It's expected to be announced at CES (second week of January).
The release date in Europe/Asia has been delayed a week and is now December 15th. I guess it will be available towards the middle to end of January in the US, although that may depend on how quickly they can ramp up production to meet demand in Europe/Asia.
As I'm sure you're aware, buying a DSLR in the first three or so months of release means you'll be paying top dollar.
There was a rumour it was going to be released in Canada around now, but it's not appearing on any of the big Canadian seller's sites yet.
@abirkill Alex. What about buying good full-frame lenses, and using them in the interim on APS-C cameras? Probably some tie since you have used a cropped sensor camera I know.
One would have to guess on where the crop sets in, of course, but would you believe that is easy and consistent to do? i am sure that if I stick with this photography stuff, I want to go with Full Frame stuf eventually, but perhaps save a buck and not investing heavily in DX (Nikon speak) Lenses, especially the primes.
I do like my D5100 a lot. The image processor works overtime and the whole package is neat, so if I can repair my sick camera, I am more than pleased to be able to sit with it for a significant timee.
Thanks again for telling us newbies what is what. Appreciate you taking the time to educate us.
@frankhymus I actually only went full-frame about 6 weeks ago!
The problem with using full-frame lenses on crop-frame cameras (other than the increased cost and weight compared to lenses designed for a cropped sensor camera) is that the focal lengths sometimes don't work well together.
I guess to explain this I'd look at the three main focal length zooms, telephoto, walkabout and super-wide. Most people end up with at least two out of these three types.
For telephoto lenses, yes, buying full-frame compatible lenses if you plan to upgrade to full-frame in the future is a sensible investment. The typical 70-200 or 70-300mm lens is a useful telephoto lens on both types of camera. You will, of course, lose reach when you upgrade to full-frame (because your 300mm lens was behaving as a 450mm lens on your crop camera), but the higher resolution and lower noise levels of a full-frame camera counter this to some degree. If it's really a problem you could always get a teleconverter to increase the magnification.
Walkabout lenses are where the problems start. I find a good walkabout lens on a crop-frame camera starts at around 17-18mm and goes up to 60-90mm. This is a nice range that goes reasonably wide and has a 3-5x zoom range. The trouble is, there are almost no lenses in this range that are compatible with full-frame. You are either looking at a super-wide full-frame lens, like a 16-35mm or 17-40mm, which gives you an acceptably wide end on a crop camera but rapidly runs out of zoom (and rarely come with image stabilisation, a big plus on a walkabout lens), or you're looking at a full-frame walkabout lens like a 24-70, 24-105 or 28-135mm lens, which has the telephoto end but doesn't go wide enough. (I used a full frame 28-135mm lens on a crop-frame camera for over a year and I could not have been happier to get rid of it, it was *never* wide enough -- my single worst camera purchase).
For super-wide lenses, you need a focal range of around 10mm-20mm or thereabouts on a crop-frame camera. This simply doesn't exist on a full-frame camera, even the very widest lenses only go to 14mm. (Sigma used to make a rectilinear 12-24mm full-frame lens which gave some incredible perspectives on full-frame, but was somewhat lacking in image quality).
Prime-wise, you have more flexibility, but you still have to make compromises -- an 85mm prime is an excellent portrait lens on a full-frame camera but not so good on a crop-frame camera. A 28mm prime is decently wide on a full-frame, but not on a crop-frame camera.
With Nikon, you do have an advantage over us Canon users in that you can mount a DX Nikon lens onto a full-frame body and enable DX crop mode (Canon EF-S lenses physically won't fit a full-frame camera). However, it's not really advisable -- you end up with a tiny viewfinder window, and the resultant images are low resolution (DX crop mode on a D600 only gives you 10.2 megapixels).
If you can find lenses with focal lengths that are useful for you when both mounted to a crop-frame and full-frame camera, then by all means buy a full-frame version if you are planning to upgrade soon. But I'd avoid buying a lens you think might be great in the future but that's going to annoy you at the moment. Remember that a decent lens, crop-frame or full-frame, will hold a lot of value on the second-hand market -- I sold my 5 year old heavily-used Sigma 10-20mm for $325 this week, when a new one from B&H is currently $429. So if in doubt, buy the lens you want for the camera you have today, and sell it when you upgrade in the future.
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The release date in Europe/Asia has been delayed a week and is now December 15th. I guess it will be available towards the middle to end of January in the US, although that may depend on how quickly they can ramp up production to meet demand in Europe/Asia.
As I'm sure you're aware, buying a DSLR in the first three or so months of release means you'll be paying top dollar.
There was a rumour it was going to be released in Canada around now, but it's not appearing on any of the big Canadian seller's sites yet.
One would have to guess on where the crop sets in, of course, but would you believe that is easy and consistent to do? i am sure that if I stick with this photography stuff, I want to go with Full Frame stuf eventually, but perhaps save a buck and not investing heavily in DX (Nikon speak) Lenses, especially the primes.
I do like my D5100 a lot. The image processor works overtime and the whole package is neat, so if I can repair my sick camera, I am more than pleased to be able to sit with it for a significant timee.
Thanks again for telling us newbies what is what. Appreciate you taking the time to educate us.
The problem with using full-frame lenses on crop-frame cameras (other than the increased cost and weight compared to lenses designed for a cropped sensor camera) is that the focal lengths sometimes don't work well together.
I guess to explain this I'd look at the three main focal length zooms, telephoto, walkabout and super-wide. Most people end up with at least two out of these three types.
For telephoto lenses, yes, buying full-frame compatible lenses if you plan to upgrade to full-frame in the future is a sensible investment. The typical 70-200 or 70-300mm lens is a useful telephoto lens on both types of camera. You will, of course, lose reach when you upgrade to full-frame (because your 300mm lens was behaving as a 450mm lens on your crop camera), but the higher resolution and lower noise levels of a full-frame camera counter this to some degree. If it's really a problem you could always get a teleconverter to increase the magnification.
Walkabout lenses are where the problems start. I find a good walkabout lens on a crop-frame camera starts at around 17-18mm and goes up to 60-90mm. This is a nice range that goes reasonably wide and has a 3-5x zoom range. The trouble is, there are almost no lenses in this range that are compatible with full-frame. You are either looking at a super-wide full-frame lens, like a 16-35mm or 17-40mm, which gives you an acceptably wide end on a crop camera but rapidly runs out of zoom (and rarely come with image stabilisation, a big plus on a walkabout lens), or you're looking at a full-frame walkabout lens like a 24-70, 24-105 or 28-135mm lens, which has the telephoto end but doesn't go wide enough. (I used a full frame 28-135mm lens on a crop-frame camera for over a year and I could not have been happier to get rid of it, it was *never* wide enough -- my single worst camera purchase).
For super-wide lenses, you need a focal range of around 10mm-20mm or thereabouts on a crop-frame camera. This simply doesn't exist on a full-frame camera, even the very widest lenses only go to 14mm. (Sigma used to make a rectilinear 12-24mm full-frame lens which gave some incredible perspectives on full-frame, but was somewhat lacking in image quality).
Prime-wise, you have more flexibility, but you still have to make compromises -- an 85mm prime is an excellent portrait lens on a full-frame camera but not so good on a crop-frame camera. A 28mm prime is decently wide on a full-frame, but not on a crop-frame camera.
With Nikon, you do have an advantage over us Canon users in that you can mount a DX Nikon lens onto a full-frame body and enable DX crop mode (Canon EF-S lenses physically won't fit a full-frame camera). However, it's not really advisable -- you end up with a tiny viewfinder window, and the resultant images are low resolution (DX crop mode on a D600 only gives you 10.2 megapixels).
If you can find lenses with focal lengths that are useful for you when both mounted to a crop-frame and full-frame camera, then by all means buy a full-frame version if you are planning to upgrade soon. But I'd avoid buying a lens you think might be great in the future but that's going to annoy you at the moment. Remember that a decent lens, crop-frame or full-frame, will hold a lot of value on the second-hand market -- I sold my 5 year old heavily-used Sigma 10-20mm for $325 this week, when a new one from B&H is currently $429. So if in doubt, buy the lens you want for the camera you have today, and sell it when you upgrade in the future.