Nikon D300

For decades,Canon and Nikon have been tussling over market share like Kate Moss and Pete Doherty over a rolled-up tenner.

Forget Liverpool/Everton or Jedi/Sith, if you want to see genuine, no-holds-barred rivalry, look no further than Canon and Nikon.

The latest salvo in their never-ending war is Nikon's D300 digital SLR, a camera so stuffed with features that slow readers might not even finish the instruction manual before its (inevitable) replacement arrives. At its heart is a self-cleaning CMOS sensor that can snatch up to six razor-sharp, retina-searingly colourful 12.3MP snaps every second.

As you'd expect from a semi-pro camera, dozens of dedicated buttons control a million and one manual adjustments. But there are also user-friendly touches, such as a stunning 3-inch screen that has six times as many pixels as an iPhone and allows useful (if time-consuming) Live View framing.

The D300 also has the excellent D-Lighting system found on Nikon compacts,which automatically compensates for shadows and highlights so you don't get annoying 'burnt out' white patches. Our favourite addition, though, is 3D tracking autofocus, which keeps moving subjects in focus, however fast or erratically they're shifting -- and it really works.

Add HDMI output for High Def TV playback, bomb-proof build quality (but with weight to match) and image quality (especially in low light) that's second to none, and Nikon has delivered a real stunner. The only fly in the ointment is, naturally, Canon, whose rival 40D SLR has a similar feature list -- albeit without the amazing autofocus, HDMI, D-Lighting or quite as many megapixels - for a tempting £400 less. Don't expect this war to be over any time soon.