and I would really love to see a pro DX body in the size of D300/d700 with double card slot

Yeah, I would expect the D3 replacement to have the big grip built in too. I mean, old upper level DSLRs all had it built in.

"But pros shooting wildlife and sports need a grip"

Maybe for sports but wildlife shooters prefer their cameras as small as practically possible. It's why until recently, most wildlife shooters shot with Canons as they had the smaller bodies with the faster frame rates (among a few other reasons) before Nikon. That all began to change with the D300.

@adamz: I agree with you that the F6 is a true pro camera, except what I'm saying is that most pros have gone to digital. As for the pros still using film, I'm sure that most of them are shooting "still" subjects, which they do not really need the grip for, as they don't need a high FPS and the camera may be on a tripod. But pros shooting wildlife and sports need a grip, as it supplies a high FPS as well as vertical controls.

alphanikonrex - why does pros always need a grip? F6 is a fully pro film body, the best Nikon ever produced, most likly the best 35mm camera

SeanN - F6 is a successor to F5. as for the medium, film still is a professional medium of choice for many of them, moreover I will even risk to say that nowadays the percentage of pros using film (counting only the film users) is higher than it used to be in the pre-digital era

D700 and D300 were built on F6 body, and D1/D2/D3 on F5 body and they are totally different constructions. I never liked oversized F5 though and would preferred F6 smaller and more convenient one (you can always attach battery grip if you need one), but then again who am I to complain.
As for this post what else could one say then that it is full of it?

NikoDoby:

Ah...cloak and dagger!

I can't speak to her engineering abilities but a seductress she was certainly not. She didn't say a whole lot about the D500 other than it may be awhile before we see it. From what I can gather digital imaging technology is reaching maturity based on current science and camera companies only release updated models if they can achieve an overall 20% performance improvement. In the case of Pro gear it's over 30%.

She did say that companies will focus more on lens technology in the next few years as sensor resolution is rapidly approaching the maximum resolving power of most current lenses. The number is somewhere around 34MP.

She was mostly talking about nomenclature. For example, Sony is working on perfecting its software and is testing the market with its A900, which incidentally is not their "pro" model. She expects that Sony will adopt the Omega name for it's pro stuff ( a carry-over from the Minolta lineage.

To be honest I have no idea where the D400 went....and never thought to ask.

@AdamZ, I agree on the size point where anything could happen, but with what you said in relation to the F5 and F6, these were different cameras brought to market in different times (and with different feature sets), the F5 when film was still the professional medium of choice, and the F6 was at the sunset of high level film use, when digital was starting to make serious inroads in to the market; thus named accordingly.

Come on Newfie she was a spy! She was sent to seduce you with all this hot future camera talk! She's just after your "jewels" man. Haven't you ever read a spy novel before? An "accidental" run-in with a mysterious stranger on a late night London to Halifax flight always leads to high stakes drama.

Before you know it you'll wake up tied to a chair with some CIA guys trying to beat a confession out of you and yelling,"TELL US WHAT SHE TOLD YOU ABOUT THE D500!"

@adamz: Are you sure? Even though the F6 lacked the built in grip, I think it was because at that point Nikon also had the D2H/X and felt that most pros would be going to digital. The F6 is around mostly for people who want to stick to film, and that excluded many pros. Since pros are the ones who definitely need a grip, it was not necessary to build one into the F6 as most pros would not be using it.

SeanN - not exactly - F6 was different than F5, so at least for size everything is possible

This doesn't sit right to me, because if Nikon were going to build a D700 type camera with the specifications mentioned above, and then call it the D3H, then it would not fit in their linage.

For the specifications to be correct, that would mean a whole host of updated/new hardware on the insides, and then doing a body that is different, in my eyes would make it a completely different camera. Sure I could believe them specifications if it was for a D(X)00 and then the D3H as a D3 chassis with the same specs, but not for a D3H in a D700 type chassis.

Another bit, which I don't really understand, but may be the truth, is that the 'next generation' are not slated to appear for at least another 18 months. It may happen if the current economic situations are the yardstick, but to keep up with the competition, it seems a little too far off, as I wouldn't be surprised if Canon drop something in the next 6 months (60D/7D). If Canon did do that, and this timeline was correct, then it would look as Nikon had been stalling and run out of ideas or inspiration to bring anything to the table.

I was travelling by plane - London, UK to Halifax,Nova Scotia.
She never said she was with Nikon. In fact she actually had a great deal knowledge on Sony. Come to think of it that might be the link to Nikon, they use sony sensors right?

You have probably traveling by train if you had that much time to talk, and she did not even ask you to sign NDA.
You haven't by any chance took a picture or an e-mail from that friendly and all knowing person?

Hi Folks:

I recently returned from some travel and had the privilege of sitting next to a optics engineer with a "big" camera manufacturer (didn't say she was with Nikon but I got that sense). Over the course of five hours we spoke about cameras, what it was like working in the industry and the current economic climate. Based on our conversation this is what I think Nikon might be up to.

There will not be a D400 nor D700X but instead a 24MP D800 which will likely have full HD and FX sensor. This camera will go head to head with the 5D MKII and its successor.

The D300s will eventually be replaced by a D500.

D500 , D600 and D900 are reserved for the next generation of cameras and should begin showing up in 2011 -2012 along with the D4.

The current D3 will be replaced with an upgraded version of the current D700, likely a D3H with a body of similar size to the current D700, 15 - 16MP and burst rate of 10fps and of course dual CF slots.

The D3X will remain in circulation for another 18 to 24 months.

We talked about a lot, all of which I convey here being from mental notes. To me everything sort of makes sense.

BTW....a new 70-200 is a certain.