Have Nikon shot themselves in the foot with the D4?

I think if I was a working pro,the cost of the cards wouldn't bother me to much,compare to what film could cost to a pro,not to long ago :)

The problem would be if the new format failed.
 
Flash In The Pan said:
There was also someone asked Sandisk on Twitter about when they 'd be launching cards in the new format, the response struck me as very vague and was basically along the lines that they couldn't comment on such matters, which struck me as a bit odd, given the impending D4 launch.

On the bright side Canon appear to be having battery issues with the MK X :naughty:
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I asked them on Twitter too and they said they couldn't give away their roadmap for product releases because of the competition - or something along those lines.

The idea of no other manufacturer producing these cards is worrying although as has been said, that is hopefully just because there are no other products on the market that use them (although, you'd expect them to have some inside info on what is on the horizon?).
 
Richard Peters said:
I asked them on Twitter too and they said they couldn't give away their roadmap for product releases because of the competition - or something along those lines.
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It may have been your question that I was thinking of, the response, considering their involvement in developing the new format was, to say the least, vague.

I'd have thought they'd have been eager to display their "roadmap" to show support for XQD, after all the first D4s are due to ship within the next few weeks....
 
Flash In The Pan said:
It may have been your question that I was thinking of, the response, considering their involvement in developing the new format was, to say the least, vague.

I'd have thought they'd have been eager to display their "roadmap" to show support for XQD, after all the first D4s are due to ship within the next few weeks....
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Ah ok lol

I agree with you. I thought it seemed a little strange to be so cagey. The big worry is if nobody else produces XQD, other camera manufacturers may not use it either and then there is the worry that Nikon will naturally be split from the rest of the pack, and that wouldn't be good!

Still...early days yet so let's see what happens throughout the year :)
 
Dual CF slots was one of my favourite features of the D3.

Combined with it's ability to shoot with the card slot door open (unlike Canons which are dead as soon as you open the door) the dual CF slots made shooting two events/groups/persons to their own cards a breeze.
 
Flash In The Pan said:
So, £1200 more for one less card slot :bonk:
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The Pros went for many years with one card slot, and no doubt could hark back to those days if needs be. ;)

And indeed, dual slots for the vast majority of people are the exception rather than the norm.

I was just saying that the CF slot is there to be used even if XQD goes the way of Betamax. ;) Now two XQD slots, that would have been a monumental mistake. :bonk: ;)
 
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It's an issue for me that's for sure and the main reason I haven't pre ordered one. I always shoot to dual cards as a backup having lost 11gb of unreplacable photos in the past on one card. The fact that it also means buying another 10 or so new XQD cards and being tied to sony isn't helping either
 
This is really making a mountain out of a molehill... There's still two card slots and allegedly one of them will be pretty damn quick! And in the unlikely worst case scenario of the format eventually going the way of Betamax... Well you can STILL buy Betamax tapes today!
 
According to Rob Galbraith's interview with a Nikon Engineer, the D4 will be able to take advantage of XQD cards of 'well over 200MB/s when the cards become available.

One thing I did find odd about the D4's performance was that it seems to be able to record more files continuously with the larger 14bit uncompressed files.

------------------------------------XQD---------CF
NEF 14 bit uncompressed----105 shots----79 shots
NEF 12 bit uncompressed-----80 shots----68 shots
NEF 12 bit compressed--------70 shots----62 shots
JPEG Large/Fine---------------159 shots----137 shots

These timings are apparently at 10 fps btw.

Maybe it is the processing required to compress and/or reduce the bit depth, but you would expect the camera take more images in a burst with smaller file sizes. :shrug:
 
Flash In The Pan said:
Which kind of proves my point.....
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Why? You can still get boxes of 10 sealed from the US. They are nedw, but have obviously been on the shelf a while....
 
arad85 said:
Why? You can still get boxes of 10 sealed from the US. They are nedw, but have obviously been on the shelf a while....
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So, if the same happens with this new card type and you need one in a hurry all you need do is pop onto Ebay and hope someone in America is selling one? :lol:
 
Flash In The Pan said:
So, if the same happens with this new card type and you need one in a hurry all you need do is pop onto Ebay and hope someone in America is selling one? :lol:
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No, no... there are a few there in the UK too ;)
 
my worrie is not just with the new card type, but there whole plan with this generation of cameras.

by all reports the d4 doesnt make any large jumps in performance bar video.
canon has the video market mainly taken by the 5d. yeah the d4 has bettered it but it will cost twice as much to buy a d4 compaired to the 5d.
if rumours are true there will be no proper d700 replacemnet anytime soon just a reduced d3x to take on the 5d.(d800).
but will nikon include the same video preformance as the d4 i dout it as that what they have pushed the d4 with and its there flag ship.
theres alot of unhappyness that the d800 will be smaller,high mp and no iso improvement

on the canon side im sure the 5dmk3. will be as good if not better video wise as the d4, canon have had enough experiance to do so.

With the 1dx the stated iso is improved on the d4(have to wait and see though) if it does then nikon have lost there only card. being iso kings that leaves canon with better iso,video and more MP(over the range) how ever important that is or isnt it sells them.
 
Having read a lot on the D4 over the past few days, I don't think the memory cards will put many people off - it's a minor annoyance that will be gone in a few months when cards come out - video shooters will love the card.

However, on the still photography side of the D4 not that much has changed to make it seem worth an extra £1,300 over a current new D3s. Yes, the ISO is a stop or two better and the images seem smoother but it's not as ground breaking as even the 's' model which should be a minor upgrade

On the Canon side, the 1DX is a revolutionary change for those who can afford it.

All my 2c on the matter though.
 
martyp said:
video shooters will love the card.
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Why :thinking: Video is a relatively constant bitrate that can be satisfied by all but the slowest of cards (45Mbit/sec video - which is what Canon record - is ~6MBytes/sec write). Surely the faster card is to sustain as many RAWs at full resolution to memory...

The thing about video is you HAVE to maintain the write rate. You can't burst shoot video....
 
arad85 said:
Why :thinking: Video is a relatively constant bitrate that can be satisfied by all but the slowest of cards (45Mbit/sec video - which is what Canon record - is ~6MBytes/sec write). Surely the faster card is to sustain as many RAWs at full resolution to memory...

The thing about video is you HAVE to maintain the write rate. You can't burst shoot video....
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Plus if the new card was the be all and end all for video shooters shirley Canon would be in there like swimwear too?
 
I don't see the issue here at all, yes it's a bit odd having two types of card, however even if Sony are the only supplier it's just a case of buying a couple at the beginning and then forget about it......... A couple of hundred quid extra on top of a £5k body is not a show-stopper.

I'm looking forward to getting mine sometime in Feb. Pretty sure I'm first in line on my pre-order so fingers crossed. Will look to get a XQD card sometime in the next couple of months but not essential for me to begin with.
 
arad85 said:
Why :thinking: Video is a relatively constant bitrate that can be satisfied by all but the slowest of cards (45Mbit/sec video - which is what Canon record - is ~6MBytes/sec write). Surely the faster card is to sustain as many RAWs at full resolution to memory...

The thing about video is you HAVE to maintain the write rate. You can't burst shoot video....
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OH REALLY?


;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRrPFG20xKk

BTS of the video below. Was shot with 10fps burst mode on a 1D3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAwH9eu0gdY&ob=av2e


On a serious note, arad's completely right. 12fps 16MP files is something like 280-360MB/s (compression dependent) being written to the buffer, so the faster the card the longer it lasts.
 
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