Digital-SLR enthusiasts and even pro shooters will be rendered speechless when they pick up Nikon’s top-of-the-line D-SLR, the 12.3-megapixel Nikon D2X ($4,999.95 list). After the oooohs and aaaahs (and recovery from the shock of its very high price), there will be a long pause as they analyze all the features available on the D2X’s body (the camera doesn’t come with either a kit lens or a built-in flash).
The Nikon D2X captures images on a CMOS sensor, unlike Nikon’s other D-SLRs, which use CCD sensors. It’s loaded with features, including 11 selectable autofocus sensors that can also be used to track fast-moving subjects, providing incredible control over how to capture those subjects when they move into your field of vision. It also has several burst modes, the fastest of which sounds like machine-gun fire. This last one, which is called high-speed cropped-image mode, will downsize the image to 6.8MP. The resulting burst fires off 8 frames per second. If you want to keep the images at 12.3MP, the regular burst mode yields 5 fps. We believe (and hope) this type of technology will eventually trickle down to consumer D-SLR models.