Nikon D90 12.3MP DX-Format CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 18-105 mm f/3.5-5.6G ED AF-S VR DX Nikkor Zoom Lens (OLD MODEL)

This is my first DSLR, and I couldn't be happier. I read endlessly about different cameras before I decided on the D90. In the end it came down to the D90, and Canon's 50D, mostly due to their price points. Both are truely awesome and feature packed camera's. I loved the feel of the 50D, as I have pretty large hands. The 50D is about a half inch wider than the D90, and a slightly larger grip. The D90's grip is great as well, just a little smaller. Because of this, I purchased a battery grip along with the camera (Zeikos ZE-NBG90), and it feels great. (If you're wondering why I'm only talking about Nikon and Canon, it's because both companies have an extensive range of products for all skill levels, so plenty of room for me to upgrade bodies and lenses in the future. They are also both extensively used by professional photographers, so there must be something good about them.) A few things made me ultimately buy the Nikon D90..... First, the included kit lens. Nikon includes a 18-105mm VR lens, and Canon includes a 28-135mm IS lens. Both have Vibration Reduction/Image Stabilization, and both cost about the same if you bought them separately. On a crop frame camera (aps-c size), which both of these are, The 18-105mm is more usefull and versatile as an all purpose lens. I felt that it would serve better indoors, in smaller spaces, than the Canon lens would. For other beginers out there, on a crop frame camera you have to use a multiplier to figure out what the actual range is of a lense. For Nikon, it's 1.5, and for Canon, it's 1.6. So my Nikon 18-105 lens functions like a 27-157 on my D90 crop frame (18x1.5 , 105x1.5) The included lens on the Canon 50D is 28-135mm which, on the 50D, would function like a 45-216mm lens. This would be a great range for outdoor use, but I felt it didn't get wide enough for indoor use. This lens mounted on a full frame camera would be more appropriate (no multiplier). In Canon's defense, there are two other 50D kits available, one with a 17-85mm lens, and another with an 18-200mm lens. In my opinion, both lenses are inferior in quality to the 28-135, and they both are more expensive. The 17-85 kit was about $200 more, and the 18-200 kit was about $400 more. This made the 50D to expensive for me, especially when you could step up to the Canon 7D for $1500(body only) and $1900(with 28-135mm). Second are the number of buttons, and button placement. Everyone is different, and has different ideas about how cameras should be set up. For me, I like the idea of having more buttons on the outside, as the Nikon does when compared to Canon. If I have to go into a menu to get at a certain function, chances are, I'll forget I have that function. Being a beginner, I wanted as much in my face as possible to help me learn. This also makes for very fast adjustments for beginers and advanced photographers alike. As for button placement, the Nikon just felt more natural. Again, everyone is different. Lastly, I considered both Nikon's and Canon's full line of cameras. I do plan on upgrading in the future, so I looked at the upper end cameras as well. Whatever lenses I buy for my D90, I want them to work on whatever body I might upgrade to in the future (lenses are expensive!!!) I think I just liked Nikon's take on photography tools a little better. From styling to functionality, Nikon just seemed more... me. I may regret this, as Canon also makes outstanding products, and it seems like they have a lot more lenses, although I havn't actually counted. For now, I'm looking forward to a long relationship with Nikon, expecting that their more pricey camera bodies function as naturally and comfortably as the D90 does. I absolutely love the Nikon D90, and am very happy I bought it. I feel it's a great camera for beginers, and it'll grow with me as a photographer. I was able to create amazing images right out of the box. It's very easy to use. I sat on the couch with it that first night and just played with menus and settings, and learned my way around the camera very fast. I'd recomend the D90 to anyone, beginners and advanced amatures alike. I used cameralabs.com extensively before I decided on anything. Outstanding website with a lot of writen and video reviews on a great many cameras and lenses. Thanks Gordon!! A few tips if you buy the D90... *an 8g memory card will give you about 350 RAW+JPEG shots, or 1000+ JPEG shots *the D90 shoots video... barely. If you want to shoot video, buy a video camera.... seriously. *if you're going to shoot video, or are going to use live-view a lot, you NEED an extra battery.

Reseached extensively and thought long and hard about what to get as an upgrade to my Nikon P90. Came down to the D90, the D7000 or the Canon t2i. The Canon had a good set of features but felt lightweight and plastic-y in person. The D7000 is a beauty but, at $1,500, was more than I was willing to pay for an upgrade. The D90 offered the best overall package at a decent price, $920. Auto mode is as easy as any other camera, video is OK, better than what I expected given some of the negative comments I have seen on here. Video is a bonus in this camera anyway and is not a reason to buy. The photo quality is terrific, great depth and clarity. Seems like a camera you can keep for the long haul and not outgrow, lots to learn and play with. The D90 has heft and is kind of heavy but feels like a tank compared with some others. Keeping my fingers crossed about the much talked about lens connection error message problems. Camera was ordered on 1/23/2011 and arrived from J & R Music and Computer on 1/25/2011. No complaints there although you cannot track the package with J & R, which can be a little disconcerting with a first time experience. The Amazon price was $130 less for the same camera on sale at the well-known big box retailer. With free shipping, how can you not buy here? 6-8-2012 UPDATE This is a serious camera and it takes great pictures. I will be learning it's features forever, no doubt. After a couple of months of shooting in all modes, I noticed that dead pixels appeared in higher ISO photos in the same spot on the images. Tried numerous "fixes" I found on the internet, but none worked. These dead pixels became increasingly annoying to me since this was a new camera. So, I dropped the camera off at Precision Camera in Connecticut, an authorized Nikon dealer, for a pixel fix while still under warranty. Camera came back about a week later from the Texas facility with the same pixel issue, as if it were never remapped or repaired. This is not an issue at lower ISO speeds and they are easily fixed in Picassa or Photoshop; they are just annoying. More should be expected from a product with the Nikon name, especially after being repaired. If I had it to do again, I would return the camera earlier and not bother with trying to repair it. But I get a lot of compliments on the photos I take and the D90 is sturdy and fun to use.

In my optional star rating section I gave this camera mostly 5's, but hesitantly. I hesitate, because it is all relative and the assumption has to made either you know what you are doing when you pick this thing as you photographic weapon of choice or your cerebral cortex is wired like Deep Blue - "...challenge/smallenge, I read books on biochemistry on my lunch break and I am an accountant". Do not buy this camera unless you are ready to take for real photographs or you like fancy expensive paper weights. There is no sense in buying this behemoth or reading 200+ reviews if you just want to snap quick pictures. Buy yourself a fancy point and shoot like the Nikon Coolpix S8000 (No, I am not a Nikon employee, but I am brand loyal like NASCAR fans...Canon sucks*!) and keep it moving. This camera is a hassle to lug around, take out, hang around your neck, keep wandering hands off of, insure you aren't banging it against walls/rocks/heads/etc...unless of course you like taking pictures and understand you don't perform heart surgery with a butter knife, Mag-Lite and degree from ITT Tech. My assumption going forward in this review is you know as much about photography as I did when I bought this thing; if you know more you probably don't need to read my ramblings. Before you can reasonably use the camera you will need to buy a memory card. I spent $90 on a 16GB card. The guy at the camera shop says the one I bought is faster and better suited for photography. Of course I might have been the sucker he needed to make his nut for the day, but I have had no problem with the card so far and since I bought this camera in September I have taken over 10,000 photos and repeated uploaded and deleted. But you MUST have a memory card because the camera does not come with one. Out of the box, I bought with the kit, this thing should have come with a soundtrack (a la Disney's Lion King) and bright lights (briefcase in Pulp Fiction). The first thing I did was charge the battery. Then I started to read the novel known as a Users Guide on how to just take a picture; the thing is the "War and Peace" of manuals. Once the battery charged I formatted the memory card, went through the numerous pre-camera shooting settings (it was like preflight before a shuttle launch it took so long) and attached what has become my trusty-dusty 18 - 105 mm. After maybe 2,000/3,000 photos I started to get an error message. You would think for the amount of coin you shell out for this device there would be no issues. Because I only had one lens and consequently did not take it off at all, the contacts between the camera and the lens never "settled" (kind of like the good old days as a kid when you would have to smack the TV to get the picture to clear up). So after calling the help desk, in CA, not India, I was told I would have to keep removing and reattaching the lens. I did as prescribed and the problem went away. Please note I was so scared I went ahead and dropped the $150 (I think) on the extended service plan - coincidence, hmmmmm. I have not had the problem since; but you do have to keep your contacts on the camera and the lens clean. The software to transfer the pictures is pretty easy to use (I am in IT, so if the most technical thing in your life is toaster, you may need some help). The more you use the camera and buy stuff for it (I have bought 2 more lens (70 - 300mm 4.5 & 50mm 1.8)- 2 more in the works, a battery pack, an extra battery, a SB-900 flash, a tripod (just go ahead an buy one you will need it) and a backpack) the more you will learn about its great powers. I have had it for almost a year, over 10,000 photos deep and I am still learning. I do not regret this purchase at all! Join in the church of NIKON, the Kool Aid is fine, no really, I drink it all the time. I recommend this camera to everyone who asks who meet my similar criteria...you are a hobbyist, but will take payment for photos; you have a good eye - learn on a cheaper camera if your "eye" has cataracts; and you understand this hobby - much like Fame - costs. * I have no bases with which to judge Canon. Some of my closes friends have a Canon (they only mildly suck). Canon sucks simply because it is not NIKON. If I owned a Canon, perish the thought, NIKON would suck. I will say this, when I picked up the comparable Canon (I use comparable lightly, my friend) I knew the NIKON was for me.

Right out of the box, this camera had all of the problems that everyone else has reported - the flashing F-- error (indicating that a lens isn't attached, even though it is), CHA error (tried three different authorized SDHC cards, and it had problems with all of them), and the random lock up with the flashing ERR message. The only solution was to remove the battery. Then I could take five more pics before it would crash again. No good. I wanted to get an exchange through Amazon, but they no longer carry the camera (after one week!), so I'll have to wait a couple months for it to be back in stock. Of course, at that point, I'm sure it will be cheaper since the new Nikons are slated to come out at the end of August - lose lose for me. Or I can get a refund, but then I'll have to spend more on the same camera somewhere else. I had already maxed out my budget to buy this one, so I can't really afford to spend more. I bought mine when everyone was having a sale on Nikons, and now no one has them on sale, so not only would I be out another $100 at least, there's still no guarantee that I won't have to go through all of this hassle again the next time. I wish I had bought from anyone else besides Amazon, as everyone else seems to still have it in stock! I called Nikon, and I'll have to pay shipping to send it to them, then wait at least 7-10 business days for service (their quoted *average* service time - who knows how long it will actually take), then have them ship it back to me (don't know if I have to pay for that or not, didn't say). So I'm out additional money, I STILL won't have a camera for at least two or three weeks of prime summer shooting season, and when I do, I'll just have to hope that they indeed fixed it properly (exchanging for a new one would make me feel a lot better than forever owning a known lemon). I was so excited to have this camera for the summer, but now I'm just sad and frustrated. The camera itself seems like it would be great if it worked. It seemed very sturdy, had a fantastic feature set, and took great images. It looks like my best option is to just return it to Amazon and buy the Canon T2i from someone else instead. :-(

I have had the camera now for about three months and I haven't taken a bad shot yet (slightly exagerated). The Nikon D90 if left on auto, would be the best point and shoot I have ever had but I am starting to learn what this camera is capable of when I become involved (AKA. Photographer). This camera is truly a painters palette waiting for the composer. The camera is also very intuitive and tries to cover my mistakes if I choose to let it. You can take as much or as little control as you are comfortable with. As a previous poster has mentioned, do not buy the kit, purchase the body only and add lenses separately. I borrowed a friends D90 with a kit lens to see if it was the camera for me, thank goodness he had another premium lens or I would have probably not bought the D90. With the kit lens it gives the camera a feel of cheapness and the picture quality is OK. I have added a Nikon prime 50mm f/1.8 and a Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8. Both have great glass and great response time (I highly reccommend them both). I also bought the kit lens 18-55mm 3.5($50.00 used from the friend I initially borrowed the D90 from), it has its uses. My day job is a quality engineer for a major aerospace company (space shuttle core component supplier), and I am very scrutinous of everything engineered. My opinion of construction quality is very favorable. I love the way the lenses snap into place with no slop. At first I was a little skeptical of the plastic body as opposed to the metal body of the D3 (which I have used). My night job is shooting youth sporting events for hours on end and the weight savings is sooooo apprecitated. I geuss what I am trying to get to is, do not evaluate this camera with a kit lens. I also recommend purchasing at least two (2) 4G cards with as high a write speed as possible. Not because the camera can't keep up but because your computer probably won't. This camera has a large buffer, so fire away. If you want a very well written opinon of this camera from a professional photographer, I recommend you visit Ken Rockwells web page [...] I do not know the gentleman, but when I was researching for this purchase I consumed all the information I could get and I made my determination after reading his review. I highly recommend his webpage for just practical information on all things photographic. In closing, I highly recommend the D90 camera body with quality lenses (so far Nikon (not kit) and Sigma, I like). If you thrive on validation and flattery, I also recommend this camera, because you will get a lot of attention much like Ashton Kucher on the Nikon commercial. I never tire of hearing "let me see, let me see". I would rate it third behind children and puppies as a chick magnet.

I got the Nikon D90 after considering the Canon T2i in some detail. The two major features that sold me on the Nikon was a superior exposure and color system, and a better kit lens. Since I have a long technical involvement in photography I don't mind customizing a lot of settings and changing settings before shots. If that isn't your style, you might think twice about the complexity of the D90. The biggest drawback is the focussing system, for me. I have tried the automatic and manual focussing both, and seem to trip over some detail of the system a little too often for my comfort. If you have it on single point auto focus, you can be reasonably sure of what you are going to get for focus...reasonably. But too often I have used this set up on, say, a single face in a group or on a flower stamen, for example, and found that the actual focal point in the image fell about 5-8% of the distance to the object behind the object under the focus highlight in the viewfinder. Not terrible, but enough to spoil some carefully set-up shots. Autofocus using 3d focussing does not work for me, and multipoint focussing always leaves me with the focus point highlight somewhere I don't expect it. If I am very alert and fully aware of what is going on, I can catch this and correct it by half-pressing the shutter and manually moving the focus point where I want it using the click dial. But it spoils the flow of attention on a shot. In fairness, I suspect some tutoring by an experienced user might overcome these perceived difficulties, but the documentation and materials I have found online do not address this issue well enough for me so far. I don't think there is a perfect camera out there. It took me over 20 days of shooting every day to finally feel I understood the options and their effects on my shooting style. I only gave the Canon an hour in the camera shop and several hours of close reading on the web, and that isn't the basis of a fair comparison. But the pentaprism viewfinder does provide a larger, brighter in-camera image to compose with. If you like to experiment, the range of control you have is great. And since I am on a limited budget, the kit lens gives me a broader range of focal lengths to work with. I also like the battery life and the size/form factor of the camera. It fits my hand better. My impression might be skewed by the fact that I got a Nikon s8000 at the same time, and despite the smaller image sensor on the s8000, it is giving the D90 a real run for its money in image quality and ease of use in quite a range of picture settings. The D90 is superior in low light and fast response, which alone still makes it worth it all for me. But I have shot the same outdoor scene with both cameras, and printed 13 x 19 prints and could not tell which was from which camera. Indoor shots are usually easy to distinguish. The D90 feels rugged and well made, and I haven't had the info drop-out from the lens problem that seems to plague some users. Ideally I would like to have waited for the next version, which would have full HD, stereo mike external jack, and 50% or more increase in sensor resolution. But I finally decided that the wonderful color and exposure intelligence built into the D90 was not going to get appreciably better in the next version, and increased sensor resolution has hit a physical limit where design tradeoffs have to be made, so I went ahead and took the plunge. I haven't regretted it. But I would be careful to whom I recommend it. If you are impatient or intimidated easily by technical complexity, this camera might end up on your shelf more often than not. As a side note, I was concerned at first about the weird video on this camera. Read around on the web and you will find out what I mean. But after taking a series of videos on the tripod, foregoing zoom and pan and concentrating on focal plane movement only, I am pretty happy with it as a DSLR adjunct to my full HD camcorder.

Ordered my Nikon D90 in December 2009 and got it in a little over a week. Received it with no problems. I have shot maybe a little more than a thousand photos with it and it is sweet. I have 2 Nikon 35mm slrs and used them for many, many years. I bought many optics for them as well as many accessories (ext tubes etc.). I wanted a dslr that I could use many, if not all, of the accessories I already had. The D90 fills the bill. The camera came with the 18-105 lens. All my photos are sharp and clear. If any are blurry it's my fault not the camera's or the lens fault. I ordered a 8 gig transcend sd card with the camera and have not had any issues with it. Later I saw a Lexar 4 gig sd card on sale and it has worked well also. I haven't tried the high speed sd cards yet. Maybe later. These work and work well so why spend more money? After reading many of the reviews, I must admit, I was a little fearful that I would have problems. So far nothing. No error messages, no nothing. It works and keeps on working. In cold weather and not so cold ( I live in so cal and have shot in the snow in the mountains and in the 80's in my back yard, yes and it's not summer yet). The camera has a learning curve. It has many options and it takes a while to learn how to use them. It can be used as a point and shot camera but only if you set it up that way. Learn to use it and use it correctly and it can be a valuable tool. I'm still learning. As far as the lens goes I have no complaints. It's sharp (for my purposes)and as far as the plastic lens mount is concerned, no worries. I'm not a pro. I use my camera maybe 5 or 6 times a week. 95% of the time I leave the lens on. The range of the lens is the one used for most of my pictures (family, vacation etc). I have a 600mm mirror, a 105mm nikor that I use sometimes. These lenses are the ones for my 35mm Nikons. They work on the D90 in manual mode. So I'm not changing the lens every 5 minutes. I don't think the plastic lens mount will be a factor. This camera isn't cheap. I works well and I'm happy with it. If you have some Nikon equip in 35mm and don't want to spend more, this is the camera for you. If you want a good prosumer camera this could be the camera for you. Check out the Canons and the others and if possible hold them and use them. See how they feel in your hands and look through the view finder. They're all good. Buy the one fits you.

Recently, I bought a Nikon D90 Kit from Amazon.com 1.) I found that the whole camera set was produced in Thailand. After unpacking the camera and the lens, I found that both of my hands & shirt cuffs are having black dirt marks. Later I discovered that the black dirt was come from the rubber shell of the camera & lens. May be the chemical composition of that batch of rubber materials had problems, it seems that the rubber is aging. I wondered why I spent such amount to buy a mid-range camera set, but the shell quality is so bad --- no quality control for such kind of precision equipment. That means their quality assurance is questionable in Thailand. I will not buy any Nikon products produced in Thailand in future. Actually, I am a Nikon fans, I had several cameras & lens at home all of them are Nikon, as I trust their quality in the past (made in Japan). But this time a little bit disappointed. 2.) Another thing, the 18-105mm kit lens mount is in plastic which is no good for long term use, and may not be durable. This is my first time to buy expensive camera lens in plastic mount. But I am not sure how long it will last without problems. 3.) If you have bigger hands & long fingers, you will find that your right hand fingers will always hit your left hand fingers at all time when you use this camera. This is also my first time experience for finger hitting in using cameras in my photography lives. 4.) Finally, I found that the image quality of this camera is not so bad compared to the shell after taking several photos in dark area.