One thing Ca/Nikon have been very successful: marketing. I hear many times how Nikon developed its own imager, or directed Sony to develop th eimager. This is simply b/s. Nikon was and is a hardware company. Nikon knows nothing about electronics. Even way back 25 yrs, Nikon farmed out all its electronics, including the autofocus. This continues. To be sure, Nikon has cut a deal with Sony, to produce a 36MP imager and fund the R&D for it: this gives Nikon rights of first use and refusal. Sony is very astute to do this, for many obvious business reasons. If the imager succeeds, Sony has a valuable commodity proven and paid for by someone else, but with ownership rights retained by Sony. no risk! Sure, Sony must give Nikon an exclusive lead time. So what? Sony has yet other competencies and other products. Sony will release their own 36MP camera next year, with new electronics to differentiate the camera. I, for one, will wait for this. Sony has a better camera body (and this stated by a loyal Nikon F4 owner): rugged; full water and dust seals!; no flipping mirror; in-camera anti-vibration; and best of all, I can use Zeiss lenses (my Nikkor lenses are good, but my Zeiss ones are far superior). By waiting, I hope to have a superior product for 1/2 the price. Meanwhile my Zeiss film gear will do just fine. Canon? well, Canon digital has always been better than Nikon, but we need to wait and see how quickly Canon can respond to 36MP.
