I know I got your attention.  I’m psychic like that.  In case you shoot Canon, 24th of August will be a big day for the Nikon fan boys and professional sports photographers out there.  On this day, Nikon could announce the next gen pro grade DSLR tentatively named Nikon D4.  It has been 678 days since the D3s came out and frankly my D3 needs to be replaced with something else just because I know deep inside that you want me review the new one on GAS, right?

At the very same time, this could be one of the worst let down in camera announcement history.  Nikon could bust out another dope Coolpix with 24mp sensor the size of an electron or a revolutionary EVIL camera that basically looks like any other EVIL camera out there.

Since we need to start speculating about how awesome Nikon D7 will be, here are list of things I think that could happen on August 24th 2011.

1. Don’t call it D4
Just because I need everyone up in arms over how Nikon screwed it up by not calling it the D4.  Nikonians.com will blow up.  It could be called Nikon D3sss (super stupid speed), Nikon D5 (because 4 is an unlucky number in Japan), or Nikon DDDD (quad D).  Whatever the name is, I’d like Nikon to do what Nintendo did when they announced the Wii.  Disappoint us with a surprise.

Will it happen?

Highly unlikely.  Don’t forget that Nikon is a Japanese company, thus they are predictable and they will wait until the light turns green to cross the street. What?

2. 18MP
For all the megapixel heads out there, here’s news: 12MP is fine for 99% of sports photography out there.  For those who claim that 12MP isn’t enough because you need to crop, well, learn how to fill your frame.  12MP is so fine that it’s enough for a 2 page A4 spread for glossy magazine use.  But we want more, because we feel like we aren’t progressing when the numbers don’t go up. Notice the trend here?   We also need to make sure that Sandisk and Lexar survive the next decade.  For sports photographers, as long as it doesn’t affect the high ISO performance, we really don’t care if it’s a 1772MP sensor. With Sony’s A77 reportedly sporting a 24MP sensor and their very own D3X doing the same, we won’t see a 24MP sensor.

Will it happen?
Highly likely.  18MP sounds better than 20MP and 16MP.  Why?  It just does.

3. You now have cat vision
I envy my cat.  She can see when it’s too dark for me to see.  But she doesn’t have opposable thumbs and therefore the announcement of the D4 is not a priority for her.  Maybe it is, but she much prefers to annoy me at 4AM than to care if the D4 will be able to shoot in the dark without a candle.  I’ve used the D3s and honestly, if you need to shoot at ISO 12800 without any noise, I’d really like to know what kind of sports you are shooting.  Naked football played on concrete in Africa with crows and black swans circling above whilst people dressed in darth vader outfit eating blood sausages and squid ink pasta on the sideline?  I mean, come on.  But at the same time, it will be cool if that really happened.

Will it happen?
No, but I have a feeling we will see a slight bump from the D3s ISO capabilities.  Not too much of an improvement as my cat needs to feel special.

4. 24FPS
That’s frames per second for you who spend way too much time pretending to be Americans killing Germans during WWII or trying to save earth from alien beings who look like bugs.  They always look like bugs.  Anyhow, 24FPS will be like shooting video and therefore if you want to change your profession from sports photography to sports videographer, we really don’t need it.

Will it happen?
No, but something like12FPS will be nice, but if you need more you should…

5. … shoot video instead
Apparently, clients are now asking photographers to become videographers. Fine, but I have yet to see a video shot by a photographer who I thought was a second coming of Michael Bay.  What an awesome director.  Love him. Transformers is the best trilogy ever.  Photography and video is not the same. One is a moment and another is continuous moments.  I feel that we see things differently and asking us sports photographers to become a videographer is like asking a baker to become an assassin.  Wow that sounds cool.  Where do I sign up?

Will it happen?
Ah, yes.  We will have 1080p just because we can.  Rejoice.

6. Geo tagging, built in SU800, built in wireless tethering, and super sports photographer mode.

Will it happen?
Yes, yes, yes, not sure about the super sports photographer mode.  But if your hair turns gold and it sticks up a lot, that means you have to thank Nikon.

7. Super autofocus
Correct me wrong, but I did hear from someone somewhere that they we will have a new super (I know, it’s redundant) focus system for the D4.  If it is anything like what Canon tried to do with their film EOS cameras, it will be a massive fail.  Although if it is better implemented than that, I mean, that’s so 21st century and definitely worth a positive “Beep”.

Will it happen?
Yes on the new autofocus system and no on the eye focus system.  If you’ve never tried it, go get yourself a used EOS camera from that era and try it. It’s quite cool.

I think that pretty much covers majority of the functions we should care about in this fictional new camera.  Although I know that you want it to come in at least 5 different colour variants, I’m afraid it will only come in black.  In case August 24th becomes a “Hey, check out our new EVIL Coolpix!” day, let’s take this time and start our draft on how sucky Nikon is for not giving us what we want.  Or we can go completely nuts and pre order the Sony A77.  Or just simply wait.  It’s your choice.

Ryu

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