The kit lens can become softer towards the edges though, and the mountain-top highlights are blown, perhaps due to the dynamic range of the L1.0 mode.

You’ll also notice all the images here are less vibrant than the D80 due to more refrained image processing that’s closer in style to the D300.

As you’d hope, the crops remain packed with detail, although by metering for the shadowy tree, some highlights have become saturated.

Live View allowed us to comfortably frame this shot at a very low angle, although a flip-out screen would have made it easier still.

As before the crops are very detailed and the D90 has done a good job balancing this particular exposure given the bright hull of the boat.

We used Face Priority mode in Live View to frame this shot and it locked onto the subject without a problem.

The subject is sharp and detailed, although some may have preferred a smaller depth of field – this is however the maximum you’ll achieve with this lens under similar conditions.

The increase to 400 ISO hasn’t had an adverse effect on noise levels under these well-lit conditions, and the crops show lots of detail, although the lens has become soft in the corners; the crops were taken from the middle area.

Many cameras underexpose this scene, but the D90 hasn’t been fooled. The crops also reveal sharp details without much noise to complain about.

Any camera shake due to the 1/10 exposure has been eliminated by the VR lens.

There’s an inevitable increase in noise, but as seen in our results pages, the D90 favours visible speckles to smearing through noise reduction, and as such there’s plenty of detail in the crops.

The crops reveal a significant increase in visible noise, although the result is still just about usable for smaller prints. The D90 goes on to offer 3200 and 6400 ISO options, but both see a considerable reduction in quality. You can see examples in our High ISO Results pages.