Nikon D90 12.3MP DX-Format CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 18-105 mm f/3.5-5.6G ED AF-S VR DX Nikkor Zoom Lens (OLD MODEL)
Nikon D90 12.3MP DX-Format CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 18-105 mm f/3.5-5.6G ED AF-S VR DX Nikkor Zoom Lens (OLD MODEL)
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- 12.3-megapixel DX-format CMOS imaging sensor
- 5.8x AF-S DX Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR lens included
- D-Movie Mode; Cinematic 24fps HD with sound
- 3-inch super-density 920,000-dot color LCD monitor
- Capture images to SD/SDHC memory cards (not included)
Brand : Nikon
Category : Electronics,Camera & Photo,Digital Cameras,DSLR Cameras
Rating : 4.6
ListPrice : US $899.99
Price : US $899.99
Review Count : 503
Nikon D90 12.3MP DX-Format CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 18-105 mm f/3.5-5.6G ED AF-S VR DX Nikkor Zoom Lens (OLD MODEL)
- The media could not be loaded. It is an amazing camera by Nikon, expecially for amateur and enthusiast level photographers. The feature list is fantastic, plus the fact that it has the sensor of similar quality as the professional grade D300 model, and of course how can you forget the HD video capabilities? The sensor is highly rated for amazing dynamic range and color depth (the blues and greens are dreamingly rich, see my images in the customer images section). Please watch the video for a comparison with Rebel XSi that I owned before this one.[+++++]:- Great sensor, amazing colors out of the camera- Auto D-lighting to restore shadowed regions- Feels great in hand, very comfortable to hold... lighter than a Canon 40d/50d.- The optical viewfinder is bright and big, with great coverage- AF tracking points are easy to spot and switch to- Great 320K dots LCD- Video feature is great.. you can make some really slick short movies after some practice. It is a bit difficult to master both autofocus and zoom and exposure control in video mode, but I guarantee you a huge share of fun with it.. especially with DOF tests:-)[-----]- My copy of the camera came with one big bright hot pixel that was ON even at low ISOs like 200 and at fast shutter speeds. I was just about to learn to ignore it by using the software to map it out, and 2 more developed within a week of normal usage. Not good for a $1K camera right out of the box. I searched online and found many many others with the same issue. Further, you will have to pay at least one way shipping to a Nikon service center to have them mapped out, and yet they say it may develop more with time. I dont understand why a brand new camera has this issue. And its not just my copy, you can search \"Nikon D90 + hot pixels\" and you will find many many recent posts on this topic.- The live view is just a gimmick. It doesnt stand in front of the implementation in a cheaper Canon XSI even. It lacks exposure simulation (the mode which brightens or darkens the LCD view based upon live shot setting changes like ISO/aperture/exposure time etc.). Further, it only goes as high as 6.7X while the XSi and 40D/50D go upto 10X zoom. To add to that, D90 seems to extrapolate the live view image at high zooms from a lower resolution image... showing bad interpolation artifacts like blocks at 6.7X zoom. You have to see it to believe it. Try a Rebel XSi and a D90 live view, and you will know what I mean. Also, there is no exposure scale overlay on the live view image to guide the user whether the shot is under/over exposed. You will have to switch to optical view finder to confirm the shot exposure level. All this renders the live view practically useless for anything but framing a snapshot or a video. In fact it should have been called an LCD view finder and not the live view, which it is not. D90 also only has one auto focus mode in live view which is contrast based, and too slow. Even 40d has a fast phase detect mode. Also, the D90 LCD refreshes only 15 frames per sec while a 40d/50d refreshes at 30 fps - better for sports. If you wear glasses and are hoping this live view will help you take pictures without having to goto the top LCD or the optical view finder, you will be shocked. Having owned an XSi and tried a Canon 50d, I can say with confidence that Nikon really has to improve their live view, or at least stop calling it that. I have let the Nikon customer support know of the interpolation issue at least, and they say it may come as a model update later, probably not an easy firmware update. But their answer was not clear. It took many emails just to explain the problem.- The zoom (+/-) buttons are for the left hand. They may have been like this for most of the Nikons, but coming from Canon, it was a big discomfort to me to first switch the camera weight to the right hand, then move my left hand to use the buttons to the left of the LCD, then switch the hands back. This can be a pain if you have a heavy lens (like 70-300mm VR) and don\'t have a tripod.- The pixel depth is only 12-bit as compared to 14-bit in a Rebel XSi or a Canon 40d. This is not that obvious, and it is actually surprising that D90 produces great colors for a shorter pixel depth.- The video mode can possibly age your sensor quicker than it should. Because of prolonged exposures (upto 5 minutes in HD mode), the sensor may develop more hot pixels over time than usual. It is also hard to lock exposure while in video.. else there are jerks when the auto-exposure-compensation mode jumps in as the scene brightness changes.In conclusion,- if you can live with a sensor that may come with hot pixels, or may develop more sooner than expected,- if you don\'t mind using both hands to manage controls while also holding a heavy lens,- if you don\'t use live view at all and will only use the optical view finder, and- if you have about $1200 to spare (as of Jan 12 2009), and a few hundred more down the line for expensive Nikkor zooms,then this is a great camera for you. You will be more than satisfied with the colors that come flying out of it. Otherwise, allow me to recommend Canon 40d or 50d with pretty much all of the basic imaging done the right way.The live view and the hot pixel issues are a big reason why I gave this camera only 3 stars. Especially so because it is a still camera first.. and if they ship out defective units (with hot pixels) in a brand new box, and ask you to use a software to take 30 minutes just to wait for them to me mapped out, I think they fail to provide the basic purpose of this camera. Plus the live view isnt useful at all except only for shot framing.Edit to add: Here is a website that will let you compare the sensor quality between different models for your information. I am not sure how reliable they are, but they seem genuine.. still I advise you to interpret that data at your own discretion: [...]%7C0/(appareil2)/267%7C0/(appareil3)/262%7C0/(onglet)/0/(brand)/Canon/(brand2)/Canon/(brand3)/Nikon .Edit#2: I have since returned this camera and have ordered a Canon 50d. I want to take good still pictures first, and the video mode and the ineffective live view and the LCD werent helping me too much in doing that. Regardless, it may fit your requirements, in which case please enjoy all the features it comes with, and dont forget to share your first video:-) Here are mine:[...]Edit#3 (1/19/09): After having owned a 50d, I would add one more star to this review, only the system doesnt allow it now. The reason being, I feel D90 handled noise much better... at least better than the 50d. Also, the 50d gave lens mount error right out of the box too... this is with firmware v1.0.3, the latest available.Edit#4: 1/21/09. I confirmed that D90 had better noise performance in day-to-day use as compared to Canon 50d. Again, no lab tests, no controlled environment.. but just regular in-house pictures.. and I can see more chroma-noise with Canon 50d pictures. Also, no matter what I tried with the Canon pictures style editor, it was near to impossible to get the \'punchy\' colors that nikon produces. In all fairness, Canon\'s picture style editor is a great idea, and it does help a lot too (see my blog here: [...] ). But the limitations are with how we can only select and change 100 discrete/individual colors, and there is no easy way to just plain rotate the color cone for all the possible colors. I decided to return the Canon 50d for these reasons.. plus the fact that it started giving me lens mount errors right out of the box. Come what may, I have re-ordered the D90 kit (I know.. but at least I tried both and found out what I like). I know I will miss the tack sharp live view and the hot-pixel-less sensor from Canon, but I have come to realise that what counts is the ultimate aesthetics of picture-taking, and Nikon D90 gave me that. I caught myself frequently comparing D90\'s output pictures with the 50d\'s. And no matter what I did, I always spent more time staring at and panning and zooming in the Nikon results. In a way, they \'called\' me.I plan to deal with the hot pixels with Adobe Lightroom which automagically maps them out from raw images. Or I will write scripts to map them in batches from both RAW and JPEGs in Capture NX2 (yes.. I found out that Capture NX2 allows you to remap hot pixels even in JPEGS.. so you dont necessarily have to shoot RAWs to avoid the hot pixels. as is the common misconception!).So if you have read this review so far, please know this: I chose aesthetic pleasure over technical (or specification) superiority.. a personal choice. And if I could change the star rating of this camera, I would now make it 4-1/2. The half points will still be gone for hot-pixels and inferior live view with no exposure simulation.There. I lived through two great cameras, and embraced one. Its your turn now. Good luck.. and whichever one you choose, make sure you like the end result.. and not just the camera\'s specifications or mega pixel count:-)
- The photos I took in 2005 of my first son\'s graduation from college were a bit blurry. I used a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20 camera with an f2.8 36-432mm (35mm equivalent) lens, but that camera has a maximum ISO setting of 400. The FZ20\'s photo information indicated that the shutter speeds for the blurry photos were slow -- 1/8 and 1/15 -- too slow for the 400mm zoom lens setting and moving subjects. My second son was going to graduate from that same college and the ceremony was going to be an evening ceremony and at the same poorly lighted location (I believe that, after paying for four years of college, parents should be entitled to having the graduation ceremony in a well-lighted location and close enough access to take photos of their children during the ceremony without fast, heavy telephoto lenses, but, apparently, my belief is not shared by those in positions to do something about it). So I concluded that I needed a camera with a bigger image sensor that had better low-light, high-ISO performance. The full-size sensor digital SLRs were too expensive for me, so I checked on the cameras with smaller sensors. After reviewing camera reviews of various SLRs on low-light, high-ISO performance, I concluded that my choices were limited to Canon or Nikon digital SLRs with the APS-C sensors. I have Canon PowerShot compact digital cameras that I really like, so I was leaning towards a Canon Rebel SLR. However, when I went to stores and actually handled the cameras, the grips of the bigger Canon SLRs (which were, unfortunately, too heavy and too expensive for me) and of the Nikon SLRs just seemed to be more comfortable to me than the smaller Rebel models (although I liked the lighter weight of the Rebel models compared to the bigger SLRs).Another difference that I noticed was that the Canon SLRs required the pop-up flash to be activated to provide low-light focus assistance, whereas the Nikon SLRs had a focus-assist light on the body of the camera itself. Because I usually have an external flash in the flash shoe in low-light situations, but I was not sure which flash I would eventually be using (I was thinking of using one of my older flashes that would not have the connection to the cameras for all of the flash features), I thought that the focus-assist light on the body of the camera was preferable. When the Nikon D90 was announced, it seemed to have the features that I wanted, such as a good prism viewfinder and LCD panel, and be close to the size and price I could seriously consider. Because my compact digital cameras could all take short video clips (I have used those cameras for short videos of my sons playing Nintendo Wii drums, my grandchildren playing, Christmas decoration lights, fireworks, and the Old Faithful Geyser erupting, but I am basically a still photographer, not a videographer), I thought that an SLR that could also take videos would be handy to have. But, of course, the goal was to get the best low-light, high-ISO performance for the money, so I waited for some reviews to come out. I had been regularly checking the reviews at the Digital Camera Resource Page and the posted examples of photos at high-ISO settings. After I read in September 2008 the Digital Camera Resource Page review of the Nikon D90, I pretty much made up my mind that the Nikon D90 was the digital SLR I was going to get. I also decided to get the 18-105mm kit lens, because the reviews seemed to indicate that it was fairly good across its range and the lens\'s focal-length range came closer to the coverage of my Canon PowerShot cameras than did the smaller 18-55mm kit lens. However, with Christmas expenses coming up, I had to wait to order one, so I just put the Nikon D90 with the kit lens in my Amazon.com cart and monitored the price.Because I needed time to familiarize myself with the D90 before my son\'s graduation scheduled for May 2009, I ordered the D90 with the 18-105mm kit lens (with free Super Saver Shipping) in January 2009. There are a lot of settings that could be made, so I reviewed the detailed suggestions made by Ken Rockwell and set what I thought would be correct for my photography. In March 2009, I purchased a Tamron AF 70-200mm f2.8 Di LD IF Macro Lens for use during the graduation ceremony scheduled in May 2009. During the graduation ceremony, with my D90 set at ISOs of 3200 and 4000 and at shutter speeds of about 1/500 and with the Tamron lens at f2.8 and at the equivalent of 300mm on my D90, I was able to get the photos I wanted. I later switched to the 18-105mm lens and put on a Nikon SB-600 flash (I ultimately decided to get a new flash to go with the D90 rather than try to use one of my old flashes) to take the post-ceremony photos (at ISO 200) of my son with family and friends.Since then, the Nikon D90 with the 18-105mm lens and the SB-600 flash has become my main equipment for bigger office and family events (I still carry and use my Canon PowerShots for many photos, because the D90 is not my everyday carry camera). I have the Nikon active D-lighting on to record things in shadows, but I have noticed that some photos have the highlights blown. I have used the Camera Raw option to open JPEGs in Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 to reduce exposure and to recover some detail in the highlights. To reduce the overexposure of highlights, I set the compensation reduction to -.3, figuring that I can always lighten and brighten what is recorded, if needed, but I would not be able to do anything about blown highlights if the highlight detail is not there. Most of my photos have been taken indoors with the flash and I have set the Auto ISO setting with top of ISO 3200, which has produced some unexpected photos (of what was in the background of what I focused on). Because the D90 is my first digital SLR, I have been enjoying the speed of a digital SLR when I am trying to photograph fleeting expressions of my grandchildren and other things that require fast repeat shots -- my PowerShots are slow in comparison, so one problem has been that when I use my PowerShots instead of my D90, I am sometimes pressing the shutter button on my PowerShots when the cameras are not yet ready to take another photo. After taking over 3,800 photos so far, I have not had any problem with the D90. It served the purpose for which I originally bought it and it has served me well since then in photographing office and family parties and other events. People seem to be favorably impressed with the photos taken with the D90, so I am very happy with my decision to buy it.
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