Nikon has officially announced its new professional DSLR, the Nikon D4. A competitor to the Canon 1Dx (which presumably will hit the market about a month later than the Nikon D4), the biggest change here if compared to Nikon’s old D3 line of cameras are its new video capabilities. However, there are quite a number of new and improved features to drool about:

• Nikon FX-format CMOS sensor with 16.2 effective megapixels
• 91K-pixel RGB sensor for metering, white balance, flash exposure, face detection and active d-lighting
• ISO Range 100-12,800 (50 – 204,800 with boost)
• Multi-area mode Full HD D-Movie 1080p(24/25/30 fps), 720p (up to 60 fps)
• Improved high-speed image-processing engine EXPEED 3
• 51-point AF system with better performance in low-light situations and with smaller apertures (f8)
• Dual card slots for CF card compatible with UDMA 7 and the new XQD memory card (just announced by Sony).
• High-speed continuous shooting at approx. 11 fps in FX format without AE/AF and approx. 10 fps with AE/AF
• Glass pentaprism viewfinder with approx. 100% frame coverage (FX format) and approx. 0.7x magnification
• Approx. 921k-dot, wide-viewing angle, 8-cm (3.2-in.) LCD monitor with reinforced glass
• "Sub-selector" for horizontal shooting and "Multi selector for vertical shooting" joysticks/buttons
• Button illumination for better handling in low-light situations
• Virtual horizon that detects both "pitching" and "rolling" directions.
• New shutter unit tested for 400,000 cycles; shutter speed up to 1/8,000 s and flash synchronization up to 1/250 s
• Build-in Ethernet port allow to hook up to your network
• New optional Wireless Transmitter with a/b/g/n Wi-Fi support
• HTTP mode to remotely control the camera with any Internet enabled device (iPhone/iPad optimized)

Joe McNally has hands-on experience already, visit his blog for more!

The announced price is about U.S. $6000. Now, let's wait what the still unannounced Nikon D800 is going to offer…

Tags: Nikon, D4