dSLR Dad

Neutral Day has published their review of the Nikon D90 dSLR Camera:

The Nikon D90 is the successor to the very popular and very capable D80, and currently occupies the prosumer niche for Nikon. At about $1000 for the camera body only, the Nikon D90 offers consumers a 12.3 megapixel sensor, an ISO range of 100-6400 (including boost), a 3 inch display with 920k resolution, and a frame rate of 4.5 fps. Additionally, as most of you will remember, the Nikon D90 was the first DSLR to start the now pervasive trend of high definition video in a DSLR camera. For the D90, this meant 720p HD video at 24 fps with mono sound in up to 5 minute clips (for HD). In short, the Nikon D90 offers quite a bit of the performance of the professional level Nikon D300, plus HD video, but in smaller size and with less impact on the wallet. As a previous owner of the Nikon D80, I was more than curious how far things had come with the D90. As it turns out, Nikon sent a D90 kit for me to test, bundled with the AF-S Nikkor 18-105mm lens, and after nearly a month of frequent use (make that non-stop use), I’m ready to share my thoughts in our review of the Nikon D90 digital SLR camera.

You can read the entire D90 review over at Neutral Day.

Peter Burian has published his field test report of the Nikon D90 dSLR Camera:

During extensive nature, action, travel and portrait photography, the D90 proved to be unusually fast, reliable and versatile. In terms of image quality, it was competitive with more expensive cameras.

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Photozone has published their review of the Nikon D90 dSLR Camera:

The Nikon D90 provides definitively “All you need to fuel your passion for photography” and a little bit more. The consumer DSLR camera from Nikon scores already after the first look through the exemplary viewfinder and gives an first impression of the D90 power. Just after the good old Nikon shutter release sound, the big 3 inch high resolution LCD displays a preview of the image taken by the 12.3 megapixel APS-C CMOS image sensor with built-in self-cleaning sensor unit and gives an idea of sharp images with a great resolution even in high sensitivity. The terrific dynamic range of the Nikon D90 in combination with Nikon’s D-Lightning makes sure that the next shot succeeds.  In continuous-servo AF mode you can confidently concentrate on the scene and delegate the imaging part to the camera and its fast and reliable AF. (more…)

Vote For Your Choice

It’s that time of year again. Time to push out one year and bring in another. And on this, the last day of 2008, I offer up the nominees for dSLR Dad Camera of the Year 2008 (listed in chronological order): (more…)

LetsGoDigital has published their review of the Nikon D90 dSLR Camera:

The image quality is steady as a rock. Excellent color reproduction and superb dynamic range combined with Nikon’s 3D Matrix metering ensure an outstanding DSLR. Nikon shows to be able to swiftly integrate innovations coming from the professional DSLR in the amateur market, making this segment also stand out from the crowd. The D90 is definitely worth its money and well worth stepping over to from the D80. Although the Nikon D90 is not completely perfect, it offers good value for money. A superb DSLR camera

You can read the complete review here.  As always, you can find out more about the Nikon D90 in the dSLR Dad Resource Guide.

Nikon has the latest NEF RAW Codec, version 1.5, available here for download.  This codec is for Windows only (XP and Vista) and supports NEF (RAW) images captured with the recently released Nikon D90 dSLR Camera. After installing this Codec, you will be able to easily view and work with Nikon’s NEF RAW images as you do JPEGs.

This Codec supports the following cameras:

• D3, D2Xs, D2X, D2Hs, D2H, D1X, D1H, D1, D700, D300, D200, D100, D90, D80, D70S, D70, D60, D50, D40X, D40
• COOLPIX 8800, COOLPIX 8700, COOLPIX 8400, COOLPIX 5700, COOLPIX 5400, COOLPIX 5000

You can also find out more about the Nikon D90 in the dSLR Dad Resource Guide.

Digital Photography Review has published their odyssey on the Nikon D90 dSLR Camera:

Almost exactly two years after the D80 was announced comes its replacement, the rather predictably named D90. The D80 has been one of Nikon’s quiet successes, and even today, despite being positively Methuselah-like in digital camera terms it continues to sell and often makes its way into our top 10 most clicked on cameras. Because it looks so similar to the D80 the D90 appears at first glance to be one of those rather subdued incremental upgrades, but dig a little deeper and you’ll find there’s plenty to keep Nikon fans happy.

You can read all 37 web pages over at dPreview.  As always, you can find out more about the Nikon D90 in the dSLR Dad Resource Guide.

Michael Reichmann, creator of The Luminous Landscape, has published his review of the Nikon D90’s video capabilities.

This is clearly a first generation product. Nikon saw an opportunity to add video capability to the DSLR and did so in a simple manner with little intention of creating a new type of hybrid camera. The D90 is a stills camera (and a very good one) at a very reasonable price, that happens to also shoot moderate quality video.

There’s little doubt that stills / video convergence is on the way. The Nikon D90 though is simply a harbinger, and shouldn’t be seen as much more than that. As discussed above, while it is no replacement for a camcorder (even a consumer grade one), in the hands of Indy film makers it will likely turn out to be a productive tool, filling in when shallow DOF or special lens use is required.

You can read his entire review here.  You can also find out more about the Nikon D90 in the dSLR Dad Resource Guide.

Popular Photography Magazine has published their review of the Nikon D90 dSLR Camera:

Borrowing its 12.3MP APS-C sized CMOS sensor from the higherend D300, the D90 is the fourth successive 12MP Nikon DSLR. Clearly, the company has eased off the megapixel race, instead focusing on other areas of image quality, such as low noise at high ISOs and convenient features. And the results are impressive. In our lab tests, the D90 scored Excellent in overall image quality right up through ISO 3200….

You can read the entire review at PopPhoto.com.

For all of the latest news and reviews, check out the dSLR Dad’s Nikon D90 Resource Guide

RED Digital Cinema founder Jim Jannard, who recently announced their own Digital Still and Motion Camera has also gotten his hands on a Nikon D90.  The results of it’s motion capture are not impressive:

You can follow Jim’s discussion of CMOS motion video capture in the RED User forum:

The details of the RED DSMC (Digital Still & Motion Camera) will be announced at the end of this year.

Given the announcements and release of still cameras from “others” that now shoot video, RED is excited to enter this game. From our vantage point, it is a lot easier to enter the still market from a motion background than visa-versa. The biggest issue that needs to be solved by the still capture group is skew… slow read-reset of CMOS imagers. This “typical” CMOS issue shows itself by moving the camera during motion capture. It is seen as “jelly movement”. Red has overcome this issue with a rapid read-reset CMOS sensor program. The Monstro Mysterium sensor is the fastest read-reset CMOS known to man enjoying the same motion characteristics as a film camera.

Later on he continues:

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