New UK Base for Nikon & Spring Product Bonanza

The photo stalwart has kicked off 2020 with a brace of new products – as well as a new UK HQ location. Most notable among the new spring gear is the 24.5 megapixel full frame sensor incorporating D780 DSLR, which features the same AF system as the manufacturer’s mirrorless Z6 camera, plus spring availability and pricing (£6,299 SRP) for its D6 professional DSLR, teased as far back as BPI News Oct 2019.

The full frame D6 is described as suited to every pursuit, ‘from hard news to international sports’. In terms of its allimportant AF performance, there are 105 all selectable cross type sensors with 1.6x higher density coverage than the D5. Burst rates of up to 14fps with full AF/AE or 10.5fps with AE tracking in Silent Photography mode will also please its intended audience.

The more affordable D780 offers burst rates of 7fps if using the viewfinder or 12fps in silent shutter mode when using Live View. It can shoot 4K video too, at up to 29.97fps, with zero crop factor, while low light photography benefits from an ISO range extendable up to ISO 204800 equivalent, or down to ISO50. Throw in a tilting touch screen LCD and it could well tick most of your enthusiast customers’ boxes. Bodyonly SRP is £2,199, or it’s £2,619 if adding an AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR lens.

“Many photographers love DSLR and they’ve been waiting for a model like the D780,” believes Senior Commercial Planning Manager Robert Harmon, who also describes the flagship D6 as “Phenomenal. This DSLR will deliver incredible shots of defining moments, without fail.”

Perhaps your customers want an all-inone option, instead? Also arriving ‘early spring’ is the 16 megapixel Nikon Coolpix 950 (below, left). For an SRP of £799, it offers a whopping 83x optical zoom with a focal length equivalent to 24-2000mm. As well as an f/2.8 maximum aperture, it can shoot 4K video and Raw files. Commercial Planning Manager Gabriela Januario enthuses: “This feature packed update to the P900 keeps the impressive zoom range and adds many of the features people have been asking for, including 4K movies, an improved EVF, Raw support and a hot shoe for accessories.”

Those wanting new mirrorless or DSLR lenses are also in luck this spring. F-mount DSLR users are being targeted with the AF-S Nikkor 120-300mm f/2.8E FL ED SR VR (£9,499 SRP), while ‘Z’ system mirrorless users are directed to the Nikkor Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S (£2,399 SRP). Nikon calls the first lens ‘much anticipated’, noting that photographers who want to shoot at 300mm are no longer tied to a single focal length. The full frame 70- 200mm meanwhile covers ‘all the bases for stills and video’, with fast, smooth and silent focusing. Just as we went to press Nikon also added on the Z 20mm f/1.8 S (£1049) and Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR (£849), due to arrive mid March and Mid April respectively.

Finally, Nikon UK has a new office address. Formerly located on the Richmond Road in North Kingston for the past 35 years, it has decamped to nearby Surbiton. The new location is: Second Floor, 1 The Crescent, Surbiton, KT6 4BN.

www.nikon.co.uk