> > Well, its February 18th, and what Nikon USA has up are the new CoolPix > cameras. Actually, the pages went up some time either Tuesday or Wednesday. They didn't wait until the 18th. I suspect that Nikon USA has to wait until it gets the go ahead from Nikon Corp. They had estimated the 18th, but got the stuff out early. Today, they also added the Nuvis S (APS) camera. PMA is only getting started and there may be other releases as well. > > Not a mention of the digital SLR, which is on the English-language Nikon > Japan website (http://www.nikon.co.jp/main/eng/news/dsc99-e_99.htm). It is very unlike Nikon to reveal something like the digital SLR (F5/100) before its a product. Very strange indeed. However, they could have done it to get a stock boost. Or maybe to try to steal some attention from Kodak's announcement of the DCS 620 which is supposed to show at PMA. Nikon USA only puts up real products on their site. I suspect the digital SLR will be there but only when its closer to a real product. > > Strange -- what sort of photography would one do with a CoolPix camera, > anyway? Well, lets see, just about any photography that doesn't require a long lens or really wide angle lens where a 5.6 mbyte file is sufficient and you can use digital output. I have been laboring on getting a CP900s or a Sony Mavica FD-91 as a digital to supplement my film cameras. You can take the shot, look at it on site and decide to shoot more. For news work, if it produces adequate sized images, (I deliver 4mb jpegs from negative scans to my paper) and what you need falls in the optical range, then it would be useful for reporters and other news photographers who can't afford to plop down $12K on a NCS2000e or DCS620 but still needs digital. I'm anxious to see what kind of price tag Nikon puts on this new digital SLR. If its in the below $3000 range and can go up to ISO 1600, then I will probably get it. If not, I'm going to spend the money on optics and keep shooting film and probably pickup either the Sony or the CP950 (now the leader, but the MPEG and 14x zoom on the Sony are real tempting, if I can live with the lower resolution of 1024x768). The CP950's lens is a 38-115mm optical F2.6-4.0 with a 2.5x digital, taking it to an effective 38-280 mm (albeit digital, but down sampling to 1024x768 should clean it up). Throw on the optional 2x converter and it becomes a 76-560mm F5.2-F8. Not bad. And with the adjustable ISO's of up to 320, it can take pictures in quite a few more settings than the CP900s would. Rob
