Mar 17, 2009 10:35 AM
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My passion for photography started with my Sony DSC-H5. As I started pursuing my other passion of birdwatching, I realized that I needed a camera with a lot more power, especially manual focus and an ability to change lenses based on the subject.
This review is written with the intention of providing direction to newbies (like me) to the DSLR world. Experts - please feel free to ask any specific queries which I may answer or correct me if I've gone grossly wrong somewhere. When the D90 was launched, I realized that this was the best starting point in the DSLR world. The reasons:
The camera has a fantastic feel in the hand. It is very well built, with most of the commonly-used buttons within the finger's reach. This fantastic usability makes it easy for you to make all modifications without taking your eye off the viewfinder.
Video is a great addition to the DSLR. Since I am mostly into nature photographs (with the occasional birthday party photography), I can switch to the video mode in an instant to capture anything in motion.
Price - Agreed that this is priced higher than most of the entry-level DSLRs. However, having bought 5 cameras in 6 years, I realized that I didn't want to hatch on to another camera that I would grow out of in a year. The fact that the D90 has a feature set close to the professional D300 makes it an awesome choice, if you have the budget. Hopefully, I should use this for longer than I anticipate!
The Network Effect - A few of my close friends have Nikon cameras. That makes it the best choice as we often share our lenses (and of course, tips on getting better photographs).
The Nikon D90 has a lot of goodies in addition to the above.
The LiveView mode is another addition to the DSLR mode. It is a good choice for composing pictures - I've used it rather successfuly to photograph monuments. However, using the LiveView mode in normal photography is not advisable as it takes longer to capture.
The large LCD screen makes it easy to review photographs as well as focus in LiveView/Video mode.
There is a provision for a GPS dongle, which I am yet to use.
Most important, the proof of a good camera is the quality of photographs that you can take with it.
My site - https://flickr.com/shreeram - has photographs taken over the past 6 months with my Nikon D90. Most of the bird photos are taken with a Nikkor 70-300mm VR lens. Please note that these are baby steps for me and I urge you to also look up other photographs taken with the D90 on Flickr to make up your mind.
