Hearts in Hawai'i
Purchasing a Nikon D90 Camera
8/10/2009
Previous to purchasing this camera in July 2009, I had owned five different Nikon digital cameras; Coolpix 900, Coolpix 995, Coolpix 8800, Coolpix S500 (these first four are point-and-shoot camera) and the Nikon D50. I had shot several thousand pictures with the D50 and was more than happy with the results and its capabilities, for the most part. Two areas of slight disappointment were 1) only a six-megapixel sensor and 2) inability to "punch up" the colors (you know, take more vivid colorful pictures) without using post-processing software. Reviews of the D90 told me these shortfalls would be addressed with this new camera.
First, about the actual purchasing of this camera; usually I'll go through one of three online stores when buying audio/video equipment and accessories; Amazon.com, Buy.com and Newegg.com. All three places have featured most items I want cheaper than any hands-on retailer could offer in the Duluth metro area. This time I decided to buy locally, for two reasons:
1. It helps the local econ.
2. If I need the camera serviced, it's a ten-minute drive versus having to pack and ship the item out.
It was a mistake...almost. Having requested the camera in mid-June, I waited. And waited. And waited. First Photo in Duluth had no idea why it was taking so long for D90's (body only) to arrive and could give me no definite answer. There was, however, always the "should be next Monday", or "should be next week". Finally, there was "well, we don't know". So I asked for an email when one of the store's co-owners had some concrete information. An email which never came.
So, I decided on a drop-dead date. If they couldn't get the camera in my hands by that date, I'd buy through Amazon.com (and save over $100 by the way). On the very last day before I went elsewhere, the shipment finally arrived.
Now, I'm not assigning blame here on the lateness of First Photo receiving the D90's. I am less than pleased at being told I'd have an email once they knew what the status was and then never getting the email. I can take one of two views of this; first, it was an honest mistake, and second, they do enough business that missing a $1,000 sale to an individual didn't matter much. Which view would you take?
Enough ranting. About the actual camera; physically, it's the same size as the D50 and only two ounces heavier. The hand grip fits just right, and at 585g (1 lb 5 oz), you can carry this thing around all day without any problems.
The rest of my impressions are in the area of comparison to the D50:
The 12-megapixel sensor is twice that of the D50. True, I understand this won't make you a better photographer (no feature will really do that, will it?) but it will allow you to do more cropping of the photos you take. Sometimes you're simply too far away from the subject to not get unwanted things in your photo. Unless you have a 300mm lens, which I do not have.
Active D-lighting; ever have one of those scenes where you want to properly expose an item in a shaded area but don't want to blow out the highlights in the rest of the image? It has always been one area where digital cameras compare poorly to film cameras. Active D-lighting is Nikon's attempt to compensate for that, and it works fairly well. (I'll be posting some examples of this and other features at a later date). The D50 didn't have this.
Picture controls; Here you have a choice of Standard, Neutral, Vivid, Monochrome, Portrait and Landscape. I haven't yet had the opportunity to play around with any of these other than Standard and Vivid. I find that (unless I'm using a Circular Polarizer) I like to shoot in Vivid mode when outdoors, Standard when indoors.Once you choose which Picture Control you want, you then have the option to optimize that particular control in the following areas; Sharpening, Contrast, Brightness, Saturation and Hue. When using Vivid, I like to pump up the colors just a bit more by choosing +1 on the Saturation. At the same time, I also choose +5 on the Sharpening. At some point, I'll be taking some tripod-based images to test what the real-life differences are in various modes.
Battery; an EN-EL3e battery is included with the camera, as is the battery charger. The battery charger (MH-18a) is the same one which came with my D50, so this charger works not only with the EN-EL3e but also with the EN-EL3a (used in the D50). Think these two batteries are interchangeable? They're not! You can use either battery with the D50 but can only use the EN-EL3e with the D90. Sort of a pain, as it required me to purchase an extra battery to use as a backup.About battery life; I was able to shoot over 400 images on the first charge of this battery, and that included a lot of playing around with menus, viewing pics, etc. Very nice! You can also see the % of battery life left in the D90 menu. Also a nice upgrade from the D50.
There is a shallow learning curve so far as using the controls goes. Features which I like to change a lot (ISO, shutter speed, aperture) have their own dedicated buttons (or wheels). As a former D50 user, I found the main functions very easy to find and use.
The D90 also can shoot video; this feature is of little interest to me but might be to you. If I'm planning on shooting video, then I bring along my Sony MiniDV camcorder.
The viewfinder on the D90 is a huge improvement over the D50! At three inches and over 900k pixels, you can get a much better idea of the results of a shot you just took.
If you're shooting in full manual mode, there are now separate dials for aperture and shutter speed. On the D50, the same dial controlled both--if you wanted to change the aperture, you had to press a button while turning the dial. Very cumbersome if you're using the view finder
The D90 has what's called "Live View"; standing in a crowd and can't see what you're trying to shoot? Press the LV button which turns the monitor in a viewfinder, and now you can hold the camera over your head and get that difficult shot. Neat. There are all kinds of potential applications for this feature.
For those who don't want to learn how to use the various camera controls (and I believe there are very few of you; otherwise, you'd buy a point-and-shoot camera and save yourself several hundred dollars in the process), the D90 has several scene modes, including Portrait, Landscape, Close-up, Sports and Night Portrait. I have no intention of ever using these, but they may be of use to you.
Overall impression; this is one helluva nice camera and easily bests the D50. It's also so easy to use that my wife could use it, knowing as little as she does about photography, and get some great images. You could shoot fully automatic (which I sometimes do) and all the options set to default and be happy. For awhile. At some point you'll want to use some of the features which you plunked down some fairly serious money for.This is a very welcome addition to my camera bag.
Previous: 7/28/2009--How To Start My Day
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