 This is David with The Verge. We've traveled here to Cologne, Germany for Photokina 2012. It's the biggest and premier photography trade show in the world. We've seen cameras of all shapes and sizes, but though the megapixel war in cameras may be over, it looks like the sensor size war is just heating up. A full frame sensor is the same equivalent size as 35 millimeter film. What that does is it enables a person to get the very best experience from their lens, so there's no crop factor, no multiplication factor. So a 10 millimeter lens at the wide angle is 10 millimeters rather than maybe 16 if it has a 1.6 multiplication factor. Full frame is of course the Leica format because it was invented by the inventor of the first Leica, Oskar Barnack, 24 by 36 millimeters. And it's still very attractive because you have very low depth of field the larger the sensor is and especially with Leica lenses that all have a very large aperture, that's the application and the style of images that makes the system so popular. So full frame sensors have actually been around for a while, but they've always been in big, heavy, expensive cameras that are designed exclusively to be used by professionals. But what we're seeing this year at Photokina is full frame sensors coming to the masses, to everyday people. The full frame sensors in our high-end DSLRs, the D4, the D800, the D800E, and then making the full frame available for the D600, it will attract much more people. It's a bit of a natural evolution with technological developments. There's greater understanding in the manufacturing and the technologies involved, so also quantities produced can have an impact on price. Canon and Nikon both announced DSLRs that are lighter and smaller than a lot of their products before and also more affordable. They're about $2,000 each and they each have full frame sensors. But the companies really bending the laws of physics this time are Sony and Leica. Leica announced a new M rangefinder with a body barely larger than a mirrorless camera and a full frame sensor. And Sony's new Cybershot RX1 might as well be a point and shoot, but it's still got that same enormous sensor in it. Sensor size does really matter and I think it's a key success of the M9 because it was full frame. And as we can see on competitors, they all now go for full frame. I personally don't believe we need a full frame camera. I've worked on camera architectures from large format, medium format down for 20 years. And given that, if the camera system is designed and optimized for whatever sensor size it is, you can get image quality that's better than just basically scaling up and throwing more surface area to sensor. And we have now a lot of enthusiasts who are now at the level, for example, a D7000, which is a great imaging device, but they want to step up. They want to make even better pictures. They want to have a device that has even better image quality. And the Nikon D600 will make this available for everyone. So a highly affordable full frame DSLR making great images. It has the features that are coming down from the D800 and D4 are professional, very high end DSLRs. So this is now going to be a request of the market. So we are fulfilling this huge demand. So now the question becomes, how far can camera manufacturers take it? I would expect that over the course of a period of time that those kinds of sensors filter down into lower priced cameras. I don't know for sure what the future of the DSLR will bring. I think that this is a very nice opening for the whole market. The enthusiasts who need great image quality in a very compact lightweight body. You have to have a certain distance between the sensor and the lens in order to make the proposition work as a whole. So there will be a certain challenging aspect when it comes to the size of the camera. When you actually want to have a full frame proposition in an compact system camera. But this is something, you know, we like challenge and we always look at consumer needs. So we will definitely keep people's interest.
 This is David with The Verge.
 We've traveled here to Cologne, Germany for Photokina 2012.
 It's the biggest and premier photography trade show in the world.
 We've seen cameras of all shapes and sizes, but though the megapixel war in cameras may
 be over, it looks like the sensor size war is just heating up.
 A full frame sensor is the same equivalent size as 35 millimeter film.
 What that does is it enables a person to get the very best experience from their lens,
 so there's no crop factor, no multiplication factor.
 So a 10 millimeter lens at the wide angle is 10 millimeters rather than maybe 16 if
 it has a 1.6 multiplication factor.
 Full frame is of course the Leica format because it was invented by the inventor of the first
 Leica, Oskar Barnack, 24 by 36 millimeters.
 And it's still very attractive because you have very low depth of field the larger the
 sensor is and especially with Leica lenses that all have a very large aperture, that's
 the application and the style of images that makes the system so popular.
 So full frame sensors have actually been around for a while, but they've always been in big,
 heavy, expensive cameras that are designed exclusively to be used by professionals.
 But what we're seeing this year at Photokina is full frame sensors coming to the masses,
 to everyday people.
 The full frame sensors in our high-end DSLRs, the D4, the D800, the D800E, and then making
 the full frame available for the D600, it will attract much more people.
 It's a bit of a natural evolution with technological developments.
 There's greater understanding in the manufacturing and the technologies involved, so also quantities
 produced can have an impact on price.
 Canon and Nikon both announced DSLRs that are lighter and smaller than a lot of their
 products before and also more affordable.
 They're about $2,000 each and they each have full frame sensors.
 But the companies really bending the laws of physics this time are Sony and Leica.
 Leica announced a new M rangefinder with a body barely larger than a mirrorless camera
 and a full frame sensor.
 And Sony's new Cybershot RX1 might as well be a point and shoot, but it's still got that
 same enormous sensor in it.
 Sensor size does really matter and I think it's a key success of the M9 because it was
 full frame.
 And as we can see on competitors, they all now go for full frame.
 I personally don't believe we need a full frame camera.
 I've worked on camera architectures from large format, medium format down for 20 years.
 And given that, if the camera system is designed and optimized for whatever sensor size it
 is, you can get image quality that's better than just basically scaling up and throwing
 more surface area to sensor.
 And we have now a lot of enthusiasts who are now at the level, for example, a D7000, which
 is a great imaging device, but they want to step up.
 They want to make even better pictures.
 They want to have a device that has even better image quality.
 And the Nikon D600 will make this available for everyone.
 So a highly affordable full frame DSLR making great images.
 It has the features that are coming down from the D800 and D4 are professional, very high
 end DSLRs.
 So this is now going to be a request of the market.
 So we are fulfilling this huge demand.
 So now the question becomes, how far can camera manufacturers take it?
 I would expect that over the course of a period of time that those kinds of sensors filter
 down into lower priced cameras.
 I don't know for sure what the future of the DSLR will bring.
 I think that this is a very nice opening for the whole market.
 The enthusiasts who need great image quality in a very compact lightweight body.
 You have to have a certain distance between the sensor and the lens in order to make the
 proposition work as a whole.
 So there will be a certain challenging aspect when it comes to the size of the camera.
 When you actually want to have a full frame proposition in an compact system camera.
 But this is something, you know, we like challenge and we always look at consumer needs.
 So we will definitely keep people's interest.