Nikon unveils its new D4 pro DSLR camera

— -- Nikon has finally unveiled its answer for the Canon 1D X — the Nikon D4, the company's latest professional DSLR.

The D4 will be aimed squarely at news, sports, and action photographers, firing at 10 full resolution frames per second with its Nikon-developed 16.2-megapixel FX sensor.

Nikon calls the D4 its "new flagship," as it will likely replace the current 12.3-megapixel D3s as the go-to for sports and action photography, with the D3x remaining as the high-resolution option for studio shooters.

The combination of high ISO performance, full-frame sensor, and fast shot-to-shot speed should make the D4 a speed demon for many professional and prosumer customers willing to pony up its $6,000 price tag (body-only).

The D4 will also offer a familiar pentaprism viewfinder with 100% coverage, but it will have a few new tricks up its sleeve. For instance, the camera will be able to detect and properly expose up to 16 faces, according to Nikon, even when shooting through the optical viewfinder.

For memory the D4 will feature dual card slots, including compatibility with both UDMA-7 CF and the new XQD format of cards, which will allow for much faster data management both while shooting and in post production. Users can elect to shoot stills in JPEG, .NEF RAW files, or a more compressed RAW file that will still allow for post production freedom.

The camera will also include 1080/30p video recording with H.264 compression with the option to use B-frame encoding. The result should be an option for slightly smaller file sizes than seen with Canon's video compression algorithms, but disappointingly for some workflows Nikon will only allow for up to 20 minutes per clip.

Professional video shooters can assuage their agony over the 20 minute limit by taking into account that the D4 will also offer full, uncompressed, clean HD output via HDMI with simultaneous live view shooting. This signal can be used on an external LCD or recorded directly as such, with options for controlling shutter speed, aperture, and ISO all while recording.

The D4 is expected to begin shipping at the end of February. Nikon will be displaying the camera at next week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

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