It’s All About f/8.0

Today Nikon released a firmware upgrade for the D4 (A:1.02/B:1.02).  This is the third firmware upgrade for the D4, following releases on July 4 and May 29 (2012).  Curiously, the official comment from Nikon on the feature enhancement addressed by the upgrade is:

Focus accuracy when a lens and teleconverter with a combined maximum aperture of f/8 is used has been increased.

That’s it, no bug fixes, no other ‘modifications enabled’, just the f/8.0 thing.

This release seems clearly targeted at the 800mm f/5.6 Nikkor lens that was announced in July.  Back on July 14, I wrote a few lines about about this lens, and pointed out that fitting the 800mm f/5.6 with the 1.4X tele gets you 1120mm at f/8.0, whereas with the 600mm f/4.0,  one could go with the 1.7X tele and get 1020mm at f/6.7, or go with a 2.0X tele and get 1200mm at f/8.0.

There’s that f/8.0 again.

But I don’t wanna shoot at f/8.0…

Find the D4 firmware upgrade at the following URL:

http://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/18061/kw/d4

Copyright 2012 Peter F. Flynn.  No usage permitted without prior written consent. All rights reserved.

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2 Responses to “It’s All About f/8.0”

  1. Nairb says:

    Could this also benefit 600 mm F4 shooting with the 2x tele?

  2. Peter says:

    Yes, definitely. I don’t use the 2x tele much tough, since it not only steals the 2-stops, but also produces images with low contrast.

    P.