"Although digital SLRs have been around since the mid-1990s, when Kodak produced digital adaptations of high-end Canon and Nikon 35mm SLRs, it is only since the launch in 2000 of the beautiful but deeply flawed Contax N Digital, that the market for "consumer" digital SLRs has grown. In
that short time the market has already stratified into distinct sectors, from
the fiercely contested sub-=500 mass-market category, all the way up to the 2000+ professional cameras such as the Canon EOS 1Ds MkII and Nikon D2X."