The Nikon D6 is expected to be announced in late January to early February. Here are some interesting comments about Nikon D6 by a Nikon photographer Patrick Smith: (From Fstoppers)
A colleague and friend of mine is and has been testing the D6 and I think people who do what I do and still shoot Nikon will be super pleased with the D6. I don’t know 100% of the details, but from the specs and abilities I do know about, it will be a game changer for Nikon and the DSLR. Canon will also probably have very similar specs in their new 1Dx Mark III, but I still think the D6 will be beat it for stills at least. I’ve heard great feedback from a friend who is a Canon Explorer about the 1Dx Mark III, but he’s paid to say it’s great haha and I bet it is, but the D6 sounds better so far. The biggest thing I loved about the Z6 was the IBIS/VR and the D6 having that is really the best of both worlds in my world. I don’t use VR a lot as I shoot mostly fast action sports and breaking news, but when I do, VR is very important. Lens based VR is still the best in my opinion and both of my tele options mentioned above have the newest 4.5 stop system and it rocks, but having both IBIS and lens based VR is going to be nice. Don’t expect much of an AF performance improvement in the D6 over the D5/D500, but expect big things for LiveView, silent shooting, video and image quality. The sample files I saw had incredible dynamic range and High ISO performance. The new sensor and SNR firmware/AD converters and processor in the D6 contribute to amazing DR and High ISO performance, all while having more megapixels over the D5! The D5 is known for poor dynamic range at low ISO’s and amazing dynamic range at High ISO’s, but the D6 has both amazing High and Low ISO dynamic range. Also be aware that only the newer E-type lenses will benefit from the increased FPS in the D6 and G or D type lensers will top out at 10-10.5 FPS!
I am waiting to hear the pricing for the D6 and the final specs, even though I know most of them and I am impressed with the images I have seen from a “SAMPLE” D6. I never was able to hold the unit in my hands or take any images, however I did notice the large “SAMPLE” sticker on the bottom of it and knew that it must be the D6, because of the size and position of the sticker/logo on the bottom of the vertical grip near where it usually is on Dx series bodies. I can not disclose all of the details and specs I was told about for fear of outing my friend and somewhat of my business partner. However I will say that he is and has been testing the D6 for Nikon and is an amazing photojournalist here in America. I believe there were initially two variations of samples in the beginning stages, with two different sensors, but I can’t confirm that, just my suspicions. The eight images I saw taken with this “sample” pre production D6 appeared to be around 24-26mp, although it is possible and likely some of them were cropped and or my quick math of the height and width resolution numbers could be wrong. It is possible that the sensor is actually more like 30mp, but I do not believe it is over 30mp. The most impressive thing to me was the dynamic range of the files, and sample images, which I believe to be over 14.5 stops of dynamic range. So I am very impressed and believe the sensor to most likely be a Sony sensor, but tuned by Nikon with their magic SNR and AD converters, and new processors. Believe it or not I would bet Nikon will sell a ton of D6 bodies to newspaper’s, magazines and wire services, as well as photojournalist, wedding photographer and wildlife photographers. The fact that many people believe it to be the last professional level DSLR by Nikon will also help sales in my opinion. There are many seasoned professionals like myself that still prefer the DSLR and are not yet interested in or eager to switch to mirrorless. I am not totally against mirrorless, but for the time being and years to come I do not see Nikon releasing a D5-D6 level “Z” series body or super-tele lenses in the Z mount either. So the D6 may be the DSLR to end all DSLR’s and will hopefully last people like myself at least 6-7 years into the future. However if the price of the D6 is above $6499 than I will most likely NOT be buying one and will instead buy a D5 through NPS or maybe even a used with low shutter count D5 through ebay, which I predict will be around $3200 soon.
You can also take a look at rumored specs of Nikon D6:
- Sensor above 20MP but for sure under 36MP
- Improved dynamic range
- Improved AF system but probably with the same number of AF points
- Advanced video features with RAW recording (not sure if external or internal)
- Dual CFexpress memory cards