What's so special about the D4 chip sensor?

9 years 3 months ago #422559 by Jim Capozzi
I had read some time ago another photographers post talking about how great the D4 chip sensor was.  Can someone expound a little on why this is so?  Personally I baffled why Nikon went with 16.2 mp sensor in the camera when others were much larger.  


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9 years 3 months ago #422598 by effron
Sensor size isn't as important to some, frame speed and IQ might be......;)

Why so serious?
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9 years 3 months ago #422649 by garyrhook

Jim Capozzi wrote: I had read some time ago another photographers post talking about how great the D4 chip sensor was.  Can someone expound a little on why this is so?  Personally I baffled why Nikon went with 16.2 mp sensor in the camera when others were much larger.  


Product design involves every aspect. Not just a single number. In the case of the D4, you want a full-frame sensor that has good electrical characteristics (which impacts noise, which gets worse at higher ISO values) and you want to balance the pixel density against memory speeds, memory buffer sizes and frame rates. Larger sensors create more data that takes longer to move to the card and must be buffered in the meantime. The memory buffer costs money, and that camera shoots at 11 frames per second, RAW, if I recall correctly. All of these factors have to be balanced and the target consumer has to be considered. Action and sports photographers being chief among them, I think.

I know that if I were outside in reasonably good light, I wouldn't need high ISO and could get properly exposed shots at tight apertures. (I currently shoot a 16MP camera and) this would be just fine.

For me, however, the features on that camera don't justify that price point. I'm still not sure what the deal is.


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