Nikon D6 Launch Coming in Early 2020 With IBIS and Better Autofocus [Rumor]

Nikon D6 Launch Coming in Early 2020 With IBIS and Better Autofocus [Rumor]

It’s thought that Nikon’s forthcoming flagship camera, the D6, will be announced in early 2020 with a list of prospective specifications now circulating.

According to rumors, prototypes are currently being tested, and the camera would be coming to market sooner if it weren’t for the addition of sensor stabilization. The successor to the widely-respected behemoth that is the D5 is thought to feature dual CFExpress card slots, which could be another move away from the double XQD cards that has been hinted at over the last year. Users will be pleased, as XQD cards will still work, and as well as giving better performance, the new CFExpress cards might be significantly cheaper given that Sony will no longer be taking a cut of sales, according to Nikon Rumors.

Dual processors and built-in Wi-Fi are the other significant additions, if the leaked specifications are to be believed. For the full list, check out Nikon Rumors.

Given that the D4 was announced on January 6, 2012 and the D5 announced on January 6, 2016, Nikon fans might want to put a note in the diaries for January 6, 2020.

What do you think of the specifications and what are your expectations? Leave a comment below.

Andy Day's picture

Andy Day is a British photographer and writer living in France. He began photographing parkour in 2003 and has been doing weird things in the city and elsewhere ever since. He's addicted to climbing and owns a fairly useless dog. He has an MA in Sociology & Photography which often makes him ponder what all of this really means.

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19 Comments

As someone that doesn't work with these high-level bodies, what kind of additional autofocus improvements can come to these? Reviews always seem to praise their accuracy and speed, they have lots of AF points that be be set in all kinds of configurations, and they're tailor-made to focus in all kinds of challenging conditions. Nikon's 3D Tracking in particular is highly praised as well. So what would make users of these bodies even happier in terms of AF?

Better Low light AF and any improvements to AF is always appreciated.

I think that the A9 with its latest update has shown that as good as all of these cameras are, even more improvements are possible across the board. Whether it's speed to lock, subject tracking, low light performance, etc., for professionals working at the highest levels every little bit extra is a welcome improvement because it may mean the difference between a shot that you get and a shot that you miss. For 99% of us, we don't need these bodies nor do we need the next generation, but there is a segment for whom it makes all the difference a bit like how the average car enthusiast doesn't really care about 2lbs here or there, but it'll make a difference to an F1 team.

Ayup. Speaking as a 1DX II guy who just bought an A9 after the 5.0 firmware came out: there is another level to get to. Canon and Nikon still have some advantages (weather sealing, notably), but the most critical ones have fallen to Sony with that new firmware upgrade. I'm hoping the old guard hit back hard. It's a great time to be riding the improving technology.

I almost always used Nikon bodies I find that their AF, although good, needed improvements. For example, when rotating the camera from landscape to portrait, focusing becomes noticeably more difficult. When in low light, focusing is also extremely difficult. I use a D3 and a D750 and both have issues focusing in those instances. I use a colleague's Canons every now and then and I find them way more accurate when focusing, not to mention MUCH quicker.

I used high-end lenses like the 24-70 and 70-200 and lesser quality lenses like the 85mm f/1.8 and the 20mm f/1.8 and the results are the same, the cameras struggle to focus way too many times.

That's not what I have been hearing and reading all over the interwebz. What Canon body are you comparing the D3 and D750 to? These bodies don't have Nikon's best autofocus. The Nikon D5, D500, D850 beat all their Canon counterparts (1Dxii, 7Dii, 5DIV) in autofocus according to most reviews. The Canon bodies may be faster to lock focus but they're easily fooled when your subject is in a busy background and the keeper rate is not as good as the latest Nikon bodies and especially Sony A9. Well, that's what lots of sports and wildlife shooters on fredmiranda are saying, dpreview too =) Canon of course wins in liveview focusing but you don't use liveview in shooting fast movement.

Comparing the D3 and the D750 to 5d Mark II and Mark III. The Mark II is the same generation as the D3 and yet I find it to have a better AF. Again, my experience.

The Nikon D750 has 15 Cross Type focus points, the Canon Mark III has 45 Cross Type focus points. When shooting weddings and especially children the Canon reacted much faster and had better shots in focus.

Some will experience different results but this was my experience.

That's strange. The Canon 5dII is widely known to have one of the worst autofocus in any camera because of its inconsistency in focusing. You think you got the shot but when you check the image, its out of focus. It was fixed on the 5dIII.

Much better tracking while shooting at high frame rates. Tracking on the mid-tier bodies is not bad as long as you only try to get occasional frames and don't shoot a whole sequence. I've just moved to a D4 for sports (after shooting with my 5DIII for a season).

How about built-in SSD? That would be great

XQD (and CFexpress, probably) are highly reliable in terms of durability and speed. Also, if the built in storage has issues, you have a camera that needs to be opened up instead of replacing a card.

How about flip out keyboard and screen with 1tb SSD, 5g connect, and mouse tucked into the large grip. This would allow you to type your captions and browse ebay as your photos upload to the client.

It has less to do with reliability and more with huge storage size, fast reading, and quick photo transferring (either WiFi or cable). SSD can be built the same way a card is inserted so if there is a problem it's a quick pull out. A spare slot can be used for extra cards as backup.

Specs?
Rumours. But hardly need to be a clairvoyant to know it’ll be better all round than the predecessor..
NR is a fun place to read with all their ‘sources’ and heated discussions By couch-based camera developers.

Where is the pro body mirrorless version ? I know Canon is out with new “holy grail” of “L” lens so, I’m assuming the pro level is coming soon ? I’ve invested heavily in dslr and converting to mirrorless is like going to another brand, another set of lens, a rather large financial loss. Guess I’ll be using dslrs for a few more years until mirrorless gets better(dual cards, focus issues with high aperture...)

Mark Mark
You totally missed my point. Please re-read.

1- the ability to doodle on the image dublicate, it is very important and useful to script small note like names nd phone numbers or any key words helps in story making later on.

2- a special programing for video shooting that helps in focus and enhance it ; this can come in different ways
A- ticking an object in the screen and the camera can memorize it so it locks the focus to it when the things change in the frame
B- defining two distances on the lense and define a time tag, so the camera pull the focus between thos two points or distances in that specific time. This helps when staged scene or acting in focus pulling with less need for gadget and crew.
C- the ability to link the lens response with the liniar touch on the screen. Like in guitar jaming ,so we can creat focus coridore easy way by draging our finger across the screen
3- all the bottons are illuminated for night shooting ,this could be in nee cameras? In my D810 not .
4-a software that allow the camera memorize the focus point and state in the image shot, and link it to the image stored, so the camera can define if the image in that focus point is sharp or not. And if can automatically caliprate for the lense.

Thank you

I have a D4 and love it. Only 45k on the shutter, my bad boy is still practically new. I will not be changing anytime soon. Eve in 2019 the RAW files still look awesome. People banging on about the AF in mirrorless, well I have no issue getting 100% of my photos on focus with a '2012' camera. Called skills folks.

I cant wait for the release of the Nikon D6. The features look to die for.