There are vast differences in real image quality between Nikon's two generations of digital cameras.

 

Like most marketing organizations and repressive governments, camera makers keep most people in the dark by keeping them worrying about easy-to-understand things which make no difference, like pixels and ISOs which are easy to describe with just one number, instead of trying to teach people what really matters, which are the subtleties of how a picture actually looks.

 

Because camera makers have the masses worrying about pixels and bit depths, when Nikon makes significant advances, they're usually not

 

obvious behind all the fluff.

The difference between generations is so significant that the best Gen 1 camera, the D2Xs, can't make pictures as good as the cheapest Gen 2 camera, the D90, in most real picture-taking situations.

 

Since 1999 to these days - there were a lot of different Models including the most popular ones - the D5, D7000, D3300.