I have had my D50 for nearly two years now and I am starting to find it limiting and have been waiting for a revised D80 from Nikon. Finally Nikon launched the D90, the rumours have been rolling off the shelfs for months now and now we have conformation. All the reported stats are true..
- 12.3 megapixels
- D-movie function (it outputs 1280×720, .avi, HD720p)
- High ISO/low-noise performance
- 4.5 frames per second
- 3 inch LCD with Live View
- GPS tagging (with add on)
For the full list for features view it on Nikons site here
Serious Sensor
The 12.3 megapixels CMOS is said to be the same as the D300 which is a sweet sensor. Moving to this would be a 6.3 megapixel upgrade from my D50, which is a lot of pixels that I can’t wait to utilize because the camera uses the same sensor as the D300 you can bet it can shoot at ridiculous ISO’s. Another great advantage is the ability to shoot at 4.5fps meaning you can really capture movement.
View the Video
The D-movie mode is a break through for DSLR’s. I don’t think it was hard to implement as most point and shoots have a video mode. It did take its time to get to a DSLR but finally we can shoot some sweet HD video on our DSLR’s rather than buying another camera, if you want to see some of the video have a look here. The built in HDMI port makes it easy to show the video on your TV. Also as you may have noticed a new thing in most DSLR’s is the live view feature allowing you to preview the shot on the LCD, this can help when you are trying to be discreet when taking a picture.
Other things I am look forward to
There are a couple of other features I can’t wait to use and one is the geotagging add on that just plugs into the side and add your position to the images meta data. Shooting RAW is great but sometime I want to shoot both RAW and JPEG this is another benefit of the D90 over the D50, when you are shooting both RAW and JPEG you need space and on my D50 I can’t use an SDHC but in the D90 you can.
Nikon gave the D90 to the Chase Javis a pro photographer he did a post here and you can view his some shots and a video about how they used it here. Chase and his crew spent a few weeks playing with the D90 everything he has to say is positive. I have finally found a camera that I am as obsessed with as I am Apple. Sorry I have to now leave while I go buy my D90.
I’m writing a blog post about it right now, I want one! Even though, I’ve only had the 400D for 5 months, it will be a year old by the time I’ve saved up!
I want to come to the dark side
I know having a movie mode on a DSLR is a nice bonus, but remember that the camera will not autofocus for you, and with the shallow depth of field they talk about that means a lot of manual focus adjustment – or careful construction of shots so that the distance is constant.
One more feature that’s crept in from point and shoot cameras (and not before time) is face recognition – that should make autofocus more accurate in many circumstances.
I notice you haven’t mentioned the excessive UK price – isn’t it about time reviewers made more of a fuss about that?
@Alexander I will have to wait for mine as well but I have yet to do the maths but i think it will be a just under a year.
@Chris Leigh You do not have to put a shallow depth of field for video you could set a broad one and auto focus before you shoot the video. The face recognition is also a great benefit but it is a shame it can only do 5 faces in one photo. Also with the face recognition when you are in playback mode it will allow you to zoom in on faces more easily. THe UK price is obscene but I am sure you will be able to find it cheaper on places like amazon and why not just fly out to the US and get it.
All though, if I sold my 400D, I could get some money towards it
hello rupert this sound like a good dslr but I generrally don’t like nikon beucase of there weight but that’s my opinion try looking at a Olympus e410 that’s a good one to it’s the one I use it’s the worlds smallest dslr on the market and I love it