Nikon muscle compact in wings?

Buzz mongers can be a fickle lot. Leading up to the release this week of Nikon's new full-frame D700 DSLR, they couldn't speculate enough about that camera. But as soon as it became a reality, they dashed elsewhere. That elsewhere has been a rumored muscle compact from Nikon, the Coolpix P6000.

Judging from the specs thus far attributed to this phantomcam, it is squarely aimed at Canon's PowerShot G9 ($289-$449). The putative P6000 sports a 1/1.7 sensor packed with 13.5 megapixels. Forum pundits are specualting that it might be the same sensor that's in the Sony DSC-W300 which has received raves since its release. Other features attributed to the Virtual RAWsumer model are a 4x wide angle optical zoom (28-112mm equivalent), a top ISO of 6400 and an optical viewfinder, as well as VR optical image stabilization and RAW support.

According to the buzzbeaters, we won't have long to wait to see if the rumors swarming around the P6000 are truth or fiction. They say the DSC will be released by Nikon next month.