I picked up my Nikon D4 today, and according to Nikon Professional services i got the first one in Ireland ! Thanks to Calumet in Belfast and Angus Bicker the Manager, and of course NPS for all their help.
I got it home, had to head straight out to work, and there was no charge in the battery, so i have to wait until the morning to actually try the camera, it’s going to be like Christmas eve all over again, up early and straight into tweaking this camera the way i want it.
It was good enough to get the camera today but Nikon have a surprise for anyone waiting on one of these cameras, and that is they have packaged in a 16GB Sony QXD card and a Sony QXD USB 3.0 card Reader, there’s a sticker on the top of the box .
Using the new cards- XQD compatible high-end DSLR users can capture up to approximately 100 frames in RAW format*3 in continuous shooting mode. In addition to high-speed data transfer capability- the cards are highly reliable to protect users’ data and images. “These XQD cards give a whole new meaning to speed and performance.
XQD memory cards achieves stable continuous shooting of RAW images and blazing fast data transfer rates (up to 1Gbps; 125MB/s- write and read) through the PCIe*4 interface. A unique controller and optimised flash memory enables high-speed data processing- resulting in faster write speed and performance that can’t be achieved by conventional compact flash cards.
So, the 16GB card is worth between £82 and £125, depending on were you shop, and the card reader is worth around £50 – £65, i’m really pleased to get this free, as i was going to battle on with the Compact Flash cards i had for a while.
I’m going to get a chance to use this camera in the morning, but for the short time i got to look at it before the charge in the battery gave out, i’m buzzing about it.
It really feels like a new camera. I never bought into the Nikon D3s, as i felt it wasn’t a big change from my D3 cameras, but this thing, looks like they have really thought it through.
One of the many overlooked things that Nikon has done to this new model is they have filled the gap between the glass and the LCD with a gel to reduce reflections, improve the viewing angle and boost brightness and this could be important for professional photographers shooting in bright sun, not a massive problem in Ireland !!
I’ll put up some images from the D4 after i get to use it.
