Camera Labs

I own a d60,d70s, and now a d90...

my primary was the d60 so i'll base my review on the upgrade from that.


i like how...


...the d90 has a focus motor. while i still resort to using manual focus many times i find the focus motor useful from time to time. it should help save me a bit of money when it comes to picking up some cheaper non motorized lenses.

...the d90's top view LCD screen. reduces the time i used to take scrolling through menu after menu on the D60.

...hard buttons. again, saves time when i used to scroll from menu to menu.

...off camera flash. haven't had a situation where i need it but i like to have the feature just in case. it beats having to purchase an SU800 and/or flash trigger set.

...11pt autofocus. great stuff! i love it over the 3 point auto focus!

...focus selection on Live-view mode. useful when doing portraits as it prevents having to recompose after a focus lock.

...Live view. helps a lot when taking shots that are stranged angled. i do a lot of car photography and this should help when im taking a shot of the tires or something else that low to the ground.

...front knob. i wanted to this on the d60. now i've got it with the D90! definitely makes things easier!

...great performance at 3200 ISO!


cons. things i dont like about the camera.

...the UNPROTECTED SPEAKER ON THE RIGHT SIDE!!!!! looks like an easy way to introduce unwanted particles, moisture and such to internals!

...Cold AWB- seems to take very cold pictures even in warm lighting,

...slow auto focus on the LIVE-view, but i recommend using manual focus on this anyway.

...NEF not processing through my photoshop CS3. what's up with that!?! i belive this has to do with my choice of colorspace.


that's it for now guys, i'll update this as i get to know more about the camera, i've only had this for about 48 hours.

ps- don't be afraid to ask any questions about it.

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Thanks heaps for the review. All of these are big determining factors whether I'll be getting the D90 or not. Unfortunately it isn't out in Australia as yet (that I know of), but it certainly looks like it'll be a nice upgrade from the D70.

Cheers

another plus!

being able to shoot at 1/4000 with an sb-600!

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Or at 1/8000th even!

You've got some nice gear P.boy! Could you perhaps upload a video to show us how the D90 does that? I'd love to have the creative control of a DSLR on a 'camcorder' (in this case still a DSLR).

- Bjorn -

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good review.

i hope you keep em coming as you use the camera more.

here's two videos i've uploaded with more to come!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ku_HSWaL6o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Aef4H_KoEQ






another thing i learned to use today is the 3D focus tracking!
so useful as the camera tracks the target when you recompose the shot!

the Live-view is slow unless you use the facial recognition systems, in which case it becomes a totally different machine- almost point and shoot-ish, but not really.

edit:more videos!

http://vimeo.com/1785366

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i usually test my gear at universal studios hollywood.

here are my results from today!

videos:
http://vimeo.com/1801317

http://vimeo.com/1801373



recently, i've been warned that using the AUTO setting with AWB might cause some issues with the pictures, i have NOT seen any problem with the AUTO setting.

here are my shots at AUTO from today.







i am extremely impressed by the high ISO low light performance of this camera!

even if there are a couple flaws here and there, the low light performance makes up for it *imho*


ISO 3200
105mm @ 1/30sec @ 5.6f


ISO 3200
105mm @ 1/30sec @ 5.6f


ISO 3200
85mm @ 1/30sec @ 5.6f


ISO 3200
66mm @ 1/30sec @ 5.6f



*the manual warns you of hot pixels popping up at high ISO's...

notice one beneath the spark on the terminator shot.

irritating...

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nice pics.

are you still having to make a lot of adjustments to capture the shot?

nope!

these shots were made with as little adjustments as possible.

i'll post more accurate exif data later today.

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@palakaboy....

If these images are in aUTO mode with all the parameters like WB, EC...etc then i would really appreciate the camera that too at 3200ISO...

I should say it is awesome......
Night captures are also good....

Let us know what are adjustments you did to the camera as well as the photos....

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the first two are in auto- the sunny shots.

the saxophones are in aperture priority with the full metering matrix turned on.

the extremely dark shots are manual.

i just bumped up the ISO and took the shots- white balance left on auto.

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nice shots you have palaka on your D90 and congrats on attaining it.. I myself don't have a Nikon DSLR atm but D90 will be my first DSLR camera and again your right the D90 well work for others and some won't so again we can't just write the D90 off out of the sunset I have Flickr accnt and I saw some nice pics of the D90 on the section group I think D90 UK group you should check it out palaka, I was thinking of going to the D80 myself cause of the reviews but I'm sticking my guns and getting the D90 by the end of the yr or early next yr, so again D90 will have it's critics, but again Nikon had faith with the D90 that it will do the job if they didn't then they should haven't released it to the consumer public, with new products or new items it will have it's flaws and indifferences, well palaka continue with your update reviews for the D90 and keep on shooting
by the way your shots on the D90 are crisp and clear even though it needs tweaking it came out good

The reason teh D60 was warmer in AWB is because they dont expect people with D40 and D60 to do much post processing, so make it warmer by defaults.

D80, D90 and Dxxx series all produce a much more netural colour because t gives equal leverage either way

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Hi palakaboy,

Thanks for the review and especially the video clips! I enjoyed watching all of them. The image quality and the sound are really exceptional!!

Too bad you couldn't record the whole song... If you use lower ISO, would you be given more recording time?

Cheers,
Tony

PS: Do you have to use liveview to record video?

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GALLERY

Sold me.

Bought one today.

Thanx for the review

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Digital SLR Photographer as of Janurary 2008
NIKON D90 w/grip || D300 w/grip || D2x || NIKKOR 18-105 ED VR || NIKKOR 50mm 1.8 || NIKKOR 70-300 ED VR || NIKKOR 70-200 2.8 || SIGMA 28-70 2.8 || 2x Teleconverter || SB-900 Flash || SB-600 Flash || SLIK Tripod