Nikon Announces Development of Full Frame Mirrorless Camera (petapixel.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from PetaPixel: Nikon has just officially announced the development of its upcoming full frame mirrorless camera, finally confirming months of rumors and leaks. The new full frame mirrorless system will be built around a brand new lens mount that "explores a new level of optical performance," but existing Nikon DSLR lenses will also be compatible with the camera using a specially designed F-mount adapter. "The new mirrorless camera and NIKKOR lenses that are in development will enable a new dimension in optical performance with the adoption of a new mount," Nikon says. "The system is the result of Nikon's unsurpassed optical and manufacturing capabilities gained through more than a century of imaging expertise. Proven reliability and trusted performance are core traits of Nikon Digital-SLRs, and decades of feedback from professional creators around the world has further contributed to the development of this system." Nikon says that by finally jumping into the full frame mirrorless market, the company "reaffirms [its] commitment to providing photographers with the ability to capture images that are richer and more vivid than ever before." Features, specs, and pricing will be available at a later date. Nikon did however release a video yesterday teasing the new camera.

Comments

Keeping an eye on developments...

[DigitalSorceress]

As a long-time Nikon owner, I am keeping an eye on this.

The big draw of Nikon for me is that nearly every lens they ever made fit onto their modern cameras .. though not all of their camera bodies can provide full connectivity (the older AF lenses used a screw drive type system where newer ones have internal motors etc..) the higher end newer cameras are backward compatible mostly

Granted, I don't own any really old manual lenses anymore (I sold them along with my film cameras years ago) .. my lenses are more modern, but the promise of Nikon that the lenses I have are an investment that I can keep using.. well, that's a big pull for me.

Anyway, I saw a lot of hype about mirrorless stuff but was always kinda "meh" but

Full Frame
~and~
with an adapter/mount to make use of my not insignificant lens investment

This could be serious win.. but I"ll still be cautious and not run out to be an early adopter...

Re:Keeping an eye on developments...

[Anonymous Coward]

Mirrorless designs allows for better optimization of the lens. One of the prime optical design constraints of an SLR camera lens is to allow sufficient clearance between the rear element of the lens and the film/sensor. This is to allow space for the mirror mechanism. Without that space requirement it should be possible to either makes lenses shorter, better, or cheaper. Because old/existing lenses support the mirror space the adapter will simply add the mirror space back in via a simple mount extension.

The other advantage or mirrorless is you don't have the weight and space of the mechanism within the camera body itself, plus, the mechanism always introduces some vibration.

Getting rid of the mirror it is an all around win.

To ensure the user is still able to view their subject through the lens, the camera body will require a suitable digital view finder equipped with a high-resolution LCD streaming the image directly from the sensor.

Really, mirrorless is a win-win design, and my prediction is that 5 years from now all major DLSR cameras will be mirrorless.

Re:Keeping an eye on developments...

[magarity]

I think I read somewhere they were working on focusing using the actual sensor so they wouldn't need to split the light, but don't think that's been released yet.

It's called Dual Pixel Auto Focus and Canon has had it for years now.

Re:Keeping an eye on developments...

[nitehawk214]

Another issue with the calculation is that the EVF is pushed up real close to your eye and is less than an inch in size, so comparing it to a phone resolution doesn't show everything.

I don't think you need a 20+ megapixel readout on the EVF to make it usable. Have you ever pixel-peeped one of those high megapixel images? Yeah, no inch-sized display is going to show that detail no matter how close you press it against your eyeball.

The Olympus E-M1 II has a 2.36MP EVF for its 20MP camera sensor. It is decent, but not perfect, I am not going to pay Hasselblad or Leica prices just to get a better EVF. The best features of the EVF are the abilities to boost the image during low-light conditions, and adjust the brightness so it doesn't blow out your eyes.

Better late than never

[inking]

This is very much a good thing. Nikon is one of the last of the major manufacturers to finally start producing mirrorless interchangle-lens cameras. Up until this point, Sony has been the only major manufacturer producing full-frame mirrorless cameras, which many have criticized for having bad colors, bad ergonomics and what not—whether it is because they really don’t fit those users or because of the extreme tribalism when it comes to camera brands in the community is a separate issue. So now we will have two full-frame manufactures using the same sensors made by Sony in different bodies with different lenses.

This will probably make many people happy because of the fact that they can use their old glass and have access to Nikon’s support network. It will also make Nikon happy, because they now have a very good reason to release the all same lenses they have released for decades re-engineered for mirrorless’s shorter flange distance, i.e. making them smaller and lighter.

Re:Better late than never

[dargaud]

This is very much a good thing

Is it ? Is that just a glorified point and shoot ? I very much like having a viewfinder, thank you. It's much easier and faster to see it the focus is correct than on a back screen (big pixels) or, god forbid, the horrible digital viewfinders that some cameras have. And if you are far-sighted, the viewfinder can be set to your eye so you don't have to continuously put your glasses on/off. But maybe I'm missing something.

Re:Better late than never

[werepants]

I very much like having a viewfinder, thank you. It's much easier and faster to see it the focus is correct than on a back screen (big pixels) or, god forbid, the horrible digital viewfinders that some cameras have.

It has a viewfinder, but if it follows a similar design to existing mirrorless cameras, it will be electronic. Like you, I can't stand those things - in every camera I've tried with one, there's a latency in the display, so what you are seeing lags behind what is actually happening, and the resolution is limited since it's really just a minuscule LCD they are cramming into the body in front of the eyepiece. Optical viewfinders are the only way to go for me.

Re:Better late than never

[Solandri]

It will also make Nikon happy, because they now have a very good reason to release the all same lenses they have released for decades re-engineered for mirrorlessâ(TM)s shorter flange distance, i.e. making them smaller and lighter.

Mirrorless only benefits wide-angle lenses. Specifically, lenses with a focal length shorter than the distance from the lens mount to the sensor (that is what focal length literally is - distance from the lens to the plane it's focusing on). In a SLR, the traveling mirror meant the rear-most lens element had to be further than a certain minimum distance from the sensor. To produce focal lengths shorter than that (wide-angle lenses) required a retrofocus lens design. Basically two lenses on top of each other. One is the real wide-angle lens that you want. A second is a lens to take the light from that wide-angle lens and shift its image so it emanates from a virtual lens which sits in the mirror's path. The second lens is the reason for the higher cost (and larger size) of wide-angle lenses for SLRs.

With a mirrorless camera, you no longer need a retrofocus design. You can simply take the wide-angle lens and mount it at its focal length from the sensor. Mirrorless makes no difference to normal and telephoto lenses, and thus offers no benefits at those focal lengths (other than smaller body size). And in fact the focus range for some existing SLR lenses may not work with the smaller distance between the mount and sensor of a mirrorless body. You'll either need a spacing adapter to place it at its SLR mount distance, or the lens' focus mechanism will need to be redesigned.

Re: Better late than never

[Camembert]

The top EVFs, for example in Leica SL or the top Fuji APS camera) are really quite good these days, very high resolution, no latency, with a button you can magnify the center which is good for manual focus when needed, you can immediately get an idea of exposure and white balance. The one disadvantage I noticed is usage in high contrast situations like on a very sunny day.

Re:Other companies have had this for years.

[cayenne8]

I know that both Nikon and Canon are working on their versions of a FF mirrorless camera.

I have 2 main concerns....

1. What's the form factor of the camera?

2. Current lenses to work with new camera

The first one, is that coming out with a FF mirrorless camera that is tiny as an iPhone is not going to do well for me.

I have a Canon 5D3, and the form factor and ergonomics of this size and form of camera works when shooting most events I shoot. A concert for example, using larger lenses, you need this to get a good grip on it, and also to be able to hit the manual controls as needed quickly during a shoot like that where you may have to quickly change ISO/Shutter Speed/Aperture.

Having a tiny body on a camera with tiny controls or basic things buried in menus just won't work in the heat of battle.

And for lenses....well, I guess an adaptor would work, but not the optimum choice.

I've read discussions about flange distances, sensor/lens distances, etc.

But my main thing is, aside from substantial investment in good L glass....is that IMHO, for the most part, you're not going to change the laws of physics any time soon...and not reduce the size significantly for the lens types out there, so, why come up with a new mount?

Why not make a mount that accepts your current lenses natively (in my case, EF), but if you have new features, have maybe new connect pads that the new lenses will use, but would be ignored by the current lenses, etc.

I'm looking forward to seeing what FF mirrorless offers, but I hope they do it right for the pro level or prosumer level needs.

Now that smartphones have become ...

[Qbertino]

... the de-facto standard for taking pictures, we're finally leaving the steam-age of photography.

Well done, Nikon! Bravo!

Re:Now that smartphones have become ...

[hcs_$reboot]

Reason to that was/is professional photographers and their old habits / inability to adapt to progress, and these cameras being expensive are bought mostly by professionals. The mirror comes from the negative film on rolls era (basically the 20th century), there was no digital sensor in the camera and the mirror showing the scene "as it will be on film" [but not exactly with the same colors etc...] was a winner at the time ; and it took ages for pro photographers to trust a mirrorless camera. Since quite some time now, the mirrorless cameras viewfinder shows the scene *exactly* as the picture is to be, clear and nice, as the image comes from the sensor, and a lot of progress was made in the screens department.

Re:Now that smartphones have become ...

[E-Lad]

Camera bodies, and whether they're digital or film come and go. Honestly, I have no idea why people get so mesmerized by them. The real magic is in the lenses, and the photographer's ability to frame a scene. A "clear and nice" image doesn't come from the sensor; it comes from the glass you put in front of it and the ability of the photographer to regulate the light going through those lenses. Sensor performance is really neither here nor there in the vast majority of situations.

Re:Now that smartphones have become ...

[jabuzz]

Really I think you will find what the sensor sees is what gets recorded by the camera and therefore is pretty important and will be *PRECISELY* the actual image recorded by the camera when you press the shutter.

In a mirrored camera what you see in the viewfinder is an approximation of what you will get when you press the shutter. With a mirrorless camera with a sufficiently good electronic viewfinder what you see in the viewfinder is what will get recorded by the camera.

Now we could have an argument about how good EVF are and that the mirror is better because EVF's are rubbish. However what you have written is factually incorrect period.

Ultimately ditching the mirror will lead to better photographs because the gap required between the rear of the lens and the sensor/film degrades the quality of the achievable image, especially with wide-angle lenses.

There is a reason rangefinder cameras have remained on the market despite the SLR.

Re:Other companies have had this for years.

[hcs_$reboot]

Sony does this pretty nicely. But when Nikon does something, it's always a professional build, plus the current optics etc... I think it's worth the wait.

Re:Done before

[hcs_$reboot]

Not exactly. Leica does not show a "video" from the sensor. They use a separate viewfinder called a rangefinder, where you don't look through the lens, but through a viewfinder which is offset to the left and corrected thanks to a system of parallax compensation. Not saying it's a drawback (Leica owners are very touchy on this matter!), but it's different compared to Sony and coming Nikon (while mirrorless).

Re:Other companies have had this for years.

[petermgreen]

But my main thing is, aside from substantial investment in good L glass....is that IMHO, for the most part, you're not going to change the laws of physics any time soon...and not reduce the size significantly for the lens types out there, so, why come up with a new mount?

Putting a DSLR lens mount on a mirrorless camera would be giving up the main advantage of a mirrorless camera. The lens flange can be closer to the sensor because there is no need to leave room for a mirror assembly.

Having the lens flange closer to the sensor allows for the rear element of the lens to be closer to the sensor.. This makes the overall system smaller and lighter and particually benefits wide angle lenses which can often use a simple single-group design on a mirrorless where they would have to use a retrofocus design on a SLR.

Re:Other companies have had this for years.

[chispito]

But my main thing is, aside from substantial investment in good L glass....is that IMHO, for the most part, you're not going to change the laws of physics any time soon...and not reduce the size significantly for the lens types out there, so, why come up with a new mount?

Why not make a mount that accepts your current lenses natively (in my case, EF), but if you have new features, have maybe new connect pads that the new lenses will use, but would be ignored by the current lenses, etc.

You can make wide lenses smaller (and cheaper) by reducing the flange distance. Also, moving the mounting ring even a half inch back will bring the center of gravity of your camera + lens closer to you, and make a significant difference in balance when shooting with medium to long lenses.

Personally, I used to shoot Canon, but I don't ever want to buy a lens again that's larger and heavier than it needs to be. Sony, Fuji, and Oly/Panny all look pretty good about now...