Since the new round of cameras from Canon, plus the announcement of the brand new Nikon D3s camera, all eyes are on the big news of Nikon’s potential release of an upgrade to the D700. Speculation runs from a D700s which would be much like the D3 to D3s upgrade, to a sensor like the D3X in the D700 and the speculated name for the upgraded camera has been dubbed the D700x by the internet world.

This would qualify both as a rumor and as hot news so we are placing it both in our Hot News column and also in our Rumors columns. Our friends at Photography Bay (PB) are reporting they received a tip that the camera would be a D800 and the possibilities exist it can be launched as early as Christmas.  That would be big news and very welcome news, and be another high point in a competition between the Canon 5D Mark II and the Nikon D700. It seems the camera that lots of Canon people have been waiting for, the super duper Canon EOS 3D, may actually come really materialize BUT it may have a Nikon label on it

The D700 has a full pro level feature set, almost the same as the D3 and D3X including Nikon’s very best focus system. The focus system of a camera has become the center-point of any new camera and one of the first things people look at now. A huge amount of pixels is nice, but a huge file that is out of focus is not nice. Canon does not seem to be planning to put their better focus system into a consumer or high end consumer camera. That is ironic because a lot of folks want a better focus system from Canon. The Canon 7D was the first step into Canon’s new technology for their focus system and it goes head to head with the D300s. In the 5D Mark II verses D700 competition though, Nikon delivers the goods where Canon is still sporting a 3 year old focus system.

PB says the specs are going to include a 1080p HD video mode, 24.5 megapixel senor, higher 7fps frame rate and Nikon’s top end Cam3500 focus system. The biggest plus is the report is saying a launch before Christmas!

If you want to read the report from PhotographyBay, the whole report can be found here: PB report.

Just want to add the one sore spot in all this – Nikon still does not have a fast wide pro level AFS FX prime lens. Canon has the 24 f/1.4L and also has the 35 f/1.4L pro level lenses. Nikon comes in with a score of zero! Hopefully that will change soon.