Shipping on, or about, February 16, here is are several links discussing the newly announced Nikon D4. What is interesting is the possibility that the D800 will follow on the D4′s heels. Expect the D800 to be $2000 to $3000 less than the D4′s $6000 pricing. As a friend of mine once said, “that’s a lens or two”.
Oh, and Engadget has a good post about the new XQD cards that any D4 owner will want, including the price – $129 for 16 gigs, and $229 for 32 gigs.
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Looking ahead at 2012, some exciting changes, additions and acquisitions are in the planning:
For Adobe training we have added some new classes both in Princeton and for our Government/Military customers. The most exciting one is “Fundamental Elements of Graphic Design”. Many of our InDesign and Illustrator students have requested this class, so grab a spot in one of the upcoming scheduled classes and master the basics of design and typography. We will be delivering this class on-site at Ft. Bragg in February, but if you are in the NJ region check the Imaging R & R listings for the NJ classroom schedule.
For the more technology minded, the excitement is going to revolve around new cameras being released in 2012. Most notably, the buzz is strong for new Nikon and Canon models with spectacular specs for both still and video. Nikon looks to be first out of the gate and hopefully we’ll be posting back within a week on a new camera announcement.
Which reminds me to mention that Adobe Lightroom is also a fairly new offering at Imaging R & R, and if you have Lightroom and want to master the Develop module come take my one day class in Princeton.
Enjoy 2012, best wishes for a Happy and Healthy!
Posted by Steve Weinrebe
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Well, it’s doubtful anyone but Nikon’s tester and reviewer base will have this under the tree December 25, but it’s looking very possible that Nikon will “announce” the camera before the end of December. Nikon Rumors has just posted a photo of the D800 and, with their respectable history, I think it’s fair to believe that the D800 is finally a reality – maybe.
First off I expect that it’s possible Nikon will squeeze an announcement in by the end of the year. With the Olympics coming in 2012, Nikon will want photographers to plan for the purchase. Nikon will also want to gauge manufacturing numbers for the near term because they’re manufacturing process has been severely constrained by the flooding in Thailand. Nikon has no doubt had to set up new manufacturing facilities, prepare dies and molds for the D800, move personnel etc. to a new location. Maybe more importantly Nikon will want to stave off any defections to Canon. The pressure for a competitor to the long-in-the-tooth 5D Mk II, and for any new Canon announcements down the pike, would motivate Nikon to get out the publicity on a new camera with these specs.
But just because the Nikon D800 may be announced before the end of 2011 doesn’t mean prospective buyers will have it in their hands anytime soon. The pre-order frenzy on this camera will be ferocious, and NPS shooters have the priority. I don’t know how many NPS members there are, but NPS spans 30 countries.
Anyway because the site is a rumors site, we don’t know until Nikon announces it. I feel better about rumors about announcement dates than I do about actual product. Nevertheless, taking a look at the photos on Nikon Rumors web site and some interesting details emerge. For one, the body is small and according to the rumor it is smaller and lighter than the D700. This is both good and bad. I like smaller bodies and so gravitate to a D700 size body rather than a D3 size body. I don’t shoot thousands of photos in a day like a sports shooter might and don’t need the battery. (OTOH I might want the battery grip just for video. That will depend on the battery life for video shooting.)
My concern is with heavy lenses, that hand holding a light weight camera with a heavy lens may feel off centered. For that I’ll have to get it in hand to test the weight and balance.
Anyway click the link at top, or check back here. I’ll update my opinion as news on the D800 evolves.
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Lots of students that come to Imaging R & R for Authorized Adobe Training want to know whether a 2-day class or a 3-day class is better for them. Some of the confusion comes from our having offered some classes in a 2-day format at some times, and as a 3-day format at others. Here’s the background
When Adobe’s CS5 and CS5.5 software came out over the past year or so, some of the programs increased in complexity to the point where we felt it was pushing it to cover all the material in 2-days – particularly Photoshop and InDesign. Adding a day seemed to make sense. While these classes were very successful for content, the response from out student base has been mixed. Many students have told us that it would be difficult for them to take 3 days off work for the class.
Often (though hardly always) the student tuition paid for by the company sending their employee. But by the same token the company doesn’t always want to lose the employee for 3 full days. After much discussion with the instructors at Imaging R & R, we have moved back to a 2-day format for several classes, with a twist.
We now offer a 3-day Package version of the classes which includes the 2-day introductory class and a 1-day Advanced class, for both Photoshop and InDesign. This way a student can take attend the full 3 days at the same price, and with the same content as our 3-day class that we ran previously. Or a student can choose to simply enroll in the 2-day class, and at a later date decide to take the 1-day Advanced session.
This way everyone wins. Students have flexibility re: how many days they take off work, and we get to still offer the full 3-days of content. Since the 1-day Advanced sessions involve, well, advanced techniques and features, not everyone needs that. If you are using Photoshop or InDesign for the basics (Photoshop retouching or tonal and color correction), or InDesign for static print layouts (and don’t need “interactivity” in layouts using InDesign) than the 3rd day – the 1-day Advanced classes – is purely optional.
Meanwhile some of our topics, Dreamweaver especially, remains a 3-day class for the moment. Right now the depth of the material, to help students master that software, still leans us towards a 3-day class for web development with Dreamweaver. I hope this clears up some questions!
Posted by Steve Weinrebe
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Congratulations to Jeff Witchel on the publication of his excellent InDesign book, Indesign The Best of Layers Magazine Tip of The Day
As a photographer who lives in the world of Photoshop when at the computer, I’m always challenged when I have to dip into the very different land of page layout software. Manuals are OK for reference, but they don’t have the intelligence to answer questions that I haven’t already thought of. This book does, and more. It helped me to understand the language and workflow of InDesign in essentially an entertaining way. The book is divided into logical chapters from creating a document to working with text and outputting the final. It was a great help to someone that’s not used to living in the InDesign world, written by someone who does.
