All of the advantages that professional SLR (single-lens reflex) still cameras can provide, including their wide assortment of lenses and accessories and optimum quality stills, are now available to videographers needing to produce high-definition videos (HDTV).

The new Nikon D90 is not only able to produce top-quality stills, but 720p, widescreen, 1024-by-720, 24-frames-per-second video, with image quality that rivals or exceeds any camcorder. The D90 is probably the first of a new generation of SLRs with HDTV video capability.

You also gain things that you don't generally have with a camcorder: a wide variety of interchangeable lenses, precise control over focus, depth of field and exposure; built in special effects like a fish-eye perspective; monochrome images and image stabilization when using a Nikon VR lens.

There is no delay in recording images after pressing the shutter release button as there is on most digital cameras, and through-the-lens and CCD viewfinders provide a wide variety of shooting angles.

The D90 has a 12.3-megapixel CMOS sensor that measures 1.14 inches diagonally, making it about the same size as those used in professional digital SLRs.

This camera is also smaller and lighter than the typical SLR professional digital camera. Before the D90, if you wanted a hi-def video camera with removable lenses, you’d pay $7,000 for just the camera body, and then between $7,000 to $20,000 for each lens.

The lens that comes with the $1,300 D90, is a new 18-105 millimeter, image-stabilized lens with twist zoom.  The latter means you can go from wide-angle to a telephoto setting in about one second.

The camera records video in the AVI-format, which is easily edited in programs like iMovie and Movie Maker.  But, this type of video needs a huge amount of memory -- about 400 megabytes a minute. The camera accommodates SD cards, so a 32 gigabyte card will record 80 minutes of video.

But, the D90 has some definite drawbacks and these should be thoroughly investigated before you run out and order one.

A New Generation of Cell Phones

Although more and more people are using cell pones to take pictures, probably most of those pictures stay in the cell phones.

First, there is no easy way to transfer them to a computer for editing and printing. (Even when you know how it's generally not easy.)

Second, given the quality of cell phone cameras, people probably think they aren't missing too much by not printing them. 

Both of these issues are about to change.

First. a new generation of cell phones may soon be with us -- starting with the Nokia N96 (shown here), which has a five-megapixel sensor and a Carl Zeiss lens with autofocus capabilities. This may take a bite out of the pocket digital camera market. (Why carry a cell phone and a separate camera?)

And then there is the issue of how you download the pictures you've taken with your cell phone. A number of simple options are opening up.

Verizon Wireless is introducing a new service that will make this easy -- apparently (when details are worked out) using the Pic Transfer service. Each time a user takes a photo, a box will appear on the cell phone screen asking the shooter if he wants to send the photo to Photobucket, Flickr or whatever online service the user prefers. (Details are still fluid, but there will probably a $3 a month charge.)

T-Mobile lets users text their photos to “222,” and photos are transferred to a personal Web page where they can be downloaded and printed.

So we are finally reaching a point when a relatively high quality photo can be taken with a cell phone and then transferred to an intermediate point to crop and enhance, and then send it to a friend, publish it on a web site, or print it out for the family photo album.