Nikon D90

 

The ISO, image size/quality, continuous shooting and auto focus mode settings can be adjusted while in Auto Mode, or left to their default settings.  Our only quibble here is with the default image quality, which is JPEG Normal rather than JPEG Fine. Considering the enormous capacity of today’s inexpensive SD cards, we’d rather see images captured at the best quality setting by default, and let users choose to increase image compressions (with the resulting loss of image quality) if they prefer.

Movie Mode (9.00)
When the D90 was announced in August 2008, the marquee feature was an SLR that could shoot video, and at 1280 x 720 (the lower of two high-resolution video standards) no less. We grew suspicious, though, when the camera arrived and the video feature wasn’t even mentioned in Nikon’s 56-page Quick Start Guide, and only merited three pages in the full 278-page manual. After experimenting with the movie-making opportunities provided by the D90 for a few weeks, we’re still not ready to bury the trusty old camcorder in a drawer just yet.

Basically, movie mode lets you shoot at 1280 x 720 (widescreen), 640 x 424 (the default) or 320 x 216 resolutions, all at 24 frames per second (fps). The two lower-res sizes use a 3:2 aspect ratio, an odd choice considering the fact that our TVs use a 4:3 aspect ratio (640 x 480 or 320 x 240 are the commonly used resolutions for video recording). The 24 frames per second figure is also an oddball figure, since NTSC video runs at 29.97 fps (generally rounded to 30 fps). The 24fps figure matches film recording standards, not the usual video specs.

As for shooting video with the D90, that’s accomplished in Live View mode. In this mode you can take a photo by pressing the shutter button as usual, but you press the OK button in the center of the four-way controller to stop and start video recording. Movies are stored in .avi files using the Motion JPEG format, which is well known for creating massive files when compared to the more compact MPEG4 or AVC-HD video formats. Maximum movie length is governing by total file size, which can’t exceed 2 gigabytes. Running at the maximum 1280 x 720 resolution, that means an individual shot can last up to five minutes. We don’t consider this time constraint a significant practical limitation. As for the Motion JPEG file format, it has the advantage of broad compatibility with existing movie editing software, but file sizes make it time-consuming to use for in DVDs, which require transcoding to MPEG2 format, or posting videos to online sites.

Our biggest quality problem when shooting video with the D90 was the inability to handle changing lighting conditions smoothly. When shooting with a camcorder, or even the video mode of a compact camera, the exposure brightens or dims as the scene changes, either because you moved the camera or because the subjects in the image moved in or out of frame. This change is generally handled smoothly, so it doesn’t call attention to itself. No such luck with the D90, where a sizable object moving in or out of the frame causes a herky-jerky lighting variation that you couldn’t miss if you tried.

The D90 did well in our video testing compared to the usual point-and-shoot crowd, which makes sense: you're using a much larger image sensor and a superior lens. However, during playback of both standard-definition and 1280 x 720 video, we found the video sometimes stuttered noticeably, and colors weren't as lifelife as we'd hoped. All in all, the video feature of the D90 should be considered the same way we look at video form point-and-shoot cameras. It's a big improvement over no video at all when you're carrying a still camera, but when the bride's walking down the aisle and you want to catch every footstep, reach for a real camcorder.

Drive / Burst Mode (9.00)
There are two settings for continuous shooting, labeled continuous low speed and continuous high speed mode. The terminology is confusing, since the significant difference between the two isn’t the top speed at which you can shoot, but the option to vary the shooting speed. Continuous high-speed mode is straightforward: hold down the shutter button and rattle off full-resolution JPEGs at up to 4.5 frames per second (our lab testing proved this figure is extremely accurate). Continuous low speed mode can take up to 4 frames per second, so not much difference there, but can also be adjusted to shoot 3, 2, or 1 frame per second (3 is the default) by varying a custom setting. The 4.5 frames per second burst is a nice step up from the Nikon D80, which topped out at 3 fps.

A self-timer mode is also available, with a 10-second delay by default, and the option to change this to 2, 5 or 20 seconds via the custom settings menu.

Several types of bracketing (where multiple shots are taken in rapid sequence at different exposure settings with a single shutter press) are also available. Exposure bracketing with and without flash supports two or three successive shots at variable increments. White balance bracketing is also available, with 2 or 3 shots taken at increments of 5, 10 or 15 mired, along either the blue or amber spectrum. Finally, Active D-Lighting bracketing enable a two-shot sequence, one with the feature enabled, the other disabled.

Playback Mode (10.75)
By default there are two playback-mode displays, toggled by pressing up or down on the four-way controller, but up to eight screens are available if you choose them from the Playback menu. The default screens are a large image display with folder and file name, image size and quality settings, date and time overlaid on a black bar at the bottom of the screen. This toggles to a thumbnail view of the image flanked by a single luminance histogram and, below that, a readout of metering and flash mode, shutter speed, aperture ISO, focal length, exposure and flash compensation, white balance, color space, Nikon Picture Control and D-Lighting settings added. The additional available screens include a four-part RGB histogram display, a view that displays blinking highlights, a three-screen text readout of EXIF data and, if the optional GPS unit is attached, the latitude, longitude, altitude and time data associated with the file.

There are two separate slide show capabilities. The barebones slide show mode allows users to set the frame interval, but is otherwise unadorned. The Pictmotion option, on the other hand, strives for multimedia excitement by providing transition effects between pictures along with five different background tunes. Pictmotion also offers greater freedom in choosing the photos to be included: the basic slide show simply uses all the photos in the current folder, while Pictmotion can incorporate only manually selected photos, or choose by date taken.

Images can be viewed at eight magnification levels, up to a maximum 27x for large images. As always, we like the way you can set a playback magnification level and scroll through photos in order (using the main command dial) while maintaining that magnification, making it easy to compare sharpness across a sequence of shots. Zooming out repeatedly brings up first a four-thumbnail, then nine-thumbnail, then 72-thumbnail display. One more step back brings up a calendar display, providing a mini-thumbnail view of all photos taken on a particular day.

Custom Image Presets (3.50)
You won’t find the bonanza of presets available on many point-and-shoot cameras, but the D90 does offer five key options, portrait, landscape, close up, sports and night portrait, all available via the mode dial. The camera also supports Nikon’s Picture Control system, a sophisticated approach to tweaking image processing settings for sharpening, contrast, brightness, saturation, hue, filter effects and toning. The camera comes with six Picture Controls settings: Standard, Neutral, Vivid, Monochrome, Portrait and Landscape. Each of these can be adjusted by the user, and the results can be saved as a named Custom Picture Control (there’s room to store up to nine of these in the camera). What’s more, these custom controls can be transferred to other compatible Nikon cameras, via computer connection or memory card, so your shooting preferences can be invoked instantly on several cameras.