Today Nikon gave away $125,000 in prizes to two lucky contest winners. Awesome, right? The grand prize of $100,000 is one of the largest prizes for a single winner I've every heard of. Long live photography. Except that the winning entries weren't photographs... Read more »

Nikon has just rolled out a very useful firmware update for most of their Pro D-SLR line (except the D3S which presumably already has these improvemnts). The new firmware includes support for CF cards up to 64GB, improved Auto White Balance, some focus options and my favorite which sets the time from a GPS clock. You can download it from the Nikon USA site. For more details... Read more »

More and more birders are becoming interested in photography. To go beyond the limitations of digiscoping (limited low light capability, tricky auto-focus, limited panning or ability to capture action, etc.) requires a fairly serious investment in a camera body and lenses. In this section of our exclusive GearGuide we'll cover tips for what to look for in a camera body...

Adobe Labs has released a beta of Camera Raw 5.6 and the equivalent module for Lightroom, adding support for a variety of cameras including the Nikon D3S, the Canon 7D, S90 and G11, as well as several new Sony models. You can download it from: http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Camera_Raw_5.6#Release_Notes Read more »

Nikon today announced the D3S, a worthy "mid-life" upgrade to their workhorse pro D-SLR the D3. The biggest change is an upgraded sensor featuring the potential for shooting at ISOs up to a staggering 102,000. Realistically the typical ISO range seems to have been bumped up by 1-2 stops over the D3. The new sensor also captures HD Video, including in very low light conditions. The FX sized sensor retains the 12MP resolution of the D3, but adds a 1.2x crop mode for 8MP shooting with a slight telephoto effect--no doubt helpful when using those lenses which vignette with the FX sensors. It also doubles the buffer size and adds a quiet shutter mode among other nifty new features. It is expected to ship from Nikon in late November for $5199 street price. Full Press Release below...

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