Info on two new Nikon digital SLRs leaked! (UPDATED)
By
Mike Tomkins
(Friday, February 2, 2001 - 12:40 EST)
Information on two new cameras, Nikon's D1X and D1H, leaked by Chasseur d'Images and Nikon Australia distributor Maxwell!
Camera manufacturer Nikon is, according to numerous web pages as detailed below, preparing to announce two new SLR digital cameras based on its existing D1 model at the PMA 2001 show in Orlando Florida. The information is still believed to be under embargo until February 5th, however French photographic magazine Chasseur d'Images (best known to our readers for leaking news of Nikon's Coolpix 990 a day early last year) posted pictures and a brief preview of the new cameras, the D1H and D1X on its website on Wednesday after apparently not being told that the information was not to be released. Shortly afterwards, the information was removed from the site, but by this time our friends in Germany at the digitalkamera.de website had picked it up and were carrying an article quoting Chasseur d'Images as the source.
Following on from this, Nikon's Australian distributor Maxwell mistakenly posted full specifications on the D1X and D1H on their web site. Two more websites, Rob Galbraith Online and DCEX.net then picked up the information, followed by our friends at Steve's Digicams who have posted what appears to be part of a press release which we've not seen elsewhere, the Digital Photography Review and another Japanese site that we don't know the name of. Maxwell's server then went down for some time before coming back up - with information on the new cameras removed...
So - what can we tell you about the new cameras? Only what we've seen leaked elsewhere, thus far - and as Rob Galbraith notes in his article, since this information is not officially announced by Nikon, there could well be errors in it. With that proviso, we can tell you that the cameras are described as follows:
Nikon D1H - the 'H' apparently standing for 'High-speed', the D1H should have the same resolution and sensitivity as the D1, but with either more buffer memory, a faster 'pipe' between the imager and flash card, or both. Should be able to capture some 40 images at a speed of 5 images per second.
Nikon D1X - The D1X should have an increased sensor resolution giving a final image size of 3008 x 1960 pixels (5.9 megapixel) or 2000 x 1312 (2.6 megapixel). digitalkamera.de claims that the sensor itself actually has a resolution of 4024 x 1324 (5.3 megapixel), and that from this rather unusual resolution the camera's algorithms compress the image to 75% horizontally, and interpolate it vertically by a factor of 150% to give the final image size. Steve's Digicams and DCEX.net contradict this information, saying that the camera has a 23.7 x 15.6mm 5.47 megapixel RGB CCD. Image capture speed is claimed to be 3 frames per second for 9 frames, and uncompressed file size is apparently 18MB.
Both cameras, say digitalkamera.de, will have RS-232C connectivity for a GPS unit to be connected, as well as 100%-coverage LCD displays, new color profiles and enhanced low-light performance. Steve's Digicams notes that CompactFlash write speed and FireWire transfer speed on the cameras are improved over the D1.
Remember that right now, we can only tell you what we've heard elsewhere, and we can't confirm what if any of this is true - the Titanic probably didn't have this many leaks! The cameras do sound absolutely superb though, and if the final announcement agrees with what has been reported, we'll be very eager to try them out... :)
Note: At the time of this writing, Maxwell's website is currently down and hence the link above is not working...
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