Here’s a couple o’ snippets from the rumor world (i.e., DPReview.com forums):

Actually met with the guy today. Got quite a lot more info, so perhaps his tight lips before was ’cause someone else was in the room when I was on the phone.

HERE’S WHAT I KNOW after my chat today:

The product is definitely a new professional DSLR

It is hardware final. Firmware is under testing and still in flux.

Production is scheduled to begin in July, in Japan, at a rate of 8-10,000 per month.

It has a revolutionary feature. I don’t know what it is, nor do I know whether it is revolutionary ‘across the board’ or just for Nikon.

It WILL NOT be announced this month.

It will be announced and demonstrated internally at Nikon Japan around the 10th of July.

It will now be publicly announced around late July/early August.

It will still be available for purchase late August.

HERE’S WHAT I DON’T KNOW:

Model name

Specs

‘The Feature’

Price

(Source)

And Thom Hogan chimed in as well:

stupormundi wrote:

> Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t that a really high production

> volume for a Pro-Camera?

Yes and no. The initial D2x quantity was 25k/mo according to Nikon (though it’s unclear whether or not that included built-up inventory that was released to shipment as well as the current production). Long-term production of the high-end pro models has generally been modest in number (1k-10k, depending upon the model).

Given the product Nikon is going to announce (remember, I used the words “big surprise” way back at the start of this year ;~), I’d say that 10k/mo is too low a volume to satisfy demand in 2007. And if the reports of hardware design freeze and initial production has begun with an August launch are true, that would mean that there would still be fewer D3 available at launch than D2x units were available at its launch.

Keep in mind that this comes from the former postings about a special NPS event in Japan that went up last month:

Just heard from a very reliable [ie, he has never been wrong] senior Nikon employee that Nikon are hosting a “pro product” prerelease information and demo session in Japan in the 2nd week of June 07. He will be there along with other worldwide Nikon-agency NPS managers, and Nikon in-house NPS managers. Invite only.

He would not tell me whether the product was lenses or body or both, just that it’s pro.

Unknown announcement date, ~August ship.

So, maybe we won’t see an announcement this week, eh? Keep tabs on the latest Nikon D3 developments here.

[tags]nikon, d3, d3x, rumors, news, 2007, july, august[/tags]