[TimIngmire]

I have to say that at £2,000 I'm not that interested but as most of the stuff I shoot tends to be at the wider end I see more of a benefit in the FX sensor. TBH I'm still learning the D200 and it will be some time before I am limited by that camera (if ever) so it will be a while yet before the real upgrade urge kicks in ( although you can't account for moment of weakness such as that which resulted in the purchase of the D200 in the first place).

Right now my eyes are lingering over glass and lighting - the two things that can make a real difference to my photos and with a great deal more longevity than bodies which are coming along at ever increasing rates.

For the time being at any rate......

Here's my prediction for the future - hardware improvements in bodies will start to suffer a law of diminishing returns - ie the point at which the hard changes result in less and less obvious improvements in image quality or useability / ergonomics. At that point (or before then) it will be the software aspects that will take over alongside the promotion of accessories dedicated to that particlar camera. Look at the D300 cf the D200 some nice hardware driven changes but what does Ken Rockwell go on about? The improved jpegs! A purely software / firmware driven thing - shoot RAW and that becomes almost irrelevant - great for journos but not for us. Yet this software could be used on the D200 but they will not make that upgrade available.

OTOH if new bodies rely more on sofware upgrades then the churn / release rate may actually increase as software change as so easy to implement cf real new hardware - of course a release may also have a new hardware change to help justify the upgrade (especially in the entry DSLR and Pro-sumer sectors). At which point you get to get to where a lot of companies are with there compacts - a minor hardware upgrade justifies a slew of new camera's all distinguished b what the software allows them to do - they all have the same software just that as you go down the value ladder so more and more software features are turned off as the recent Canon hack shows very well.

So, in the infamous style of John Motson, releases could slow down or then may even in increase - there's my view.