Nikon D800 at 15MP

The birth of rumours about a Sony Alpha 800 SLR camera at 15MP started the rumour mill again for a Nikon D800. After years of partnership (Sony manufacturing a camera sensor for SLRs, Sony and Nikon using it in their SLR cameras), no surprise if you try to forecast the next step: Nikon D800.

Of course, Nikon and Sony may be in bed together, but are not married. Quite often, Nikon requests specific features that Sony does not need/want for its own products. This leads to different precise configurations of the sensor (more converters, additional functions) which becomes more customized for each of both brands. The first example coming to mind was the excellent sensor that is hidden inside the near-simultaneous Sony Alpha 700 and Nikon D300. Two market references, even today.

So, as we think we know what Sony is bringing us soon with a nice CMOS 15MP sensor in APS-C size and with quite good sensitivty (inherited from the technology work for the sensor of the Sony Alpha 900), it is quite normal to draw an parallel Nikon camera design. The Nikon D800 then becomes the true follower of the D300, it completes Nikon mid-range to make it very powerful indeed: D700 + D800.

The features of the Nikon D800 so contain:

• 15.2 MP APS-C CMOS sensor
• Sensitivity: 200-6400 ISO (ext. 100-12800 ISO)
• Continuous shooting: 6.5 fps

Probably, count on it for the PMA 2009. Only a few more weeks of patience, then.