Nikon D90

I've used it for over a year now, mainly for outdoor and wildlife photography, in the UK, the Falklands, and Antarctica, and it's hardly ever fallen short.

It just always performs and is completely intuitive to use. It also has a great depth of controls and features, so you can tailor it to your needs and preferences, and I’ve done A3 prints from it with stunning quality.

I’ve compared results to a friend’s D300 images and we really can’t tell any difference, though the D700 images have a bit more to them. With that and also comparisons to other friends’ equivalent Canon and Sony systems, I’d only ever consider upgrading to a full-frame sensor model as I reckon this is about as good as DX sensors can get without squuzing yet more pixels on and creating noise issues. and anything in-between would be money better spent on lenses.

The only feature I’ve ‘missed’ is a more advanced AF (like the D300’s 51-point AF system) to help with tracking fast-moving wildlife, but that’s on 1% of the time.

It feels a bit light and small to my taste, especially with larger lenses, but that's soon fixed with a battery grip.

Features; build; design; performance; image quality; and also price when you consider how much more you'd have to spend to notice any significant difference.

AF-tracking struggles with fast-moving subjects (the 11 AF points can constantly hunt and fail to maintain any useful lock... but then that just encourages good technique!); and the video mode is too limited to be really fun or useful.

D70, D200, D300, D700,;Canon EOS 40D and 50D; Sony Alpha 350 (horrible noise issues at medium-high ISOs and in poor light) and Alpha 700

Not needed.

hi Readers& Viewers i am using D90 Camera. the picture and the quality is very good. The response i am getting by D90 is very good. i have purchased VR lens 18mm-105mm. the lens is very good.

The Nikon D90 camera is the best one I have ever bought and have had some very high end stuff in my life. Technology has come a very long way. It replaces the Sony MVC CD500.

The old one has some great attributes the new one does not have. One is the self timer where I can set the camera on a tripod, set the timer and stand back to take a pic of myself or something. The Nikon does not have this unless you buy at least one option. One is the Infrared trigger to set the camera off. And if you shoot inside, you need the double shoe option so the infrared that sits in the flash shoe can occupy one shoe while the flash the other.

Another thing is the Nikon offers only 3 different size pictures, 3, 6, and 12 meg size in either JPG format or the Nikon NKX (or something like that). So this limits your size capabilities without resizing every shot. I suppose pro want the most mega pixels, but I don't. Smaller sizes work just fine and even make quite attractive 8 x 10 blow ups. The 12 meg will make poster size but also will use up a ton of disk space to save the pics. The Sony will allow you to set your pic size from about 80K standard/160K fine on the low end to 5 meg in 1 meg incraments giving you allot of choices. I use the low end fine for almost all shots and that works fine. I will have to resize ALL the Nikon shots to compress storage size on the hard drive.

Another is the format type. Either JPG or the Nikon file type. If you use the Nikon file type you can use their software to manipulate the picture, but a good JPG picture program, and there are many even free ones, that will do an excellent job of the same basic thing so Nikon format is not needed. I don't see any advantage on editing raw format for the JPG editors that are out there. I use CompuPic which works quite well. Is not Photo Shop but does everything I want!
I had to uninstall all the Nikon software where it simply took over my computer for photos and I have other things I use that work just fine, some basic ones are from Microsoft! The basic XP platform will 'see' the camera as another hard drive where you can copy and paste from the camera to the computer and do what ever. The Nikon software is not needed so I got rid of it.

The Sony makes taking movies such a simple task! Just twist the dial on top of the camera to Movie and snap away! First snap starts the movie and second stops it giving you total control. The Nikon needs several buttons to start the movie and they are on the back of the camera making manipulation of movie start and stop a chore that could easily, way too easily mess up start and stop portion of the movie. The AVI the Nikon takes is extremely sharp, like a high end movie camera so in that aspect it is better than the Sony but that is the only advantage. Sony movies are fine in MPEG format, the eaze of the Sony makes it a far better choice but if you want quality of image the Nikon of course is the better choice.

The Nikon offers a huge variety of lenses, the Sony has the built in plus a few external filter thread screw on aux lenses which work fine for the amature photog, the pro of course would frown deeply at that and dive for the Nikon. I have several add on lenses for the Sony and they work great for me. One in particular is super, is a semi fish eye that is fabulous for inside shots where it will take your subject, floor, ceiling and walls side to side getting the whole thing, if that is what you want. Any fish eye will distort the image but this one does not do a terrible job of it leaving the picture as is with distortion all but beyond notice.

The Nikon I bought came with an 18 MM to 105 MM lens. This is pretty much a good all 'round lens but others are definately needed for more cultured shots. Pictures are sharp as a razor and color is more than perfect.

Batteries are another issue. The Sony has a wall powerd charger to a small 'brick' transformer you plug directly into the camera. The Nikon has a small wall powered charger but the battery has to come out of the camera. Set up in the camera is in CMOS so nothing is lost when the battery is removed but is a bit awkward.

So the Nikon has far superior lenses. The Sony is a great amature camera.

The Nikon shutter launches almost in a nano second taking a picture. The Sony has a lag of about a second and that makes some difficult shots hard unless you use burst. Nikon has burst also so both work fine. The Nikon is better of course because of the speed.

The Nikon is totally manual as were the 35 MM cameras if you choose as well as manual. The Sony is manual but not to the extent the Nikon is. The Sony requires allot of set up for manual shots, the Nikon is only a flick of a switch and away you go! Again, the Sony is best for the amature and the Nikon is for the pro where it has all the stuff in a camera a pro will need. The Sony in full auto works perfectly as does the Nikon.

Haven't sent any Nikon pics to the printer, but I have a very high end printer so they should come out better than Kodak right here in the house. Especialy if I use the large mega pix size you should be able to count the cells on a person's arm from 200 feet! Ha!

For all 'round use the Sony takes the cake. For more professional, accurate and detailed shots the Nikon takes that one.

The Nikon uses SD Flash Cards for storage which is fast and no moving parts. The Sony uses mini CDs which in time will wear out and need expensive service. I have used only two CDs the whole 4 years I have used the Sony, they are CD-RW so when they get full I format them and start again. All my photos are saved on a dedicated hard drive partition and down loaded directly from the camera soon after the shots. The camera is used for that, on the Nikon I use a Flash Drive Adapter in a USB port to format the cards. Works great!

So of the two which is the better? The Nikon has the advanage but the Sony has definite qualities that do not throw it out of the park.

Rev. J. Gordon Bengtson
Aarrow-Ranch Aviation
Mechanicsville, Virginia 23111

Superior image quality, hardware durability, Support from Nikon. Is all but impossible to beat the quality for the money Nikon will give you. Yet the lesser brands will give you options and attributes as standard function Nikon will charge you dearly for. You get what you pay for but where the competition can do it, why not Nikon? Yet what ever you get on your Nikon you will have a superior product that will last you many years.

Some functions are very awkward like starting and stopping movie mode. To recharge a battery it has to be taken out, another work load.

From out f the box, the settings is ok. I tried the video and quite nice and surprising. It's a good beginner's SLR.

Auto ISO
Battery Life
Video
Large LCD

A little soft depth of field.

Nikon D40X

No need

Bought the Nikon D90 in Jan.'09 as an upgrade to my much loved D80. Right out of the box I noted a major improvement in image sharpness. It’s unusually fast as well, able to fire numerous JPEGs in a single burst when using a fast SDHC card.I really like the new feature of 3D Focus Tracking in continuous autofocus mode for great reliability with action subjects.
The D-Movie mode is fun and I found it useful for shooting clips during family events using a VR lens (with image stabilizer) to correct for camera shake. As long as I did not pan too quickly, video quality was very good.
the Scene Recognition feature. Most of the “post processing” options are quite intuitive.
During extensive nature, action, travel and portrait photography, I found the D90 to be unusually fast, reliable and versatile. While HD video capture will not be of interest to everyone, the Nikon D90 is a very desirable camera in more conventional aspects, making it a perfect choice for photography enthusiasts.

I love it,In terms of image quality I'm impressed. Highly recommend this camera.

Rick

Dreamy CMOS sensor
Very fast phase-detection AF
Live view mode
Matrix metering
Amazing battery life
Low light capture capabilities,Low noise
Auto D-Lighting mode
Auto iso mode
Auto White Balance mode
Consistent,accurate exposure
Bright,BIG viewfinder.
3" display monitor
In-camera sensor cleaning
High speed shooting mode
3D focus tracking
In-camera retouching
Scene Recognition feature

Very slow auto focus in live-view
No AF in D-Video mode.
Video quality could be improved
Loud shutter
Small hand grip
Capture NX 2 not included

D80

Not Needed