carbon fibre body nikon

If I am honest I'm not sure I see the point.

The current shells seem tough enough (seen enough "trashed D3 still working" posts, but I've never even see one in person never mind used on in a hostile environment) and unless they remove the metal chassis (which I'd guess is a fair part of the heft) as part of this I don't see the increased costs being worth it for a marginal drop in weight.

But as said everyone loves a bit of CF.
 
that would be awesome. carrying around a 400 2.8 with a D3 on the end gets seriously heavy after an hour or two. 500grams or so lighter would be heaven!
 
Have to agree that there's not really enough body parts to reduce the weight significantly, unless they make the body out of carbon also.

I'm having flashbacks of my old 2004 GSXR 600 which I covered in CF. I want to do the same with my Cooper S but don't have the cash... It's expensive stuff.

Steve
 
Love it

Expensive but so pretty, don't need one but have a weird obsession with carbon fibre
 
Nikon Rumours said:
The benefit being increased stiffness and a slight reduction in mass.
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And a drastically increased price!!!

I can't see there being a massive weight saving, the magnesium frame currently used can't weigh that much, so I guess there would be minimal weight reductions to be had.
 
I do quite a bit with Carbon fibre - and if someone offered me a C/F body, I would expect to pay less for it.

Carbon is pretty brittle - it does not take being knocked or dropped very well, especially if there is weight on the inside.

It might look nice, but I suspect it wouldn't actually last very long.
 
SlowSteve said:
I do quite a bit with Carbon fibre - and if someone offered me a C/F body, I would expect to pay less for it.

Carbon is pretty brittle - it does not take being knocked or dropped very well, especially if there is weight on the inside.

It might look nice, but I suspect it wouldn't actually last very long.
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That's a bit of a sweeping generalisation isn't it?

Here's an example of the strength that can be gotten out of CF

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_O9PLorYPA
 
I'd agree with the not much point to be honest. If the camera has seen such an impact that the plastic body is damaged so significantly then I would imagine the internal mechanics wouldn't be faring to well either.

Pretty though!

I wouldn't expect to pay less for a material that's forming technique is much more complex than the established techniques used to produce plastics. Carbon fibre is brittle in comparrison to many plastics, but it is also harder and generally has a higher allowable stress when used in like for like geometries.
 
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i would say it's just as much for "Looks" as anything else, people would pay just for how nice a C/F body would look. Well current Nikon bodies are just weird looking
 
DannyDMR said:
i would say it's just as much for "Looks" as anything else, people would pay just for how nice a C/F body would look. Well current Nikon bodies are just weird looking
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Interesting observation:

High quality CF stuff I have seen hasn't been the prettiest as they don't care about seam lines etc they care about strength/stiffness etc so line up the materials to get it.

"Pretty" CF stuff I have seen with perfect seams and nice straight weaves etc has usually been pretty poor and usually has a ton of GRP on the back to give the strength which means it's actually heavier than the GRP part.

Admittedly this is on cheap wet lay car stuff. It's rare to see any prepreg as it's usually hideously expensive.
 
Carbon fibre CAN be bendy - for example fishing rods. Very bendy indeed. I've made a few rods out of carbon - very wiggle indeed.

But it's still brittle. Hard - but brittle. If you drop your plastic cased camera, you'll get a chip out of it. If you do the same to carbon, you'll get a shard missing, and the edges of the chip in the case will be as sharp as a razor.

Drop it harder still, and you'll get big long cracks in it.

You can over-come this with lots of layers and a lot of tape, but then your left with a thick housing, and it would likely weigh as much or more than the plastic body.

Like another poster said - if it looks nice, it's likely to be poor in quality. Will be find for a studio, but you'd not be wise to hump it through the country for landscape shots. If it looks pretty workman-like, it's more likely to be been built really solidly, but then it won't have the "carbon fibre look".
 
Cosmetically nice, but surely practically unecessary?
A nice look though!
 
I have a carbon fibre 16m fishing pole I use on a regular basis, because its so light I can fish it at full length, but we had a situation a while ago at a canal I was fishing when a childs bike rode over the end section of a guys pole and it snapped like a drinking straw, yet I have had 20lb+ carp and my pole at full strech and its perfect, it all depends on the shape and how you knock it as to how strong it is.
 
fixedimage said:
That's a bit of a sweeping generalisation isn't it?

Here's an example of the strength that can be gotten out of CF

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_O9PLorYPA
Click to expand...

Love the quote by drunkingham.

This video was very informative, as I recently crashed my bike into a pile of hammers and was not quite sure if it was safe to continue riding it. :D
 
SlowSteve said:
I do quite a bit with Carbon fibre - and if someone offered me a C/F body, I would expect to pay less for it.

Carbon is pretty brittle - it does not take being knocked or dropped very well, especially if there is weight on the inside.

It might look nice, but I suspect it wouldn't actually last very long.
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+1

Working with it every day once you have a good process its pretty simple and its cheaper as a raw material than most metals, tooling doesnt have to be as robust as metal form tools etc. I would definately expect to pay less but for most people its shiny, new technology and good talking point so its going to cost a lot more. :(
 
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