Nikon D1x

The original Nikon D1 dominated sales of digital SLRs and, although highly impressive, was by no means perfect. So, not content to rest on its laurels, and with the threat of increasing competition, Nikon has introduced two new cameras to replace it. The first is the D1H, a 2.74 megapixel camera built for speed, but it's the new D1x that has caught the market's attention.

The D1x is a 5.47 megapixel camera and, with interpolation, the output is claimed to be equivalent to 5.9 megapixels. It looks and handles like the original D1, though, showing how good the design of that camera was.

For £3,404 you'd expect high build standards, and with tough magnesium outer and 'O' ring seals to reduce water and dust intrusion, plus a robust metal chassis, it's every inch the professional's tool. A clear plastic cover for the rear LCD allows comfortable viewing when paging through the four operating menus or viewing images without getting fingerprints over the screen. The LCD has adjustable back lighting and now shows all of the image recorded.

The viewfinder is a high eye-point type, which is especially good for those wearing glasses, as the user can see the entire image from 22mm away. It shows 96 per cent of the image recorded by the CCD, but it's smaller than a 35mm film frame, so increases the effective focal length by 1.5x compared to the same optic on a film camera. Exposure information inside the finder and on the camera's external LCD panels is as comprehensive as you'd expect on a top-of-the-line professional model.

Autofocus utilises five detection areas, with one active at a time, selected by using a multiselector control on the rear of the camera. The camera can also detect the most likely sensor to be covering the subject using dynamic AF. Further focus options include Single Servo AF, which prevents exposure until a sharp focus is found, and Continuous Servo AF, which allows the shutter to trip whenever the user decides.

Images are generated in one of two sizes, with 3,008 x 1,960 being the maximum. There's also the option to set 2,000 x 1,312 pixels, giving the same resolution as the D1H. File format options fully meet the needs of those producing images for professional reasons. There's the ubiquitous JPEG with basic, normal and fine compression rates, TIFF either as RGB or YCbCr, and a RAW format called NEF (Nikon Electronic Format). This is greatly underestimated for its quality, taking the basic CCD's data without adjusting sharpness, contrast or colour. This format can be opened in the supplied Nikon View 4 as well as Photoshop. It can also be used with Nikon Capture 2, which is included with the Pro kit in addition to a PC Card adaptor and rechargeable battery kit.

The D1x also offers the choice of two colour spaces - sRGB as standard or Adobe 1998 - set in one of the camera's 36 custom functions. Also, colour images can be supplemented by shooting in black and white mode.

Custom functions are impressive, allowing those with very different needs to get what they want from a handling and operational point of view. For instance, exposure increments can be controlled in full, half or third stop settings for both aperture and shutter speed, and you can also vary the number of frames that can be shot before the camera stops and writes to the buffer memory. Normally you can shoot a maximum of nine shots on continuous drive at three frames per second.

There are plenty of other useful features too, including 3D Digital Matrix Image Control for intelligent image adjustment, but a significant improvement is moving the menu to the playback LCD rather than on the smaller rear panel. If a camera is going to be 'pooled' or worked in quite different situations by one user, up to four 'banks' of data designated A, B, C and D can be established to hold settings for each situation.