This article appeared in the May/June 2002 issue of PT. To purchase this issue and receive this and other valuable articles in this issue, CLICK HERE: Ship within the U.S. | Ship outside the U.S.

As pro cameras reach new functional and ergonomic levels of excellence, Nikon’s D1/D1x/D1h series of cameras have set new design benchmarks for photography, similar to what Porsche has done for the auto industry. The cameras are sculpturally beautiful. Their sleek stealthy shape and excellent balance are just the tip of the technological iceberg, and their features and durability have set new engineering standards.

When it comes to pixel count, bigger is better, and the Nikon D1x produces perfectly saturated files suitable for commercial and advertising photography. Not only does this camera produce large files, but it also provides for a variety of pre- and post-capture processing color options. While the D1x offers many improvements over the D1, the most significant is the array of color options and tuning it offers the serious photographer.

Based on the water-resistant magnesium body of the traditional F5, the D1x fires three frames-per-second for up to nine frames, before pausing to write images to disk. Its available features reflect every photographer’s “wish list” over the past 30 years. There are hundreds of options that invite experimentation. I don’t think hardware drives creativity, but these creative options—combined with a variety of situations—will set the scene for a new, digital style.

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