive to H-Alpha.
For comparison, Canon’s previous astrophotography-oriented camera, the 60Da, was three times more sensitive to H-Alpha than the regular 60D.
The most exciting feature though is that the camera can be used daily without the need for IR filters. Previous astrophotography-oriented DSLRs, and cameras that had their IR filters removed by a third party, required the use of IR cut filters to block the infrared light that was no longer being filtered internally, as well as the use of custom white balance. It will be very interesting to see how Nikon achieve this.
The D810a is said to cost €3,699 which is approximately $4,200, but keep in mind that USA prices are almost always lower than UK and EU prices.
This is quite a lot more expensive than the regular D810’s current selling price of $3,000, but the new model is expected to start shipping on May 28th, 2015, so you have some time to save up for the difference.
[via Nikon Rumors | Photo credit: Wikipedia and David Martyn Hunt]
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