A Rant About the D3X

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Mike  (Thanks to Clayton Lofgren)

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ADDENDUM: This clip, from the 2004 movie "Der Untergang" (Downfall), featuring Bruno Ganz as Hitler, has been common fodder for satire on the 'net, having been used for a number of of similar satires previously; I've seen at least two others.

This one was written by Sam Vert, a D3 shooter who spent several hours over the course of several days writing it. Oh, and my apologies to anyone who might take offense at this. It's only meant to spoof of the pricing of the new Nikon D3X. —MJ

Featured Comment by Bahi: "Is there an Oscar for YouTube parodies? I've seen a few of the spoofs based on this clip but this one knocks the spots off the rest. Haven't laughed so much in ages, let along watched one of these things twice over. The scriptwriter has a genius touch and obviously knows the photo forums pretty well. Hilarious and beautifully done. Thanks."

Comments

[Kenny G. Villacorta]

That's a awesome review. 2 thumbs up. I installed Nikon Capture NX, and within the hour it was uninstalled.

[Blp]

55 million dead in WW2, remember? It´s not funny at all, rather disgusting to use one of the darkest chapters in human history as "D3X rant".

[Victor Liew]

You are one sick guy... keep it up!!

[John Igel]

Too funny! "There there. I hear he only he only shoots JPG"! ROFL!

[Stephen Scharf]

This video is a popular one for creating rants...it first shot to YouTube prominence when AH went postal about the fact that his prized Honda VFR motorcycle had been crashed and was replaced by the High Command with a BMW motorcycle (which he referred to as a "tractor"): "I want a single-sided swingarm, and gear-driven cams!!!"

Even the German High Command knew what a great bike the VFR is...(one's in my garage, BTW).

[K.Harrington]

Priceless!

[Matthew Allen]

Love it.

Matthew

[Chris Klug]

Okay, so besides the underlying truth vis-a-vis the disturbing nature of the technology race and film, this was a brilliant piece of writing. Made me laugh out loud. So funny, do true,

[fotomik]

OH good heavens I fell off my chair!
Ridiculously funny!
"And the lenses!"... wow. Pure genius.

[K.Harrington]

I run capture NX2 on a laptop with 1.5 gig of ram. Install "Microsoft Visual c++2005 Redistributable Package (x86)" first, then "Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1" - it runs flawlessly. Fantastic for NEF editing.

[RJ]

I love it. It is so funny

[Glenn]

Personally I am getting sick and tired of this ridiculous furore over the pricing of the D3x.
It is comparable in price to the Canon 1DS Mk III (which, dare I say it, has 'only' 21 Mp versus 24 Mp on the D3x)

As such, and them both being Pro cameras, I fail to see what the complainers are moaning about.
The whole thing is ridiculous.

[Player]

Mike,

I just broke my ban to "THANKYOU" for that! I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. I'm still laughing!

"Maybe . . . maybe I can just upsample in the meantime." LOL.

Thanks again! :)

[David]

Who knew? Hitler was into photography...passionate bastard too.

[Ctein]

GUFFAW!!!

By operating on several levels, this film does a brilliant job of skewering all the fanatical brand partisans.

Thanks for making my Sunday.

pax / dye-stained Ctein

[Cymen]

If by ridiculous you mean, "ridiculously funny!"

The Honda VFR versus BMW GS motorcycle version is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukAhlxl4hmM

Is using Hitler like this wrong? No, I think it is in bad taste but bad taste can be a wonderful thing. And if you decry such use as "marring the memories of WWII" well you are wrong. The use of Hitler in this way keeps the memory of who he was and what he did alive in a subtle way. Behind all the laughs and grins the majority of the viewers of these video know exactly what this about. It is what makes it so painfully bad in taste. Trying to sanitize the past a la current policy in Germany is not realistic. It happened. You should know it did. Nothing is too holy to make fun of as making fun of it keeps it alive.

[Kent]

Glenn,

The reason people are shocked at the D3x pricing is that it is so much of a leap within Nikon's own lineup, particularly compared to the D3 on which it is based. It is also out of step with the times.

Comparison with the Canon 1DS MkIII doesn't really make sense because that camera was introduced more than a year ago. Technology has come a long way since then, which is why both Canon and Sony have recently managed to introduced high-resolution bodies at much more reasonable prices.

I personally think the outrage is somewhat justified.

[Clayton Lofgren]

"The whole thing is ridiculous."
Glad most of us got that.

[Bruce Appelbaum]

Sorry, I found it to be in bad taste.

[K James]

The Big Canon was introduced at this price, should Nikon intro there Big Nikon cheaper? No one has even seen the thing yet. The price will come down. I do not understand the passion behind this. people and money.

I agree that there is nothing even remotely funny about this man, no matter what he is saying. Like the earlier poster said, 55 million dead, remember?

How about some passionate concern about the banks taking over the United States?

[Thiago Silva]

Genius! I almost fell of my chair when he says "Call Ken Rockwell", ahuahua!

[Brian Hudson]

Hilarious! Thanks for sharing.

[Phil Peterson]

I suspect Stalin would have imbraced the D3X. I mean come on....just add a few more workers in the Gulag, work them to death and wala...we have comp for a new Dx3....isn't communism wonderful?!?

[Jim Allen]

That was the funniest satire I've watched in some time. Thanks for the belly laughs. BTW, I get that this is about the camera wars, not a PR video for Hitler. Some people have difficulty with separating those concepts since he was truly such a monstrous parasite upon the human race. No one watching this should think someone's trying to remake Hitler into a hero... ummm, it's a joke alright!?!

[Andre Moreau]

"Personally I am getting sick and tired of this ridiculous furore over the pricing of the D3x.
It is comparable in price to the Canon 1DS Mk III (which, dare I say it, has 'only' 21 Mp versus 24 Mp on the D3x)"

The fact that the $8000 Nikon D3x is more or less a $4000 Nikon D3 with a newer but cheaper sensor has a lot to do with it. The same sensor is also found in the $3000. Sony A900.

Canon may also have to explain the price differential for its flagship camera.

[Mark G.]

As someone who has lost more than 10 family members in Hitler's Treblinka (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treblinka) concentration camp during the WWII, I don't find the video funny one bit.

How low can we go? What's next - we will show a real videotaped rape scene and laugh about how "Nikon rapes its customers with $8,000 price for a niche, top of the line product 99% of us will never need?" That video made me sick.

[EmmJay]

What a riot. Thanks for sharing. There's a point there too. The F5 was what $2000-$2200 in it's prime? A beautiful F100 just cost me $230 and I have more fun developing B&W film than I ever do with digital.

[Miserere]

In case anyone cares, the film that this clip comes from is titled "Downfall" and chronicles the last days of the III Reich, and so, Hitler's last days:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363163/

I can thoroughly recommend this movie, with the original subtitles.

Maybe the Nikon rant will seem funnier when we have all forgotten the atrocities committed in World War II.

[D.B. Walker]

Yes ... it seems the D3X debacle falls into the "what the @#$% were they thinking" category.

However, can anyone shed some light on what it is they were thinking? Take the contrary view to what the chattering class on the internets are saying about this release and defend D3X.

There must be a context that this camera fits into, including the price point, that makes sense.

[John Camp]

I thought it was very funny.

For those who were offended, you have to make a distinction between the actual war and an over-the-top film. People have no trouble ridiculing "Rambo," though it touches on one of the most divisive wars in US history...

I don't think the sensor/electronics complex in the D3x is the same as in the A900, else the D3x's excellent high ISO performance would be seen in the A900, which, according to one reviewer, shows a little noise even at its base ISO...just sayin'.

JC

[Cameron]

@Glenn,@Andre -- please, how can you debate the relative merits (or lack thereof) of said camera in THIS thread, of all places, after viewing that video.

[Lambert]

Haha, nice piece. Just one little detail... why are the prices in Dollars instead of Euros (or Deutsche Mark)?

[tim-j]

Execrable taste, but hilarious :)

[John Roberts]

Few things on the internet make me laugh out loud, but this sure did! And then when I got to the comments and saw that a couple of people actually got bent over it . . . Whew! Thanks for sharing a gut-buster, Mike! Now, excuse me while I go call Ken Rockwell.

[Martijn herber]

This parody makes me extremely angry; i find it utterly disgusting to misuse an important film like der Untergang. But i find it even more galling that it abuses a cataclysmic historical event, one that has defined Europe in the last century, to make an utterly witless complaint about PRICE. Yes, it's all 60 years ago, and parody is a valid way of commenting on difficult and painful history -- aiding understanding of and dealing with these events. But to use this material as a way of expressing your supposed "pain" over the pricing of consumer products, shows utter tastelessness and a major failure of judgement and perspective.

[sean]

I'm very dissapointed with myself for laughing so hard at that clip. It must mean that I'm a camera nerd

"Hitler's only got one ball" got most brits through the blitz. We've always sent the war up

Perspective?

This clip (or blazing saddles) would never have happened under the Nazis!

[Bryce Lee]

I watched the clip, twice. And have seen it
before, for other parodies.
My background looked on the film as it was,
or rather as it meant to portray. A very well done scene and rather difficult to portray. However we must never forget the atrocities of
war be they in the past and continue to happen due to the petty concerns
of pip squeek dictators and presidents in any country of the world.

[Lars K. Christensen]

Why not make a movie of two persons falling to the ground from WTC on 9/11, while discussing the low ISO capabilities of Nikon versus Sony.
That would be really funny?

[Mario Traversi]

Excellent video.. I can't stop watching it.. Really well done.. upsampling.. shooting jpeg.. the lenses.. Capture NX.. all of it.

As for Nikon's pricing, utterly ridiculous. For those of you mentioning the 1Ds pricing, just remember it was the ONLY real FF available up until LAST year (I don't count the discontinued Kodak or the short-lived Contax). When you're the only one in the marketplace with a FF you can charge what you want, and everyone took a deep breath when the first 1Ds was announced in 2002.. but what could you do, it was the only choice. Fast forward to 2008, and Nikon announces the 7th full-frame camera available for sale (1Ds3, 5D, D3, D700, A900, 5D2.. all current models, even the 5d).. and wants to charge the same as Canon. Stretching reality indeed. No wonder Hitler was so pissed off!

[Stan B.]

Cameron- Right on! The people who are offended, I can understand. Those who immediately launched into product arguments... Scary!!!

[Michael Allen]

I'm guessing that there aren't many Mel Brooks fans among those who were so shocked and disgusted. That's a shame.

[farshore]

Tasteless. Demeaning. Debases the memory of WWII.

And hilariously, ROTFL, funny.