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"I don't see it be revolutionary, but more evolutionary, in nature."

I'm not so sure, the industry has been very complacent for a very long time, that's all changed in 2006.
Now it's about quick product turn over, innovation and company alliances.

The older photogs may not care about the latest and greatest as they are financially married to their system, and the kids still think their camera is better than yours without knowing how to use it, but there is a huge market of "new" customers that are only interested in the future and yesterday is nothing but a distant memory.
I'm thinking the next Dxxx will need to be groundbreaking.

I would say that there should no be D300 successor. They've got a sweet line up and face the problem some automotive companies encounter. Too many products!

The D3000/D5000 series (entry level), D7000 series (mid range), D700 and DX range for (top range). Why would they need a new DXX range? I believe Nikon have enough cameras to satisfy all users needs.

Well, as long as the successor of the D700 is not clear, it is hard to guess on the successor of the D300s. The D7000 is more than competent enough to make the D300s obsolete...

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Yeah I think no D300 successor is needed. Let's see what Nikon will decide! What do you think?

I think it wouldn't hurt to have a successor with the 16MP sensor found in the D7000. As nice as the D7000 is, it's not quite up with D300s or Canon's 7D when it comes to handling. Plus, the D300 14-bit RAW speed could be improved. Even the now ancient 40/50D from Canon didn't take a hit in that regard.

Its easy for us amateur photographers to say that there is no need for a D300 upgrade, but actually this is a camera that isnt designed for us, it is designed for the full time pro.

These people care more about things like build quality, autofocus, compact flash cards, PC sync port, 10 pin remote port, RAW abilities, same layout of button as other pro bodies (for users with multiple bodies) etc etc

So it is easy for us to say "Well the D7000 has better image quality, that makes it a better camera, there is no need for a D400," when actually the people who this camera is designed for (wildlife photographers, sports photographers etc) would disagree.

Therefore there is definitely a need for a DX camera more pro-orientated than the D7000.

Jeremy

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Nikon D5000 and D300 with 12-24mm, 35mm f1.8, 50mm f1.4, 60mm f2.8 Macro, 18-200mm, 17-55mm f2.8 (all Nikon)

I'm a full time photographer and my only gripes with the d7000 are the lack of cf card slots, en-el3e batts, better lowlight performance, and most important of all uncompressed shooting!!!!!

All of which the d300 successor will probably have...

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Hi Jeremy,

what I was trying to say is that they have D3100/D5100 D300, D700 D3 series.

The d3100 and d5100 could be one camera. I understand the variation needs but it looked too much for me.

I can't wait to see the D400. It should have the image quality of the D7000,with all the great pro features of the D300.

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Gear: Nikon D80, 18-105mm, 35mm F/1.8, 85mm F/1.8, SB-600
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According to an eMail received by Nikon rumors, the D400 will be a significant upgrade to the D300s. Here are some of the key points:



Well, judging by those specs it looks like the price will just about double, am I the only one who thinks that this article is totally unrealistic?

And later it states that a D400x will be coming later that year...



Full frame sensor next year? I don't think so. Of course, it's no less unrealistic than the D9000 that's apparently going to replace the D7000 in 2012 for $1200 and an FX sensor.

I don't know who sent this in, but it seems pretty far fetched.
You can read the article here.

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-Evan

Gear: 7 Nikon Nikkor AI-S and AF-S lenses, SB-700 flash, Nikon D7000, Nikon FM, variety of accessories

"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs."
- Ansel Adams

Sounds like a fanboy made up wishlist. Some parts more believable than others... just remember, rumour sites generally give rumours.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

"Sounds like a fanboy made up wishlist. Some parts more believable than others... just remember, rumors sites generally give rumors."

Not so sure, the rumors are very strong that the A77 will be announced next month with a 24 Megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor, so it's very probable that the D400 will have the exact same sensor with minor tweaks.

I didn't say all rumours are worthless, just that specific one. Some are more believable than others, but I wont take anything as official until announcement.

SAR has had a pretty good record on their SR5 rated rumours so I do believe in the A77 as stated. On the other hand, CR is pretty bad since Canon are good at keeping their secrets. At best they might get a sniff of something a few days before announcement, but they haven't scored anything significant to the best of my recollection. Strangely enough, I don't follow NR so I don't know their past record. Do they even rate their rumours?

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

I'm just going on past history more so than rumors, there is a trend there.

A700 comes out with a 12mp than D300
A55 comes out with a 16mp than D7000
A77 comes out with a 24mp than ?

Interesting idea on that trend. It really could use more data points though. Is there any trend on the Dxxx line comparing against the Dxx/Dxxxx?

To expand on my thinking on the rumour:

24MP sensor - plausible. Sony are rumoured to be using one so they could share the tech. But I don't think it suits Nikon's nor the model's character. I'd suspect they'd use the 16MP sensor from the D7000, which would help with coping with the fast frame rates.

Sensitivity - unlikely. 2 stops better than the D3s??? APS-C size sensor, 2 stops better than the best high-ISO full frame sensor ever made so far? I'd loved to be proved wrong but this is definitely in the "too good to be true" category.

New 1 layer non-Bayer sensor - unlikely but not impossible. It is making me think what could they do? That could be seriously radical. I'd want more detail before I can believe this.

Considering both the above, in best case if you got rid of the bayer filter and just took all light in, give or take some assumptions you might get up to 2 stops improvement? But once you reintroduce some kind of colour filter it will eat into that. My only guess for how they might do this is to use a multi-passband colour filter and then rely on software to make sense of it afterwards. e.g. the sensors could be R+G, G+B, R+B and you'd do some tricky simultaneous equations to try and recover the individual channels. But that'll only give one stop extra.

Removable lens mount - plausible but unlikely. For the filters, you'd have to have very tight tolerances to not mess up the optical chain, and I'm not sure they'd risk it in a user changeable part for the small benefit it can give some specialist uses. Focus calibration could be impacted, and you'd have a serious dust risk.

AF sensor - 201 points. Unlikely. Is there even enough room to stick them all in? You can't put more too far out in the edges. So we're looking at about 4x the density of the existing D300(s). I suppose it could be possible to gang neighbouring ones depending on the conditions.

CF slots / USB3 / GPS / WiFi - possible if they choose to.

Edit: in chronological order the Dxx/xxx/xxxx MP counts are as follows:

D70 6MP
D70s 6MP
D200 10MP
D80 10MP
D300 12MP
D90 12MP
D300s 12MP
D7000 16MP
D400 ??MP

While there is a clear upward trend, it is not so clear on the rate of increase. Maybe if I factor in the time differences too that will give a clue, but I fear I'm already way past the point of analysing too much!

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.