Okay, the D200 is now absolutely official:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0511/05110104nikond200.asp

Still no sample pictures anywhere, but it looks very attractive, indeed. The only painful part is that raw files are now 15+MB (versus 5MB on the D70). That means I'd have to go out and buy a much larger memory card (versus my current 1GB that holds 178 pictures).

Perhaps even more impressive is the new 18-200 lens, which claims its vibration reduction damps four stops worth of camera shake. So, if I can normally hand-hold 1/30 of a second, then I should, in theory now, be able to hand-hold 1/2 a second. If that really works, its amazing.

What that would mean: all the dancing / jazz music work I do indoors, at night, has required either a tripod or a flash. (I like longer exposures so I can get some motion blur from the subjects of my pictures.) Now, I can theoretically ditch the tripod and still have way more depth of field than I could otherwise get by using a bright prime lens. Hmm....

(Check out my pictures from Sunday night to get an idea of what I'm talking about.)