I am thrilled by the new Sony A77 DSLR and its advanced kit lens SAL1650, a 16-50 f/2.8 zoom.

As I decided about my gear I ended up with Nikon’s D90.

Nikon failed so far on me by not delivering a D300s successor  (D400). The D400 will be very likely to use the same sensor like the A77, but will there be much to ask?

The weakness of Sony’s line up had been the lenses - either mediocre or quite good, but overpriced (Zeiss lenses). The combination Sony just announced seems to priced of what I expect to be the price of a D400 body.

If the image quality of the new combo will hold up against its technical parameters, Sony has a killer here

I have my own wish-list for the D400, now the rumors are that it will be a 24MP body.

This is a transitive rumor, because Sony is said to bring out a DSLR it a 24MP  APS-C sensor next month. Really?

24MP on APS-C is hopefully the last iteration if not already more than we want. The camera will be diffraction limited at f/8; stopping down further results in more DOF, but you will loose sharpness overall . Most lenses are not be able to exploit the increase resolution at all, so it is aimed at future, better glass?

I am not too optimistic that there will be new a Gold-Ring line up for DX any time soon, but I am concerned that the smaller pixels will reduce the dynamic range - something far more important than resolution.

Wild guess/hope: This 24MP sensor will have pairable photosites similar to Fuji’s EXR sensor. This could boost the dynamik range of the sensor into regions of MF digital backs. The Fuji DSLRs are still top notch for capturing a wide dynamic range, perhaps it is just the question how Sony/Nikon can (or have) circumvent Fuji’s patents in this area

The D300s seems to get to the end of its lifetime, bythom.com mentioned that it out of production already, Nikon Munich put a demo unit on sale at ebay, more important: It is almost two years in the market and had been only a modest upgrade of the D300.

The rumor mills are chewing slowly, slower at least as for the D7000 (aka D90s) - perhaps because there is no photokina in sight and the price point to be expected will be around $1800-2000.

What can we expect - idiotic to muse about, but I have a personal wish list and some opinions, maybe you are interested:

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