In a surprise announcement, Nikon has just this morning unveiled the D610, successor to the popular D600 which was released last year.

While it sports the same 24.3MP sensor as the D600, the shooting speed has been upped to 6fps, and a new Quiet Release Burst mode allows for shooting at 3fps in near silence – a boon for wildlife and street photographers.

The D610 also inherits several characteristics of Nikon’s D4, including the Expeed 3 image processor and AF sensitivity.

Given the abundance of previously existing Nikon technology in the D610, this release may be a response to the dust/oil issues that have plagued the D600 since its release.

Many users of the D600 noticed dust/oil spots frequently appearing in the upper left portion of the frame of images taken with the camera. DPReview covered this in depth in their review, and Nikon released a statement earlier this year acknowledging the problem. The D610 seems to have had the problem corrected, with the addition of a new shutter release mechanism.

The Nikon D610 will be available by the end of the month at an RRP of £1,799. For more information, visit the Nikon website.