The rumors are true! Nikon announces development of new full-frame mirrorless system
posted Wednesday, July 25, 2018 at 12:01 AM EDT
It's now officially official, Nikon fans: Nikon today announced the development of their forthcoming full-frame mirrorless system.
Rumored for many months now, and even hinted at by Nikon's own Tetsuro Goto back in September, it wasn't until a new video released by Nikon Europe just two days ago that the rumor started to become reality. And now, at last, it appears imminent, although they certainly aren't yet divulging much in the way of information regarding the new system.
What we know for certain thus far is that it will (a) utilize a new lens mount, (b) that they are developing new NIKKOR lenses for the system, and (c) that they are working on developing an adapter for pairing up "a wide variety of existing F-mount NIKKOR lenses" to the system. Beyond that, however, we know very little.
We test cameras for you and aren't generally in the business of speculating on forthcoming products, but this official confirmation is excitement enough to bend the rules a bit this time around and at least start up the discussion. This development announcement begs the immediate question of just how many native "?-mount" lenses will be available at launch? One would hope at least three, but that's just a wishful guess. (We welcome all guessers to weigh-in down below in the comments! Or to simply give us your holiday wish-list if that suits your style more.)
And it would be hard to imagine that the new F-mount adapter would provide anything less than full autofocus functionality, at least for the relatively newer F-mount lenses. Again, this is pure speculation, but I'd have to say it would seem highly probable. Of course, you can bet that we'll be testing both the new native lens(es) with the system as well as older NIKKOR glass with the new adapter when the time comes!
All speculation aside, Nikon has made it quite clear that they won't be abandoning their DSLR lines, and are instead promising interested photographers "two industry-leading camps to choose from." We at Imaging Resource love the Nikon D850 enough to have awarded it our highest honor in 2017, a bona fide Camera of the Year indeed, and believe Nikon to be on top of their game right now. If that commitment to quality and proven track-record manifest in this new mirrorless system, it will be a great time for the camera industry in general, and most certainly for Nikon fans.
We can't wait to try it out! For more information check out Nikon's special website.
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UPDATE 8-2-18: Nikon has now added a teaser video hinting at the new mount for their full-frame mirrorless camera, and we now know the product announcement will occur on August 23rd at the stroke of midnight (East Coast USA time) according to their website.
Of notable interest, in addition to the obvious large relative size of the mount, are the
appearance of four claws around the mount as opposed to the customary three!