Email from an anonymous reader:
I can confirm that Nikon has in the works something a little different for their next entry level point and shoot DSLR.
You’re going to see a much improved built in pop up flash. Look for something a little wider and flatter than what’s currently built in.
SB-400 sales are paltry at best. This new pop up flash makes sense- it won’t kill off the market for the SB-600 / SB-900‘s (soon to replaced by the 700 and an improved version of the 900 that doesn’t overheat so badly). It won’t be a stretch to say that the new built in flash is going to be equivalent to the SB-400. Don’t be surprised if it has a separate battery unit that it draws some (but not all) of its power from.
Most notably, the flash will be able to point more upward for a better bounce.
The reason I found this plausible is that Nikon does not have a lot of tricks left in their hat for their next DSLR model (video, LV, few more MP, what else?), so they have to innovate and come up with something really new. I am just a bit sceptic about the external “battery unit”. It make sense also to introduce such a feature in the entry-level DSLR and see how it will be accepted – or maybe should be the other way around: new feature usually get introduced in the top of the line DSLR and then they propagate down the product line? Video, for example, got introduced in the mid-level DSLR (D90). What say you?