Shooting the Moon
FOR YEARS PHOTO purists around the world begged Nikon to release a digital SLR with an image sensor the same size as a 35-millimeter film frame. This would allow photographers to use Nikon's legendary 35-millimeter SLR lenses at their true focal length. Well, the wait is over. The D3 ($5,000, nikon.com) is a 12.1-megapixel masterpiece of technology and design, with a full-frame image sensor, 51-point autofocus and a beefed-up processor that can handle nine shots a second (with autofocus on, no less). Add a three-inch LCD screen and an HDMI video jack that can pipe pictures to an HDTV at 1080i resolution and you've got yourself one hell of a snapper.