It isn't that much better from the Nikon side of the fence. I have just ordered the 12-24, and hope I'm not making a mistake. Nikon won't tell us where it is going--perhpas next week Nikon will announce that all future digital SLRs will have a 24x36mm sensor. The 12-24 DX lens is not designed for a large sensor. Everyone expects that Nikon will stay with the 24x16mm format, but no one knows.

Both Canon and Nikon exploit thier monopoly positions with those customers who have invested heavily in their systems. I hope Olympus and the open 4/3 standard does well. We, the folks who feed Nikon and Canon, will continue have our needs ignored until there is some real competition.

Just what I want. Can I have it soon? Nikon seems to have it's head on straght with a 12-24 zoom for smaller sensors. I love the 1.6 multiplier for wildlife, use my 16-35 as a walkaround lens, and still need something like the 12-24. I really don't want to ever go to a full frame sensor as there are too many advantages to the small sensors with normal optics, so if you make one, I will buy it, Canon, and I suspect so will a lot of other people.

I suppose that no-one except perhaps Olympus has totally committed themselves to a DSLR plan, but Nikon has been fairly consistent in all their actions and statements lately, in the direction of what they call DX format (16x24mm). Wouldn't they be shooting themselves in the foot putting the 12-24 DX at a fairly professional price and quality level and then offering new 35mm format pro bodies on which it becomes only a 16-24mm? [A review I just read at http://www.naturfotograf.com/AFS12-24DX_rev00.html says that when used on a 35mm format camera, vignetting stops above 16mm.] Maybe they could add a larger sensor format if it is somehow positioned as a product for a separate "medium format replacement" market. How? Make it very expensive and heavy maybe!

Let us hope, for the sake of us racked by curiosity about where digital and SLR are going, that the rumour is true of an announcement on July 22 from Nikon of one or more pro camera bodies.