My guilty confession: I haven't posted a new entry in some time, mainly because I've been too busy using the Nikon D700 SLR. I've been planning to review it, but it's been hard to put down the camera and pick up the virtual pen.

There are a lot of people out there writing excellent and detailed reviews of this powerhouse of a camera, and I don't think I can add a ton to that approach. But what I can talk about is what it felt like to use the D700.

You see, like many non-professional digital SLR users today, I use my camera mainly to take pictures of my kids, with the occasional friend, family member, landscape or wildlife shot thrown in. And if you're taking pictures of kids, only two things really matter. One, it needs to be easy to grab your camera and take a picture. And two, it needs to be easy to take a great picture — because some moments you only get one chance at.

So I'm only going to rate the D700 on how it fared with these two factors, as those are the real-world considerations many camera users will be considering.

First, though, let me give the shortest possible summary of the D700. It's Nikon's top consumer-oriented digital SLR (they actually describe it as having "professional image quality" and it's packed with features, though it lacks some of the goodies on the premier D3X). Unlike its cousins, the D80, D90, and D300, the D700 camera has a full-frame sensor. This should, technically, provide improved images compared to those from a smaller sensor, while eliminating that crop factor equation so many digital SLR users do in their heads when switching out lenses. It's less oriented toward automatic shooting than models like the D80 and D90. It's bigger and heavier than those models. And in pricing terms, it's naturally going to be more expensive than its less complex relatives.

So, how did the D700 stack up?

Ease of use, or what I call "grabbability" — To be honest, this is not the D700's strong suit. That's because the D700 has massive photographic capabilities, and a side effect is that it has had to cram multiple features into a relatively small space. So you have to learn not just what those features are, but how to access them in a hurry. And stopping to read the in-depth manual isn't really compatible with grabbing it to snap a shot of the baby and the dog both trying to eat the same cookie.

Because I had prior experience with my Nikon D80, and other digital SLRs, I didn't suffer too much from the relatively steep learning curve. In fact, within a few days, I found it simple to do the things I do most often. But I think it would be tough, for example, to make the transition from a point-and-shoot model to this camera.

Another factor affecting grabbability is mass. The larger size of SLRs is always a consideration when you're upgrading from a pocket model. But at nearly 2 pounds without a lens or a battery, the D700 is larger and heavier than many SLRs, too.

However, the D700 did so well when it came to taking beautiful photographs that I think many people are not going to worry about whether it's a good grab-and-go camera.

Picture quality — The D700 did a great job in this regard, and I chalk that up to three main things. First, there's the larger sensor. Second, there's the improved ISO, or sensitivity, options. And third, there's what I call "magic": the sophisticated processing that goes on inside the camera and can make or break your photos.

A larger sensor, as I mentioned, eliminates the problem of crop factor. But it also means that the individual photosites on the chip — the little receptors that absorb light and each equate to a single pixel — are larger than the photosites on a similar-megapixel chip that is physically smaller. When the sensor can pick up more light, that means it can absorb and reproduce more information about any image it captures. And the result is better detail and more dynamic range. I was immediately surprised by the effects of shooting in a familiar room, under familiar lighting. It gave my photos more dimensionality in low-light indoor shots, and a luminous quality in sunlight.  And when I zoomed in, there was a noticeable improvement in shadow detail, in highlights, etc., that could not be attributed merely to a difference in megapixels. 

Better sensitivity gave me more options for shooting without a flash. I'm not great at shooting with a flash, so that was a big plus for me. There are plenty of times when I was willing to get a slightly grainier photo (grain is a common side effect of shooting with a high ISO) in order to be able to capture my four-year-old superhero "flying" off the ottoman. If I'd had to go get an add-on flash and set it up, that's a shot I would have just plain missed. And the D700 handles high ISO shooting so well that you don't get very noticeable grain until you get into some pretty high ISO numbers.

Last of all, the magic. I don't know exactly what the processing is doing, from a technical point of view. I do know that shooting in JPEG mode, I got great-looking pictures. I particularly noticed a better handling of auto white balance than I get with my older D80. So there's something good going on there.

Bottom line? If you're not put off by a bit of physical heft, and you're willing to learn your way around a sophisticated device, you are likely to be impressed by — even enamored of — the Nikon D700. I am.