Nikon D90 review

We described the D80 as a photographer's camera and, despite the addition of video, the D90 appears to share that same ethos. On a purely specification level, it's a highly competitive piece of kit, but it's the way the features have been chosen and put together that make it the camera that it is.

The D90 viewfinder is amongst the best you'll find on any APS-C camera and it sits above the highest-resolution screen we've yet seen on a camera of this class. The buttons are well chosen and sensibly positioned, and the two-dial interface is a pleasure to use. (Buyers coming from other systems can even reverse the operation of the meter and dials to make everything that bit more familiar).

The image quality, whether at base ISO or the higher settings, is excellent even if it can need a bit of tweaking of the internal settings to tailor the output to specific needs. While it's understandable that Nikon would want to try to bring the processing settings into line with its more expensive cameras, it's questionable how well the rather under-sharpened default output will serve the buyers of this camera. A little more contrast and saturation improve things, without any ill effects.

The early talk about the D90 was about its video capability and indeed it does record HD videos - good ones by digital stills camera standards. But don't let that distract you, this is a camera which lets nothing get in the way of taking photos. Its degree of configurability results in long menus but they're generally well arranged and color-coded to minimize the likelihood you getting lost in them. There's also the option to create a menu of your most used settings (or list the most recently used ones, if you don't want to spend time setting it up), and a status screen that gives fairly fast access to those key parameters that don't have their own buttons.

Richard Butler & Simon Joinson

more : dpreview