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Model Design / Appearance (8.00)If you took a family photo of the Nikon digital SLR lineup, you wouldn’t see a lot of recessive genes bubbling up to the surface on the appearance front – a Nikon SLR looks like a Nikon SLR looks like a Nikon SLR, with minor variations in size and shape to accommodate functional variations, but no particular nod to style or fashion. After seeing some of the bizarre stylistic experimentation going on in the compact camera camp, we’re just fine with a little boredom on the SLR side of the house.
Size / Portability (7.25)
The D90 is a substantial piece of hardware; you’re going to carry it when you intend to take pictures, not when you’re just out for a casual stroll. It weighs in at about 1 lb. 6 oz. (620 g) without battery or lens, and measures 5.2 x 4.1 x 3.0 inches (132 x 103 x 77mm), same as its D80 predecessor. Add in the battery and the 18-105mm lens that’s being bundled with the camera and you’re carrying a package well over 2 and a half pounds. That’s fine for carrying in a camera bag, backpack or neck strap, but still a hefty handful.
Handling Ability (7.50)
While the camera is no featherweight, it is well-balanced and easy to maneuver. The right-hand grip is a bit of a compromise. This large-pawed reviewer wouldn’t have minded slightly more depth and breadth to provide a more secure handhold, but the shooting position is comfortable, with index finger perched above the shutter as it should be and the programmable Function button available with a minor position shift of the middle finger. The textured plastic material used here doesn’t have the luxury feel we’d like on a $1000 camera, but it’s passable, and an indentation on the inside surface of the grip for the lower three fingers makes for improved stability.
The D90 is a bit hefty, but well balanced.
Control Button / Dial Positioning / Size (10.50)
Nikon has done a good job making the most-used adjustments available via a button-and-command-dial controls, without requiring a more time-consuming trip to the menu system. The availability of two command dials, the main dial on the back of the camera, the sub-command dial in front of the grip, makes full-manual settings easy to manage. On less well-equipped cameras, you have to press an additional button to toggle between setting aperture and shutter speed values. And consistency is maintained: whether you’re in full manual, shutter-priority or aperture-priority mode, the main command dial adjusts shutter speed, the sub-command dial adjusts aperture, which makes sense.
The mode dial on the left of the camera should satisfy both newcomers, with its ready access to preset shooting modes and prominent green Auto setting, and more experienced phototgraphers who are basically looking for the PASM family. We like the redundancy of two Auto mode settings, one full Auto, the other exactly the same except for banning the flash from firing. Not having to worry about which button or menu selection will defeat the flash in Auto mode is an excellent idea.
Experienced Nikon shooters will find a few button positions will take some time to become second nature, particularly moving the Delete button up to the left side of the viewfinder, to accommodate both Live View and Info buttons on the four-way controller side of the camera. It’s not an inherently bad system, it just isn’t what you’re expecting, which can’t really be counted as a flaw. And we still like the way Nikon doesn’t coddle users when it comes to deleting a photo. Most cameras require that you hit a Delete key, then manipulate some other, unrelated controller before getting rid of an unwanted shot. For Nikon, you hit the delete button once, then hit it again to confirm the deletion, a much faster operation.
As for the feel of the controls, we’re satisfied. The shutter button has a distinct stopping point between the half-depressed and fully-pressed positions, and the knurled mode dial turns from position to positing with an authoritative “click.” Buttons are small, but not so small that you can’t press them easily with the ball of your thumb, without resorting to fingernails.
The D90 controls have a solid, well-engineered feel.
Here again, Nikon doesn’t stray from the company’s proven formula. The white type on a black background display is crisp and easy to read on the high-res LCD display. There are six separate menus: Playback, Shooting, Custom Settings, Setup, Retouch and your choice of either Recent Settings (which is automatically populated as you use the controls) or My Menu, which lets the user choose up to 20 options for quick access (the choice of which menu to show is included on the menu itself).
Each separate menu is represented by an icon on a gray strip at the left side of the screen. Moving between them is simple: just press the four-way controller left and move the cursor up or down. And having all six menus available no matter which camera mode you're in makes customizing the settings to suit your needs is a speedy and clear-cut process.
Playback Menu
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Shooting Menu
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Custom Setting Menu
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Setup Menu
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Retouch Menu
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My Menu
This slot in the menu structure can be used for either My Menu, a customizable list of menu choices you feel are most important, or Recent Settings (the default), which automatically maintains a list of the most recently used menu options. The choice is made through the "Choose tab" option shown here.
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Ease of Use (8.25)
There’s a delicate balance between sophistication and intimidation when it comes to SLR design, and the D90 rests right on the bubble between the two. When you’re offering no fewer than 41 choices on the Custom Settings menu alone, the faint of heart may feel overmatched. On the other hand, nobody says you have to monkey with the menus before you can successfully take a photo with the D90. It offers a suitable-for-dummies Auto mode and several preset shooting setups right on the mode dial, without resorting to the menu at all. And the built-in help system has been fine-tuned to the point where it can genuinely serve as a user manual substitute in many cases. Pressing and holding the question-mark-emblazoned button while perusing the menu structure brings up a text screen that explains the available options, often in some detail.
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