There have been dozens and dozens of threads on message boards out there in the ether world of the world wide web discussing the lack of technology improvement coming from the hallowed halls of the Nikon Corporation. The acknowledge leader in digital SLR technology only two years ago, the thesis of most of these messages is the recent dearth of new and better introductions from Nikon while it appears its main competitor introduces something new and different with crazy regularity. The messages are drumming the demise of the company as legions of loyalist are making conversions to Canons newer/better technology simply because it seems Nikon cant keep up. These pundits, self-acknowledged experts say, unless Nikon gets its act together, you might as well beat the rush to convert because the hand-writing is on the wall for Nikon. The end approaches with no hope in sight. I say bunk!

At issue are two important technology improvements made by Canon in recent years. Both have clearly stretched the envelope for photographers by improving their abilities to get previously unattainable images for the 35mm styled digital photographer. First is Image Stabilization (IS) technology. For those unawaremostly non-photographers without the penchant for being gear head cripplesthis is the technology that allows photographers to hand hold their cameras at slower shutter speeds while minimizing the affects of vibration. It seems to practically eliminate any need for tripods. Canon has this in practically every lens they sell yet Nikon is barely introducing lenses with this capability. In fact, Nikon only produced its second lens with this capability just recently. At that, it was a whole year after being introduced. On the second front, Canon just pronounced a full-framed, 35mm sized digital imaging sensor. In other words, it now has a camera eliminating the 1.5x or so crop/mag factor associated with previous generation pro digital cameras. Once again for you digital converts, wide-angle lenses are truly wide with this camera. You no longer have to splice images together or spend money on extremely wide lenses to match the capability of large image sensor cameras. Okay, sure you dont have the apparent magnification on the long end of lenses but the pundits are saying theyve finally matched the capabilities of 35mm by matching its image size. Somehow, Nikon has failed to duplicate these improvements for reasons unknown to anyone out of the inner Nikon circle.

So, whats at stake here? What does it really mean to you and me that Nikon hasnt advanced their line-up like Canon? Lets talk about IS first. The beauty of this technology is it compensates for vibrations related to unsteady hands. It allows for those slight wavering inputs made when most people handhold their cameras. In the old days, the affects of camera shake was eliminated by simply raising the shutter speed. If the shutter is open less, that would allow less blur to happen. The rule of thumb most people were taught was make sure you hold your camera at shutter speeds at least as great as the inverse of the focal length of your lens. This means holding a 300mm lens with at least a 1/300sec shutter speed. It means you need 1/100sec for a 100mm lens if you were holding it with your hands. IS technology supposedly reduces this speed by two stops. In other words, you need 1/25sec with a 100mm lens or 1/75sec for a 300mm lens and so on. Theres great advantage for having something like this. For slow speed, essentially static subjects, it allows you to make tack sharp images while your less technology savy brothers are suffering with the reality of human, unsteady hands. Wow!