Nikon Digital Slr Camera Best Review

I purchased the D90 outfit for my husband for Christmas and he absolutely loves it. It takes wonderful pictures and he has just scratched the surface of all it can do. The video works well but uses up a lot of memory. The additional items in the package made this a great buy. However, MY mistake was I thought the 70-300mm lens was also a VR but it was not. I didn't read carefully so was surprised when I received my order. My husband didn't mind and is thoroughly enjoying everything.

This kit contains everything you need to get started. (including two batteries so you don't need to purchase another like we did) This was a gift for our 16 yr old son. He loves it and so do we. The only problem we had was with the card reader. It scratched the card and damaged it. But we contacted Cameta Camera and in our dealings with them they replaced the card reader w/the one in the photo, sent a new memory card, and reimbursed our shipping. In this day and age of fighting to get what you pay for this company was one of the most outstanding companies we've dealt with in ages.

The camera itself takes beautiful, quality photos and after 7 months of use we have had no problems with it. It has a fantastic array of features built in so you can edit photos with the camera. We have a lot of fun with these features.

I spent a good bit of time shopping around and reading reviews before making this purchase and have found this camera and kit to be a great investment for our first major camera purchase. I also will be using Cameta Camera for all future purchases.

bought it from Cameta camera. When it arrived inspected the shipment. Found that 1) the 23 dollar Guide to SLR photograhpy was out of date. Did not even mention the D90 camera in it. Guide appeard to be USED . 2)The remote was not the Nikon ML-l3. Instead it showed up on the emailed invoice as a off discount brand remote from zeiks that did not work. When I called I was told I didn't know how to set it up. Then I was told go go buy a new battery... very degrading remarks from the dealer about my abilities (took it to the local camera store and they just laughed saying the remote was junk... battery was Ok on their tester) Called and tried to return it and was directed to their return policy even thought they said they have a 30 day return. Agent their said he would exchange it for another one (why would I want a new piece of junk when I had the old one already that didn't work) but I would have to pay the 6 bux shipping. (thing is only worth $1.298 to begin with)

Picture shows the Nikon camera bag. What I got was a kodak bag that was smaller and the camera and lense did not fit. Again I was degraded because I didn't know how to place the camera.. even after I called the same day I got it.... the agent swore that the camera and lense would fit. His words were send it back but again refered to the return policy of exchanges or restocking charges if it was in the orginal non opened wrap'er. (little hard to do if you try to put the camera and lens in it.. huh... gotcha)

Let the buyer be ware as this sure has a lot of items that were switched for cheaper manufacture, useless surplus junk.

While researching the Nikon D80 and D90 there were slight differences which I thought were worth the extra money since the D80 price was so drastically reduced. The D90 has a better sensor, it has an auto cleaner, video capability (I have a brand new grandbaby on the way and know I will use this feature quite often). The "Bundled" kit came with everything I needed with out buying and extras (I already own a tripod) The choice of lenses, 18 - 105 and 70 - 300 pretty much covers any focal length I would need. Highly recommended.

I am far from a professional photographer, but I take it as seriously as possible while still referring to it as a hobby. I take mostly pictures of people at events and many of my baby son without flash in low light situations.

I had been using a Nikon D40x for 1 year and very early reached my limitation with that camera. The Nikon D40x has very nice image quality, but the camera's interface is not suited for a more serious shooter who wants quick single button or dial access to such shooting parameters such as white balance, shooting mode, metering mode, etc. I also felt very limited by the D40x not having an in-body focus motor that would allow me to use non AF-I/AF-S lenses (which are lenses without the focus motor built-in).

The Nikon D40x limitations were severe enough that I was about to consider purchasing a Canon 40D until the Nikon D90 appeared just in time.


PROS:

1. Fantastic set of separate buttons on the camera to control parameters like ISO, white balance, metering, autofocus, image quality, shooting mode, etc.
2. Two command dials
3. High resolution 920K pixel LCD screen (like the one on the Nikon D300)
4. 12.3 megapixel CMOS sensor
5. Low noise high ISO capability (for low light shooting) I can shoot ISO 1600 with good image quality with this camera, while on my D40x I could only shoot with ISO 400 and obtain acceptable IQ. I will even use ISO 3200 frequently with very usable results!
6. Separate top-viewing LCD screen in addition to the rear high res screen, to show shooting parameters constantly
7. In-body focus motor which allows the use of Nikon's non AF-I/S lenses, including wonderful and CHEAP prime lenses such as the Nikkor 50mm 1.8 (~$100 lens!)
8. Continuous shooting of 4.5 frames per second
9. Small size, although larger than the D40/D40x/D60, it is still substantially smaller in the hand than the D300/D3
10. 720p 24fps MPEG video shooting capability with incredible ability to use depth of field that I cannot achieve with my Sony High-Def camcorder.
11. Eleven auto-focus points (not as nice as the 51 points on the D300, but substantially better than my D40x with its 3 points)
12. GPS option
13. HDMI output
14. Enormous number of options to customize camera and shooting settings to fit your style of shooting
15. Fantastic image quality right out-of-box if you don't want to do any post processing
16. Terrific build quality
17. Top notch camera ergonomics (but this will be a very personal opinion that differs for each shooter)


CONS:

1. "Rolling shutter" phenomenon while recording video: The D90 CMOS sensor has the same problem that other CMOS video recorders have when recording video. If you move the camera, especially horizontally, you get a "jelly" or "rubberbanding" effect where the image wobbles significantly. It is nice to have the video features, which looks very sharp at 720p, but it is NOT a substitute for a video camera. If you use a tripod, and do not do quick zooms/pans, the video quality is excellent. Without a tripod, however, you may get nauseas watching a wobbly video. The sound is also in monoaural.
2. 1/200 flash synch: Not a problem for me, but it might be for you.
3. No weather sealing: This is found on the Nikon D300/D3 and even on similarly priced models from other camera companies
4. The buffer will fill up after about 8 continuous RAW + JPG (FINE) shots. This number differs depending on the shooting parameters that you will choose. If you shoot primarily JPG, the buffer seems to allow a very large number of continuous shots, but I have not quantified this for JPG only.


TIPS:

1. Get the FREE Nikon ViewNX software from Nikon's site as your 1st step in your workflow. This will let you examine your RAW images that you can process for either Nikon CaptureNX2 to do further RAW processing or just export to JPG for a JPG editor such as PhotoShop.
2. Recommend buying the Nikon CaptureNX2. It is a RAW converter (if you shoot in RAW) that will read the camera settings properly for export to JPG. Capture NX2, however, is not as slick as the Adobe products and Capture NX2 requires a fairly powerful computer, otherwise it can run pretty slowly on a PC > 3 years old.
3. If you use JPEGs out-of-camera, consider increasing the sharpness above the default 3 or 4. Nikon uses a very conservative sharpening default setting. Nikon has decided to change the default JPEG images to match the higher end D3/D700/D300 cameras which produce more neutral images. Consequently, the D90 images that are less punchy than the D40/D40x/D60/D80, so you may also want to turn up the in-camera saturation and contrast.



The Nikon D90 has all of the interface features that serious and even professional photographers need with wonderful image quality.

The kit comes with everything you need to start shooting great pictures. The 18-105mm lens is great for indoor/close up shooting, the 300mm works well for distance. The 300mm lens does not have Vibration Reduction (VR), but that's typically another $500.

The 16 Gig. card will hold 4,300 pictures. Nice when you want to use the burst mode or are traveling. Take extra shots, weed through them later.
The bag has room for both lenses and my 50mm portrait lens along with cables, spare battery and charger.

So far this camera has outstripped my talents, however I am learning more each day I use it. This camera has many capabilities I have yet to experiment with, however it is also relatively easy to use for general picture taking for an the inexperienced. What I am saying is if you are new but serious about learning SLR photography this camera is for you. It will take you from the simpilist full auto point and shoot to features only a pro would use. Bravo Nikon!!

Beware that the 70-300mm lens is an old-design lens designed for a film camera that has been discontinued by Nikon. It does not contain image stabilizing "vibration reduction" technology. This is good from the price standpoint, but may surprise someone that thinks this is a kit Nikon put together. The result is you must use a tripod that would not be required for a current-design lens.

The whole set is cheap, but the lens are not so good compared with other professional Nikon lens in which are suitable fro D90. But it is still a good deal for beginner.

After getting away from shooting pictures with an SLR for a few years, succumbing to the ease and quality of digital point and shoot cameras, I took the plunge and decided to buy a digital SLR. I have been a Canon owner for a lot of years, but the D90's video capability sold me on it. There are a few things that video just does a better job with than still shots.

What has really impressed me with the D90 however, is the ease of changing the most used creative settings with the push of a button or quick twist of a dial. Shooting available light in low light situations (one of my favorite things) is just a one click turn of the thumb wheel. Moving the shutter to multiple setting is just a button push and the turn of a wheel. Moving to shutter priority or aperture priority is likewise quick and easy. None of these things require going into lengthy menus (which there are many if you really want to take control) and make casual photography in a creative way fun and EASY. I really like this camera.