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“Nikon’s dropping 5 lines of SLRs” says DPReview’s Chris Nichols

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During the recent first look video for the Canon EOS 90D and Canon EOS M6 Mark II over on DPReview, Chris Nichols let slip at around 6:45 in the video that Nikon is “dropping 5 lines of [D]SLRs”. This seems to suggest that Nikon believes that DSLRs are, for the most part, well and truly dead.

We already knew at the beginning of July that there were rumours Nikon was possibly planning to drop the D3x00 series, the D50xx series and that there would be no follow up to the D500. But now it appears two more lines of Nikon DSLRs are to be cancelled.

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Nikon is killing off some of their DSLR product lines, rumour claims

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A post has popped up on Nikon Rumors suggesting that Nikon is killing off some of their most popular DSLR lines. Specifically, the D3x00 and D5x00 series along with their “Pro” line of DX bodies, currently the Nikon D500. They say that they will “most likely” be replaced by mirrorless models.

It’s a bit of a bummer, although not entirely unexpected, really, and this transition seems mostly limited to their crop DSLRs at the moment. What does surprise me, though, is that they’re not killing off the D7x00 product line.

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Nikon stops forcing Snapbridge on users – unlocks real WiFi on the D850, D500, D7500 and D5600

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Well, this is certainly an interesting bit of news. Nikon has actually, finally, stopped forcing their proprietary Snapbridge wireless system onto Nikon photographers. After a false advertising claim over the D500’s WiFi capabilities back in 2016, and then an open letter from LRTimelapse creator, Gunther Wegner in 2017, Nikon is finally capitulating and giving us real WiFi back.

A round of new firmware updates for the Nikon D850, D500, D7500 and D5600 now adds support for standard WiFi alongside Snapbridge – as it is with the Nikon Z mirrorless cameras. Now, users can finally choose which software they wish to use to control their cameras.

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12-Bit raw video is coming to the Z6 & Z7 and Nikon DSLRs to get CFexpress support

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First teased last month at CES with the launch of the Nikon Z6 Filmmaker kit, Nikon has now officially announced that new firmware updates are coming for the Nikon Z6 and Nikon Z7 mirrorless cameras. One of the things this firmware update will introduce is RAW output via HDMI. Atomos has also now announced that the Atomos Ninja V will be able to record the 12-bit output to Apple ProRes Raw.

Another update mentioned before was that the Z6 and Z7 would also be getting CFexpress support. Well, Nikon has also now confirmed that their DSLRs containing XQD memory card slots (the Nikon D5, D850 and D500) will also receive CFexpress support in a new firmware update.

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Springs, levers and electromagnets are what makes a DSLR shutter mechanism work

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We’ve posted about what shutter speed is, from a photographic standpoint, and shown the basics of how shutters works before. But this video from photographer Chris Marquardt takes things just that bit further. He literally pulls a shutter mechanism out of a Nikon D500 to show us the nitty gritty.

We all know the basic principles of how a shutter works. The front curtain opens, exposes the scene, then the rear curtain closes and our shot is complete. But the mechanism by which it all happens and the technology that allows it to work is quite fascinating.

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I swapped out my macro to shoot butterflies with a 300mm lens on a Nikon D500

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Every year, on the cusp of true, Rocky Mountain summer, I travel to the high country to photograph butterflies. For a brief couple of weeks, during the height of the alpine meadow bloom, when lupine and mallows turn acres of open space to blue and pink, Montana’s butterflies make the most of their short season.

This year, I test drove Nikon’s flagship dx camera, the D500. I ran it with Nikon’s 300mm f4 PF VR and the TC-14E III, giving me a whopping 630mm of reach, hoping to bring these colorful insects up close and personal and preserve more depth of field than when shooting with my 200mm Micro Nikkor, my usually choice for butterflies.

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A German shepherd chewed on this Nikon D500 – and it’s still working

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From time to time, camera manufacturers issue special edition models of their gear. But this Nikon D500 “Rex Edition” is the most unique so far. A German Shepherd named Rex munched on this camera, which was bought only a day before. As a result, there’s one pretty unusual model of Nikon, to say the least. And what’s even more unusual – the camera is still working.

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These are Nikon’s 100th anniversary commemorative cameras & lenses

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It’s not exactly a secret that Nikon is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. But what has kept many in suspense is exactly what camera bodies they’ll use to celebrate it. After all, Nikon has a history of creating special and exclusive cameras for various events. Now it seems there are special 100th anniversary editions of both the Nikon D5 and Nikon D500 bodies.

There also seems to be a 100th anniversary edition of the “Holy Trinity” lenses. The Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR and 70-200mm f/2.8E FL ED VR. In all cases, the typical black finish seems to have been replaced by a rather pretty gunmetal grey.

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Nikon issues pre-emptive recalls for both D5 and D500. Please return yours for service, in advance

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Tokyo, Japan. March 4, 2016 
For Immediate release:

“Steve” Mikimoto of Nikon’s professional imaging division announced this week that Nikon will be preemptively recalling both the D500 and D5 cameras nearly a month before their actual scheduled release. While neither camera has evinced any technical problems to date the company wishes to prevent another episode such as the “oil and garbage” on the sensors of recent product, the D600; and also the repeated and inconvenient recalls of the popular D750 cameras, with their sensor shading lens mounts.

“We made the decision to preemptively recall most of our professional products in order to maintain our high standards.” Claims “Steve”. 

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First Hands On Review of the Nikon D5 and D500

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You may know that I’m already pretty sold on the Nikon D500, and the Nikon D5 doesn’t look too shabby, either.

This hands on video by Jeremy Smith looks at both bodies and answers a couple of questions that I was having about the AF system and wireless capabilities of the D500.

It also goes somewhat towards squashing the fears I had over how Nikon might implement the touch screen interactivity on the D500.

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