Rumor Alert: New Nikon MF sensor in a RF body?

[fotografz]

My point Marc was that wedding photographers won't be able to afford this camera, commercial photographers have little use for the square.

Perhaps so for wedding shooters, but not necessarily portrait shooters ... at least higher end ones.

Commercial shooters are a different matter and most likely where the market would be. The reason for this is the incredible variety of crops and aspect ratios that images are used for now. Images for billboards and magazine spreads used in landscape format, and the same image cropped and used in portrait orientation for page magazine, catalog, and posters. I cannot tell you how many times our advertising clients have stretched the use of images to the breaking point.

Shooting subjects loose ... with enough background to cover all these applications of the subject while retaining resolution would be highly desirable. I predict that when this happens, no matter who produces the sensor, makers of the Hy6 will not be able to deliver enough of their cameras to meet the demand.

 

[Mort54]

My point Marc was that wedding photographers won't be able to afford this camera, commercial photographers have little use for the square.

Since we don't know what the thing would cost, let alone whether it will even happen, that's a lilttle hard to say. However, I can't see Nikon doing this if all they were going to do was a "me too" approach, with quantities and prices similar to the current crop of MF offerings. If this happens, I think Nikon will aim for lower costs and higher quantities (not like their DSLRs, but lower cost and higher quantities than current MF systems). If it happens, I suspect it'll be a smallish, intergrated body, with no separate back, to reduce costs. Also, more integrated electronics, no mirror box or viewing prism, and sharing parts with their DSLRs (like the LCD) to get the benefits of higher volume pricing.

As a point of comparison, look at what Mamiya was able to do, pricing wise, with the now discontinued ZD body. If the rumored Nikon MF was indeed a rangefinder, it could be even simpler and less costly to produce. Of course, the ZD seems to have failed in the market place, but Nikon is a different company than Mamiya, and is probably a lot more adept at squeezing costs out of these sorts of things and sellilng them with sufficient margin.

Of course, this is all just rampant speculation on my part about a rumored, non-existent device. Still, we can all dream

 

[satishmali]

I think you can use existing lenses to increase the image circle by using glass in between, similar to what Hasselblad does in new tilt lens. if the image circle can be increased then you can use a sensor bigger than 35mm. this presumes that the original lens and the new glass adapter have enough resolution power for the big sensor.

 

[BradleyGibson]

Update:

http://nikonrumors.com/2008/09/07/one-good-and-one-bad-news-for-the-otoji-project.aspx?ref=rss