Nikon to announce 1 dSLR and 3 lenses in PMA 2008
Almost all the key people have played their cards - Sony, Pentax, Canon, Samsung. Nikon is still sitting it out. The silence is deafening! We know 2 out the 4 in Nikon’s bag! The dSLR is of course the Nikon D60 to replace the Nikon D40 (or Nikon D40x). See our earlier post, Nikon D60.
Of the 3 Lenses, we’ve already seen the Nikon 16-85 AF-S VR already. See articles, Nikon 16-85 VR Chatter Gets Louder and New Nikon 16-85 VR Lens Sighted.
So what are the other 2 Nikon lenses? Our bets are on the:
- Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AF-S
- Nikon 85mm f/1.4 AF-S
Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AF-S
This is a bread and butter lens. Frankly, Nikon did not expect the Nikon D40 and the Nikon D40x to be such a great success. But, you see, success is a double edged sword. After Nikon skipped the auto focus motor from the Nikon D40 family, the crowd has been going nuts asking for a AF-S auto focus prime. The staple lens is the 50mm - the starter lens. At least it used to be during the film days. Now, with the 1.5 crop factor, it has become the poor man’s portrait lens as well. So, to quell the Nikon D40 market, Nikon needs to announce this. Why not the Nikon 50mm f/1.8? They do not want to leave money on the table. People are dying of thirst for an AF-S prime. They’ll spend the $200 more to get the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AF-S. Once the demand stabilizes, they will introduce the lower cost sibling, the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 AF-S.
Nikon 85mm f/1.4 AF-S
If the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AF-S is for the Nikon D40 community, the Nikon 85mm f/1.4 AF-S is for the Nikon D3 folks. With such an awesome sensor, the Nikon D3, is begging to do portraits. The de facto lens for portraits is the legendary Nikon 85mm f/1.4. In this too we have two flavors - the professional go for Nikon 85mm f/1.4 and rest of the folks pick up the Nikon 85mm f/1.8. By upgrading the Nikon 85mm f/1.4, Nikon can appease the professional D3 crowd and promise them that more primes are coming down the line. They can release rest of the primes including the wide angles when they announce the D3X, later this year or early next year.
Nikon somehow still does not believe in VR for professional lenses of focal length less than 100mm. Otherwise the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 AF-S and the Nikon 24-80mm f/2.8 AF-S should have had VR. They don’t. So, there it is! We’ll see in 4 more days.
Feb 2, 2008: Now that the PMA is over, how can it be communicated to Nikon to ‘get with the program’ to release an 85mm f/1.4AF-S for us D3 investors ? To your knowledge, when do you think the NEXT new-lense announcements will be made now that the PMA is over ? Thank you.