CES 2012: A Brief Tour of the Nikon D4

Nikon introduced the D4 last week leading up to the show. It might be out of reach price-wise for many of us, but what's to stop anyone from gazing longingly upon it? We've got a brief visual tour of the D4 with its new 85mm partner for your viewing pleasure.

In case you missed it, the D4 is Nikon's latest and greatest flagship, full-frame DSLR. It introduces a new 16 megapixel FX sensor capable of recording 1080p HD video. Shooting video in any crop mode is now available at a full 1080 resolution, expanding the possibilities of full resolution HD video shooting.

Aesthetically the D4 takes a slight departure from previous D3 series DSLRs. Edges are much more round and smooth, the look and feel has been softened a bit from the hard lines of previous DSLRs. The D4 is as big and heavy as you'd expect, but it rests comfortably in the hand. The model we used briefly last night was coupled to one of the new 85mm f/1.8 portrait lenses.

Some of the back panel controls have been re-arranged, including the addition of two joystick-type controllers for both standard and vertical shooting. The live view switch, located below the 3.0-inch 921k-dot LCD, has two positions: still and video. Each mode remembers settings and does not apply them to the other.

There's a new video start/stop button near the shutter button and a newly designed dual card slot ready to receive Compact Flash and XQD media cards. The D4 has both microphone input and a headphone jack so audio levels can be monitored. We're eager to test out a review unit and - let's face it - take detours by the Nikon booth at CES just to keep playing with it. Stay tuned for more updates here from CES 2012.

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