The clock is ticking

The forums have been buzzing for weeks in the hope of new cameras from Sony, Nikon and Canon, The date of Aug 24th from both Sony and Nikon have been released for announcements-well there are press conferences then, Its strange that apart from Sony who leaked a few pictures of their A77 theres been no leaks from Nikon which is very unusual, In fact people are backing away from the idea that there will be a new D800,D4 or D400 and that it may be just the compacts and new mirror less camera that everybody for some reason is after, So only 24hrs to wait and see, As i said not long ago i am not overly fussed as i dont see me getting rid of the D3s for some time and i have only had the D7000 for a year, My intention for the D7000 was only to keep it a year until the D400 comes out so i guess if the specs match what i would like then i may pull the plug in a few months once the prices drop and firmware is updated but i have been so impressed by the D7000 that i may keep it a bit longer, I would like a bigger pro type body and a bigger buffer but can and have lived happily without that, The only reason that i have been upgrading is for pixels and thats just for agency use, These days when stock images sales are at rock bottom and will not get any better i wonder of its money well spent or not, I have always liked to have the best and latest in everything but cameras these days are amazing, even the base models blow film away, more pixels mean more storage problems-bigger cards and hard drives and the need for more powerful computers which i now have, I do wonder what people who shoot casually-family and friends with the odd holiday feel when they down load and their 6 year old pc comes to a grinding halt and that they have to go and buy 4 gig cards minimum, Its getting an expensive hobby thats for sure and there does not seem to be an end to it,More pixels also mean that you need better glass and thats the biggest cost of all, In the days of film/slide things didnt change that much and cameras were released every 10 years and still held their money,These days as soon as a new body is released your 2-4 year old body is all but worthless no matter how good a condition its in, Canon had always marketed itself on more pixels whereas Nikon has not followed that route, I hope that that remains, One problem is that Nikon still buys most of its sensors from Sony semiconductors who also make sensors for both Sony and Pentax, Both especially Sony want to make big inroads into the camera market and i am sure will follow Canon in the Mega Pixel war which will drag Nikon along with them, The new Sony A77 is reported to have a 24mp cropped sensor, Canons already has the 18mp senor in the 7D so when thats replaced it will be again competing to be better than the Sony so if Nikon bring the D400 out with say the D7000 sensor all but tweeked will it be competetive in the customers eyes-probably not even though its probably a much better sensor and will give better quality image, I still remember a guy asking me about my D3s and asked how many pixels it had, when i told him that it has 12mp his face dropped and he said 'thats the same as my phone'-Thats the mentality the camera manufactures are up against and probably caused if thruth were known, So another 24 hours and we will see if there are any breakthroughs in Dslr technology or just a handful of compacts, I personally would be surprised to see a new Dslr  after all the problems in Japan certainly from Nikon who in the last few months have moved most of their pro plant from Japan to Malaysia as well as staff but maybe thats just what they need, Maybe there will be an announcement and like the Canon telephotos thats all they will be and there will be a long wait to get anything-just wet the customers mouths-time will tell

Dave