Nikon D90 Camera
August 26th, 2008
| All signs point
to the Nikon D90 being introduced tomorrow, August 27th, at a Nikon
press conference. The D90 is a direct replacement for my D80.
Do I care? Well, yes, I'm glad that Nikon is keeping pace in the
industry and introducing fantastic new products. I'm definitely
not regretting my purchase of the D80, however. In the past three
months I've taken 2,000 pictures with my D80 and I absolutely love it. When I bought the D80, I fully realized that it was the oldest camera in Nikon's line-up and was past due for replacement. I also made a decision that it was the best camera for my needs and I've come to realize that I was way more correct than I realized. The D80 has almost everything I want in a camera, while being in a reasonable price range and small enough to carry around comfortably. Let's take a quick look at the improvements coming in the D90: 12.3-megapixel CMOS sensor borrowed from the D300: The only way this would make my pictures better is through lower noise at higher ISO values. I love using ISO 400 in low light on my D80, but equivalent picture quality at 800 or 1000 would be awesome. 10.2 megapixels is enough for 11x16" prints by even the most conservative estimates, and could make good-looking 20x30" prints with no problem. If I take a picture worthy of printing that big anytime soon, I'll be insanely happy. Conclusion: don't really care. Ultrasonic Sensor Cleaning: This sounds great on paper and will sell cameras. However, have you spotted any dust in my pictures so far? I didn't think so. And yes, it's there. If I take an over-exposed picture of a white wall, there's dust everywhere. Ditto for other cameras. Does this affect the quality of my pictures? Not so far, and I change lenses a lot. I suspect the people who will be most excited about this have an 18-55mm kit lens that acts as a body cap because it never gets taken off the camera. Conclusion: don't care. 3.0" VGA (640x480) LCD Screen: OK, I'd love to have a bigger screen. Who wouldn't? But, will it let me take better pictures? Probably not. Conclusion: it would be nice, but not worth upgrading for. Live View: OK, here's the thing: this is for point-and-shoot users who pick up a real camera and say "how do I turn the screen on." I did that once; really. Real photographers use a viewfinder. The D3 has live view, but every Olympics photographer I saw had his or her face glued to the viewfinder. My biggest beef with the current implementations of live view is that autofocus is just too slow. You better hope your subject isn't moving. And what about running your $500 sensor chip for minutes at a time instead of 1/200 of a second? As with all electronic circuits, the sensor creates heat when it's running and there's a good chance that lots of heat will reduce the lifespan of the sensor. Nikon recommends against using live view for more than a half-hour. I've read testimonials from people who destroyed a camera by trying to take hour-long exposures in digital. If you try this, you'll find that a fully charged battery will give you 45 minutes at best. Where's all that power going? Conclusion: don't care; not even a little. 4.5 frames-per-second: I've never had a problem with 3.5fps, even with fast action like cowboys getting bucked off horses. If I was a pro sports photographer working for the Herald, I'd have a different opinion, and I'd have a $5000 D3. Conclusion: it would be nice, but not worth upgrading for. HD movie capture: This is a world-first for SLR cameras, and sounds pretty cool on paper. I'm sure it will sell cameras. Former Digital Rebel users will love it! Go Nikon! It would scare the crap out of me for the same heat reasons I mentioned above under live view. Conclusion: if I wanted to film video, I'd buy a video camera. And really, that's about it. It also can connect to a GPS for geo-tagging and an HDTV for high-res display, but those are also just really cool extras. I definitely won't be upgrading to the D90, probably not even down the road. The D90's successor? Well, we'll have to see in a few years... |