From flickr, one lucky lady was not only baked a delicious-looking D700-shaped cake for her birthday… but her husband gave her the camera as well!

Full marks for effort on this one!

At the launch of the Nikon D3x DSLR, Nikon’s professional business manager Chris Hoare said that the company had finally become the number one supplier of digital SLRs, overtaking Canon.

In October 2008, it reached it’s target of becoming the number one DSLR manufacturer by unit volume in the key markets of the UK, Europe, Japan and the USA - a staggering 333% growth since 2004.

In the Pro space, Nikon’s UK market share is currently running at 63%.

[ source ]

The (long overdue) new AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G has now been received by a select few, and all that have seen it are seemingly impressed. Bjørn Rørslett gives the lens 5/5 on both FX and DX cameras:

The barrel distortion, typical for this class of lens, is kept under good control. Field flatness also is better than shown by most fast lenses. Image quality is quite good in fact at f/1.4 although some blue fringing can occur at high-contrast transitions, increases to f/2.8 accompanied by a rise in contrast and reduction of fringing, and really gets into its stride in the range f/4 to f/9 or so.
…
The aperture opening is nicely rounded and the out-of-focus rendition (bokeh) is softer and less harsh than seen with the older 50/1.4 AFD model.

Pre-order at either Adorama or B&H.

Well, we knew it was coming sooner or later, and Nikon USA have leaked a couple of images of the forthcoming D3x.

Visit the Nikon D3x site for more information and the leaked photos.

After a long wait, the GP-1 is starting to appear on retailer’s web sites. No dates for availability yet, but prices seem good - third-party GPS solutions have historically retailed for $300 or more.

• Adorama: $209.95 w/ free shipping
• J&R: $209.99
  

If you’re in the UK (like myself), and therefore can’t take advantage of Nikon USA’s $300 instant rebate, Nikon UK have a consolation for you: Buy a Nikon D700 and get a free copy of Capture NX 2.

You are eligible for this promotion if you have purchased a New Nikon D700 between 01/11/08 and 31/12/08, and must claim it before the end of January 2009.

Yeah, OK - I’d rather have the $300 too, but it’s better than nothing!

If you’ve held off buying a D700 until the price drops, you’re in luck. Nikon have a this-week-only instant point-of-sale rebate in operation, bringing the price down somewhere around an incredible $2500.

Follow the links below to check prices:

Adorama

B&H

Adobe have released version 4.6 of their RAW conversion software, ACR. One of the new cameras that gains official support is the D700 - it was only unofficially supported in the previous version.

In true Adobe fashion, this is also the last ACR release that will support Photoshop CS3. All future versions will require CS4 at a minimum.

Download from here.