Pro and would be pro-photographers round the world are anxiously awaiting the Nikon D300’s launch in November.

Nikon announced their 2008 lineup in August and everyone has been holding their breaths since. With a new 12.3 effective-megapixel DX-format CMOS image sensor, Nikon’s original EXPEED digital image processing concept, Scene Recognition System and the new Picture Control System, pundits are expecting the D300 to be THE D-SLR to own in 2008.

But no one has managed anything other than a quick glimpse so far. Talk about teasing. The D300 is able to shoot at up to 8 fps in continuous bursts of up to 100 shots at full resolution. Good grief! That feature alone is worth the wait. Near instantaneous power-ups and a shutter release time lag of less than 0.05 seconds? No excuse for missing a shot with this camera.

The D300 even has self-cleaning sensors, a range of built in image editing capabilities and wireless transmission capabilities allowing wireless remote view/control shooting. The D300 sits somewhere just below the Nikon pro lineup of cameras but manages to pack an awful lot of features into a sub $2,000 package.

The full specs are too numerous to go into in full detail but are available here. And if you really just can’t wait, several companies including Amazon are taking pre-orders. I am sorely tempted.

Interesting items on amazon.com:

• Magic Lantern Guides: Nikon D300 (Magic Lantern Guides)
  
  
• Nikon D300 DX 12.3MP Digital SLR Camera with 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR DX Nikkor Zoom Lens
  
  
• Nikon Digital SLR Accessory Kit for Nikon D50, D70, D70s, D80, D200 & D300 Digital SLR Cameras