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The D700 replacement in the form of the D800 is expected to be officially announced today. 36mp FX camera. Have a look at http://www.nikon.com/news/2012/0207_dslr_01.htm (many other sites available, including facebook) and then decide if it is worth it...

From my personal perspective, the BIGGEST benefit for all those wildlife photographers that chase technology in this field, is the ability to FOCUS at f8, which translates into being able to use a 600mm f4 lens, together with a 2x converter, giving 1200mm in FX mode and still having full functionality. Of course, your could still crop down to DX mode, getting around 16mp shots at 1800mm with AUTOFOCUS STILL OPERATIONAL

If frames per second and/or low light has to be the best available, then I would suggest looking at the D4, as the FPS rate of 4 in FX mode or 6 in DX mode may just be the limiting factor, but then again, the D4 is over R60k locally

List Price for the D800 is currently expected to be $2999.00 ... All donations gratefully accepted

Seems to be a superb cam(with nice specs) ....but way off my reach

I have heard through the technology grape vine on twitter that is also capable of near broadcast quality video

Spargish ..... no, not near broadcast quality, AT FULL HIGH DEFINITION digital, broadcast qualily. 1920 x 1080 (30, 25, 24 fps), so now it is simply up to the user to have the creative ability to shoot a National Geographic type documentary

The challenge for users of this equipment will be to extract and fully utilise all the features available. What a nice challenge to have

Scott, IMHO the biggest challenge with using this camera will be your technique (keeping lens stable) as well as the quality of your lenses. At this resolution ONLY the best lenses will be able to resolve the 36mp effectively.

The initial reviews and reports of this camera have blown me away. Maybe someday I can test out a loan unit!

I challenge the assertions above, that (1) technique and (2) quality of lenses are that much of an issue.

Firstly, while the technique used to keep your lens stable will always be an issue, and probably more so in a camera with such a high resolution, the effective resolution of this camera is little different to that of a Nikon D7000, and less than that of a Canon D60/7D, given that they use cropped sensors, especially when using a lens with a similar focal length.

Secondly, and taking into account the use of a lens with a similar focal length on each of a DX and FX camera, you will get a much wider perspective in the FX-captured image. As such, should you wish to have a similar image perspective from an FX camera as you get from a DX camera, you would either need a lens with a focal length of 1,5x (or in canon's case, 1,6x) on the FX camera, or crop to DX size (a bit of a waste of all those pixels )

Thirdly, lenses to resolve a 16mp image in DX in the case of the Nikon D7000, or an 18mp image for the canon D60/7D seem not to have been an issue to date. Why then, should resolving a 36mp image on a full-frame sensor, which does have a similar pixel size and improved light-capturing ability, cause additional concerns with the quality of the lenses used?

Note that three of the major benefits of a high-resolution sensor are the ability to:
- print bigger pictures (I would suggest that few would really exploit this benefit to the full);
- crop further than would otherwise be the case;
- down-sample pictures to final output size required and in-so-doing, resolve many other issues that cannot be achieved as successfully with an image from a lower resolution camera.

This does not imply that there are no disadvantages to high-resolution cameras, but I would still like to have the opportunity of exploiting the benefits of a D800 to the maximum.... Pity the bank manager says NO!

Good points raised...

But here's the thing: if you're buying this camera to crop the living daylights out of every shot you will be missing the point IMHO. I get better image quality from an immense crop of an image from my 12.2mp D3s than I ever did with the Canon 7D (18.8mp) and than I can get with the D7000 (16mp) because of the pixel pitch this sensor has. Even large crops have immense detail. I have seen some good cropped examples from the D800...but I would want to test this baby for myself using my style of shooting in the conditions I often find myself in.

I don't think it's a case of "the D7000 can resolve most lenses" - remember that even though the pixel density is the same, the FX sensor is a physically larger sensor and with the density it has it will pick up the slightest deficiencies in lens build and technique. There are enough field reports from the first batch of these cameras on the net to corroborate this...some even go so far as to suggest optimal apertures to use these lenses at.

Anyway - would still love to test/have one... but I think we might have the same bank manager given the similar reactions to such notions...

I watched a video comparison of the D800 and a Hasselblad HD40 medium format camera. The Nikon did suprisingly well in a lot of areas, but couldn't match the clarity and crispness of the Hass. The only place that the D800 outdid the medium format was low light High ISO shots and the Nikon was much better. The pro studio photogs who took part were impressed that a $2995.00 US Nikon could be so close to the $14000.00 Hasselblad. I an dreaming of getting the D800, but just can't quite swing it yet - maybe before I return to Kruger in October.