By Cheryl Currid

Looking back through the products I've tested this year, one of the best was an incredible digital camera from Nikon.

Nikon has always been at the top of my list for quality, but the Nikon D100 has surpassed all my expectations.

This is the camera that should have professionals putting away traditional 35 millimeter cameras for good, and beginners taking professional-looking photos.

While I've been evaluating digital cameras for over seven years, none matched the quality of high-end analog cameras, until now.

The Nikon D100 has finally introduced a camera that professionals, intermediates and beginners will fall in love with.

This 6.1-megapixel camera uses a CompactFlash card for storage and has a built-in Speedlight flash, 1.8-inch TFT LCD monitor and rechargeable battery.

It can be set to auto-multi program, shutter-priority auto or aperture-priority auto.

It also has a standard ISO-type hot-shoe contact and can connect to an external flash.

In addition, it has a continuous shooting mode that can take an amazing three frames per second for a total of six frames.

The camera includes a USB cable to transfer photos from camera to computer with ease.

I plugged it into several different Windows XP computers, and each automatically recognized it, no drivers needed.

The Nikon D100 has solved the problem with battery life that many digital cameras face.

A colleague recently took the D100 on a business trip to Holland to evaluate.

To his horror, he realized on the plane that he had forgotten to pack the battery charger, it was still in his Houston office.

He decided to take pictures anyway but knew he would run out of battery power early in the weeklong trip.

To his surprise, he took over 300 photos throughout the week, and the batteries never ran out.

He couldn't believe it and couldn't have been more excited that he ran out of time before the camera ran out of juice.

In our lab tests, we took over 250 photos, using the built-in flash, and never ran out of power.

In fact, the specifications on the Nikon Web site indicate that without using the flash, the battery will last through approximately 1,600 photos.

(We didn't have anyone with enough patience to try this for ourselves.)

And if you already have a 35 mm Nikon SLR camera, most of the lenses are compatible with the D100. In fact, another colleague is a professional photographer, and he has never been satisfied enough with any digital camera to give up his analog 35 mm Nikon SLR.

But after testing the Nikon D100 for a few days, he was thrilled to discover a digital camera that had finally surpassed the features, functions and photo quality of his 35 mm camera.

Even better, all his Nikon lenses are interchangeable, so there's no need for additional lenses if you already have an AF Nikkor, D-type Manual-Focus Nikkor or AI-P Nikkor lens.

The Nikon D100 camera body has a retail price of $2,499 but can be found online, as well as at retail stores like Wolf Camera, for under $2,000.

If you don't already have one, you'll also need to purchase a Nikkor lens.

So whether you are professional photographer who would like to go digital, or a consumer who wants pictures with a professional look, check out the Nikon D100 for yourself.