Nikon D90 review – first dSLR with Movie mode
Thumbs Up:
Great photo quality; video capture feature; well and solid built with viewfinder; excellent performance.
Thumbs Down:
Poor HD output implementation; mediocre kit lens.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Nikon D90 is a 12.3-megapixel digital SLR camera with Movie Recording and Live View mode. It has CMOS optical sensor of effective 12,300,000 pixels resolution. It has a SD memory card slot for external storage. Light sensitivity levels are ISO 100-6400. Maximum shutter speed is 1/4000 second, minimum is 30 seconds and X-sync speed is 1/200 second.
3 inches LCD display of Nikon D90 has 920,000 pixels resolution. The D90 has fixed eye-level pentaprism optical viewfinder that features 96% field coverage, 0.94x magnification and auto-focus frame. Its dioptric correction range is -2 to +1. The dSLR has inbuilt microphone and hot shoe flash terminal. The pop-up flash of Nikon D90 features AF illuminator. The Flash modes include Red-eye reduction, Rear curtain sync, and Slow synchro.
Shooting programs include Night portrait, Portrait mode, Landscape and Close-up. The special effects are Custom Effect, Monochrome, Landscape, Portrait, Neutral and Vivid. Nikon D90 has three types of exposure metering: 3D color matrix II, Center-weighted and Spot. Exposure modes include I-TTL program flash, Aperture-priority, Shutter-priority, Automatic, Program, Manual, and Bulb.
Nikon D90 has sensor dust reduction, 1.5 view crop factor field, frame movie shooting model and EV 0-20 ( ISO 100 ) exposure range. Auto exposure bracketing is 3 steps in 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, 1 or 2 EV steps and exposure compensation is ±5 EV range, in 1, 1/2 or 1/3 EV steps.
Nikon D90 has three types of White balance: Automatic, Presets, and Custom. White balance presets are Incandescent, Fluorescent, Sunlight, Shade, and Flash. The dSLR features face detection, TTL phase detection auto-focus, 11 auto focus zones, Nikon F lens mounting and white balance bracketing.
Nikon D90 has self timer delay feature of 2, 5 and 10 seconds. The additional features are Depth-of field preview button, Camera orientation button, Display brightness control, Face-priority AF function, In-camera RAW processing, Highlight point display, Digital noise reduction, Digital image rotation, USB 2.0 compatibility, PictBridge support, LCD live view mode, Histogram display, Cropping an image, Face detection, Direct print and DPOF support.
The connector set of Nikon D90 includes 1×HDMI, 1×Composite video output, and 1×USB. The dSLR has Nikon EN-EL3e lithium ion rechargeable battery. Accessories supplied inside the package are USB cable, video cable, LCD display cover, Eyepiece cover, Neck strap, Body cap, drivers & software disc, and Eyecup. Maximum operating temperature of the D90 is 104 degree Fahrenheit and minimum is 32 degree F.
Razzle Dazzle:
Nikon D90 is 4.1 inches tall, 5.2 inches wide and 3 inches deep and weighs 1.4 lbs. The body is a heavier than other models in its price range. It is comfortable to handle the dSLR for a long time. The D90 has same size, vertical grip, and battery as that of Nikon D80.
Inside Dope:
Nikon D90 is a predecessor of the D80 and one of the most awaited digital SLR cameras. The D90 features 12.3 megapixels sensor that is an upgrade over 10-megapixel D80. Moreover, it is the first dSLR that supports movie capture. The D90 digital SLR will face competition from Canon Rebel XSi, 10-megapixel Nikon 40D, 12.2-megapxel Sony Alpha DSLR-A700 and 14.6-megapixel Pentax K20D. Nikon D90 is available in two versions: body only and with 18-105mm lens. There is an improvement in shutter durability and the company has integrated same dust-prevention system like that of D300. The D90 has same high speed flash sync feature and wireless flash controls like that of Nikon D80.
Navigation and control layout of Nikon D90 are easily recognizable even to new users. Unlike other companies, Nikon has placed the dedicated manual controls including quality, ISO and white balance to the left side of LCD instead of its right side.
Context sensitive information button, switch for locking navigation at selected AF point, four-way navigational toggle with center OK button, and dedicated live button are located on the right side of LCD display. Nikon D90 will cycle through a grid as well as two information displays in Live View Mode. It exhibits common settings summary and allows changing limited parameters in standard shooting model. The included parameters are odd and includes only those settings that you do not want to change frequently such as Long exposure noise reduction, and Assign Fn/AF-L/AE-L buttons. On the contrary, the frequently used settings like self-timer delay and AF mode choices are buried in the custom settings. Moreover, there is no option to assign the functions to one-touch toggle.
As already said, Nikon D90 is the first digital SLR camera to include Movie mode. However, the Movie mode implementation is not as good as desired. The D90 offers movie capture at 24fps (frames per second) of 1280×720 pixels in MJPEG format with support for VR optical image stabilization. You will find both HDMI and video output. You have to manually focus while shooting. The high-definition video clips are limited to 5 minutes due to file system limitations. We are disappointed that Nikon has not included any satisfactory video processing options in camera to render the still pictures and videos. The dSLR has to rely upon TV for down-conversion to high-definition resolution for captured pictures. Moreover, the true 24fps of Nikon does not match 23.967fps of most of the TV processors.
We appreciate Nikon to include face detection to Live View mode in the D90 like Canon EOS 50D. Nikon D90 has same Expeed image processor that works at five cores. Face detection supplies all the data to face-priority AF. There is also a good improvement in the shooting options that includes advanced scene modes, nine slots to save Picture Control Settings and new additions in Active D Lighting parameters. You can upload the slots to Nikon Capture NX2 software. The D90 has a socket for Nikon GP1 hot shoe GPS navigation device. We missed the custom settings of D3 and D300 on the D90.
Nikon D90 with 18-105mm kit lens looks like perfect range to cover as a primary kit of 27-157mm lens, but it is long and wide enough for normal shooting needs. Moreover, the zoom ring is a bit more stuff and lens looks less sharp as compared to that from Canon.
Nikon D90 has same 11-point AF system as that of the D80, but Nikon has also added 11-point AF 3D tracking mode. The D90 digital SLR camera is very quick responsive in its class. The time from power on to first shot is 0.2 second. Average shot-to-shot time is 0.6 second. The shutter lag is 0.4 second in bright light and 0.9 second in bright light. The continuous shooting speed is 4fps that is less than 4.8fps of Sony Alpha DSLR A700.
There is a 12-megapixel DX format sensor in Nikon D90 and it uses 12-bit processing instead of 14-bit mode of the D300. We like that Nikon has included on-chip noise reduction in the D90. Still image quality is the best up to ISO 400 and remains good as well acceptable up to ISO 3200. Like other Nikon cameras, the D90 tries to underexpose and dynamic range of bright light shots remains better than the shots in dark. The overall tonal range is the best, accurate and saturated.
The D-Movie of Nikon D90 cannot match the movie mode of snapshot cameras. The recorded video quality is average and the dSLR blows up the saturation. It is a bit more difficult to hold a heavy dSLR while recording videos in Live View mode.
Nitty Gritty:
If you need an excellent and fast dSLR camera but do not mind poor video recording quality, then you can buy the new – Nikon D90.
