Nikon D90

Jacks, ports, plugs (6.50)
A snug-fitting rubber door on the right side of the camera opens to reveal four ports: input for an optional DC power supply and mini USB, mini HDMI and AV out connectors. We appreciate the use of industry-standard connectors, avoiding the mad scramble and aggravating expense of trying to replace proprietary cables when the originals are inevitably lost or left behind while traveling. One additional connection, found under a separate cover, is used to plug in an optional remote control or GPS unit.

The D90 uses industry-standard connectors
where possible.

Direct Print Options (4.00)
Pretty much every digital camera on the market lets you print directly to a USB-connected printer that supports the PictBridge standard, but Nikon does a better-than-usual implementation of this feature, providing the option to crop while printing and output an index print. The camera can also create a DPOF print order, indicating which photos stored on your memory card you'd like printed, with size and number of copies for each. Just hand the card to the smiling wage slave at your local photo output emporium and your printing wishes will be granted, without a lot of annoying paperwork.

Battery (9.00)
The EN-EL3e lithium-ion rechargeable battery has a rated capacity of 7.4V/1500mAh. Nikon says it takes 2.25 hours to reach a full charge when completely depleted. The company doesn't offer an estimated number of shots per charge, but we were impressed with the battery's longevity as we squeezed off hundreds of shots during the testing process.

The substantial battery provides long-lasting power..

The D90 is also compatible with the optional MB-D80 battery pack, which will accept one or two of the standard EN-EL3e batteries, or six AA-size batteries, either rechargeable or off-the-shelf, offering a useful fallback position if you're heading out to shoot your best friend's wedding and suddenly realize your rechargeables didn't magically crawl into the charger by themselves, leaving you powerless.

The D90 is compatible with readily available SD and SDHC cards.

Other Features (6.00)
Dust Reduction
The D90 incorporates Nikon's image sensor cleaning system, which involves vibrating the low pass filter that's fitted over the sensor to shake off offending particles. The sensor cleaning routine can be triggered automatically at start-up and/or shutdown, or manually via the setup menu.  In addition, users can take an Image Dust Off reference photo, which can remove stubborn spots when used together with Nikon's optional Capture NX 2 software.

Face Detection
When shooting in Live View mode, the D90 can track up to five faces, shifting aperture, shutter speed and white balance to favor well-exposed mugs.

Dynamic Range Optimizer
Nikon offers two related technologies for having the camera analyze the shadows-to-highlights range in an image and make automatic adjustments to maintain image detail on both extremes. Active D-Lighting works while shooting, and D-Lighting is a processing technique applied afterward via the Retouch menu. The Active D-Lighting function allows a more dramatic improvement, but saves the altered image as the only stored file, while D-Lighting post-processing  lets you apply changes and save the result as a new image.