Though it's late to the party, the Nikon D90 arrives fashionably, just as its predecessor did in late 2006. It comes sauntering in with most of the current hot features that the Nikon Camera D80 lacked, plus a new twist that will bowl them all over with its relevance and utility.
With a 12.3-megapixel sensor, the Nikon D90 rises to the resolution of the more professional Nikon Camera D300. It also shares the same sensitivity as the Nikon Camera D300, ranging from ISO 200 to 3,200, plus L1 (100) and H1 (6,400).
Another essential upgrade on the Nikon D90 is the move to a high resolution 3-inch LCD screen. The 920,000-pixel display has a 170-degree viewing angle and appears to be as nice as the new screens found on the Nikon Camera D3 and the Nikon Camera D300. It makes checking focus and using Live view mode that much more pleasant.
New to the intermediate range for Nikon, the Live View feature offers some new tricks over the mode found on the Nikon D90's high-end predecessors, particularly including Face Detection. Surprisingly, there is no phase-detect autofocus available on the Nikon D90 when in Live view mode, only three contrast-detect modes: Face Priority, Wide Area, and Normal Area. Just as we've seen on consumer cameras, in Face Detection mode, a box surrounds detected faces and follows them around the screen. The Nikon D90 can track up to five faces. Live view is activated with a dedicated button just right of the LCD.
Though Face Detection is helpful in Live view mode, its utility goes further, as it's now an integral part of Nikon's Scene Recognition System (SRS). Thanks to the Nikon D90's 420-pixel matrix metering sensor, the SRS can combine color metering with autofocus sensor data and tune white balance and exposure with a particular bias toward getting faces exposed properly. In theory, this should also include making sure the Nikon D90 focuses on an eye rather than a nose or forehead. If true in practice, this is quite an advance. Face detection even comes into play in i-TTL Flash control.
The Nikon D90's 11-point phase-detect AF system is arrayed in a diamond pattern and now includes 3D focus tracking as found on the Nikon Camera D3 and Nikon Camera D300.
Since the dawn of Live view on SLRs, the obvious question has been, "Why no movie mode? If you can draw a live image off the sensor, why can't you record it?" Nikon is the first to answer the question with a resounding, "You can!" The Nikon D90 records movies as a Motion JPEG in AVI format at 24 frames per second at what they're calling "720p equivalent" resolution: 1,280 x 720. Other resolutions include 640 x 424, and 320 x 216. Though you have to focus manually, and aperture remains fixed during recording, audio for the videos is captured through the monaural mic on the camera.
A new lens will ship with the Nikon D90 kit, as well: the Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 ED VR, with one extra-low dispersion element and one hybrid aspheric element to improve image quality.
The Nikon D90 began shipping to the US market in September, 2008, with a suggested retail price of $999.95, or $1,299.95 with the 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 ED VR lens. (Note that you save about $100 buying the lens with the kit.)
Nikon D90 User Report
by Shawn Barnett and Dave Etchells
There are a lot of great digital SLRs on the market, and I've had the pleasure of using most of them. But I've never taken to a camera as quickly and easily as I did to the Nikon D80, announced in 2006. Within moments of using it, I could tell I had a winner in my hands. The fit, the operation, and the lens was just right for getting all the shots I saw around me, in one camera.
The Nikon D90 felt so much like the Nikon D80 that I had to check the badge to make sure I hadn't picked up the wrong camera. Even the new lens felt pretty much the same, if a little shorter. The dimensions of the Nikon D90's body are indeed identical, measuring 5.2 x 4.1 x 3.0in (132 x 103 x 77mm), and the weight is only 1.2 ounces (35g) heavier. But what you get for that extra weight is noticeable indeed.
Look and feel. Though many elements are subtly restyled, the Nikon D90's front end has only one new feature: three holes for a microphone, just up and left of the D90 logo. This is, of course, for the new movie recording mode. All of the buttons are in the same locations and have essentially the same functions. Note also that the autofocus screw drive is still in place on the Nikon D90, meaning it will still drive old autofocus lenses as well as the new electronic lenses, something not included in the less-expensive Nikon camera D40, Nikon Camera D40x, and Nikon Camera D60.
On the back, again the Nikon D90's controls are restyled and the LCD is larger, but most of the controls are in familiar positions. Right of the LCD is where you'll find the major differences. First is the Live view button, marked with the letters Lv. Just below that is the new navigation cluster, which, like the Nikon camera D700, has an OK button in the center. The arrow pad is locked by the switch just beneath it, and the Info button, again from the Nikon Camera D700, takes up position where the OK button was on the Nikon D80. The Info button brings up a status display, and a second press brings up a new onscreen menu.
The top deck has nothing new, just a slight reshaping to the buttons and a new top status LCD layout. The significant upgrade here is the new 18-105mm lens. While it doesn't have the extra reach of the 18-135mm lens that came with the D80 bundle, it does have the benefit of Vibration Reduction, Nikon's optical image stabilization.
Holding and shooting. The Nikon D90 feels just about identical to the Nikon D80. It's smaller and lighter than the Nikon Camera D300, but still has a good grip, with a good dent inside the grip for the tips of your fingers. It also feels more substantial than the Nikon D60, with more of what an enthusiast photographer wants from his camera. I was very happy with the new multi-controller, which includes the OK button in the middle, rather than in some location distant from the menu navigation tool.
As on the new Nikon D700, the Nikon D90 also has a new Info button for bringing up the new rear Status display, and further activating the submenu. The submenu includes different items, but they're well-tuned to the enthusiast photographer. Options include changing Long Exposure Noise Reduction, High ISO Noise Reduction, Active D-Lighting, Set Picture Control, Assign Func. Button, and Assign AE-Lock/AF-Lock button. Whether many photographers will use all of these functions, it's good to have them here, rather than having to dig for them in the menu.
Easy access. Most important functions that I usually want to access quickly have their own button, including Flash Exposure Compensation and Bracketing.
Changing most other items of importance is done by a button, including ISO, White Balance, Image Quality (on the left of the LCD); and metering mode, EV compensation, Drive mode, and Autofocus mode (on the top deck); and even flash exposure compensation is integrated into the flash pop-up button, appearing on the left of the lens mount, just above the Bracket button. These are all critical functions that need their own button for fast access, and they're out where you can find them easily; in the case of the latter two, you'll have to learn their positions, since they're out of sight, but at least you won't have to dig in the menu to activate these features.
Having the power switch around the shutter button is always nice too, because you can turn the camera on without taking your eye away from the viewfinder. I frequently turn my digital SLR off as I walk around, and some models make you pull the camera from your face to even find the switch.
Continuous mode. 4.5 frames per second. (Click to view/download 395KB MPEG-4 file.)
Like all other Nikons, the shutter sound of the Nikon D90 is relatively quiet and tame. It's not whisper quiet, but there's not a lot of winding and whirring, just the necessary clicking to activate the mirror and shutter. Check the video at right to see what the Nikon D90 sounds like at its maximum frame rate of 4.5 frames per second.
According to company figures, the Nikon D90 speeds along in several areas over its predecessor, including startup time (0.15 compared to 0.18 on the D80), shutter lag (0.065 compared to 0.08), and optical viewfinder blackout time, which is down to 120 milliseconds from 150 milliseconds. That's of particular importance to me, because I like to keep my eye on the subject.
Optical viewfinder. Similar to the Nikon D80's viewfinder, the Nikon D90's 11-point autofocus system is arrayed in a diamond formation. Still called the Multi-Cam 1000, as on the D80, the Nikon D90's AF engine has been updated to include 3D focus tracking and the advantage of Face Detection, which will bias AF points to favor eyes over noses and other objects in a scene. As a test of this system, I held my hand up in front of my nose much like the Three Stooges used to do to protect their eyes from pokes by their fellow stooges, and had someone take a picture of me. The Multi-Cam 1000 consistently lit up the AF points right over my eyes, rather than choosing the closer object (my hand), which was a welcome surprise. If this system is applied to a camera with 51-point autofocus, it will realize its full power. Nikon D90 users will have to remember to keep their subject's eyes under the 11 AF points for it to work properly, but that's better than having to hope the camera will guess right. Better, of course, is to lock the AF point manually; but if you're in a hurry, you'll take what you can get.
LCD. Another significant treat for D80 upgraders, the LCD is the same bright, crisp, 920,000-pixel LCD screen found on the Nikon D300, Nikon Camera D3, and Nikon Camera D700. Three inches big, it ma
kes checking your images more satisfying and sure; and autofocus in Live view mode is bound to be more accurate as well. The Nikon Camera D80's screen was no slouch by any means, but higher resolution is higher resolution. Even menus benefit from the higher res, more color-rich screen. For one, they can use smaller fonts for more descriptive titles, and include more explanatory text via the help button.
A removable screen cover is still included with the Nikon D90, but the back glass is tempered to resist scratching. I've finally gotten used to using the screen protector, but be sure to carefully clean it before going out for a shoot in daylight, as the protector can transmit even more glare in daylight when it's dirty or smudged. The chief benefit of the screen cover is that if you scratch it, it's at most $20 to replace; the LCD glass, on the other hand, will cost a lot more.
Face detection. Just as we've seen on non-SLR digital cameras, the Nikon D90's Face detection helps determine focus, exposure, and white balance. (Click to view/download 1.7MB MPEG-4 file.)
Live view shooting. Activating Live view on other Nikon SLRs has included turning the Drive Mode dial to Lv and then pressing the shutter button to lock the mirror up; hardly intuitive. The Nikon D90, however, has a dedicated Live view button on the back, just right of the LCD, within easy reach of the thumb. With a single press of the Lv button, the mirror flips up and Live view framing begins. The difference with the Nikon D90 is that you can only focus in Contrast-detect mode, whereas the Nikon D300 and Nikon Camera D700 allowed a choice between Handheld (Phase-detect) and Tripod mode (Contrast-detect mode). Phase-detect AF in a Live View SLR is always a noisy affair, as it generally involves dropping and raising the mirror twice (once to focus and once to take the shot), but it's generally faster than contrast-detect focusing, particularly as implemented on the Nikon Camera D90. There's a good reason why Nikon refers to the contrast-detect AF mode as "Tripod mode," as it takes a long time for the camera to focus when using it; easily several seconds in some circumstances, and never less than about 2.3 seconds in our laboratory testing. Still, it works very well if you're not in a hurry, and by its very nature, is never subject to the front- or back-focusing that can plague phase-detect AF systems if they're even a tiny bit out of adjustment.
If face detection is activated, the Nikon D90 quickly begins tracking faces, placing a yellow box around each one, up to five at a time. Once focus is achieved, the box turns green. It's just as we've seen from almost all recent non-SLR digital cameras, but it's impressive on an SLR. Panasonic, for the record, was first with this feature. For more on Live View see the Live View subtab under the Operation tab.
Movie mode. Capturing a movie is as easy as pressing the OK button when in Live view mode. (Click to view/download 1.9MB MPEG-4 file.)
Nikon is first with something else: Movie recording in Live view mode. Just press the OK button to start recording. You have to set focus before you start shooting your movie, but you can still manual focus while you're shooting, as well as zoom. The movie will record the noise of the zoom ring to an extent, depending on which lens you're using and how fast you zoom, but it's still pretty impressive. A whole new generation, now of non-professionals, will learn what it means to "pull focus" as the moment of interest turns from one subject to another. It's a cinematic technique usually performed by someone other than the camera operator, who is too busy framing the image to attend to focus as well. But millions of Nikon D90 owners will be able to try a technique that few camcorder owners can.
Movie resolutions include 1280x720 (16:9), 640x424 (3:2), and 320x216 (3:2). Recording times are limited to five minutes per clip for HD mode, and 20 minutes per clip for the latter two modes. Nikon couldn't explain the reason for the limit as of this writing, but it's likely due to sensor heating issues that might start to degrade image quality. The frame rate is 24 frames per second, and audio is monaural, not stereo. Approximate maximum file sizes for two of the modes are 588MB for the 1,280x720-size movies, and up to 2GB for the 640x424 movies.
As a Nikon representative pointed out, it's particularly interesting that it's Nikon, a company that has never had a dedicated camcorder camera, that is first breaking down this barrier in the SLR world. It will be fun to watch what photographers will produce with a video recorder that can use a full range of quality Nikon glass.
Video Examples: Dave shot some examples of video with the Nikon Camera D90, so you can see what the different resolution levels look like. Rather than take up a lot of screen space with a number of thumbnails here, check out our Nikon D90 Video page for a number of examples as well as Dave's observations about the D90's video recording.
Viewing images. Playback mode's enhancements include a new calendar display, a 72-image thumbnail display, a 12, 9, and 4-thumb display; and a new enhancement to the Histogram view that locks the histograms to the displayed image as you zoom. In other words, the histograms show data for just the displayed portion of the image. The retouch menu has new features, including Cross screen and image overlay options, as well as the ability to rotate images in-camera, and create fisheye distortions. For more on this, see the Operation tab of this review.
Sensor. A step up from the D80's 10.2-megapixel sensor, the D90's 12.3-megapixel CMOS sensor may be the same as is found in the Nikon D300, but Nikon representatives were not sure as of this writing. Quoted dimensions are different, measuring 23.6 x 15.8mm, while our info on the D300 says it's 24x15mm. The Nikon D90's sensor has 12.9 megapixels total, but only 12.3 are effective. Output is 12-bit, so you won't get the same lovely 14-bit RAW images, nor the 14-bit Analog to Digital conversion that you get on the Nikon D300.
Sensor cleaning. Nikon's multi-frequency sensor cleaning is also employed in the D90, vibrating the optical low-pass filter glass perpendicular to the plane, rather than parallel as most sensor cleaning systems do. Due to the extreme variability in types of dust in the environment, don't expect any sensor cleaning system to remove everything, but it's certainly better than no cleaning system at all.
Scene Recognition System. Scene recognition is something that Nikon has been working on for years, and these last few models have seen incremental improvements to the system. With the Nikon D90 comes Face recognition.
Nikon's 3D Color Matrix Metering system employs a 420-pixel RGB light meter that covers most of the image area (the Nikon Camera D300 and higher models use a 1,005-pixel RGB sensor). As in past models, the Color Matrix Metering system compares what it sees in the image to a database of 30,000 photos to make its metering decisions for each scene. They've added more to properly gauge factors like white balance and subject motion, and now they're tracking faces with SRS. The autofocus sensors are another piece of the SRS puzzle, each aspect informing and tuning the other. Finding and focusing on eyes rather than foreground objects, or even foreheads and noses, is one particular benefit of the overall integration. Another is improved 3D tracking of objects as they move across the image area. The RGB sensor may not be able to help focus on an object, but it can add a set of data for the Nikon D90 to use while tracking a subject with the autofocus system. For example, if a red object is traversing the frame from left to right, and growing in size as it does so, the SRS would add this information to the AF-sensor data to help it tune the focus more quickly.
Active D-Lighting. No longer new, Active D-Lighting keeps gaining enhancements. In addition to the Auto Active D-Lighting mode added with the Nikon D700, the Nikon D90 gains an Extra High setting to add even more punch to shadow detail. Note that JPEG files modified as they are captured with Active D-Lighting, so there's no unaltered "original" to refer back to: Consider whether you want top shoot RAW + JPEG to back up those files, or even use D-Lighting after capture if you think an image would benefit from the help.
Picture Control. The Nikon D80's Optimize Image setting has been replaced with the Picture Control system found on other recent Nikon digital SLR cameras. Options include Standard, Neutral, Vivid, Monochrome, Portrait, and Landscape. Each Picture Control includes adjustments for Sharpening, Contrast, Brightness, Saturation, and Hue. Monochrome mode allows adjustment of Sharpening, Contrast, Brightness, Filter effects, and Toning. You can also apply Picture Control settings to movies, and Scene modes have complete control over adjusting which Picture Control setting they use, based on information from the Scene Recognition System.
Ports. Top to bottom are DC in, USB, HDMI, AV Out, and GPS/Remote control ports.
Outputs and inputs. New to the output stack is HDMI for easy connectivity to a high definition television, and an Audio/Video output connector (the Nikon Camera D80 has a Video connector). Under a separate door you'll find the same Remote control port, but it's now dual-purpose, allowing connection of the new GP-1 GPS accessory, as well as the MC-DC1 Remote cord.
Battery grip.
Battery and storage. You can get up to 850 shots (CIPA standard) with an EN-EL3e battery; that doesn't include any Live view usage or video capture. You can enhance the Nikon D90's battery capacity with the Nikon MB-D80 Multi-power battery pack that was designed for the Nikon D80. If you have large hands or shoot in portrait mode a lot like I do, battery grips can really raise your comfort level. You can use two EN-EL3e batteries, or six AA batteries in the grip. Adding the battery grip does not increase frame rate, as it does on the Nikon D300 and D700, but it does add greater control if you don't mind the weight.
Image storage is via SD cards, which offer up to 32GB capacity at this point. Some are disappointed that Nikon switched to SD in this level of digital SLR camera, but other manufacturers have begun to follow suit, including Canon. On a practical basis, current SD cards provide plenty of storage (does anyone really need more than 32GB on a single card?), and modern SD cards are quite fast, if not quite up to the level of the latest UDMA CompactFlash cards. SD cards are also somewhat more robust, less prone to bent contact fingers in the camera or card reader jamming the card connector while also rendering the camera useless.
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