Quote Originally Posted by unistudent1962 View Post
....... the only reason I can see Nikon using this sensor in an entry level body is as a "more is better" marketing ploy to appeal/sway/confuse/tempt (use whatever word you think fits) newcomers to digital photography......
This part is a given.

Nikon will always use whatever they believe to be the best sensor available, even in the cheapest class bodies.

What is surprising is that they chose to use this cheaper class D3200, which is clearly in a lower performance/price bracket to the D300/D7000 price/performance range.

Nikon's history has always been to filter he new sensor DOWN through the ranks.

it'll be hard for them to now filter it upwards, as 24Mp camera can be had for cheaper .. and lots cheaper.

D300 replacement is due soon .. is actually well overdue, and the carcass that was once the D300s has been rotting on the Nikon marketing floor for at least a good 2-3years! now....

D800 was a good year late(most certainly due to the disasters in Japan and Thailand), but the D300s is even older than the D700 was .. even tho it was released later, it's still a D300!! .. and hence very old tech now.

Surely they must have changed tack with the D300 replacement, which should have arrived before the D800 did.
They were probably about to announce or release it just as the quake hit Japan, and held back .. and then delayed again due to the Thai floods.

It got so delayed that they probably re engineered it again as the delay could have been a year or more, and with a theoretical 2-2.5 year lifespan .. well, they may as well bring out the next next-gen gear instead!

Dunno? .. either way everyone was expecting the D400 to have this 24Mp sensor.

FWIW: I'm not a big fan of this sensor so far, judging from the sample images seen from the A77 and NEX7 .. Both D7K and 600D/7D still look as good or better! And I reckon the Sigma SD-1 looks better again in many ways too(ie. at lower ISO).

Also, Nikon have been using Sony based sensors for a long time now.
(most pundits believe that the D3/D700 and possibly D4 sensor are made by Sony .. exclusively for Nikon to Nikon's design specs)
Nikon supply a lot of the silicon chip manufacturing technology to Sony .. I'd say it's a kind of two way street kind of relationship .. Nikon knows the tech behind the tech and feels comfy with what Sony is doing, and will be doing in the future.
If Nikon are subtly helping Sony to design and manufacture the underlying technology that is a 'digital camera', then it makes sense that Nikon would use the end product for their own purposes too.