Photos: Nikon D3

Any buttons that might be accidentally pressed or dials susceptible to inadvertent turning have some sort of locking mechanism to prevent this.

Some of the current settings are displayed on the LCD next to the shutter atop the camera, while others, such as ISO sensitivity and white balance, are shown on a smaller LCD below the 3-inch color screen on the camera back.

All important information is also displayed in the large, bright viewfinder, which was an absolute pleasure to use when focusing manually, especially compared with lower-end dSLRs whose viewfinders tend to give a bit of a tunnel vision effect. The Switch you see is a built-in cover, to prevent light leaks when shooting on a tripod at long shutter speeds.

As is traditional for the company, Nikon places the metering switch on the side of the viewfinder. You select drive modes via a dial underneath the buttons for flash, bracketing, and Command Lock.

Rubbery covers seal the connectors--USB, mini HDMI, AV out, and DC in--against the elements.