Nikon's "BIG" Announcement

Photography Bay is reporting of a few upcoming Nikon announcements, including a "BIG" one. What's not clear is what is being announced when. There is a rumor of an October 22nd announcement, in Copenhagen Denmark, of all places. Forgive me, but I'm not clear what photo-centric event is taking place on that date in Denmark. I am clear that that date is the press preview night for PDN's PhotoPlus Expo in New York City.

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I had to do a re-read because I thought that the "BIG" announcement graphic was for October 22nd, but, in fact, it's not. It's for WPPI's conference in Las Vegas. In fact, Nikon is - if the invite is genuine - renting out the entire MGM Arena, which has hosted many a boxing title fight. I was there on assignment covering the historic Tyson-Holyfield fight where some inappropriate noshing took place. So, perhaps Nikon was inspired by this photo we made last year when the D3 was put head to head in a battle Royale (Nikon - a first look, 12/8/07):


Curious, no?

Anyway, it looks likely we'll wait for the "main event" in February. Now if only I can get myself a ringside seat for this showdown.


If what is past is prologue, Nikon's D3x will be a 20MP+ monster. Or, maybe not. We shall see.

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TRADE WHISPERS: GYI ÷ GOOG <0

If it's to be believed, there are rumors swirling around the internet that Google (GOOG) is going to launch their own stock photo service in the immediate future, and not one that includes the aquisition of GYI, but will instead become a competitor (albeit on the low end) to them.

I posed the following questions to Google's press office:

1) Is Google launching a service whereby individuals or companies can obtain permission (either for a fee, or for free) to use/license images?

2) Will these images appear among the images.google.com search results with an icon on or next to them indicating the images are available for licensing?

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3) Does Google have a platform to deliver and handle these licenses, or is there an acquisition plan for one already in existence?

4) What is the pricing structure or pricing model that Google will utilize to assign a value to these images? Will the pricing model be "pay per pixel", or some variation thereof?

5) Will Google checkout be the preferred/only method of payment for these images, or will you be able to barter images you earn revenue/points from, to acquire other images from other people using your barter points instead of having to actually expend dollars?

Google' response? A Google Spokesperson simply said "we don't comment on market rumor or speculation."

Yet, the rumors persist. A Google version of "Flickr Pro"? Flickr caught flack when they it was rumored they might try to monetize their image pool. So, perhaps it gets done out of the gate this time by Google?

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