Nikon Rumors

Nikon Rumors giveaway #7 (ThinkTankPhoto backpack)

[NR] admin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:01:28 +0000

What can I win?

Today I have a ThinkTankPhoto Shape Shifter backpack valued @ $249 to give away (click on image for larger view):

More info on this backpack can be found here.

How do I win?

The rules are simple – just leave a comment to this post. Let’s be creative this time – tell me why do you need this backpack, what is your experience with other ThinkTank products (if any), what are you looking for in a camera backpack or just a funny story. Basically anything backpack related will be fine. One comment per person please. Don’t forget to add your email in the comment section – it will not be used for anything else but notifying you in case you are the winner. I will close all comments at the end of the week and will randomly pick the winner.

The best part?

Following our tradition, the good people of ThinkTank Photo agreed to ship this backpack anywhere in the world, so this is not one of those “US only” giveaways.

What if I don’t win?

You can always get a free bag from ThinkTank Photo with a purchase of $49.50 or more (follow this link, when checking out, you can make you free bag selection – currently the free bag list consists of Cable Management 20, Pixel Pocket Rocket, Modular Pouch, or Security Tag products and is subject to change).

What else?

While you are on thinktankphoto.com, you can register for their newsletter.

Video:

Fine print: The contest is void where prohibited by law. All taxes are the responsibility of the winner. Shipping will be paid by ThinkTankPhoto. ThinkTankPhoto is an affiliate sponsor of NikonRumors. I did not receive any payment to run this giveaway.

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New Nikon f/2.8 DX lens spotted in San Francisco? (spy shot)

[NR] admin — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:55:34 +0000

Take a look at this picture on flickr (full size). It looks like a DX f/2.8 lens and it is different than the existing 17-55 f/2.8 DX lens. Any guesses? See full discussion on flickr. The picture was taken at a big outdoor event in San Francisco.

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Nikon instant rebates now available till March 27th, 2010

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Nikon related news/links

[NR] admin — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 04:59:23 +0000

Tamron SP 70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di VC USD (Model A005) lens with Nikon mount announced.

New discount for employees who work for Nikon camera dealers: Nikon D700 for $1,999. This offer is valid till April 30th, 2010.

Nikon EDG fieldscope offer – in the latest issue of Audubon magazine, there is an ad for the Nikon EDG scopes stating that beginning April 1, 2010 they would be offering a Nikon D3000 with the purchase of a new EDG scope. For more info on Nikon EDG fieldscopes: the latest EDG models from Nikon & Nikon fieldscope DSLR attachemnt. Reminder: the current ongoing instant Nikon rebate program will end in 2 weeks.

Nikon FA GOLD limited edition on eBay for US$ 9,000.00.

Nikon’s UP headset sports built-in browser.

Nikon @ the CP+ Camera and Imaging Show 2010 in Japan: reports from DC Watch and Akihabaranews.

Nikon D3s will be in stock @ Amazon on March 14th. Currently only OneCall.com has the D3s in stock.

Nikon press photographer makes history with first ever photographic workshop held inside the House of Lords.

Nikon Japan is introducing universal repair prices for its products starting March 1, 2010. Some examples: Coolpix S8000 will have a flat repair fee of 9,800 yen; Coolpix L series: 7,900 yen; Coolpix P series: 12,000 yen; D40 and D40X: 11,500 yen; D50, D60 and D3000: 13,500 yen; AF-S DX 18-55 F3.5-5.6G lens: 7,900 yen; AF-S DX 18-55 F3.5-5.6G VR lens: 8,300 yen, etc. It is not clear if this plan will be introduced in other countries.

Video: Lee filters for Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 lens (Lee filters website):

Nikon introduces new Binoculars.

Nikon makes charitable donation to Chile.

Two official press release from Nikon about the Austin festival and George LaCroix Memorial Award.

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Nikon instant rebates now available till March 27th, 2010

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PocketWizard for Nikon being tested, no release date yet

[NR] admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:31:56 +0000

Pocketwizard posted an update on their Nikon version of FlexTT5. The good news is that prototypes are already being tested. The release date is still unknown:

“So the big question is when? It all depends. There will be surprises along the way. As we learned with the Canon system, it is IMPOSSIBLE to peg a date. If things go well, it will be sooner. If there are major surprises, it will be later.”

Via Photographybay

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Google found Nikon D700x, D800 entries on nikonusa.com

[NR] admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:15:53 +0000

Halcyon Habit from www.halcyonhabit.com sent me this interesting info: if you Google d700x site:www.nikonusa.com you will get two results (this search is looking for D700x keywords in all nikonusa.com pages):

This could mean that at some point of time Nikon USA had the following link online:

http://www.nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Nikon/Product/Digital-SLR/25442/D700X.html

Currently this URL points to the Nikon D3x product listing (because of the product #25442, the D700X.html portion of the URL is irrelevant) but Google cache did capture the full D700x URL:

If you search for D800 site:www.nikonusa.com you will get one result that currently links to a Nikon support page.

The part that is not clear is whether Google really cached this page/URL or just created this search result entry based on external links pointing to that D700x URL (for example the same D700x link was already discussed on Fred Miranda forum and maybe the Internet traffic to that URL from FM was enough for Google to create those entries). Unfortunately nobody knows for sure how Google search algorithm works and this D700x entry remains just another rumor.

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The last post on the “I am Nikon” campaign

[NR] admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:08:07 +0000

Update: IamNikon.com is now live.

“Nikon is launching a pan-European advertising campaign, called “I am Nikon”, which aims to connect the brand’s heritage of professionalism, authenticity and innovation to an audience of aspiring photographers. The campaign will appear throughout Europe and South Africa, with the first TV ad airing on UK television over the Easter weekend from 2 to 5 April 2010 on ITV, Channel Four and Channel Five.”

Read the whole article @ MarketingWeek. This campaign was created by by Jung von Matt/Spree advertising agency (the company that registered some of the IamNikon domain names). IamNikon.com still redirects to the default Nikon Europe site. No new products were announced today.

Update: The last card from France of course says “I am Nikon”. It contained also a second flyer about the new campaign (thanks Romain Heuillard for the pictures):

Update #2 – new video on YouTube:

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Nikon related news/links

[NR] admin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:59:30 +0000

The new Sigma 50-500mm f/4.5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM SLD (nikon mount) is now available for pre-0rder.

Nokia N900 phone hacked to remotely trigger a Nikon DSLR.

Nikon USA redesigned their lenses page.

Nikon D700 is no longer available through the Army, Air Force Exchange System (AAFES) – the camera is no longer listed as available (Nikon equipment purchased through AAFES is shipped directly from Nikon). We had similar reports in the past – see here, here and here. In addition, Best Buy company computers are showing a mid-August date as end-of-life for the Nikon D700 (not sure how this works, but this could mean that they would have to return unsold stock and couldn’t sell the product after that date).

Canon got their rebates online.

Fstoppers.com: interesting new website that features behind the scenes videos of photographers working on their current projects. The crew at fstoppers.com shoot all Nikon gear (for now). Here is one of the videos:

Behind the Scenes: Eric Bradshaw shoots models on an island beach from FStoppers on Vimeo.

Update – I just added this video on how to make a Nikon D90 limited (pink) edition:

Video via Fotoactualidad

Nikon’s “I am..” video on YouTube:

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Nikon instant rebates now available till March 27th, 2010

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Card #1: “I am looking at the world”

[NR] admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:28:53 +0000

Update: a maybe better translation of this card would be “I am an eye on the world” or “I am a way to look at the world”.

Card #1 “Je suis un regard sure le monde” which should translate to “I am looking at the world” (thanks for the translation Mistral). This is it – the last card on Monday will probably say “I am Nikon”.

Source

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Nikon instant rebates now available till March 27th, 2010

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Card #2: “I am Neil Armstrong”

[NR] admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:37:47 +0000

Nobody got this one right – card #2 is “I am Neil Armstrong” in reference to Neil Armstrong, the first person to land on the moon (thanks Romain Heuillard for the pictures). A nice reminder for the fact that NASA is using Nikon equipment.

Pictures after the break:

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Yes, you can combine 2 lenses with 1 body and get the instant Nikon rebates

[NR] admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:25:36 +0000

One more, hopefully final, update on the instant Nikon rebate program: there are few entries on Adorama that allows you combine one DSLR body with two lenses (24-70 & 70-200):

Here is a complete list of rebates from B&H and Adorama:

B&H (listed by lens):

Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 VRII:

Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8:

Nikkor 24-120 f/3.5-5.6 VR:

Nikkor 18-200 DX VRII:

Here is another way to get to the different rebates options them: click on each of the models from the list below and then navigate to the “available kits” link for all the possible options:

Adorama (listed by DSLR):

Nikon D3000 combos:

Nikon D5000 combos:

Nikon D90 combos:

Nikon D300s combos:

Nikon D700 combos:

Nikon D3s combos:

Nikon D3x combos:

To be sure you get the final discounted price, please add the items to the shopping cart.

Those are instant rebates, not mail-in rebates.

As far as I know, Amazon is not taking part of those instant Nikon rebates.

OneCall.com seems to have some of the rebates listed.

The instant rebate program from Nikon ends on March 27th, 2010.

Canon got their own rebates – one week after Nikon

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“I am Nikon” campaign to start on Monday

[NR] admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:59:07 +0000

Update: this banner was taken from Nikon Service Center in Munich, Germany:

“I am Nikon” will be a massive campaign that is suppose to start on Monday, March 8th, 2010 and will involve all aspect of photography: it will include a new portal (see previous I am Nikon dot com post), a Flickr group, an already existing YouTube channel and probably much, much more.

I still have not received a word on any new product announcements for next week – probably there won’t be any.

Some Nikon websites were down today – probably in preparation for Monday.

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Nikon instant rebates now available till March 27th, 2010

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The latest Nikon instant rebates list

[NR] admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:24:35 +0000

This is an official Nikon instant rebate program:

Buy the 70-200mm with a DLSR and get $400.00 instant rebate
Buy the 24-70mm with a DSLR and get $300 instant rebate
Buy the 18-200mm VRII with a DSLR and get $250.00 instant rebate
Buy the 24-120mm with a DSLR and get $200.00 instant rebate
Rebates can be combined as well – scroll down to the end of this post for direct links

I compiled a full list of all available instant Nikon rebates from B&H and Adorama (after I received multiple requests from readers). What’s new? Adorama also offers the D3000 as part of the instant rebate program and they have also some rebates on the Nikkor 70-300mm lens. Complete list from B&H and Adorama (to be sure you get the final discounted price, please add the items to the shopping cart):

B&H (listed by lens)

Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 VRII:

Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8:

Nikkor 24-120 f/3.5-5.6 VR:

Nikkor 18-200 DX VRII:

Here is another way to get to the different rebates options them: click on each of the models from the list below and then navigate to the “available kits” link for all the possible options:

Adorama (listed by DSLR):

Nikon D3000 combos:

Nikon D5000 combos:

Nikon D90 combos:

Nikon D300s combos:

Nikon D700 combos:

Nikon D3s combos:

Nikon D3x combos:

There are few entries on Adorama that allows you combine one DSLR body with two lenses (24-70 & 70-200):

To be sure you get the final discounted price, please add the items to the shopping cart.

Those are instant rebates, not mail-in rebates.

As far as I know, Amazon is not taking part of those instant Nikon rebates.

OneCall.com seems to have some of the rebates listed.

The instant rebate program from Nikon ends on March 27th, 2010.

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I am Nikon dot com

[NR] admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:48:37 +0000

If you go to iamnikon.com you will get a blank page, but if you go to iamnikon.com/images you will get a redirect to europe-nikon.com. Nikon is definitely preparing a new website. The question is whether there will be a real product behind the marketing campaign in France and the “Press Morning” in the UK or just a new website.

The same “I am Nikon” web site exists also in German language ichbinnikon.at and ichbinnikon.at/images also redirects to europe-nikon.com.

If you Google “I am Nikon” you will see few more redirects.

Flickr also has a group called IamNikon which is private for now – maybe the new site will have something to do with Flickr?

IamNikon.com domain name is registered to Key-Systems which seems to be a regular domain reseller.

IchbinNikon.at domain name is registered to an advertising agency in Germany called JVM and of course Nikon is one of their clients (in English).

The news about Nikon working on a G11 killer may or may not be related with the current ongoing marketing campaign and this new website from Nikon.

As of today, I have not received any information about upcoming Nikon products.

I found the above image in one of Nikon’s PDF files – this is the Coolpix S8000.

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Card #3: “I am Hollywood”

[NR] admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:11:31 +0000

Card #3 probably indicates built-in video capabilities:

This is what we have so far:

Card #4: “I am Marco Polo” - probably means geo-tagging (P6000 was the only Coolpix that had built-in GPS).
Card #5: “I am innovative” – Nikon will probably introduce a new technology in this upcoming Coolpix camera – could be based on their statement that the “G11 killer” will contain some DLSR technology.
Card #6: “I am sexy” – maybe a new design (different from the previous Nikon P6000)?
Card #7 “: I am fun” - probably means nothing, just Nikon marketing talking.
Card#8 was blank.

Picture via Pixelistes

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“Nikon prepares for PowerShot G11 battle” (Nikon Coolpix P7000?)

[NR] admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:22:32 +0000

The phrase “Nikon prepares for PowerShot G11 battle” comes from the latest issue of AmateurPhotographer that is out today. In the last few hours I was trying to find somebody that could tell me more about this article. Sorry about the delay.

Nikon’s UK Senior Product Manager Kevin Egan told AP that Nikon planned to release a Canon G11 competitor with the last batch of Coolpix cameras, but the camera was not ready. The model in question will contain DLSR technology in a “high-end Coolpix compact camera” body. No release date was mentioned. The full article can be found here.

This news, together with the upcoming “Press Morning” and the current countdown in France makes me think that we may see a Nikon Coolpix P7000 on Monday, March 8th. Also the magical number 8 from the countdown: there were suppose to be a total of 8 Coolpix cameras. Only 7 models were released last month. One is still missing.

And just two more references related to this topic: in this interview Johan Kling (head of Nikon Sweden) said that Canon’s advantages (1080p video in DSLR and G11) will end soon. The Nikon Coolpix P6000 has been discontinued since August 2009. The Canon PowerShot G11 currently sells for less than $500.

For the record: I have not received a single tip about a potential Nikon Coolpix P7000 camera release.

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Card #4: “I am Marco Polo”

[NR] admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:13:57 +0000

There was no card yesterday (?) but here is the one from today #4 “I am Marco Polo” courtesy again of Pixelistes:

Previous cards:

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Nikon rebates are now online

[NR] admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:31:28 +0000

Update #4: I got some direct links for B&H (add to cart to see final price):

Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 VRII:

Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8:

Nikkor 24-120 f/3.5-5.6 VR:

Nikkor 18-200 DX VRII:

Update #3: Adorama now also has the rebates online:

Nikon D3000 combos:

Nikon D5000 combos:

Nikon D90 combos:

Nikon D300s combos:

Nikon D700 combos:

Nikon D3s combos:

Nikon D3x combos:

Update #2: I received some information that Amazon will not be supporting those rebates which could explain why they haven’t updated their site yet. OneCall.com seems to have some of the rebates listed.

Update #1: as far as I know only B&H has the rebates online for now. My understanding is that multiple lens rebates cannot be combined with the purchase of one DSLR body (I am waiting for the official confirmation from B&H). Many readers could not get to the list of available kits – you have to follow the links listed below for the different DSLR models and then click on the red “View available kits” link under the camera picture:

The previously rumored Nikon rebates are now live @ B&H. This is how you can get to them: click on each of the models from the list below and then navigate to the “available kits” link for all the possible options. You must add to cart to see the final price after the instant rebate (this is not a mail-in rebate):

Nikon D5000 (for example Nikon D5000 with 18-200 VRII for $1102.40

Nikon D90 (for example Nikon D90 with 18-200 VRII for $1,272.45)

Nikon D300s (for example Nikon D300S with 70-200 VR II for $3,478.95)

Nikon D700 (for example Nikon D700 with 70-200 VRII for $4,378.95)

Nikon D3s (for example Nikon D3s with 70-200 VRII $7,178.95)

Nikon D3x (for example Nikon D3x with 70-200 VRII for $9,448.95)

It seems that the previously listed Adorama combos do not have he rebates applied yet. Could not find anything on Amazon either, so for now B&H is your best bet.

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Nikon related news/links

[NR] admin — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:47:06 +0000

It seems that the Nikon D3s is hard to get: Adorama, B&H and Amazon are all out of stock. If you need one Ace Photo currently has 3 in stock.

List of Olympics photo blogs – very cool!

Interesting: two D700 set as a 3D camera. Here is a 3D photography book by the same photographer.

Crutchfield.com leaked the details about the upcoming Nikon rebates:

The big question is whether the price adjustment at Adorama, B&H and Amazon will be based on their current prices or on the MSRP.

Also you can mix and match lenses and one body: “purchase all three lenses with a qualifying camera and save $950.”

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm F2.8 VR II lens reviewed @ dpreview

Capture One 5.1 released with Nikon D3s support.

Aperture 3.0.1 released.

Nikon Coolpix S220 tops European sales charts.

Continue reading after the break:

Another empty placeholder showed up briefly over the weekend on Nikon US website:

Nikon @PMA 2010 (video):

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Update on the latest Nikon D400 book listing

[NR] admin — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 04:14:02 +0000

This the response from the publisher regarding the latest Nikon D400 book listing:

“Wir hatten aus einer in der Regel sehr zuverlässigen Quelle die Information, dass Nikon demnächst eine Kamera mit dem Modellnamen D400 ankündigen wird. Dementsprechend hatten wir ein Buch dazu bereits fest eingeplant. Bislang hat sich das leider nicht bewahrheitet und uns liegen keine neueren Infos darüber vor, ob und wann Nikon eine Kamera diese Namens herausbringen wird.”

Google translation:

“We had a usually very reliable source of information that Nikon will soon announce a camera with the model name D400. Accordingly, we had a book about this already scheduled. So far, unfortunately this is not true and we are no recent information on whether and when Nikon will release a camera that name.”

The author and photographer Klaus Kindermann did not know anything about this book – it seems that the publishing company created the entry without this knowledge.

Thanks to all readers in Germany who helped me on this topic.

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Card #5: “I am innovative”

[NR] admin — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:58:48 +0000

Some readers probably have enough of this, so I will still post it online but will not display it on the front page (click the link below if you want to continue reading about card #5):

Taken from Pixelistes:

Similar slogan was spotted also in a Nikon’s banner on a Romanian website and it was again Coolpix related (“sunt” means “I am”):