I have handled the F6 Joseph, and it seems like a very good camera with many improvements from the F5 ... all in a smaller, but solid camera. I previously used Nikons for film and digital SLRs in demanding conditions, and they were solid and reliable. I finally had to move to Canon for full-frame, higher ISO digital performance.
The advantage of the Nikon F6/D2X over the Canon EOS1V/1D series is that focus confirmation is available for manual lenses. Like the RX, only with a more sensitive AF sensor. This would be a good advantage with MF wide lenses in lower light, and fast longer lenses.
I hope you are right that film cameras will continue on. There are so many digital Lemmings out there that refuse to understand the charms of film that it worries me. I would not be a happy person if my Leica Ms and Hasselblad 203FE had no more film food. Of all my associates, I am the only one that still uses film on a regular basis. Some of these associates will never use film again, and have sold all their film cameras.
History of 35mm SLRs:
1935: Soviet GOMZ Sport was the 1st 35mm SLR
1936: Exakta SLR
Prior to WWII, Zeiss developed the eye level viewfinder and pentaprism, but it didn't see production until 1949 as the Contax S.
1957: Pentax introduced the prototypical SLR that we know today.
1959: Nikon and Canon joined Pentax ... and the Nikon F became the camera that won over professional photographers to 35mm SLRs.
Leica had responded to the SLR with a device called the Visoflex ... which was an awkward attachment for M cameras that allowed use of some M lenses and other specific telephotos. The Leicaflex SLR didn't come onto the scene until the mid 1960s. The 1970s Leicaflex SLII is to this day considered by many to the best SLR ever built, and thousands of them are still going strong. This camera production was stopped and the R line introduced because the Leicaflex SLII cost more to make than Leica could recoup in sales.
The 1957 to 1966 M3/M2 sold 288,000 units despite the introduction of SLRs. What almost killed Leica in the market was the M5 launched in 1971. It was big and bulky, couldn't use some existing wide lenses, and famous Leitz collapsable lenses.
After that, the SLR steadily took over the market and introduced AF which sealed the fate of most manual systems eventually. But the M continued being developed and survived because of what Joseph mentioned ... there is always a little room for super-high performance optics in a rangefinder format. The digital juggernaught is now the challenge that Leica faces in order to survive into the future. A digital M camera is being developed, and many hope it will save Leica from the trash bin of history.
