~ ~ 	- hen I was judging the inau- 
	. 	gural American Landscape 
•	j .. / Contest that w~ ran over the 
	\ I 	summer, I noticed a trend 
	- - 	among the photographs. A 
lor of them were shot with full-frame DSLRs and wide-angle zooms. In fact, a pair of combinations I saw a lot of were the Canon EOS 50 Mark II and the Canon EF 17-40mm fl4L lens. as well as the Nikon 0700 and the AF-S Nikkor 16-35mm fl4G ED VR. I've come to refer to them as the OP landscape kits. 
Thinking about these OP landscape kits motivated me LO plan the article on the fullframe OSLRs in this issue of the magazine. To me. the three cameras in the anicJc-the Canon EOS 50 Mark ru. lhe :\ikon DSOO and the Sony A99-are the pro-level full-frame cameras of the year for OP. at least ~ of ~ time. I'm not ignoring the E05-m X and the D4, but these two cameras. while being marvels of technology. are also priced in the rarefied air well above $5.(0) (bod} only). fur some photographers. these special pro models are the tools they need to gel the job done. For many OP landscape shooters. the considerably 
. ---- -----~ .. ---- .... --,. 
the 0800 (about $2,900) and theA99 (about $2,8(0) are the models to aspire to. 
Full-frame still rules the roost for many landscape shooters for a couple of reasons. Resolution, image quality and high-ISO capability all playa role, and while many sports and wildlife shooters may want the magnification or crop factor of an APS-C OSLR, landscape photographers tend to crave options at the wide end of the spectrum, which makes full-frame DSLRs more appealing. Full-frame DSLRs are the new medium-format while digital medium-format is the new large-format. 
". As this issue goes to ~ press, there are a lot of ~ rumors swirling about new ~ full-frame models on the 
s: 
~ horizon at the high end, as 
well as at the entry level. 
Even as we spotlight the three full-frame OSLRs in this issue, I'm looking forward to seeing more options from more manufacturers in the not-too-distant future. It's interesting to see that when it comes to camera sensors, enthusiasts aspire to larger sensors while at the same time advancing technology generally makes things smaller. 
On the OP website, outdoorphotographer.com, we've been making a lot of changes in the galleries, and more are on the way. This is the first chance I've had to properly welcome George Lepp to the OP Blog. I'm excited [0 have his voice and his commentary as part of the rich collection of bloggers. Also on the blog, you'll notice that I've been selecting a Photo Of The Day. which I choose from the various OP galleries. A number of readers have written to me ~g bew their pbotos can be considered for Pbo:a... OfTIx Day. Its simple: Submit to any of oar coctess, 'four Fa, orite Places or Assignments. and you're automatically in the running. I check in "1m these galleries every day to make my selection. 
=Christopher Robinson, Editor c!tlitOl"@OllldoomhoLOJ,>Taphcr.l~Oln