Dear Friends,

Today, Nikon announced it’s newest FX-format digital SLR, the D700. Shortly after the new year, I was asked to test the durability of the camera and gladly accepted. The catch? I could not talk about it. Now I can -- and happily so! I worked covertly with the camera April 3-May 31, 2008, -- 105 days, 8,830 miles, and more than 200 severe weather warnings, and I can honestly say, this is a terrific camera.

I write about the D700 here. You can also preview fifteen images I captured with the D700 by clicking here.  Nikon also has a Web site page dedicated to the camera which includes my images and video of me in action. You can view that by clicking here.

With the record-setting 2008 storm season and my work with Nikon concluding, I will soon begin to catch up on hundreds of emails. This has been an extraordinary year for me, on so many levels.

My very special thanks to Nikon for allowing me to test a pre-production camera -- and to my 2008 storm chasing team: Robin Lorenson, Katherine Bay, and Mike Phelps, and to all of you for being patient with me! :)

-- Jim