Actually, I don't think Nikon knows what your car is worth, but if you ever filled out one of their customer reply cards they probably know you're willing (like me) to spend more on camera gear than a car. I've been putting off the choice -- living off rental, bumming other people's rigs a couple times -- and I'm leaning toward a big sell-off of my Nikon gear in favor of Canon. Most pros I know have jumped in and out of several complete systems. It just means there'll be more used Nikon gear on eBay... Contax too.
Controlling who does what with their SDK is very much their point, sadly. Thomas Knoll's spot-on. It indicates poor thinking on the part of Nikon, which is at least half a Moore's cycle behind Canon and running scared. Nikon won't die, but they could be clearly vanquished in a market sector and then Canon would slack off. This, in turn, is bad news for pro photographers and others (incl. some/.ers) desiring at least two viable choices in completes lines of dSLRs w/ full range of lenses, speedlights, and so forth.
Full disclosure: I was born into a Nikon family.
Some pro photographers read/., but word will spread quickly enough.
The digital SLR market is settling into a range of price points defined at minimum by the upper end of biggish point-and-shoot cameras and at maximum by some portion of the price of a Leaf back for medium format.
I read recently two million dSLRs were sold last year. How many of those weren't EOS 300's or D70's? How many weren't D100's, D10/D20's?
Nikon needs a win. Nikon saying Who needs Photoshop? is not good for Nikon. Photoshop has such massive mindshare that it's a verb ("Can't you just photoshop out that tree branch?").
One thing that might make a company want to make something as banal as white balance data proprietary is because they're scared of the competition. Fear is like blood in the water and Canon is at least half a Moore's cycle ahead of Nikon in R&D. That's a hard gap to make up.
My faith has been seriously shaken.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, I don't think Nikon knows what your car is worth, but if you ever filled out one of their customer reply cards they probably know you're willing (like me) to spend more on camera gear than a car. I've been putting off the choice -- living off rental, bumming other people's rigs a couple times -- and I'm leaning toward a big sell-off of my Nikon gear in favor of Canon. Most pros I know have jumped in and out of several complete systems. It just means there'll be more used Nikon gear on eBay... Contax too.
Controlling who does what with their SDK is very much their point, sadly. Thomas Knoll's spot-on. It indicates poor thinking on the part of Nikon, which is at least half a Moore's cycle behind Canon and running scared. Nikon won't die, but they could be clearly vanquished in a market sector and then Canon would slack off. This, in turn, is bad news for pro photographers and others (incl. some /.ers) desiring at least two viable choices in completes lines of dSLRs w/ full range of lenses, speedlights, and so forth.
LOL
They might have a better way, or they might just be paranoid.
But isn't a careless employee problem an insecure infrastructure problem?
Full disclosure: I was born into a Nikon family. /., but word will spread quickly enough.
Some pro photographers read
The digital SLR market is settling into a range of price points defined at minimum by the upper end of biggish point-and-shoot cameras and at maximum by some portion of the price of a Leaf back for medium format.
I read recently two million dSLRs were sold last year. How many of those weren't EOS 300's or D70's? How many weren't D100's, D10/D20's?
Nikon needs a win. Nikon saying Who needs Photoshop? is not good for Nikon. Photoshop has such massive mindshare that it's a verb ("Can't you just photoshop out that tree branch?").
One thing that might make a company want to make something as banal as white balance data proprietary is because they're scared of the competition. Fear is like blood in the water and Canon is at least half a Moore's cycle ahead of Nikon in R&D. That's a hard gap to make up.
My faith has been seriously shaken.
It's more just a down-market riff on "I'm Just a Bill" from Schoolhouse Rock.
This is hilarious.