D800 AF now IMPROVED!

I guess there are two different interpretations of what focus priority should mean.

One interpretation is focus priority = only release when focus can be confirmed

The other interpretation is focus priority = allow autofocus operation to finish before release

With the second interpretation, the shutter can be released when there's no autofocus operation going on (the camera doesn't have to wait for something to finish).

With the first interpretation, I can see problems as well. You won't be able to instantly switch over into manual focus with an AF-S lens without first pushing AF-ON and waiting for AF to finish. Otherwise, the camera will refuse to release unless what's under the selected AF sensor is in focus, defeating the point of MF override. I don't know if that's what actually happened with previous Nikon cameras.

I'm personally fine with how my D600 works as is with respect to focus/release priority. It's actually always in release priority anyways, so I don't care too much. However, it does seem like a lot of old Nikon owners aren't so happy about this, so an option to switch between focus priority modes would be nice.