We talk a lot about how much digital camera you can get for a low price. But for every low end, there’s a high end, and these babies are it. While you can snag a wonderful camera today for less than $500, experienced shooters who can make the most of a great unit will find advantages in paying top dollar for the top of the line.

You can get nice images and a few good features for $500, but a cool grand will buy advanced photography tricks that you’ll never find on a point-and-shoot model. For an idea of what to expect from a cutting-edge camera, we checked out the Olympus C-3030 Zoom and the Nikon Coolpix 990. As expected, both are impressive, but they reach out to slightly different audiences.