Ready to upgrade from a compact camera to a more-capable DSLR? Or looking to trade in your old DSLR for a newer, faster, video-capable model that won’t cost you an arm and a leg? Check out the roundup I wrote in this month’s Outdoor Photographer magazine.

INTRO:
Big-Time DSLRs Under $1,000
Packed with power, advanced features and high performance, the latest sub-$1,000 ­­HD SLRs are outstanding options for serious nature photographers
By Michael J. McNamara

It’s hard to believe that the very first DSLR was introduced only 20 years ago, but that’s ancient history in the world of digital cameras. Priced at an astronomical $26,000 for the basic color model, the Kodak DCS-100 had a jury-rigged, 1.3-megapixel camera back attached to a Nikon F3 film SLR and a shoebox-sized 200 MB hard drive that slung painfully over your shoulder. By today’s standards, the DCS-100 was a real clunker—but the same can be said of any DSLR that’s more than five years old, as recent advancements in digital camera technologies have upped the performance ante dramatically in DSLRs from entry level to professional grade. Now, if you’re a serious photographer who can’t justify spending several grand on a rugged, full-frame DSLR, or even a pro looking for an affordable, lightweight backup camera and one that just happens to record great video, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the features and performance found in DSLRs costing under $1,000.

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Hear my analysis on Inside Digital Photo’s August 23, 2008 Radio Program (slide forward to the 11:20 min mark to get straight to the report on this topic):

It happened again, just when most photographers had been lulled into thinking we had seen the last new RAW file format. But noooo! Nikon surprised us by giving birth to a new one called .NRW that’s found exclusively in the high-level COOLPIX P6000 (This hot $500 compact boasts a 13.5MP CCD, 28-112mm f/2.7-5.9 stabilized zoom lens, built-in GPS, and up to ISO 6400.) Unfortunately, the Nikon engineers forgot something when they created this new RAW format—and it’s called Mac compatibility! Guess we should have seen that coming with a file extension called .NRW (Nikon Raw Windows).
So while photographers with PC’s running Microsoft Vista (and nothing prior to Vista) will be able to open and adjust .NRW files, the rest of the world is out of luck—unless popular RAW workflow programs like Apple’s Aperture, Adobe RAW converter, and Adobe’s Lightroom come to the rescue as they have in the past.

I really don’t expect the development teams at Apple to fret over this new format. After all, few professional photographers–the core base of Aperture users–will be rushing out to get the P6000. And with the plugin architecture of Aperture I would expect a third party (perhaps even Microsoft? Nah!) to develop a plugin that could convert .NRW files into something Aperture and other Mac-based imaging programs could handle.

Funny thing about the Coolpix P6000 though. It has some incredible features and advanced technologies that are being overlooked by the vast majority of the press reports I’ve seen due to the controversy of the Windows RAW format.  For a compact camera, it offers a great deal, including a dedicated hotshoe that works with Nikon’s advanced flash system, a sharper LCD monitor than just about any other camera in its class, and built in GPS for tagging photos by location.

Hear my analysis on Inside Digital Photo’s July 19, 2008 Radio Program:

The D700 is priced 2G less than the D3, but why did Nikon introduce it now when the D3 was in such hot demand? There’s not much more that the D3 offers over the D700 for the price, and the D700 is lighter and even has a pop up flash to control wireless SB-800s and the new SB-900. Was Nikon trying to shoot down any remaining sales of the much older, but full-framed Canon 5D? I don’t think so—in fact, I think the D700 is just a distraction for a big Nikon coming attraction at Photokina in September.