Excuse for a rant! Probably of interest to photography nerds only
Fellow 'Togs. The Nikon D600 came out today. A pocket sized full frame camera that I know many many pro photographers were lining up to be their second or backup body.
I've just been reading the specs and was amazed to see that Nikon have reduced the max flash sync speed from 1/250 sec to 1/200 i.e. a 1/3 of a stop. If you don't use flash then so what. But I do use flash a lot and nerfing the sync speed like this has basically made each of my flash guns a bit worse than they were before if thet sat on a D3, D300, D700 tec..
If you use flash as a filler in daylight (and if you're a portrait photographer then you very well might) you'll be starting out with the fastest shutter speed you can, to allow you pick the optimum aperture i.e. more aperture equals less flash power. Using wider apertures for a given exposure means you need less flash power to balance and therefore you get more bang for your buck from the flash. You recycle faster, shoot faster and are less likely to hit the upper limit of the flash output. However reduce the sync speed and you loose that extra ambient light from the exposure and have to regain it from a more powerful flash output at a given aperture. More flash power means shower recycles and more times you hit the flash max, and if your flash has one, the thermal cut out as well. And boy do I know about the thermal cut out :-)
The difference between 1/250s and 1/200s might not seem a lot but I often find that even at 1/250s I'm messing with apertures I'd rather not use and having flashguns that won't recycle fast enough or worse are in danger of melting.
So shame on you Nikon and I'm now in the market for a second hand tidy Nikon D700..