http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/images/r2-d2-princess-leia-hologram.jpg

well kind of

I do wish they would fix a few issues about the box, however. Like combining mirror-up and timer, and letting me lock shooting banks.

No matter what system you get, you’ll always hear someone whine about what is ‘missing’ from the system (myself included). But both Canon and Nikon have all the tools needed by professionals and amateurs alike. You can’t be all things to all people, and those of us left out tend to speak up.

The CP5000 was a big step beyond the CP990, and I still have my CP8400, though it now gets little use. However, with its array of lens components, it covers from fisheye to full telephoto. With its 2/3″ sensor, it still produces significantly better image quality than current compacts with their much smaller sensors. With the fisheye lens it produces superior HDR light-probe images for image based lighting. It also has great long exposure capability and a built-in interval timer.

However, there are no high-end compacts anymore. Everyone is putting out “me-too” cameras, with gimmicks they call innovations, but all with tiny sensors which need full time noise-reduction even at the lowest ISO settings. Features are traded for image quality at the top. Bland compacts are selling great, so why address the prosumer market when entry level dSLRs are so affordable, and sellers can get further get into the consumer’s pocket with lens purchases?

The D200 was the first dSLR that met the minimum requirements and the D300 answered its deficiencies. The D700 is a whole ‘nuther world. Both the D300 and D700 are very mature cameras, and while I read this site, it is not with a longing for the next camera that addresses their weaknesses, but curiosity. I can keep these cameras for a long time, unlike their predecessors.

The D300 with its 18-200mm lens is the ultimate “walkin’-’round, shootin’-stuff” camera. All the versatility of a superzoom compact, but with a great sensor and a more than adequate 11x zoom lens.

The D700 produces image quality that rivals my medium-format scans, even at substantial ISO settings well in excess of what I used with the medium-format systems. At high-ISO settings it allows me to go where no camera has gone before. Even at ISO25,600, noise is only comparable to ISO400-800 grain with a 35mm film camera. I love ambient light, available darkness shooting, and the D700 empowers me. I have zero frustration with either camera.

The D300 has the DX sensor with its 1.5x cropping factor, which is like having a tele-extender built in – but without the loss of speed and extra optics. With a minimal number of lenses, and thus a light and mobile bag, I am covered from 16mm to the equivalent of 900mm.

Sure Canon can match most of this, but why give up my lenses for a camera that can do no more? Nikon, like Canon, can match the needs of the most demanding shooter. I see little lacking with either brand.

I’m not referring to this P&S, but you are making a lot of assumptions before 1 of the 2 press releases is even announced.