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

Since these cameras have much larger image sensors, not only is resolution (image sharpness) better than with typical camcorders, but they can produce video at much lower light levels.

The Nikon D90 is not only able to produce top-quality stills, but 720p, widescreen, 1024-by-720, 24 frames-per-second video.

The Canon 5D Mark II has even higher-resolution and the ability to shoot at 1080p, which puts it on par with the best video cameras -- but at a fraction of the cost. 

Far less expensive than either of these are the Nikon D5000 and the Canon EOS Rebel T1i cameras.

Shooting with digital SLR camera requires some special considerations.

1.  Shake, vibration and "drifting" are much more of an issue with these small cameras, so a tripod is not something you want to leave behind. Compounding this issue is the fact that most of these cameras don't (as yet) have vibration-reduction systems.

However, some companies, such as RedRockMicro, have come up with ways to stabilize these cameras for hand-held shots.

2. The LCD viewfinders these cameras typically use can wash out outside or in bright light, making it hard to focus. Of course eye-level viewfinders are a better option, but video requires special technical accommodations which may not be an option for this type of viewfinder. For high-quality professional work a good, stand-alone monitor is recommended.

3. The audio on most of these cameras comes from a built-in mic. As in the case with the built-in mics in camcorders, this results in poor sound pick-up. However, at least one digital SLR video camera has a provision for an external mic.

4. Most of these cameras use automatic exposure control, but being able to manually control exposure gives you much better creative control.

5. Finally, the memory cards used by these cameras limit continuous shooting time. Depending on the camera and the storage card, this ranges from 15 to 30 minutes.

 Each of these shortcomings is being tackled right now and we can expect that they will no longer be issues with these cameras in the coming months and years.

We are now seeing digital SLR video cameras being used in a variety of professional applications. Having a small, light-weight, high-quality video camera that looks like a simple SLR is has advantages in covering news, for example.

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 not that 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 using a 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.

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.

In addition, of course, most cell phones are capable of capturing video -- although the quality would hardly be confused with that of professional quality video cameras.