If you're a professional photographer, particularly in the target group of news and sports shooters you'll have had something of a moment this morning when Nikon announced the expected street price of its new flagship D4 camera. If you're not a photographer, bear in mind that news photographers will carry at least two camera bodies and sports photographers will routinely bring eight or more to major events such as the forthcoming London Olympics, deploying several as remote cameras.
Not that, on paper at least, the D4 isn't a fine camera, offering a little more resolution over the D3S but falling just short of the 40% increase that marks the point generally accepted to offer any noticeable difference in the real world. This isn't a bad thing by any account. Larger files mean more powerful computers and longer transmission times in a business where every second counts. Even photographers working without urgent deadlines will welcome this restraint on Nikon's part. As an illustration of the computing power required by the files produced by the cameras we already have, last night I converted 450 D3S NEFs into 16 Bit TIFFs for final retouching in Photoshop. That batch process alone took more than six hours.
The excellent ergonomics which characterise Nikon cameras also receive a tweak on the D4 with the addition of twin joystick controls for selecting AF points, bringing the most used controls into the same finger positions when using the vertical release.
For film makers there's also a long overdue means to monitor sound levels together with manual controls for recording level.
And that's it, the usual small changes to the focusing system and assorted minor controls excepted, most of the other changes are on the firmware side. So how do we get to £4799 when not that many years ago the then far more ground-breaking D2H was initially priced at £2500?
The answer lies partly in a move by Nikon to match Canon's asking price for the 1DX, just as the D3X was priced in line with Canon's 1DSIII model. I don't think anyone ever really believed the D3X actually cost Nikon £1500-£2000 more to manufacture than the D3S, especially when compared with Sony cameras using the same sensor. But it lies mainly in a strategic move made by Nikon with the introduction of the original D3. With the arrival of the D3, photographers were assured the old distinction of high speed versus high megapixel models was now a thing of the past, there was to be no D3X and because we were accustomed to the £3500 price of the D2X we didn't question the pricing of the 12 megapixel D3.
A pattern has developed lately of Nikon making point increments to equipment and introducing the new model at a considerably increased price. Nikon has badly misjudged the financial health of their market at a time when newspapers and magazines are closing. For anyone currently equipped with several D3S bodies, the D4 may well be the model many will choose to pass over.
Updated 7 January 2012:
It's never a simple matter to compare UK prices with those in other countries due to relative differences in the strength of the local currency and taxes but checking the website of New York based retailer B&H tonight reveals the D4 to be priced in the US at ($800) £522 more than the D3S. In the UK, the price difference is ($1960) £1280. Similar price disparities are being reported across Europe.
