Nikon Mirrorless Camera with Interchangeable Lenses: March of 2011?

Yet another rumor about the Nikon response to Olympus/Panasonic micro-four-thirds cameras:

DSLR Magazine

translated into English:
Google Translate

Basically, it says Nikon will introduce a new camera system (multiple bodies, multiple lenses) in March of 2011. The new system will be smaller than existing Nikon SLRs, but be more "professional" than micro-four-thirds or NEX cameras. If Nikon uses their old A-style rangefinder lens mount, there might be a way to use Nikonos lenses with this camera. It would also be really nice if Nikon made an adapter to use the R-UW lenses for the SLR-Nikonos, but that's probably too much to ask.

Nikonrumors.com also has rumors about interchangeable sensors (a la Samsung NX), curved image sensors, multi-sensor cameras, cameras where the sensor can rotate 90 degrees from portrait to landscape while the camera body stays still, lenses that can be zoomed either manually or electrically, and other weird stuff. The electrically zoomed lenses could be interesting for underwater, eliminating the need for zoom gears.

The R-UW lenses are ALMOST an F mount on the inner bayonet which
positions the optics. If you grind a bit off an F mount you get the R-UW
inner bayonet. I think one of the RS's design flaws is that the inner mount
wasn't a vanilla F mount, and the outer bayonet (which positions the port)
a bit bigger so it could mount F lenses for surface shooting.

I'll bet Nikon uses the F mount. It would have an instant array of glass.

It's fun but risky to speculate about this. We won't know for sure until release. But here I go.

This market expects a smaller body and lens. I don't think they will use the standard Nikon F mount this time, because getting rid of the mirror is one key to making the body a lot smaller. They will probably have no mirror and shorten the registration distance to make the system more compact. They may have an adapter like the Olympus MF-1 to allow mounting F mount lenses though.
Olympus MF-1 OM Adapter 260231 B&H Photo Video
I suspect they will keep the sensor size the same. It saves development time and money. But I do hope they release soon, or risk really falling behind the market.

As an aside, consider what Nikon did the last time they shrunk the SLR. During the film era in about 1997-2000, Nikon made a smaller SLR family called the Pronea line. It had a mirror, but the mirror was smaller due to the smaller APS frame size. See:
Nikon Pronea S

Pronea is long gone now, but the APS film size became the standard DX sensor size for Nikon and the lens mount was the standard Nikon autofocus F mount, but with some extra plastic to make the IX Nikkor lenses not fit on standard Nikon film bodies. Some IX zooms would hit the mirror of a standard film body. Standard Nikon AF lenses did fit the APS bodies -- you could even mount the 18-200mm DX lens, but it drained the battery too fast for practical use. The electrical interface was the same. For fun, I have converted a few IX lenses by cutting off the interfering bumps and they do work on all Nikon bodies, although they sometimes hit the mirror (the 60-180, for instance). The lenses were tiny, all plastic, but petty good optically. I still use them from time to time as a stunt.

But this early example shows how Nikon leveraged a lot from their standard F mount cameras to gen up a smaller camera family. Will history repeat?

Nikon did produce a small SLR back in the late 70s called the EM, I seem to recall there were special lenses made for this system, but it ceased production almost as soon as it started for some reason.

Searcaigh:

Nikon did produce a small SLR back in the late 70s called the EM, I seem to recall there were special lenses made for this system, but it ceased production almost as soon as it started for some reason.

Click to expand...

Nikon actually first made a name with rangefinder cameras in the 1950s, most using the Nikon "S" bayonet mount (instead of the F-mount for Nikon SLR cameras). Some of those cameras had huge production runs. Rangefinder lenses and mirrorless camera lenses have a lot in common, since both are moutned much closer to the focal plane than SLR lenses.

I've also noticed that the Nikon 35mm f/1.8 lens is backordered at a lot of websites, which makes me think Nikon is making some other lenses on that production line, possibly lenses for the new mirrorless camera. That's pure speculation, but I enjoy pure speculation about cool new photography toys.

I have a Nikon EM in a drawer somewhere. It did not take special
lenses. Nikon did come out with the E series lenses about that
time, but they were just a cost-reduce (plastic lens bodies, etc)
and the mount was compatible with the more expensive lenses.
Some of the E lenses were quite good optically, most notably
the 50mm f/1.8.

The EM was about $100 in about 1979.

Internally, the EM and the Nikonos IVa were very similar. No
shutter speeds to speak of. Aperture priority only.

The EM lasted a year or two, and then got replaced by the FG, which
did have shutter speeds and was internally similar to the Nikonos V.

Searcaigh:

Nikon did produce a small SLR back in the late 70s called the EM, I seem to recall there were special lenses made for this system, but it ceased production almost as soon as it started for some reason.

Click to expand...

Hmm... No, they were standard F mount manual focus lenses with cheaper materials and most were optically excellent even today. Because they were made cheaper than the typical Nikkor lenses of the era, some considered them heresy, but a few are still sought after. From about 1979-85, just before autofocus came to Nikon.

The EM and FG small sized bodies were Nikon's answer to the small Canon AE-1 and Olympus' OM1 family. They were made with a lot of plastic, new for Nikon, and built by Cosina for Nikon. They had low reliability, and were not very popular with serious Nikon shooters, but they were aimed at first time buyers who cared more about price and size.

The E series lens family for them were quite competent optically, but again had more plastic than the Nikkor lenses of the era (although they were better built than most lenses of today).

The Nikon E series 75-150mm zoom was outstanding and still is well regarded as a cult classic. The 35mm E series is preferred for infrared photos because it has few elements and the skimpy front coating is easily rubbed off (pro IR lenses cost $4000+ and use fluorite glass elements).

slowhands:

Hmm... No, they were standard F mount manual focus lenses with cheaper materials and most were optically excellent even today. Because they were made cheaper than the typical Nikkor lenses of the era, some considered them heresy, but a few are still sought after. From about 1979-85, just before autofocus came to Nikon.

The EM and FG small sized bodies were Nikon's answer to the small Canon AE-1 and Olympus' OM1 family. They were made with a lot of plastic, new for Nikon, and built by Cosina for Nikon. They had low reliability, and were not very popular with serious Nikon shooters, but they were aimed at first time buyers who cared more about price and size.

The E series lens family for them were quite competent optically, but again had more plastic than the Nikkor lenses of the era (although they were better built than most lenses of today).

The Nikon E series 75-150mm zoom was outstanding and still is well regarded as a cult classic. The 35mm E series is preferred for infrared photos because it has few elements and the skimpy front coating is easily rubbed off (pro IR lenses cost $4000+ and use fluorite glass elements).

Click to expand...

The Nikon Em was my first 35mm camera when I was 14 years old. It had it's own series of lenses called the "E" series, I believe.

So the EM lenses were basically plastic F lenses then.

I had completely forgot about rangefinder cameras, somewhere in my camera gear I have a rangefinder device that I used to use with an old Zeiss Ikon camera.

Searcaigh:

So the EM lenses were basically plastic F lenses then.

Click to expand...

F lenses with plastic barrels. The optical elements were glass, and
and the bayonet was metal. Parts of the barrel were metal, at
least on the 50 f/1.8 that's serving as a body cap on one of my
N90s bodies.

Chuck