I normally don't like to contribute to the rumor mill but this time around I'd be very surprised if we didn't have an announcement before the doors close at the show. If one was to combine all the rumors here is what I would come up with, an announcement at PMA for the following with shipment late this year or possibly Photokina 2008.

Nikon NG1 18MP, NG mount for full frame, F mount adapter allows 1.1 crop factor with exisiting lenses and 1.5 crop factor for DX lenses. Sensor is 24x36 CMOS made by Sony, the one they started sampling in 2006. 5fps at FF 8fps at 1.1crop and 10fps at DX using a 3rd generation electronic shutter. ISO 50 to 1600. CAM2300 for a total of 15 focus point and the ability to combine them, great tracking ability since there is no mechanical shutter. EN-EL5 at 2500mAh. Several new capabilities within firmware to provide the equivalent of HDR, well beyond what D-Lighting had to offer. Lens production in the new mount will be lagging but that won't be a big deal for the time being.

Knowing Nikons desire to seek perfection a new mount is perhaps inevitable though as always they will do their best to preserve the exisiting investment pros have in lenses. The new imaging circle will not cause vignetting which is what has driven them to explore new microlens options and I assume there ultimate realization that a larger imaging circle provides the simplest and best results.

Anyway, guess we'll find out soon enough...

Mark

this is the first I have even heard of a new mount , care to elaborate what you think this bodes for the future of the F mount in general?


J

There is no need for a new mount. There is a need for a mechanical shutter to protect the sensor when exposed to bright lights.

EB

Edited by EB-1 on Mar 04, 2007 at 12:28 PM GMT (Reason: typo)

EB-1 wrote:
There is no need for a new mount. There is a need for a mechanical shitter to protect the sensor when exposed to bright lights.

EB


A mechanical what??

Damn slow board - you got me a second prior to correction.

EB

There sure as heck likely is need for a new mount. Canon likely has full frame ahead of nikon because the flange is too small in diameter for FF with this old skinny mount. Canon wider as they may already has problems with the corners - and it's not a lens thing as those same lenses are fine with ff film. Sensors need a straighter light path - that is one thing Olympus sure has correct and a new mount for Nikon is likely the only way we will ever see superlative performance with Nikon, FF and wides.
So bring it on!

hmm i'm just a photographer and i have no clue how my camera works so be gentle... in another thread i read about the new mount. it should reduce CA and lightfalloff, since the lense is further away from the sensor (or someting like that). But is this really a mount issue? why not change the lens itself? i mean just place the first element in a different position?
please, i really have no idea, i just try to understand...

Based on cost and physics the two obvious choices for creating a larger image circle are with distance or diameter. If we go with distance our camera bodies would be like medium format gear and diameter dictates a new mount.

Nikon can not and will not abandon the F mount lens at this point in time but it can introduce a new one designed to co-exist. Most pros with an investment in lenses would be willing to accept a small tradeoff, i.e. a new mount, if it meant they could step up to a FF body that had higher IQ but only a few lenses in the new mount to start with. I would imagine Nikon would include, at least with the first generation body, a mount adapter that would permit full use of F mount lenses. The previous generations of mounts were mainstream for about 30 years each and ultimately became technically obsolete but not functionally obsolete. I feel Nikon also reached this realization about three years ago but has been planning how best to proceed hoping in some corners (no pun intended) that newer technologies might overcome some of the limitations.

if they do it Mark , it will have to be such that a semi - permanent solution is viable. Not like the silly FD to EOS debacle of a few years ago. If the Camera Mount Adapter is well made and could "live" on the cameras it really would be the cats meow and would prove yet again the prowess and the dedication to legacy that is: Nikon



J

Edited by jmcfadden on Mar 04, 2007 at 08:02 PM GMT

Mark

if the new mount is a real thing and not just a rumor would it not follow that the thing would debut with a new uber wide lens?


J

Pavel wrote:
There sure as heck likely is need for a new mount. Canon likely has full frame ahead of nikon because the flange is too small in diameter for FF with this old skinny mount. Canon wider as they may already has problems with the corners - and it's not a lens thing as those same lenses are fine with ff film. Sensors need a straighter light path - that is one thing Olympus sure has correct and a new mount for Nikon is likely the only way we will ever see superlative performance with Nikon, FF and wides.
So bring it on!

Nikon-F-mount lenses work nice on Eos-FF-bodies, I'm using several of them. No need for a new mount.

-Thilo

thilo wrote:
Nikon-F-mount lenses work nice on Eos-FF-bodies, I'm using several of them. No need for a new mount.
-Thilo

Nikon would prefer to have edge to edge sharpness and exposure and the F mount does not permit this without moving the lens futher from the sensor plane. Who knows we might all be in for a surprise.

Certainly we know its possible to do FF Digital with Nikon lenses, the Kodak 14n and EOS adapters proved that. If Nikon engineers had been satisfied with that we would have had a D3x side by side with the D2x...

mkonik wrote:
Certainly we know its possible to do FF Digital with Nikon lenses, the Kodak 14n and EOS adapters proved that. If Nikon engineers had been satisfied with that we would have had a D3x side by side with the D2x...

Perhaps it's not so easy to find a FF-sensor which offers good enough quality, Don't think it's the F-mount...

mkonik wrote:
thilo wrote:
Nikon-F-mount lenses work nice on Eos-FF-bodies, I'm using several of them. No need for a new mount.
-Thilo

Nikon would prefer to have edge to edge sharpness and exposure and the F mount does not permit this without moving the lens futher from the sensor plane. Who knows we might all be in for a surprise.

Information on the LBCAST sensor is that it has larger microlenses on the edges of the chip and progressively gets smaller (to "normal") as it gets closer the centre.

My take on this, read: tea leaf reading is; should Nikon introduce a 1.1x camera, it will be for the reason of (cost, as mentioned to by John McF on another thread), plus light falloff issues, AND an LBCAST sensor (with the larger outer microlenses). Same mount. Kinda fixes all those sort of problems.

But if they did add a new mount on top of this and everything worked in harmony.... well

hassy basicly did this at the last show, so why not nikon.