Well, there are always going to be rumours. Many expected Nikon to announce a D100 replacement at the Photokina 2004 show in September, but they did not.
As to whether or not they'll announce a replace at the PMA (Photo Marketing Show) in February is unknown to me.
But, chances are, any replacement won't be less expensive than the D70, and brand new products usually aren't discountedeither.
So, even if they did announce a D100 replacement, it may or may notbe too expensive for you, if the EOS-D20 is out of your price range. We'll just need to wait and see. Eventually, they will come out with a newer model. Price and features is anybody's guess (unless you happen to know someone at Nikon or someone else that's willing to violate their Non Disclosure agreeement). ;-)
As for your lenses, chances are they'll work fine. But, make sure to check compatibilty charts for them to make sure, and to see if you'll lose any features (i.e., some older lenses may lose metering ability).
Here is a recent forum thread on this subject. See the link that NHL put in the last post to a page with a compatibility chart:
http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/v...mp;forum_id=66
Now, one thing to keep in mind is that the D70 and D100 (and most DSLR models) have sensors that are smaller than 35mm film. So, you have a "crop factor" (since the entire image circle projected by the lens is not used by the sensor). This factor is 1.5x on the D70.
So, for any lens you use on it, you'll need to multiply the focal length of the lens by 1.5 to get the 35mm equivalent focal length (determine the angle of view you'll have on the D70 with a lens).
For example, a 50mm lens would have a 35mm equivalent focal length of 75mm on the D70 (50 x 1.5 = 75).
So, your lenses won't start out as wide and they'll be longer on the tele end.
So, a 28-70mm lens would have a 35mm equivalent focal length of 42-112mmon a D70.
So, you may have a gap in the wide end with your existing lenses (but they'll be longer on the long end). ;-) That's why you see a lot of new lenses that start out wider now (for example the 18-70mm kit lens that Nikon offers with the D70 would give you a 35mm equivalent focal range of 27-105mm) -- in order to help compensate for the 1.5x crop factor.
Personally, between the 8700 and the D70, I'd go with the D70 (but each user will have different requirements). With the D70, you'd have muchbetter Autofocus, Cycle times,etc., and much lower noise as ISO speeds are increased. You'd also have a truethrough the lens optical viewfinder (versus an EVF in prosumer model), and have better ability to control Depth ofField via aperture for helping your subject stand outfrom distracting backgrounds (hard to do with a small sensored non-DSLR model like the8700).
