The Nikon D90 is the upgrade to the 2-year old Nikon D80. It sells for about $1100 and is the cheapest in Nikon's prosumer dSLRs. At the time of its launch it was the first digital SLR to record HD video in 720p.
The Nikon D80 was basically a D200 in a smaller plastic body. Similarly, with the D90, Nikon transferred many of the good parts of the D300 and put it to a smaller body, and added HD video capabilities. It doesn't have 51 AF points, but it uses the D300's new 12.1 Megapixel CMOS sensor, 3" LCD, and EXPEED image processing software.
The body of the D90 is basically the same as the Nikon D80. The size, shape and button placement are almost identical. There are just a few small differences such as a 3" LCD which displays a clear 920,000 pixel resolution. There is now also an Info button where you can see the same info on your top LCD on to your main LCD. The rest of the changes are very minor, such as changes in shape to circles, and they changed all the letters on the buttons to white.
Here is a detailed comparison of the D80 vs the D90 that I made a few weeks ago.
| Specs | Nikon D80 | Nikon D90 |
| Current MSRP | $720 | $1120 |
| Lowest Price | $650 | $990 |
| Sensor | CCD | CMOS |
| Resolution | 10.2 MP | 12.3 MP |
| LCD | 2.5" 230,000 px | 3" 920,000 px |
| ISO | 100-3200 | 100-6400 |
| Continuous | 3 fps | 4.5 fps |
| AF Points | 11 | 11 |
| Dust Removal | No | Yes |
| Video | No | Yes - 720p |
| Format | DX | DX |
| Viewfinder | 95% | 96% |
| Weight (no battery) | 585 g 1.3 lb | 620 g 1.4 lb |
| Weight (with battery) | 668 g 1.5 lb | 703 g 1.6 lb |
| Live View | No | Yes |
| Effects/Retouching | Yes | Yes but, lots more |
The LCD is also better. It's a 3" LCD with 920,000 pixels. It still comes with a LCD cover that is susceptible to scratches. But protection is stil a good little addition.
From what I can tell, the 12.3MP CMOS sensor controls the noise from higher ISO's a lot better than the D80's CCD Sensor.
The D90 also comes with Live View. I still wouldn't recommend using the Live View all the time because it means that you will have your arms extended out infront of you, which is less steady. It also means that the battery will die faster. But when shooting on a tripod, it is a good feature to have. The Live View actually works a little bit differently than on the D300 and D700. With the higher end cameras the mirror actually opens and closes as it adjusts the focus, so your display will turn off and back on while focusing. With the D90 it focuses on the spot without turning off the disply first. It's still a bit slow, but you can see the focusing actually taking place.
Now onto the video. It takes high defintion 720p video at 24 frames per second. The audio is actually mono however, so the sound quality when editing isn't the greatest, but still useable. The built in mic isn't the best either and it easily picks up the sound of the zoom/focus rings. Me and my friends used this camera for a whole day shooting videos. I couldn't figure out how to have it autofocus in Video Mode. You could change the focus point, and then press the shutter button to focus. But after that the focus distance doesn't change if you are moving the camera, you have to manually change the focus yourself. Also on high setting, it takes 720P video for up to 5 minutes. On medium settings, 640 x 320 (I think) it can take up to 20 minutes of video. The compression is pretty good, as a 1 minute video was only about 50MB while recording in medium. Recently, I remebered a 4 minute video on a Canon PowerShot point & shoot was over 350 MB!
And another thing is how you actually record video. It's as simple as pressing Live View, and then pressing OK to record, and then pressing OK again to stop recording. I wish they used a totally different button, or used the shutter to turn the recording on and off. While in Live View, pressing the shutter button just takes a picture, so they had to designate another button to record and stop. I wished they had two different Live View's - one for taking pictures and one for video. I shot the video while the D90 was on a tripod, and having to press OK caused quite a bit of shaking. If it were Record was assigned to the shutter button, I think I could've used my remotes to trigger the recording.
Another thing is that the D90 comes with a bunch of new accessories such as a GPS unit which can record the exact coordinates of where you took the pictures. It also has an HDMI output to plug directly into your TV, but it uses an HDMI head that's different from the one I use for my XBOX 360, or even the one I can plug into a D300 and D700. On top of that, the D90 sadly uses the newer MC-DC2 wired remote, so I'm not able to use the MC-DC1 that I currently use on my Nikon D80. The ML-L3 wireless remote, EN-EL3e battery, and MB-D80 grip are still used by the D90 though.
I think the D90 has a bit of trouble with the Auto White Balance though, as most people have said. I see it struggling to meter my fluorescent lights downstairs, and it's very visible when taking Video. But, there have been problems even with my D80 and my friends 5D, so it just maybe bad lighting.
If you were looking at buying a Nikon dSLR and your budget is $1000 or less, I'd still choose this. It has improved on the D80 in almost every feature. There's just something about the D40/x and D60's that I don't like. They are small, light-weight and cheaper but they lack many features. The D90 works with the majority of the Nikon lenses made in the last ten years, not just AF-S lenses. It also has 11 AF points versus only 3. It has the newer CMOS sensor which produces sharper and less grainy images. And it has the ability to take 720p Video if you really need to. The results of our videos weren't half bad. The Nikon D90 has improved on the D80 in every feature. But even still, I'm still not sold on upgrading my D80 to this camera especially after I've been spoiled by the D700.
Currently the D90 kit consists of the Nikon D90 body and the Nikon 24-105mm f/3.5-5.6 VR Lens.
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