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I'm often asked about which Nikon camera is the successor to a certain model, or which cameras are considered consumer or professional. Or even which new camera was derived from which older model. There's no easy answer to any of these questions, as Nikon has used parts and designs from multiple models for new ones. However, there are some basic lineages that can be discerned. The illustration below shows my take on Nikon's recent SLRs (and a few products from licensees, such as Kodak and Fuji). I've left off minor variants of a single model (e.g., N90 versus N90s) to keep the chart simple and clear. For convenience, you can click on a body and be taken to my review of that camera (at least for the bodies I have reviews for).

Note: Outside the US, the Nikon body names all start with F, not N. Also, the earlier models have a slightly different numbering scheme (e.g., F-801 instead of N8008).

Black bodies are "professional" 35mm cameras, blue bodies are "consumer" 35mm cameras, and green bodies are digital SLRs. The black lines are direct replacements, the gray lines are less direct relationships (e.g., "based upon," "uses parts from," "inherits design ideas from," etc.).