The new Nikon D4S announced today
Well, that’s about right, my sexy Nikon D4 is officially out of date, and thanks to the Nikon D4S I’ve just lost a grand off the resale value of my camera – cheers chaps…..
Is Uncle Andy stressed at all about being kitted out with yesterdays gear?
Nope, not really.
So what’s new on the Nikon D4S ?
- Well there’s been a few ergonomic tweaks which basically mean nothing for starters.
- Seemingly dispelled are the rumours that it would have a higher Mp count – apparently this stays the same at 16.2Mp.
- I was expecting some major change in AF but no, they’ve kept the venerable Multi-Cam 3500FX system.
- New sensor design.
- BUT – they’ve changed the image processor to Expeed 4 from Expeed 3.
- AND – they’ve changed the battery from EN-EL18 to an EN-EL18a.
Bare in mind all I’m going on is the web – perish the thought that Nikon would ever think my opinion worthy of note and ACTUALLY SEND ME ONE.
Other changes:
- A new Group Area AF mode – which from my own photography PoV is fairly meaningless, seeing as we already have 9 point dynamic AF – I can’t see it’ll make much difference. Plus, the Group AF mode always focusses on the nearest point – something you rarely want the camera to do!
- 6 possible white balance presets as opposed to 3 on the D4 – I jam all my cameras into Cloudy B1 custom WB and leave them there – so this improvement isn’t worth jumping up and down about either.
- Fairly gimmicky S Raw
- Spot White Balance
On the storage front most reports say that the D4S carries over the D4 crazy arrangement of 1x CF plus 1x XQD.
My Basic Thoughts:
New Sensor – well the benefits can’t been seen by yours truly until I see a few RAW files from it – preferably taken by myself.
I’m glad they’ve kept it to 16.2Mp – if you crunch the numbers this is the optimum Mp count for an FX sensor – as Canon worked out aeons ago with the 1DsMk2; but then joined the stupid Mp race.
Image Processor changes – well, it’s reportedly 30% faster than the Expeed 3, which basically means that the D4S fires off images to storage 30% faster.
Now I can go out with the D4 and shoot getting on for 100 uncompressed 14bit RAW files in one continuous burst at 8 or 9 fps – do I want to chew through my storage any faster? NO!
The Expeed 4 gives better high ISO performance?
Well perhaps it does, but I look at it this way. If light is so damn low that you need to shoot at crackpot ISO numbers then you can say one thing – the light is crap.
If the light is crap then the image will look like crap – it’s just that with the Expeed 4 it’ll be slightly less noisy crap.
If I can pull 1/8000th sec at f7 or f8 at 3200ISO in half descent looking light using a D4 – which I do regularly – then why do I need a higher ISO capability?
The Red Squidger images you’ve seen in the previous blog articles are all 2000ISO and there is ZERO noise degradation – so again, why do I need more ISO capability.
Now if I was a ‘jobbing’ photo-jounalist, or I was embedded with the troops in Afghanistan or something of that ilk then I’d perhaps have a much different attitude.
But I’m not, and from my own perspective of wildlife & natural history photography these changes are of little interest to me – especially when they have a £5k price tag.
Battery Changes
There was always a persistent gripe about the battery life of the D4 EN-EL18 power cell – well, I’ve got two of them and have had no problems AT ALL with batteries running low.
I was REALLY annoyed that they switched from EN-EL4A D2/D3 style batteries – I’d got a handful of those already, and now when I go to Norway in June I’ve got to take 2 bloody chargers with me: yes the venerable D3 will be getting a summer holiday this year as second camera.
So, for me at least, the increased battery life of the new Nikon D4S 18a batteries is somewhat inconsequential – why do I want a battery that lasts longer than ‘for ever’ ??
Other Changes/Additions
I can’t see anything that excites me: spot white balance? Go and buy a Colour Checker Passport and do the job right – and that doesn’t cost £5k either (though they are a bit pricey).
Group Area AF – do me a favour (see above).
6 White Balance presets – what’s the point?
All of the above could be given away by Nikon as a firmware update for the D4 if they fancied being generous!
What I Would Have Got Excited About.
Twin UDMA 7 CF card slots and an XQD slot for dedicated video recording.
An improved AF module.
The ability to select ‘matched pairs’ of sensors – Canon offered this years ago and it was brilliant.
Internally recorded FX video of EXACTLY the same quality as that of a Canon 5D3, or at least the same quality as internal 1080p CROP.
AF mode selector back WHERE IT SHOULD BE!
Me being put in charge at Nikon!
In Conclusion
Do I want to buy one (even if I had the dough) – NO!
Do I wish I could afford one – NO!
Would I swap my D4 for a D4s – well of course I would.
Seriously though, I can just see an awful lot of people getting “hot under the collar” and stressing over this latest incarnation of this pro body from Nikon; but seriously, if you are then you need to just take a quiet step back and think about things calmly.
There is nothing – IMHO of course – on the D4S that warrants upgrading from the D4 – unless you have a penchant for spending your money that is.
But if you are still on a D3 or something older, and were thinking about buying a D4 – then hold off a while until the D4S in available; it’s makes better fiscal sense.
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