With the announcement of the new D700, we got hands on with it at the worldwide launch to see what you could expect for the £2,000 price tag, and just how much it compares to its big brother, the D3.

The D700 is essentially a D3 shrunk down into a body around the size of the D300. It's Nikon's first "compact" professional SLR, and seems designed to go up against whatever Canon has in store to replace the EOS 5D.

So what are the differences? Well aside from the size, the main differences are still mostly physical. There's a different shutter that has a 150,000 exposure durability, compared to 300,000 on the D3, a different viewfinder prism (95% coverage due to the new dust reduction system) and a slower burst rate. The size of the D700 also means you lose the rear LCD info panel found of the D3 and there is only one CF card slot, where there are two on its big brother. The battery life is also shorter, but at 1,000 shots it is still pro-level.

At around £2,000 the other big difference is the price, with the D3 sitting at around the £3,500 mark. It will be interesting to see how prices and sales hold up for the D3 after the new release.

Differences aside, the similarities shine through too - and that's a good thing. It shares the 12.1-megapixel full frame sensor and the same processing engine which should mean it'll have the same high quality output. Plus, not only is it a dead ringer for its sibling to look at, the user interface is almost identical too.

Photography Press contacted Canon to see if they were planning a commercial response to today's Nikon announcements, but there was no comment from the company. We'll keep you updated with anything we hear.

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