Spending $145,000 for a camera is beyond the budgets of most of us, but just because you drive a Ford does not mean you cannot dream about owning a Ferari, and Kodak's new DCS 520 is the Testarossa of the digital field camera world.
The professional digital still camera market is still in its infancy, a fact which has turned digital still camera makers into beggars at the door of the film camera industry - most units are add-ons, backs or something which is basically a jury-rigged afterthought to a film camera.
The least elegant of these has been Kodak's range, but with last month's launch of the Kodak DCS 520, Big Yellow finally has hit its stride.
Although the mechanism is a Canon EOS-1n film camera, the digital component blends seamlessly. It actually looks like a camera.
It also goes a long way to fulfil the requests of photographers who used earlier models: batteries are contained in removable magazines rather than built into the camera, white balance selection is more extensive and automatic, and the TTL flash metering works.
The first thing you notice when you pick up the 520, beyond the fact it weighs about twice as much as a regular EOS-1n, is the small LCD panel on the back. Professionals finally have access to the in-camera previews amateurs have enjoyed for several years.
The 520 adds a histogram and a brightness adjustment with a reference step wedge to the display, allowing easy access to exposure and colour balance.