Nikon D90 review

When connected via the mini-HDMI output, it relies on the TV to do the downconversion to HD resolution for stills (never a good idea), and Nikon's true 24fps video doesn't quite match that of most TV processors' expected 23.976fps, which can result it occasional playback stutter. Still, this has been a long-awaited feature in the entry-level segment, since it's one of the two most important features users have had to sacrifice when moving up to dSLRs -- the other being pocketability.

As with the newer Canon EOS 50D, the D90 adds face detection to its Live View repertoire -- part of the enhancements enabled by a revision of its Expeed image processor. The FD supplies data to the camera's face-priority AF, and Nikon has integrated the FD information into its automatic scene recognition algorithms to help with metering and AF. In practice, it doesn't seem to make much difference, either in speed or portrait quality, over wide-area AF. Both of those two AF modes are significantly faster than normal area AF in Live View, however.

There's also the usual array of improvements and additions to shooting controls, including an expansion of Active D-Lighting parameters, nine slots for custom Picture Control settings, and advanced scene modes that incorporate Picture Controls and Active D-Lighting, and which can automatically shift to slower shutter speeds when the camera knows a VR lens is attached. Most important, our testing confirmed that operating in Active D-Lighting mode doesn't impose a performance penalty, as can happen because of the processing overhead. The D90 also includes a socket for Nikon's GP-1 hot shoe GPS device, but we'd trade all these bells and whistles for the custom settings banks found in the D300 and D3.

Although we captured some sharp photos, this was our typical experience: pictures were not quite sharp enough

Our main complaint is with the new 18-105mm f3.5-5.6 kit lens. On the one hand, it seems like the perfect range to cover as a primary: at 27-157mm in 35mm-equivalent terms it gets wide enough and long enough for typical shooting needs. But on the other hand, the zoom ring is too stiff and the lens seems just slightly less sharp than the kit lenses from Canon.

Performance
But we have no complaints about the D90's performance, which clearly improves upon the D80's. It has the same 11-point AF system, but Nikon adds an 11-point AF 3D-tracking mode that's a trickle-down technology. The camera feels exceptionally responsive for its class, which is borne out by our performance testing. For all but continuous shooting, it's about as fast as the D300, and overall one of the fastest in its class. It takes less than 0.2 seconds to power up and shoot. In bright, high-contrast conditions the shot lag runs about 0.4 seconds, while in harder-to-focus scenes that runs about 0.9 seconds. It typically takes about half a second to shoot two raw or JPEG frames in a row; enabling the flash bumps that to a still-respectable 0.7 seconds.

Continuous shooting typically clocked at about 4fps, which is very good for a prosumer SLR. In more casual tests using the 8GB SanDisk 30MB per second Extreme III SDHC card it reached about 4.5fps, as specced, without the buffer bottlenecking at all (our standard tests use a slower Class 6 card).

Even without the zippier card, the burst mode and AF system are certainly fast enough to keep up with kids and dogs -- as long as you shoot JPEGs -- which make this a great camera for parents of sports-minded children. The 11-point 3D-tracking AF mode is good as long as your subject moves in predictable ways. It was less successful trying to track a squirrel, for example, which randomly moved to and fro -- the system would alternatively lock onto the tail and the head, whichever was closer.