What could the D400 have?

[Kebabselector]

Profits are the wrong word- growing business is what I should have said- Nikon's net sales were up 1.8%, while Canon's sales declined by 9.6%. Sony's non-DSLR business declined by 6%, Camcorders by 19% (ouch!) easily outstripping the gains in Alpha sales for the fiscal year ended March 2009.

I see, it's fairly clear that Nikon are world beaters here.

(No doubt Canon/Sony et al will post similar predictions later)

 

[compuwar]

I see, it's fairly clear that Nikon are world beaters here.

(No doubt Canon/Sony et al will post similar predictions later)

Yes, they are- notice that the imaging business is already predicted to have bottomed out (and it grew last year- so that's the worst camera sales growth they expect to see.) Nikon Imaging is their camera business, while Canon's Imaging Division is their stepper business. Also note that for Q1 they've already posted a profit- while Sony's posted a loss of 25.7 Billion Yen for the quarter. Canon's camera sales are down 20% for the quarter. So, in terms of camera sales, yes Nikon actually are world beaters so far, and their predictions are that they'll do more positive growth in that segment.

 

[compuwar]

I realize you're probably referring to what Sony does with it's own camera line and not their chip business, but since (I believe) Sony makes all of Nikon's sensors what they do certainly could definitely impact the decision making at Nikon and pretty much everyone

While Sony does make some Nikon sensors (the D2x and D300/D90 sensors come immediately to mind, it is not clear that they make all of them.

I finally found the article that I saw the other day with interesting conjecture about the D3/D700 sensor:

http://www.chipworks.com/blogs.aspx?id=4626&blogid=86),

The foundry for the Nikon D3 sensor is an interesting sidebar topic. Nikon have announced that they designed the sensor. Nikon has no wafer fabrication capability so they outsource the sensor production, but they are keeping the foundry close to their chests, so close that we must speculate to identify the source.

May08 DSLR Blog 5
Die Markings on the image sensor found in the Nikon D3 DSLR

The obvious choice would be Sony, who build the sensor used in the Nikon D2X, however there are no Sony markings on the device, and the device structure is markedly different from the other Sony CIS we have analyzed. We considered Matsushita/Panasonic the device structure has similarities to the Panasonic CIS we have seen, but it is sufficiently different that we have doubts that it is theirs. Thus we are speculating who else could be the manufacturing source. I believe Nikon would stick with a Japanese foundry. An interesting possibility is Renesas, they have close ties with Nikon, supplying several imager processor chipsets, they have a patent portfolio in image sensors indicating they have active r+d in this field, and they have the fab capabilities. If indeed they are the foundry source for the D3, it makes them an interesting new entrant into the CIS manufacturing world.