These days are good times for camera junkies. The latest professional digital cameras and lenses are offering features and image quality perhaps never before achieved by SLR cameras, and recent announcements promise even more improvements. Here’s a few of them that pique my interest, along with some thoughts of what I want to see down the road. (Warning: Only camera geeks need read further).

Canon just announced the full-frame 21 megapixel 5DII. There’s some grumbling about whether Canon’s lenses can provide the resolution for that many pixels, but either way it’s sure to be an impressive sensor in a relatively small camera. The first 5D has been a standard camera for many landscape photographers, so I’m sure the 5DII will sell like hotcakes, and will be the next “standard” of comparison.

Nikon’s D700 is a 12mp full-frame camera that offers astonishing light sensitivity up to ISO 6400, or a boosted ISO 25600. Another major selling point of a Nikon full-frame camera is the availability of the already renowned 14-24mm Nikon wideangle lens which is supposedly incredibly sharp. As I am a sucker for quality lenses, I’m honestly tempted to invest a serious chunk of change into this system, but I will probably wait until Nikon releases a higher megapixel camera body. This seems likely, not only to answer Canon’s latest release, but also because Sony has announced its impressive 24mp A900, and it’s rumored that Sony and Nikon share sensor technology.

While both the Canon and Nikon offerings are very tempting, they both have a 3:2 image aspect ratio, which, as I’ve ranted about before on this blog, I really really do not like. I wish these cameras would have a 4:3 ratio crop option, even if it was just a simple viewfinder viewing adjustment with corresponding image crop. This seems like it would be a simple feature, and it would be a huge selling point for stubborn photographers such as myself.

Meanwhile, as Canon, Nikon, and Sony duke it out in the full-frame/high-megapixel/high-ISO arena, Olympus and Panasonic are quietly headed in their own direction with their 4/3 and micro-4/3 mounts, developing the smallest and lightest SLR cameras and lenses on the planet. Panasonic just announced their revolutionary Lumix G1, which eliminates the bulky mirror box and prism of traditional SLR optical viewfinders, instead utilizing new LCOS technology for an electronic viewfinder of supposedly comparable viewing quality. Also with smaller sensor and mount, the lenses will be much smaller than traditional SLR lenses. While the G1 is not as radically small as I would have hoped for (it’s the same weight as my Oly E-420), there is still hope that Olympus’s model will be significantly smaller and lighter. (UPDATE: It WILL be smaller and lighter. See prototype pictures here. Now let’s just hope that it still functions like a quality SLR, not a dumbed down consumer point and shoot).

Since the moment I started using the Olympus E-420 this summer, I’ve been spoiled by its light weight and compact size. I’ve been able to go on longer backpack trips, and am able to enjoy the hiking itself much more, instead of huffing and puffing like a mule (which I still do on shorter trips with my 4×5 large format setup). Consider that the E-420 + 12-60mm + 70-300mm lenses equals a total weight shy of 3.5 pounds! And that gives me an enormous 35-mm-equivalent range of 24-600mm! Granted the ISO and resolution won’t quite compare with the full-frame cameras, but for a photographer like me who spends more time hiking than shooting, this weight advantage is a major benefit, and simply adds to the joy of spending time in the mountains (which after all, is what it’s really all about for me).

The dilemma for me, as always, is weight vs. pixels/print size. I can make detailed 30″ prints with my little lightweight Olympus setup. A similar high-end Canon, Nikon, or Sony setup would weigh easily twice as much, but would probably allow for prints up to (I’m guessing) around 45″ wide.

Anyways, at this point, the verdict for me is to stick with my lightweight Olympus setup for the time being, and see what happens with a possible high-megapixel Nikon or Sony camera, and/or a possible super-lightweight Olympus micro-4/3 camera. At that point the spectrum of weight vs. pixels will be stretched out enough that a decision one way or the other will be more clear. Or even more difficult. Either way, options are a good thing, and nowadays photographers have better options than ever before.