Nikon to announce new lenses Thursday.

Not that I can afford any new lenses at the moment (unless someone wants to be generous and buy me one), rumors have been all but confirmed that Nikon will be announcing at least a pair of new lenses as well as the upgraded D300s body within the week.

As it is, the lens I have been waiting a long long time for Nikon to update is now one of the rumored lenses to be announced this week. That lens is of course the Nikkor 70-200 VRII which will have the following features (from NikonRumors.com):
* Stabilization system VR II
* Nano coating
* New faster Auto Focus
* Weight 1540g (70 grams more than the current model)
* 209mm length (slightly shorter than the current model)
* Minimum Focus Distance: 1.4m (for the current model is 1.5m)
* 77mm filter (same as the current model)

Another lens rumored to be announced this week is an upgrade for the popular all-around 18-200 VRII lens. No real details on what may have been changed or upgrade have been announced yet for this lens. I suspect it may have better control over zoom creep when shooting at midrange zoom levels. (Which is a problem for the current model.)

Of course the D300s specs should be similar to those listed in my previous blog entry a month ago.

Nikon D300S?

Looks like it could be so, sooner than we might know. Either that or someone over at Nikon USA slipped up and put screen shots up of something they shouldn’t have.

Edit: The link has already been removed on the Nikon site. Seems fishy.
(The former link: Nikon USA Website)

Nikon USA - D300S?

It clearly says “D300S” in the upper right hand corner as well as in the lower corner above the SD logo. (It is rumored to have SD and CF card slots for dual media capacity.) Also upon comparison, the histogram screens are quite different than the current D300. It seems to have a zoom function with a pan/scan feature to inspect the image with the live histogram showing the selected regions. This should come in handy for landscape photographers where it may be difficult to judge the exposure of bright areas of a photo while working in daylight. (Now if someone could make it easy to view the screen in bright sun without adding bulk.)

D300S Histogram view?

Here is a link to NikonRumors.com where the rumored D300S specs are discussed. Of course they are all subject to change assuming the camera is even going to be released. NikonRumors.com D300S specs

Hmm… Now how can I get my hands on one of those? If only someone at Nikon loved me. (Edit: If someone at Nikon loved me, they’d send me a D3x and a couple new lenses to play with hint hint nudge nudge.)