SLRs for everyone
On the low end, Nikon showed its new $1,000 (body only) 6-megapixel D70, which will give Canon's Digital Rebel some serious competition with its similar price and somewhat more flexible feature set.

Nikon's D70

More-advanced Nikon lens owners were granted a new Fujifilm professional dSLR that's compatible with their glass. The S3 Pro uses Fuji's SuperCCD SR sensor to achieve better dynamic range than its popular predecessor, the S2 Pro. If you have Nikon lenses and only the highest resolution will do, you'll want Kodak's new DCS Pro SLR/n. It retains the market-leading 14-megapixel resolution of its predecessor, the 14n, while implementing improved sensor and image-processing technology to make it a speedier and more flexible pro camera. All of these new models should be available by summer. For more pricing and spec information on them, check out our selections for gear for '04.

Looking forward to Photokina
Not all of the SLR news at the show was about cameras that will be around in time for summer vacation. We got a little taste of what we'll see this fall at the biennial Photokina show in Köln, Germany. Konica Minolta announced development of a 6-megapixel digital SLR based on the Minolta Maxxum 7 film camera. It will be compatible with existing Minolta lenses and accessories and is expected to incorporate the antishake technology used in Konica Minolta's Dimage A2. Olympus appears to be waiting until Photokina to unveil the long-awaited consumer version of its E-1 pro SLR, and we're guessing it won't be the only camera using the 4/3 standard to appear on the scene this fall. The Four Thirds consortium announced three new members: Panasonic, Sigma, and Sanyo. Presumably, the addition of Sigma means that we'll see some affordably priced 4/3 lenses before the year is out.

Lenses for the digital world
Speaking of lenses, PMA 2004 had no shortage of new glass, and now that the digital SLR market is coming into its own, a lot of the lenses unveiled are optimized for digital capture. Canon introduced a stabilized f/3.5-to-f/5.6, 28mm-to-300mm lens priced for professionals at $2,499, along with a more prosumer-oriented stabilized f/4.5-to-f/5.6, 70mm-to-300mm lens, priced at $1,299. Photographers who have started building an SLR system from scratch with Olympus's relatively new E-1 camera will be pleased to see its new Zuiko 150mm f/2.0 lens. Pentax has added a f/2.8, 21.5mm (35mm-camera equivalent) lens to its *istD system as well. If you photograph for love but not money, one of Tamron or Sigma's new lenses optimized for digital capture may be more in line with your budget. Sigma's f/2.8, 24mm-to-60mm EX DG lens is expected to cost less than $600 and is compatible with Pentax, Canon, Nikon, and eventually Minolta dSLRs. Tamron announced three new optimized-for-digital lenses: a 90mm f/2.8 autofocus 1:1 macro for $499; a f/5.6-to-f/6.3, 200mm-to-500mm autofocus zoom for $879; and a f/2.8-to-f/4, 17mm-to-35mm autofocus zoom for $489.