Nikon
Nikon’s full-frame D810 DSLR already comes in a few different flavors. There’s the standard D810, and there’s the D810E, which is the same camera without an optical low-pass filter.
Now there’s a third model in the D810 lineup, and it’s a space camera.
The new Nikon D810A has an “A” tacked onto its name for “astrophotography”—that means it’s made for taking pictures of stars and planets, not for taking photos of Jose Altuve. The camera has an optical IR-cut filter that lets in all the light captured by a regular camera, plus the red H-alpha-wavelength light emitted by many of your favorite nebulae and galaxies. It’s optimized for that narrow band of light (656 nm) and visible light, but it doesn’t let in infrared light (700nm and up).
To be clear, this is a camera built for space photography and space photography only. As Nikon explains in its press release, if you were to use the D810A in normal daylight conditions, images would come out with a red cast.
There are a few features that lend themselves well to astrophotography. For one, the 36.3-megapixel full-frame sensor—space photos often require a lot of cropping, and the extra resolution helps keep things sharp. There’s also a super-long exposure mode leaves the shutter open for 15 minutes, as well as a special live-view preview for those long-exposure long-distance shots.
The rest of the D810A’s core specs are similar to the other D810 cameras, including 1080p video capture at 24/30/60fps with manual controls.
The D810A will be available in late May, and while there’s no pricing information for this specialized full-frame DSLR, it’s sure to push $4,000. It’s the only full-frame DSLR built with astrophotography in mind, but there are several H-Alpha filters available for other DSLRs. Most of them appear to be optimized for CCD-sensored cameras—and there haven’t been many of those available in the past five years.
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