Nikon D90 Digital SLR Camera: The First Review

Think Camera has the first review up of the new Nikon D90 up that I’ve seen, and if you were wondering how well the D-movie mode works, or how it stacks up against fellow stable-mate, the D300, well Think Camera has your answers.

Much like the D300, the Nikon D90 has superb image quality – ISO200-800 provide excellent low noise images, with an essence of moiré around the ISO1600-3200 mark. ISO6400 takes a notable jump in image noise; best left for rare occasions. This newly developed sensor is clearly strutting its stuff.

-Think Camera

They’ve included several ISO crops, and as we’ve seen before, the D90 really is comparing quite well with the D300, with excellent noise management all the way up to 6400. In fact any image quality weaknesses in the D90 seem mostly related to the included 18-105mm VR kit lens, which has the typical “weaknesses” of a kit lens of this type, some barrel distortion and somewhat slower focusing speeds. I can say 2 things for sure:

• ISO is way better than the D80
• Metering has definitely improved (worst thing about my D80)

The review goes on to discuss the D-movie mode, which clearly is the D90’s marketing trump card:

720p video from the D90 is of a good quality. By default the D-Movie will continually assess the light entering the camera and adjust accordingly – unless you set up AE-lock to prevent this, which is ideal for fixing exposure to produce some clever shots. It’s worth pointing out that the D90 doesn’t autofocus video, but the live manual focus is great fun and provides all kinds of artistic focal possibilities; further enhanced by your choice of lens and available aperture.

-Think Camera

The video feature does  come with a few caveats though, which should be understood before purchasing a D90.

• No autofocus. Focusing has to be done manually, which is fine until you realize this can’t be done through the viewfinder (as Eric at Photography Bay noted here)
• Gigantic file sizes: Video is saved via .AVI, so expect to buy some 32GB SD memory cards.

And there’s this issue:

…hand-held shooting with a heavy lens is extremely difficult due to the overall weight of the camera and the fact that one hand is likely to be manually focusing. For the sake of avoiding excessive camera shake, you may need to get your videographer cap on, take a few chill pills to keep the hands steady; otherwise invest in a tripod with a decent smooth-pan head.

-Think Camera

Other than that, movie mode works, and definitely adds one more level of creativity, essentially for free, to a camera that was already a nice upgrade to the D80. As an added bonus, picture quality rivals or equals that of the D300, with a savings of hundreds of dollars. I have a feeling this review’s consensus (9/10) will be repeated in the reviews to come…

Read the review…

Oh and by the way, you can get the Nikon D90 at the following:
Nikon D90 at B and H
Nikon D90 at Adorama
Nikon D90 at Amazon

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1. 

   jon says:

   September 10, 2008 at 3:37 am

   The CMOS wobble from rolling shutter seems to be really really bad so far in my tests. I hope they at least update firmware to allow you to tighten up the video shutter to make it less noticeable. Currently there doesn’t seem to be any way to make a faster shutter speed(or psuedo shutter angle)

   reply
2. 

   Patrick says:

   September 10, 2008 at 6:56 am

   Yep,
   I’ve been reading about that “wobble” which seems to be common with CMOS type sensors it. Don’t know if or how Nikon can address, although some are at least trying some software solutions…

   reply