I'm posting here because I didn't want to start a new thread before it's time, and this seems the most prominent thread about the NEW D700... but I was just wondering (mostly sincerely and a little cynically) if Nikon has "fixed" the "non-existent" according to them officially, dead battery issue before releasing the D700. I appreciate the need to stay ahead of the competition and also to maximize market penetration over the widest range of users by multi-faceting technology to increase profitably and return on investment... but I wonder if in their D700 boardroom meeting did someone suggest waiting until they resolved the DBS issue? And if we presume they are good corporate citizens and didn't release ANOTHER new product (ie. D300 and D3 after knowing of the D80's and D200's problems with DBS) because they resolved the cause with the D700, then can I presume they will now admit there is the existence of it, or at least advise those who experience it on other bodies as to how to fix it. Is that too much too expect? It will be interesting to see if it doesn't occur with this new camera, which could imply a corrective engineering since it occurred with their past 4 major cameras, as far as I am aware of, which would indicate a design shortcoming that progressed from one camera to the next.

I'm going to post more specifically in the DBS thread, but as the original poster of the issue on the D80 forum, having experienced the problem continuously, having been told off-the-record in Mar.2007 by the National Customer Service Mgr. that they did know about the problem back then "but imagine the scope of problems if we acknowledge it officially" to quote him, having bought the D300 and just last week gotten my first case of DBS with it... well, the release the D700 indirectly lends support to my feeling that Nikon, like most companies of today's era, is moderating its integrity with the need for bottom line profits. Listen, like one of the prominent posters wrote in the DBS thread, there's more to life than getting stressed about this problem, so in case anyone wants to jump all over me for my cynicism, I've long ago accepted that it comes with the camera so just live with it and enjoy the 95% of the camera that I love. I don't even keep up with the DBS threads because it's all been said and really it's not worth the time. It was just appropo timing that I got it again with my new D300 last week and woke up this morning to see an email from Nikon promoting their new D700. I sincerely hope they have fixed it for the sake of all of those who will go out and spend even more money on a new body and probably some new lenses. Who knows, maybe I'll wake up soon to an email from Nikon asking me to send my bodies in for a warranty repair to the DBS issue?

Respectfully,
Jim