A look at Nikon’s new D90 Camera
The D90 is Nikon’s latest midrange digital SLR, replacing the older D80. It’s the first DSLR that can record video, but it’s also outstanding for still photography with a 12MP CMOS sensor based on the D300’s sensor.
I recently upgraded to a D90 from my older D40x and I’m completely blown away by the difference. Stepping up to a D90 from an entry level DSLR like a D40x or D60 is almost as much of a jump as switching from a point & shoot to a DSLR.
You can see the difference in quality very dramatically in this side by side comparison:
The D90 is especially impressive at high ISO settings. While many cameras start showing some noise at ISO 800 and most are unusable by ISO 1600, the D90 still shows very little noise at ISO 3200. Even at ISO 4000, the pictures are still clean.
The D90’s video mode is an extension to the Live View, which lets you use the 3″ LCD screen instead of the viewfinder. To record video, simply switch to live view, focus, and press the OK button to start recording. Press OK again to stop recording. At the highest resolution of 1280×720 you can only record 5 minutes of video at a time, but the default 640×424 resolution lets you record up to 20 minutes. You can use any lens for video and you can even use effects like monochrome.
If you don’t want to record video, the 4.5 FPS continuous shooting mode lets you freeze action for a striking effect.
If you like HDR imaging, the D90’s exposure bracketing feature makes it very easy. When you combine bracketing with continuos shooting mode, you can simply press the shutter release once to take 3 shots at different exposure levels, which you can then merge to HDR in Photoshop, Photomatix, or Hydra.
Unlike entry level DLSRs like the D40, D40x, and D60, the D90 has an internal auto focus motor, so you can use auto focus with Nikon’s older AF lenses like their popular 50mm/f1.8 AF.
Don’t bother shooting RAW, at least for now, since there’s no native support for the D90’s new RAW format in Aperture or in the OS. It will probably be fixed in Apple’s next Camera RAW update. Adobe already has a beta version of their Camera RAW that supports the D90. I find the JPEG quality to be good enough that I usually don’t have to do too much adjustment.
The D90’s only minor drawback is that it’s much bigger and heavier than the D40x, but after a few days it didn’t bother me. The improved performance and new features more than make up for the weight difference.
