Nikon SLR Cameras

Although film SLR has been around for many years, the first practical digital SLR was only introduced into the market as recent as 1999 - the Nikon D1. It had good enough image quality for print (2.7 MP), was fast enough (4.5 FPS) and functionally sensible enough to be used as a replacement for a film SLR. It's also the first DSLR made with Nikon electronics, based on a Nikon film camera body. However, priced at $5,000, it was affordable only to some professionals. In the world of digital cameras things move so fast, that cameras get obsolete in a very short space of time. A new (2011) D5100 for $800 has far better image quality than that first Nikon D1, in spite of the latter being 4 times more expensive.

One can distinguish between two generations of DSLR's from Nikon: Generation 1 from 1999 to 2008, and Generation 2, which actually started in 2007. The difference between these two generations is so significant that the cheapest Gen 2 camera, the D90, can make better pictures than the best Generation 1 camera, the D2Xs. Nikon's first generation of digital SLRs started with the D1 series of 1999, followed by the D2 series, the D40, D40x, D50, D70, D70s, D80, D100 and D200, up until 2008. These cameras had only elementary picture and white balance adjustments, including an Optimize Image menu with crude controls allowing only options of "Enhance (+)" or "Moderate (-)" for saturation, and WB trims that extend only to 3. Getting a perfect picture was really a challenge and only achieved by real professionals.

With the introduction of Nikon's Adaptive Dynamic Range (ADR) we have the dawn of the second generation cameras, which were introduced into the market in 2007 with the D3 and D300. The ADR made significantly better real image quality possible. ADR allows Gen 2 cameras to render most real scenes much closer to the way we see them with our own eyes, without added contrast, blown highlights and blocked shadows common on film and Generation 1 cameras for most people. The D90 has ADR on by default, and in the case of the D3, D700 and D300 it had to be turned on in the menus.

Gen 2 cameras also are Nikon's first cameras to allow a full range of saturation and other image adjustments. Saturation and other values are set in direct units of up to 3, set in the Picture Control menus. The following features also contribute towards taking excellent pictures: WB trims which extend 6 units in each direction and manual preset WB storage settings (complete with icons and notes) Increased in-camera processing has become the order of the day and getting beautiful pictures has now become so much easier. These cameras also boast super-sharp new 3" LCD screens.

Through the mid-2000s Nikon sales were overshadowed by that of Canon, but they regained much of their reputation among professional and amateur enthusiast photographers as a leading innovator in the field, especially because of the speed, ergonomics, and low-light performance of its latest models. The mid-range Nikon D90, introduced in 2008, was also the first SLR camera to record video. Since then video mode has been introduced to many more of the Nikon DSLR cameras, even the entry-level ones. A wide range of digital SLR cameras are available (2011): High-end (professional), DX-sensor, high speed: NIKON D2 HS; high-end (prosumer) DX sensor: NIKON D300S; Mid-range: Nikon D7000; Upper-entry-level: Nikon D5100; Entry-level (consumer): Nikon D3100.