Nikon D700 is now real. Here is the announcement and features:
Nikon D700 Digital SLR Camera
I have to admit I'm a bit disappointed... I still might end up with a D700 but I may just may wait a couple months in spite of having planned for more than a year to instantly buy the next FF/small body camera to come out of either Nikon or Canon. I don't play favorites between the two.
However, the D700 really seems to me like at $2-2.5k camera. Maybe that's totally unrealistic, maybe I was expecting miracles. The D700 looks fairly priced when placed between the D300 and the D3, but I'd never looked too deeply in either of them before. In my estimation the D700 is fairly comparable to the aging 5D. It is certainly better than the 5D, but not two times better. In considering the D700 I've done more research into the D3 (to judge what to expect from the D700's performance) and I find myself questioning if the D3 shouldn't really be priced closer to $4k, maybe even as low as $3.5k. Live view seems a worthwhile innovation, a built-in flash (as a commander) is certainly nice, the LCD is gorgeous... these things matter in terms of bells and whistles, but they don't REALLY help me make better images which is what I'm looking for in a FF camera.
I don't need a FF camera, I just want one and had been wanting for a while so I can go on waiting.... waiting for something that promises an order of magnitude improvement over what has come before if it is to cost double of what I would compare it to.
So... quite unexpectedly I'll be waiting a few more months to see if a 5D2 does get announced. See if it does something game changing the way the 5D did... if not maybe I can get a 5D for even less than what they go for now which each day seems more and more like an absolute steal.