Why is Nikon not going the FF route (D2X)

[Ron_Scheffler]

Maybe it's a logical continuation of photographic progress. If you look back at the history of photography, there is a consistent trend of making the equipment and imaging format smaller and smaller.

If there is a benefit to Nikon's decision in going with an APS sensor, it's in consistency throughout the camera line-up. It will allow the gradual development of an all DX line of lenses. Sure, older lenses will fit the mount... but it will be the same kind of transition that happened with AI to AIS to AF to AF-D, etc... If some of the preliminary posts about the D2X are accurate, it seems that such a high MP, but small sensor will produce excellent results. And it'll just be a matter of time before Nikon users will give up the FF chase and accept that APS will provide the needed quality. After a while, the FF debate will probably seem like the whinings of a bunch of old timers longing for the good old days. That said, I would be one of those old timers - remembering fondly the look of an 85 1.2 on FF rather than a 50mm cropped to the same field of view. But to everyone raised purely on digital, it will be the norm.

I'm a Canon user, and my curiosity with this debate is more with how Canon will evolve it's digital line-up. Will Canon adopt a similar strategy to Nikon's? Already there are a few EF-S lenses emerging... and with cameras like the digital Rebels, which sell in droves, multiples of hundreds or thousands more than the pro series, how much longer will the FF or 1.3x crop survive? Obviously Canon benefitted from producing a FF camera, but that was pretty much the only option to deliver high MP resolution at that time with existing sensor technology. Now that smaller pixel quality is much better, is there really a need for FF other than the look it offers? I would like to see it stick around a while. If FF sensors are becoming increasingly cheaper to produce, there should be a point in a few years where a FF digital shouldn't cost much more than a F5 or 1V pro body did in their days. But.... there could be financial incentives driving the manufacturers to transition photographers to a new format. For one, entirely new lens systems "opimized" for digital sensors. Consumers entering at the base DSLR level probalby have very little, if anything, invested in lenses, so jumping into a new system wouldn't be an issue. For a manufacturer, it would be more cost effective to maintain one line of lenses, and if that line is increasingly for new APS format cameras, it will force "legacy" users at some point to switch over, especially if all the new "pro" features are introduced for that format.

I'm getting a bit off the original topic, but.... for a company like Canon, that made a killing on mid to higher end digiPS cameras over the past couple years, that market is seeing eroding margins as cameras get cheaper while also improving in quality. That may shift even more focus to developing the DSLR market, now that it is becoming more affordable.... and one way to boost profits is to sell lots of lenses for those new cameras. But one of the reasons so many sold off their SLRs in the PS craze of the mid 90s was due to size & weight - basically lack of convenience. Not a lot of people really like carrying around a bag full of equipment during their vacations. So, I'm sure we'll see that the new DSLRs will be smaller, as will the lenses, etc. Once that takes off I'm sure it will filter up into the pro products.

Lastly, maybe those of us who remain FF diehards will realize that MF digital has been the answer all along. Maybe in a few years we'll see a resurgence of MF digital at reasonable prices that will provide the alternative we seek to the APS sensor future.