A few weeks back, news of the Nikon D50 digital SLR leaked onto Engadget and Gizmodo. I was moderately interested in this, because someday I hope to get back into photography, and SLR's are of interest. Last week it was discovered that Nikon is encrypting the white balance data in the RAW files generated by their high end D2X and D2H SLR's. Apparently this is causing problems with Photoshop support. Nikon has since tried to clarify their position on this. but unfortunately it doesn't look like they are going to change their position. The tone of their response is quite condescending, since you need to be a "bona fide software developer" (whatever that is) in order to have a dialogue with the company..

The encryption problem doesn't affect the D50, but when you buy an SLR, you are buying into the ecosystem of lenses, flashes, battery packs, etc. The body is not the only cost, and people do occasionally upgrade bodies. Features from high end bodies find their way into lower end bodies over time. The last thing I want to do is get locked into the Nikon ecosystem and then wake up one morning and find out that all new generation Nikon bodies are encrypting parts of my photos. Nikon already has plenty of lockin via the lenses and other peripherals. Trying to get lockin on my data (the photos) is over the line.

Fortunately, I have a choice. We've been a Canon household, and while I was impressed by some reviews that I read about the D70, the encryption episode has pretty much guaranteed that I'll be steering far away from Nikon products for the foreseeable future.