Just got back from PMA, covering it for Scuba Diving magazine. Interesting show as always, but I was most intrigued by actually shooting a few frames with the D2X. First impressions:

1. Very nice, ergonomic feel.
2. Terrific viewfinder and bright LCD.
3. Relatively light weight, should b e easy to schlep around.
4. Responsive.

I just shot a few NEFs around the booth with the 10.5mm. I could see them at 100% in Photo Mechanic, but CS and Capture One would not process the files so I have no way to post here until the softwares get updated to read D2X files. <edit ... new thumbnail added of booth taken with D2X and 10.5mm, JPG via Nikon Capture>

But, from what I could see via the embedded JPGs on Photo Mechanic, the resolution looks good and noise did not apppear to be an issue. Shot at 1/60th second and F-4 ... file is impressive.

This is not intended to be scientific, but rather a quick first impression. Clearly, there is a lot of pent up demand for this camera and I don't expect it will disappoint. Looks like Nikon shoooters are in for some serious fun with the D2X.

Thanks Stephen, I consider myself one of the pent up ones!

I have not heard anyone mention the viewfinder before.

You'll need Capture 4.2 to open the NEFs. Aparently the latest ACR update isn't working on the D2X as advertised.

Alex

Alex ... Pent up still .....

but hows the lack of camera effecting you ?

btw .. i should be back in cayman for your next trip .. get your gear together ... and we will both be shooting new equipment ... I LOOOOVE my new 15mm fisheye ... its been fun playing with it and NYC's cityscape .... cant wait to gfet it underwater and the 100mm macro will be sooo much fun too .. I am a new man with new equipment and I finally organised to get my butu back to my island !!!

If you have a Macintosh running OS X handy, Raw Developer can process D2X NEF files...

http://www.wetpixel.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic...ic-t-7560.phtml

http://www.iridientdigital.com/products/ra...wdeveloper.html

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for the update on the D2X.

Do I recognize Stan Mensher(spelling?) holding the camera... this brings back good memories of the Waterhouse multi-image presentation. And also fo your show presented at DEMA when Stan had to manually turn the take-up spool on the cassette deck... We were far from digital then!

Best regards,

Michel Gilbert

and housing choices start to grow. not listed on digideep but Sealux is working on a D2x housing as well: http://www.sealux.de/side1e.htm

Julian

Michel - That is indeed Stan Menscher holding the D2X. Thanks for the recollection of the old WaterHouse multi-projector shows. They were a pain to stage, but man, they sure looked good compared to a little PowerPoint show on a funky LCD projector. Digital is clearly our future, but an analog 12 projector show staged in a good venue like that one at Sea World is pretty hard to beat.

Speaking a RAW processing software, you might want to look at www.pixmantec.com/products/rawshooter_essentials.html for a free download (Windows Only). I'll dig into it more in the next few days, but those who are knowledgeable about such things seem impressed.

Isn't anyone developing multi-LCD projector programs? Either that or have a projector with a vast number of megapixels capable of showing multiple images at a time. Would be easy to go from one gigantic pic to many smaller pix. We may need to wait for the next generation, or two, computer to handle the data flow.
As an alternate to using ppt, I have used Nikon View (I would think other programs could work too) in slide show mode (a button on the GUI). Put a collection of pix you want to show in a folder and away you go. I have not figured out how to reorder the slides, default appears to be alphabetic. Looks like an opportunity for a software developer for a real slide show program.
Cheers!
Tom

We use a software called "Watchout" for our multimedia productions. Developed by Dataton of Sweden (www.dataton.com), it is a scalable system that can accommodate any number of projectors to make panoramic images or assembled together in any other imaginable fashion.

NO limit on resolution! The trick: Use one computer/projector so, by keeping on adding projectors, you can do 10ft, 20ft, 50ft, 100ft.... whatever. This software is in use in many top venues now all over the world.

The software itself does 3 things: opacity (fades), scaling and movement. You can thus displace an image on screen, fade it or scale it. It does automatic masking when you do panoramic images (remember Stephen those darn masks in slide mounts...)

You can use ANY file format: JPEG, Tiff, PSD. It accommodates aplha channels and can also play video files as well. The software also accommodates surround sound and with each computer you get an additional number of sound channels...

Image quality is INCREDIBLE. PPT rendering looks like a slide projected through the cheapest lens; Watchout looks like a slide projected with a Navitar Gold lens!

With a proper projector you can easily do a 30ft screen, stand 3 ft in front of the screen and see no pixelization (Top CRT projectors of course).

Anyone attending BTS could come and see us. We are presenting a single screen program at the film festival. Depending on their projectors it should be pretty nice. We showed this program in Chicago last January and the rendition was extraordinary (5000 lumens Christies XGA projectors).

We waited until 2002 until doing away from our 9-projector slide programs because the proper software was not available. Watchout changed everything.

For those wishing to see examples of watchout programs, go to http://www.mesney.com/video_gallery.html

Stephen, next time I see you, let's talk about this incredible technology.

Michel