25 February 2014

Nikon D4s officially announced

Nikon has just announced its new D4s flagship DSLR camera. As this is basically an 's' update to the current D4, the improvements aren't earth shattering (e.g., no 24MP sensor as many, including myself, had hoped for). There are still numerable improvements worth checking out though, most notable in ISO (a whopping 409,600 is now available), video (1080p/60fps), frame rate (now 11fps with AF and AE), a new S-RAW format (half the size), and a Gigabit Ethernet connector.

The initial price for the D4 is around $6,499/€6,149 and should start shipping on 6 March.

Specifications

6 February 2014

Nikon Capture NX2.4.6 released

Nikon has released an update to it's Nikon Capture NX2 image editing application.

Version 2.4.6 adds support for the new D3300 camera and improvements in White Balance handling as well as a couple of OS specific fixes.
You can download the software from the Nikon support sites: EU | USA.

From the release notes:

Modifications that apply to both the Windows and Macintosh versions

  • Support for RAW images captured with the D3300 has been added.
  • Advanced settings, such as Sharpening, under Camera Settings > Picture Control in the Develop section of the Edit List palette can now be adjusted, even when Unchanged is selected for Picture Control when RAW images are opened.
    The following modifications and additions have been applied to White Balance > New WB in the Camera Settings portion of the Develop section in the Edit List palette.
    - An Auto 1 option has been added to White Balance > New WB options.
    Capture NX 2 adjusts white balance for colors similar to those achieved in images captured with a camera's Auto 1 (Normal)* white balance setting.
    However, only RAW images captured with the following cameras are supported.
    - The D7000 and later digital SLR cameras
    - Advanced cameras with interchangeable lenses
    - The COOLPIX A as well as the COOLPIX P7100 and later COOLPIX cameras that support recording in the NRW format
    *Auto white balance setting with cameras that do not offer an Auto 2 (Keep warm lighting colors) option
    - Adjustment units available with the Tint option have been changed from 1 to 0.01 for more precise specification.
    - The adjustment range for Fine Adjustment when Direct sunlight is selected for Daylight has been expanded from 4132–7042k to 2500–7042k.
    - Adjustment using Fine Adjustment and Tint is now possible when Recorded Value, Auto 1, Auto 2, or Underwater is selected.

Additional modifications to the Windows version

  • The following issues have been resolved.
    - An error occurred when XMP/IPTC files created with Capture NX 2 Ver. 2.4.3 or earlier were opened.
    - Details specified in the Print layout dialog and page setup dialog displayed with selection of Page Setup... in the File menu were not applied.

Additional modifications to the Macintosh version

  • Support for Mac OS X version 10.6 has been eliminated.
  • An issue has been resolved where image files saved to a disk formatted using the FAT32 architecture were edited and saved, editing details were not applied.