Preview: Nikon D90

Nikon D90 elõzetes magyarul

It seems that Nikon cannot stop pushing out new DSLR cameras lately. They have stirred up the pro segment with the D3-D700-D300 trio, and now moving to the prosumer segment. The D90 shouldn't have come as a surprise for Nikon users, since the replacement of the good old D80 was long overdue (not to mention all the leaked information from all over the internet). So if you hear us saying "another Nikon DSLR", it is only due to the just launched Nikon D700.

I remember when I started my preview of the Nikon D80 two years ago saying something like this camera will have a nice life. Now I can say that it was more than true. Then D80 had a great career, not without a reason. This was the most affordable 10 megapixel Nikon DSLR, a budget version of the 6 month older D200.

Nikon wants the D90 to have a similar role in the product range, taking into account the needs of the current market, and with some functions setting trends in the DSLR world. Based on its features it's half way between the entry level D60 and the pro level D300. We can say that it is a truly mid class DSLR, while Nikon fanboys will say that this is an answer to the just announced Canon EOS 50D.

In this article instead of comparing it to the competition, I would emphasize the differences of the Nikon D90 and its predecessor. Here are the most important changes:

From the outside

If we look at the face of the cameras, it is hard to see any difference. I could only mention the little bit differently shaped left side, or the new pattern on the coating of the grip, but these are mostly design difference. BTW, the coating of the grip is not rubber as we would expect, but plastic, what gives a cheaper feeling to the body, and makes the grip less stable in the hand than it would be with rubber coating. Only the part under the photographers thumb is made out of rubber. Other than this, the Nikon D90 is a really well built camera, all the parts precisely fit together. The plastic outfit of the camera covers a stainless steal body. According to the specifications, the shutter was designed to serve the owner for at least 100,000 exposures (this data wasn't published, with the D80). To me, the shutter/mirror noise is very low. Unfortunately I could not listen to the D80 and the D90 at the same time, but it is definitely quieter than the D700.

The small thing on the left is a tiny microphone, what shows that this DSLR is a bit different than the others in it's class. The size of the camera is exactly the same as that of the D80, so it feels to hold exactly the same.

The back of the camera holds a little more excitement (but not too much). The curves are a little smoother, the buttons on the left are a bit smaller. The navigation area was also redesigned, and it now holds the OK button in the middle. This makes the use of the camera easier, since we don't have to move our thumb down to a separate button. The navigation area lock has changed as well, and both controls were lowered on the back. Around the navigation buttons we can find two new buttons: The upper one is the one turning the live view function on and off. The other is labeled as INFO, and it changes the amount of information displayed in both shooting and playback modes. The status display is similarly detailed as in the D700, even the bottom menu is available (although it only holds 6 settings opposed to the 10 in the big brother).

This body has two programmable function buttons. One of them is the FUNC button on the right side of the lens mount, the other is the AF-L/AE-L button. The lower part of the lens mount hold a DOF preview button, but that has no other function.

The D90 can use the same portrait grip as the D80 (MB-D80), but it can handle Nikon's optional GPS unit(GP-1) as well. The optional accessories include a wired remote (MC-DC2) as well.

Sensor

The provided press release states that the camera has a newly designed 12.9 megapixel DX size CMOS sensor. The camera only uses 12.3 million pixels to form the image, so that gives the largest image resolution to be 4288 x 2848. Other than the maximum resolution, two other sizes and three compression ratios are available. The supported file formats did not change: 12 bit RAW, JPEG, and the combination of the two.

The image processing is done by the new EXPEED processor that has been used in all recent Nikon camera (but wasn't around yet when the D80 was designed). The processor was tweaked especially for this camera, so it takes part not only in the image processing, but helps the live view function and the face recognition function as well.

The sensitivity range reminds us to the D300, since it's lower end is at ISO 200 (opposed to the ISO 100 in the D80). The ISO 100 value is only available when the extended range is allowed in the menu. The highest sensitivity is ISO 3200, what can be extended to ISO 6400 if needed. Both extended values can be approached in 1/3 EV steps.

The Nikon D80 was made at a time when automatic sensor cleaning wasn't a cool thing in Nikon cameras. Things have changed, and now almost all Nikons have such a system. This tries to remove the dust particles by shaking the anti-aliasing filter in front of the image sensor. This can be activated at power on, power off, at both times, or it can be set to off as well. Cleaning can be started at any time by selecting the Clean Now function from the menu. If this isn't helpful, we can always clean the sensor the old way, or take a reference image that will be used during the post-processing to remove unwanted spots. This option is available in the Nikon Capture NX 2 application, what is unfortunately not part of the package.

Movie recording and burst mode

Why should a new Nikon D90 follow the trends when it can set them? We all knew from the moment it went public, that the Nikon D90 is the world's first DSLR camera with movie recording function. We could all argue for hours whether it is a good idea or not, but from the business point of view, it is a huge thing: many people have purchased compact cameras instead DLSR just to have the movie recording function.

Nikon has had short animation shooting options before in some cameras, but that was nothing compared to this feature. The new D-movie function provides movie recording in 1280x720 pixel resolution (yes, HD quality), while saving 24 frames every second in Motion-JPEG format with mono sound. When the highest quality is not needed, the videographer can select the 640x480 of the 320x216 pixel resolutions as well. The camera has a built in speaker to play back the sound saved along the movies.

Recording movies with a DSLR camera has similar advantages taking photos with one. The larger sensor provides more options to control the depth of field, and it gives cleaner images (less noise), so making videos in low light environments results better quality. The interchangeable nature of lenses give unlimited possibilities from fisheye to tele, through extreme macro videography. Or whatever you can come up with. Options are only limited by our wallet.

During my short tests the video quality was exceptional, no matter which resolution I picked. The size of the movie highly depend on the subject of the video. More detailed videos take 2.5, while homogenous areas produce 1.5 MB/sec in file size, when the highest resolution is set. The only disadvantage of the movie mode is that the AF is not available. Focus has to be set manually.

The speed of the continuous mode has increased since the D80. In high mode, the camera takes 4.5 frames/second, while in low mode the speed can be set from 1 frame/second to 4 frames/second.

LCD and viewfinder

The Nikon D90 has got the same 3" (7.62 cm) 920,000 pixel TFT LCD as all the pro Nikon cameras in the last 12 months. The LCD has a 100% coverage, 170 degree viewing angle and double protection against reflections.

In playback mode images can be displayed in 72 images thumbnail mode (besides the normal 4 and 9 images), and in calendar mode. Great new feature is that we can get a histogram for any area of the image, while zooming in on it in playback mode.

The viewfinder is nothing new. The matte screen and the pentaprism is the same as in the predecessor. The coverage has increased by 1% (it is now 96%), but the magnification (0.94x) and the eyepoint (19.5mm) are the same.

Live view

The live view is a new feature in this segment for Nikon. The pro cameras all have this, but the feature on the D90 is a lot more convenient, due to the dedicated live view button on the back of the camera. The Nikon D90 uses a contrast detection AF, which works in one of the following 3 modes.

The Normal mode should be used when the camera is on tripod. The focus point can be moved to any part of the image (I have counted 133x79 positions). The wide AF field mode is designed to work well, when the camera is used without a tripod. The AF points are larger, and there are only 111x70 positions on the grid. The third mode is not yet common in the DSLR segment, since it uses a face recognition function to detect up to 5 human faces on the image. Focus is set to the closest one.

The INFO button toggles between the different information display modes. All the data (except those on the lower status bar) can be turned of, and a 16 segment grid can be displayed on the live view as well.

In live view mode we have to live without the phase detection AF system, so we will hear the mirror moving less often. The preview sample that I had the chance to try was pretty slow in this mode. Even in well lit room, it needed 2-3 seconds to find focus. We really hope that Nikon will polish this before it goes to production.

Focusing, metering

The Nikon D90 has more or less inherited the AF and metering system from its predecessor. The AF system is the well known Multi-CAM 1000 with 11 focus points (the middle one is more sensitive). We have all together 4 AF field modes: single point, dynamic area and automatic area are coming from the D80, while the 3D tracking was borrowed from the D300 (obviously without the 51 focusing points). The system is able to track the subject even if the image is recomposed.

The rest of the system is the same as in the D80, the metering uses a 420 segment RGB sensor.

Flash

Nothing has changed here either. While the specifications seems to be different (gn. 18 at the D90, and gn. 13 on the D80), the first one was given at ISO 200, while the other is at ISO 100, so the flash power of the two is about the same. The shortest sync speed is 1/200 second. The flash can cover the angle of view of 18mm lenses and above, and it is an i-TTL controlled system. This camera is also capable of acting as a master unit for wireless flash systems for up to two sets of flashes.

The hot shoe can accommodate any i-TTL Nikon speedlight.

Features

The Nikon D90 has several extra features above those that we have mentioned so far. It has six image processing modes (general, neutral, vivid, portrait, landscape and monochrome), and several scene modes (portrait, landscape, close-up, sports and night portrait). The scene modes are available from the main dial.

The D90 has also got the well known Active D-Lighting, that can be set in 4 steps besides the auto mode. It effectively compensates the lightning differences between well lit and shadowed areas of the images. It comes handy in sunny days.

The retouching part of the menu was also improved. The geometric distortion correction provides compensation in 5 step in both directions. The result is shown on the screen, while the selection is made. The correction can be set automatically as well. The Straighten function levels the image if it wasn't correctly taken. The compensation can be set in 20 steps in both directions. A grid is helping the photographer during the process. The Fisheye function can produce the well known effect of a fisheye lens in 10 steps.

The images can be played back as a slide show. When using the Picmotion function, a selected background music is played during the slide show to make the show more interesting.

At the time of the D80, HDMI output wasn't common on digital cameras. They are now, so the D90 has one as well. This can come handy for playing back HD movies taken with the camera on HD television. The maximum of the output resolution is 1080i.

The Nikon D90 is powered by the same 1500 mAh lithium-ion rechargeable battery (EN-EL3e) as it's predecessor. According to the manufacturer the battery can last for 850 photos on a single charge. When using the portrait grip, we can use two lithium-ion batteries, or 6 R6/AA size batteries.

We Hungarians will miss the Hungarian from the available languages.

The new kit lens

Nikon has announced a new kit lens along the D90. The Nikkor AF-S DX 18-105mm F3.5-4.5G ED VR is designed to be used on DX format digital SLR cameras, although they can be used on the FX format DSLRs as well. The 18-105mm focal length range gives the view of a 27-158mm lens on a film camera.

The lens has 15 lens elements in 11 groups. One of them is an ED lens, what helps eliminationg chromatic aberrations, while the hybrid aspherical lens element is there to compensate the geometric distortions. Nikon has used rounded blades in the aperture to give a nicer blurring effect. The lens is equipped with a quick, silent SWM motor. The closest focusing point is at 45 cm (16.5") what provides 0.2x magnification (1:5 ratio). The weight of the lens is less then half of kilogram. The filter thread can hold 67mm filters.

The build quality and the usability of the lens is similar to that of the AF-S 18-135mm lens. The image quality seems to be fine (no testing was made).

Image quality

Since this camera was a pre-production sample we were not allowed to publish any of the images we took. Unfortunately the same applies to the kit lens as well. We will make our detailed reviews with full res sample images as soon as final, production versions become available.

After reviewing my images I can say that they show less sign of the image processing work, than in the D80. The image quality is closer to the softer, but more detailed images of the D300. It seems that the new image sensor is a huge leap compared to the D80. Of course, the final words will be written after the detailed review.

Conclusion

I don't want to go into predictions about the market reception of this camera. But if we look at the unique, HD quality movie recording function, I guess the camera will have no problems. Those who have been thinking about buying another compact camera instead of a DSLR just because the former one had a movie mode will love this camera for sure.

We have said it a few times, but the D90 is a great example for it: the DSLR market is not just for the pros any more. This camera shows exactly where the mid range DSLRs are heading. Think about the movie mode, the live view, the sensor cleaning, the face detection, the slide show with background sounds or the extra retouch functions. Those old school DSLR users should think about the shutter that was designed to last for 100,000 exposures, the larger resolution CMOS sensor, the extended sensitivity range, the quick image processing, faster burst mode or the 3D tracking AF. These are all the features of a modern mid class DSLR.

I would classify myself as a more conservative DSLR owner. I would turn away seeing someone using live view, but recording movies with a DSLR was a unbelievably exciting experience. Like a 4D roller coster without motion sickness.

The camera body will be available under 1,000 euros.