wickedpheonix

Where what industry is playing? Most of those rentals are going to be from budget-constrained people, i.e. those who will be shooting their college theses. Anybody who wants the "real thing" is going to stick with the expensive stuff - don't try and sell me on the idea that the next Universal or Warner Brothers film will be shot on a 5DMkII. In fact, in those segments, shooting has already moved to 4k and beyond to prepare for the next generation of release formats, just as soon as consumer technology becomes affordable enough.

The 5DMkII and similar cameras for video work cater to the indy/academic segments and are thus firmly niche products. If Nikon can spend it's resources making a better camera that serves to a larger segment - artists, wedding photographers, sports photographers, hobbyists, photojournalists - ANY kind of photographer, then they've catered to a larger market than Canon has and that is a good business strategy.

If Canon comes out with a 1DsMkIV that has even 2k capture, it's not going to matter when/if the body can only support ISO 1600 cleanly because Canon decided to cram 20 MP into the sensor - no *photographer* would buy it if they had an easy choice between the 1DsMkIV and the D3/S.

This isn't to say that Canon shouldn't make such a camera - there's enough room in Canon's lineup to support a video-focused professional camera as well as a more traditionally focused one. But don't lambast Nikon for not working to put in a feature that a good many of us still consider to be a worthless consumer gimmick.

@boostjunkie

When shooting a wedding professionally, there's two kinds of situations: the formals and the other stuff. For the other stuff, yeah this looks like it would do the job extremely nicely. However, for the formals which have controlled lighting, it makes *much* more sense to take advantage of medium format film, i.e. Portra 160NC, because the prints will be much nicer.

You're missing the point. Unless the machine is purely for movie watching (in which case a 1920x1080 is the only variant I'd take), a 16:10 screen is generally preferable for it's versatility and depending on the application, even a 4:3 screen. Why 4:3? For anyone who uses their machine for work - 4:3, i.e. taking 1280x1024 over a 1400x900 screen, is preferable for use with single documents (i.e. a writer who is writing some hundreds-of-pages long novel, or a programmer - where every last pixel of vertical space helps with putting more lines of code on the screen). 4:3 is also preferable for pure-tablet functionality, since 16:10 makes the screen too long and awkward to hold. 4:3 is more like a piece of 8.5" by 11" paper.

About that functionality, this machine is marketed towards that same executive personnel as the Latitude Z is - the kind that still uses projectors for meetings and presentations. Most of those projectors, at about XGA (1024x768) resolution, still use VGA plugs - so it makes sense for HP to bundle in a HDMI-VGA dongle.

"You actually have to hold the function key to use one of the F1-F12 keys for its original purpose, but that's hardly a loss, since we do a lot more volume adjustment that archaic function commands."

Does Engadget resent users hitting F5, F5, F5 for all the latest news?

that's intentional - inside joke.

Can we get a Das Keyboard for $50? Otherwise I see absolutely no reason to even think about giving up my G15...

And for everyone who decries not having letters on the keys... learn2type. You should be looking at the monitor, not down at your keyboard.

Ever try a trackball?

I laugh at you guys - this stuff is already done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99Ly_yULxxs

It's called Better Place in their collaboration with Renault/Nissan. It's already happening around the world in limited tests right now in Hawaii, California, Denmark, Japan, Australia, and Israel. Google is late to the table (unless they want to acquire Better Place).

Speaking of that keyboard... check out the second vid. If I can see the flex from the vid then I know it's gotta be bad. Looks like they made some sacrifices to get 16" down to under 5 pounds.

Also - if this works then Palm can kick themselves for not actually making the Foleo - because that's basically what the Latitude ON thing makes this, just a Foleo plus a standard laptop (with some cool gizmos added).