Nikon D90: 5 Reasons You’ll Want One

1. Big 3 inch, 920K Resolution LCD. A high resolution LCD makes it significantly easier to judge what you’re shooting (in Live View), and comes in real handy in analyzing if you got the shot afterwards. Oh, it works great for movie mode too. Reviews of the Nikon D3 and D300 frequently make mention of their outstanding LCD’s display quality, and now in the D90 you can share that same quality.

2. 12.3 megapixel CMOS sensor. The Nikon D300 has won countless rave reviews in part for outstanding image quality. The D90 gives you the same sensor. For $600 less.

3. Improved ISO performance: Thanks to the previously mentioned sensor from the D300, the D90 moves its ISO range from 200-3200 (100-6400 with hi/low boost). As before, the D300 has class leading noise management at higher ISO, and we’d expect the D90 to perform similarily. This means far more keepers in low light situations, in addition while in movie mode, having the ISO performance of the type found on the D90 will bring some serious advantages over the typical video camera in low light situations.

4. Live View: Now a standard feature on Digital SLR cameras, live view brings the point and shoot style of photography to digital slrs. Unlike the awkward implementation found in the other Nikon models, the D90’s live view works by just pressing a button to the right of the LCD. While in live view, the D90 has a face detection mode that can track up to 5 faces in a scene. When focused, the face detection shows you a green box on the focal point, and while this is now quite common in compact cameras, its a new feature for Digital SLR cameras.

5. High Definition Movies: While in live view, you can implement the most talked about feature of the D90, D-Movie mode, which gives the user the ability to shoot high-def video (in 5 minute clips) using the wide range of lenses available to digital SLR cameras. You have to set the focus initially to use D-Movie, but you are free to zoom and manually focus while shooting, a huge advantage over the typical camcorder. There is no other camera right now of this type that will let photographers shoot “moving pictures”, and no video camera in this price range that will have the D90’s abilities. The video quality is 720p “like” and the HDMI port will make it easy to hook up and enjoy your movie clips and photos on a high definition television.

Combine the fact that the D90 throws in the sensor, lcd, and ISO perfomance from the excellent D300, in a camera body that will cost $600 less, plus a feature found on no other digital SLR camera, high definition video, and it’s not hard to see that Nikon has created a homerun for amateur photographers. I’m impressed, how about you?

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1. 

   Amr Toukhy says:

   August 27, 2008 at 10:30 am

   Thanks for the post,
   Can i record the HDMI signal directly to the computer !!!
   Thanks again,
   Amr

   reply
2. 

   Eolake says:

   August 27, 2008 at 2:49 pm

   Very impressed.

   And so compact. That’s important to me.

   I’ve already ordered one!

   reply
3. 

   Eolake Stobblehouse says:

   August 27, 2008 at 3:00 pm

   Patrick, dude, excellent coverage. This has quickly become one of my favorite blogs.

   reply
4. 

   Patrick says:

   August 27, 2008 at 9:03 pm

   Amr, interesting question, seems plausible given the ability to tether with live view active. Something to look into though…

   reply
5. 

   Patrick says:

   August 27, 2008 at 9:07 pm

   Eolake,
   thanks so much for the kind words, and when you get your review up, let me know!

   reply
6. 

   Eolake Stobblehouse says:

   August 28, 2008 at 7:54 pm

   Did you change the site? It seems that the link to Comments is not pointing to the wrong post.

   reply
7. 

   Patrick says:

   August 28, 2008 at 10:45 pm

   I’m working on the changes, but doing it locally…so I’m not sure what might be happening…

   reply