Nikon D810A is officially announced by Nikon (10-Feb-2015)

ruifo · Feb 10, 2015

Nikon D810a DSLR camera for astrophotography officially announced

Read more on Nikon.com: Nikon News Digital SLR Camera D810A
Read more on NikonRumors.com: Nikon Rumors

Price tag: USD 3,799.95 (B&H - Amazon), with expected delivery date on 28-May-2015.

The released Nikon D810A astrophotography sample images are freaking amazing! It blows out what regular DSLR can do, once the D810A is now able to capture light beyond the visible light spectrum!!

Very nice move from Nikon, fighting Canon's leadership on the astrophotography segment for real. But this is a very specialized camera, at a high price tag. The D810A's native ISO is from 200-12800 (against 64-12800 of the original D810), with expanded boosted ISO at 32-51200 (same as the original D810). I guess if the D810A is used on regular day light shots, colors will be shifted to the red (given the infra-red light captured) and purple (given the ultra-violet light captured), messing up with the normal visible light spectrum. So I guess it should be very specialized of night sky shots, but I'd love to see real samples of day light shots and confirm (or not) this guess.

Nice move Nikon!! My hats off for you!

Braineack · Feb 10, 2015

They need this in the firmware upgrade program to all the other bodies:

"Virtual Live View Exposure Preview"

runnah · Feb 10, 2015

Braineack said:
They need this in the firmware upgrade program to all the other bodies:

"Virtual Live View Exposure Preview"

A feature that I am shocked Nikon hasn't included yet. Same as how Canon doesn't have a built in time lapse feature.

Braineack · Feb 10, 2015

That was a feature I really liked from the A7 Sony stuff.

and honestly, how hard is it to add a few shutter options beyond 30sec? So silly some of these features can can be added with a few lines of code.

TCampbell · Feb 10, 2015

Very nice! I saw this in my email (B&H sent out a promotional mailing).

It looks like it doesn't include an AC adapter. These are very nice when taking photos which last many minutes each and doing this non-stop for hours. You might have to capture 15-25 images of an object, and about 50% as many "dark" frames which last as long . This keeps the sensor much busier than typical photography.

I'm really glad to see they're doing exposure simulation. I helped a club with a lot of Nikon users do some astrophotography at the observatory and the lack of that feature made it quite a challenge to achieve accurate focus without a Bahtinov focusing mask (we have one for the large 14" scope, but we did not have one for the smaller apochromatic refractor -- which is the better scope to use to image the moon.)

cgw · Feb 10, 2015

It's a scary index of just how far Nikon product development is drifting away from consumers. Nikon financials show how they've voted so far and this item won't be prompting a run on Nikon merch. Their 90s playbook isn't doing stockholders much good.

Gary A. · Feb 10, 2015

cgw said:
It's a scary index of just how far Nikon product development is drifting away from consumers. Nikon financials show how they've voted so far and this item won't be prompting a run on Nikon merch. Their 90s playbook isn't doing stockholders much good.

+1

I'm not knocking the camera, but that seems like a very small market segment. Unless it was an easy tweak ... why?

photoguy99 · Feb 10, 2015

Maybe Nikon thinks they've cracked the code on fine grained market segmentation.

This is the holy grail, by the way. This is not some stupid desperation play, this is the goal toward which every business strives. Sell every consumer exactly what he or she wants for the maximum amount of money he or she will pay for it.

It can be expensive to do, unless you can really manage your manufacturing processes. Nikon might be doing a bunch of process work to make this viable. You know, actual business and manufacturing stuff. The things internet pundits don't know about, don't care about, and therefore don't talk and talk and talk about.

If Nikon could successfully manage a portfolio of fifty products based on the D800 platform, that could be a huge game changer, with essentially no investment in megapixels and f-stops and ISOs.

TCampbell · Feb 12, 2015

The main change is straight-forward. The IR filter has to be replaced with a different IR filter (in the very same spot) which changes how the cut-off ramps up until it ultimately becomes an IR block filter. On a regular camera, it begins lightly trimming the reds by 600nm and continues to cut more agressively until, at about 700nm it completely blocks. But Hydrogen alpha (very important in astro-imaging) is 680nm and, at that point, the camera literally is blocking about 80% of the Ha light.

That filter is swapped for a filter which blocks nothing... until it gets to 700nm and then has a very aggressive block (not a gradual ramp up).

This means that such a camera collects some 4-5 times more Ha light and that also translates to shorter exposure times needed to get those reds.

Very serious astro-imaging cameras don't have a filter at all... they are coupled to a filter-changer which is loaded with a series of filters that are rotated in as needed. This allows the imagers to filter for exactly what they need (it would be as though you could remove the filter in the DSLR and thread on whatever filter you need in front of the camera except it usually is a motorized filter wheel so it can be computer controlled. It also means the camera can be re-focused for each specific filter.

Canon made their first astro-imaging edition back with the 20D (the 20Da) then did it again with the 60Da. While they make most cameras in volume, these astro-imaging cameras are not made in volume. It is identical to the other camera EXCEPT for that filter and the model number badge.

I see Nikon has also put in the live-view simulation mode (they probably should just do that on every camera) and also allow the longest shutter time (without resorting to bulb mode) to go longer. That last change isn't a big deal as I find most imagers tend to connect the camera to a computer and use the computer to run everything (which uses bulb mode anyway.) If they don't use the computer, then they use a remote wired intervalometer/release.

So Nikon could change nothing but the IR filter and be done, but they did add in a few other changes.

The Canon 60Da is around $1500 and when you compare that to the regular 60D (which I think is around $700, but that's come down since they introduced the 70D... it was previously $1100 for a body only and eventually came down to $900 for a body only.) Anyway.... while the 60D has come down in price, the 60Da has not... anyone who wants that has to pay the premium. They do throw in the AC adapter, but it's not like that's worth the extra. Mostly you are paying because you are buying a specialty camera body produced in low volume (I'm sure they use the regular 60D assembly process and then just occasionally run off a batch with the other filter as they need more stock. I very much doubt they'd make a special assembly line.)

Tailgunner · Feb 12, 2015

Interesting. I wouldn't mind an "Astrophotography" only body but I just don't see spending that kinda cash on one.

photoguy99 · Feb 12, 2015

Yes. You probably whip up a batch of sensor sandwiches and have them in inventory.

Every now and then you make up an A model or a small batch of them.

The expenses, really, are the carrying costs of additional inventory of made up sensor sandwiches and of built model As.

There's some cash floating there costing money, which you may or may not manage efficiently by successfully predicting order pipeline.

More expensive, probably, is simply the bookkeeping. If you can keep those costs low, and build and carry inventory at efficient levels, these can be great little revenue boosters as well as having a halo effect.

If not. Well. You got trouble. Right here in river city.

Seventen · Mar 6, 2015

The price is just too high for such a specialist item. No one who owns a telescope will buy this to put on the back of it as high end CCD cameras that are specially designed for astrophotography are less than this, and they are cooled too.
The Milkyway photographers I dont see will benefit with this as wont the landscape they get in the shots have colour distortion?

Maybe I have missed some important text but to me it just seems too high.

jenko · Mar 19, 2015

Gary A. said:
cgw said:

It's a scary index of just how far Nikon product development is drifting away from consumers. Nikon financials show how they've voted so far and this item won't be prompting a run on Nikon merch. Their 90s playbook isn't doing stockholders much good.

Click to expand...

+1

I'm not knocking the camera, but that seems like a very small market segment. Unless it was an easy tweak ... why?

I think at least some of it has to do with branding. Being the 1st is a big deal when it comes to your brand. In this case, the world’s first full-frame astrophotography DSLR camera. Just like what they did with the 36 MP. Increasing the prestige of a brand increases sales all around, not just sales for a specific product. But yeah, obviously, this is an item targeted at those with some specialized interests and disposable income!

runnah · Mar 19, 2015

jenko said:
Gary A. said:

cgw said:

It's a scary index of just how far Nikon product development is drifting away from consumers. Nikon financials show how they've voted so far and this item won't be prompting a run on Nikon merch. Their 90s playbook isn't doing stockholders much good.

Click to expand...

+1

I'm not knocking the camera, but that seems like a very small market segment. Unless it was an easy tweak ... why?

Click to expand...

I think at least some of it has to do with branding. Being the 1st is a big deal when it comes to your brand. In this case, the world’s first full-frame astrophotography DSLR camera. Just like what they did with the 36 MP. Increasing the prestige of a brand increases sales all around, not just sales for a specific product. But yeah, obviously, this is an item targeted at those with some specialized interests and disposable income!