UK price for the D4 set at £4799

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.

Equipment Price Rises and Short Supply Following Tsunami

As anticipated, the price of some professional camera equipment in the UK has risen by more than 10% in the month following the Japan tsunami with some items now in short supply. This means a Nikon D3S now costs a rather eye watering £3,600 from major suppliers. It's worth bearing in mind that "new for old" insurance cover is often based on the price of equipment at the time the policy was renewed and photographers should check that they have adequate cover at the new prices in the event of a total loss.

Out of Focus

A shoot in the midlands earlier this week meant the opportunity to visit the annual Focus on Imaging show at the National Exhibition Centre.

Attention grabbing product launches were thin on the ground this year with Nikon being between major announcements and Canon's rather dramatic last minute withdrawal.  Plenty to see on the Lastolite stand though with their demonstrations and an excellent lighting tutorial on the neighbouring Westcott stand both making the visit and the £8.00 admission price car park charge worthwhile. Westcott products tend not to receive the attention they deserve in this country and Burgess Meredith was probably the last person to be genuinely excited by a new umbrella, but their ingenious folding designs and optical white covers on the shoot through models make them the umbrella of choice here. The umbrella does seem to be undergoing a resurgence at the moment, with giant sized alternatives to the big Elinchrom Octa on show.

Meanwhile, back at the Lastolite Batcave, their designers have been busy developing a huge number of new products at least one of which I can see being useful in my work on a regular basis. US photographer, Joe McNally's name has found it's way, literally, onto several new products including a development of the light panel which holds four SB900 (or equivalent) flashes on an extension arm. That's £1340 just for the flashes, if you're counting. Not far off the cost of a two head Elinchrom Ranger Quadra kit and not as powerful. Obviously, used individually, four SB900's may well be the more versatile solution, particularly if used together with the product which really caught my eye, the new Hotrod strip softboxes. I've long been a fan of the Ezybox Hotshoe for fast moving location portraiture where huge amounts of flash power is not always necessary.

This portrait of Jaronne for a magazine feature was made at the side of a busy London street using a single SB800 with an Ezybox Hotshoe . A fast way to work without drawing too much attention to a photo shoot.

Travels with my Quadraunt

  
Two years since the introduction of the Elinchrom Ranger Quadra and some 18 months since the first units arrived in the UK, mine has seen a lot of use. Let's see how it's working out between us.





The Quadra offers 400 W/S of power, delivered asymmetrically to two outputs and I bought the two head kit version, complete with Skyport transmitter and spare battery. The power is split in a 2:1 ratio between the outputs with the lower powered outlet providing a shorter flash duration.

Starting with the heads themselves. They're small and light enough to comfortably fit into a camera bag or pack if necessary and although they look fragile, mine have survived many falls onto hard surfaces without damaging the flash tube. Something which would have almost certainly meant a replacement tube in my previous system. Because the heads are small they require a slightly tricky adapter to fit regular sized Elinchrom softboxes and reflectors. My advice would be to fit the adapter to the softbox and then attach the head before mounting everything on a stand. Elinchrom state that the maximum size of softbox that can be used is the 1 metre sizes but I use a 1.3 metre Octa with no problems. Any larger and I suspect it would become difficult to tighten the adapter sufficiently to prevent the sotbox from creeping.

Attaching the leads to the pack can be a bit of a fiddle, not least because that area of the pack is congested with the strap attachment points and the outlet covers flapping around on their rubber ties. The latter resolves itself fairly quickly as the strap's D rings chew away at the rubber until the ties break free. Once the first one had broken, I cut the second away with a scalpel. So far, I still have both covers. Offering the plug to the socket in the correct position is easier said than done as both are black and there are no external notches or markings to help. In a hurry, it's tempting to try turning the plug in the hope that it will slip into place in the socket but this will eventually bend the pins and as the leads themselves are an expensive item I painted a white spot on the plugs to help align them.

The batteries are quite heavy but I would advise carrying the spare at all times as the pack will go into its slower recycling mode to preserve battery life long before the end of the charge is reached. The best field strategy would seem to be to swap the battery once it slows and place it on charge. With luck, it will be recharged by the time it is needed back in service on the pack. The battery attachment points on the pack are again a slightly fiddly design and one of mine has already snapped. I've spoken to Elinchrom about this and they tell me they've not noticed any unusual call for spares. I'm not the only photographer I know who's broken one though and it's hard to see how any special care could be used to attach the battery. So it's something to watch for. A turn of gaffer tape around the pack should be enough to hold the battery in place in an emergency.

The Skyport transmitter can be used  not only to sync the flash, but also to adjust the power and turn the modeling light on and off.  The reliability of the radio system is good, although not quite on a par with Pocket Wizard Plus units. I've encountered situations where the Skyport wouldn't fire the flash more often than I have with Pocket Wizard's which in my experience have only ever been thwarted once, on the roof of a police station in the middle of the radio masts. The Skyport does occasionally seem to freeze, requiring the removal and reinsertion of the battery, so this is always something to try when problems occur.

Design issues notwithstanding, the Quadra has generally exceeded my expectations of it, particularly in terms of durability and unless you really need the extra stop and a half of it's bigger brother, and particularly if you have to carry your own equipment, I'd recommend it.