First, it is the D80, not the D90. I suspected as much, but the site I linked called it the D90.

Second, it takes SD cards. I didn’t think about that. Smart move on Nikon’s part when you consider the target market (first time buyers, not SD50/D70 owners, you’re supposed to upgrade to the D200 or D200s like I did).

Third, frame rate increases to 4.5fps. Wow! This makes the 30D look like a joke.

Fourth, Works with AI and AI-S lenses. Strange, I would have thought this is uselesss for the target market and they’d have kept this for the D200.

Fifth, Addition of the AF button on the top. I like that (right now you have to dig through the menus in the D70), but I don’t like the placement on the top. The way the D200 does it is much smarter (it overloads the AF/MF MF switch with C S M and separates the shutter/aperture priority into a customizeable menu setting). Welcome addition though.

Sixth, Where is the BKT button? I suppose people will use the extra-function button on the front to deal with the lack of the BKT button on the back. Frustrating.

Other than that, my guesses appear to be right.

BTW, I missed the Canon-fanboy frame that they’re touting. Basically they’re claiming that it is noisy at High ISOs (by comparing this to the $3000 5D no less).

Hey, Canon idiots: the D50 has less noise than the Rebel XT. What says that Nikon won’t do something similar with the D80 and include aggressive optical de-noising and hot mirrors in order to get a “review win”?

(BTW, I agree with Ryan, it’s probably a 70-300 small aperture VR. It seems like a perfect complement to the 18-70mm typically sold with the kit. I think the reason the other Nikkor folks aren’t behind this is because we’re lens snobs who don’t want to hear about a lens none of us plan to buy. We want a 30mm DX prime. :-))