Nikon Hits Another Home Run With the Video-Shooting D4

The D4 is heavy on the video, but it hasn't forgotten the stills shooter Nikon's new flagship DSLR, the D4, has just gotten a pre-CES launch. The aging D3 has been losing its lunch to Canon for a while thanks to the rival company's focus on video, so it's hard to remember just how impressive the old D3 was when launched. The D4 is of course very video-centric, too, and the camera looks pretty amazing. First, the video. The D4 shoots 1080p at 30, 24 and 60fps. There's a stereo mic jack, 20-level audio meter and a 30-level output for monitoring via headphone jack. Not only can the camera capture and show you footage as you shoot, but it can also output uncompressed 720p via HDMI at the same time. There is also full manual exposure control while shooting, and AF–should you want it. There's also a neat trick that exploits the fact that a stills sensor has way more resolution than 1080p: the camera can optically zoom up to 2.7x during recording. Stills-wise, less has changed. The sensor jumps from 12.1MP to 16.3MP, and will now shoot at up to ISO 204,800 (pretty incredible). The additional sensor used metering has gone from measly 1005 pixels to 91,000, and now allows face detection while using the optical finder. The D4 will shoot at 10 fps in stills mode. Amongst myriad other tweaks, there are a few differences to the physical design, too. Gone is the AF lock button, replaced by a couple of joystick nubbins which allow selections in both portrait and landscape orientations. The rear LCD is slightly bigger at 3.2 inches (up from three), and controls can be illuminated for low-light work. Finally, the camera now has memory card slots for compact flash and XQD, Sony's new high-speed format. In short, if you were impressed by the D3, you will be equally impressed by the D4. Non-video shooters may not need to worry about upgrading anytime soon, but then again, there's plenty in here for stills photographers, too. D4 product page [Nikon]

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