The Nikon D90 Review
It’s been about 2 years since Nikon launched the D80. Even though these two years have seen huge strides in digital camera technology, the D80 continues to be popular and remains a favorite with its owners. The D90 is a long overdue replacement. Although it looks a lot like the D80, the new model is not just a series of incremental improvements and added technology but a whole new camera.
First and foremost, the D90 is the world’s first digital SLR camera with a movie mode. That’s right; you can use this camera for HD video. You can use it to shoot HD720p video at a professional 24 frames per second at definitions as high as 1280 x 720 pixels. Since the image sensor is much larger than that of a normal camcorder, you can be sure of great image quality coupled with low noise. Add the wide variety of top quality Nikon lenses available and you have a camera that can switch from still to video photography with almost no loss of image quality. Using the Nikkor macro lenses allows for extremely close up video filming, far beyond what the normal camcorder can offer. All in all the video quality will amaze you. But this is still a D-SLR so let’s not ignore the SLR aspects of the camera.
The Live View mode is activated by a single button and the 3 inch LCD delivers crystal clear images. Even traditionalists who prefer to use the view finder may be tempted to use this feature at times.
The D90 features a new CMOS sensor with a wide ISO range – 200 to 3200 – offering very low noise throughout. Extra settings allow for ISO settings as high as 6400 and as low as 100 so the versatility of the camera is exceptional. The sensor features an automatic dust cleaning function. The 12.3 effective megapixels delivers outstanding clarity and resolution.
The D90 has an extensive menu of built in image editing and modifications functions including distortion control to correct lens aberrations, a fish eye option to create fish eye lens effects and straightness control to fix image aberrations.
Besides the in camera capabilities, the Nikon ViewNX software allows for easy editing of your images, including RAW image editing and also simple organization and labeling of your images. If you want to go a step further, the optional Capture NX2 software offers almost professional level image editing capabilities.
Other plus points of the D90 are the quick start up time of 0.15 seconds and the burst shooting capability of 4.5 frames per second.
Those who have suffered due to battery failure at crucial times will be happy to note that the D90’s energy management system allows for up to 850 photos to be taken on just one battery charge.
The D90 has many other innovative features worth examining but what remains the same as in earlier Nikon models is the ease of use and reliability. All in all this may not be the best D-SLR on the market, but its one definitely worth looking at and the features it offers, including the HD video, makes it well worth the $1000 price tag.