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“Take” on the Nikon D90

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1. n ec exposure T Nikon D200 30 sec exposure On magnification side by side in Adobe Bridge CS3 the D90 example is the sharpest and the D200 surprisingly is the noisiest The D70 and D90 have roughly the same shadow noise in these examples Overall the D90 is the winner if one can live with the significantly longer shutter speed required compared with the D70 Certainly the D90 is a serious contender for infrared work ee Niko Some comments on white balance with the D90 Some reviews have criticized recent Nikon SLRs including the D90 for inadequate automatic white balance performance under incandescent lighting In the Regeneration Hall of the Canadian War Museum where the statues are illuminated mainly by incandescent lights I compared the D90 s Auto White Balance Incandescent White Balance and Pre set Manual manual white balance set using an Expodisc over the lens On my colour calibrated monitor in a side by side comparison I judge the Incandescent setting to be the most accurate from my memory of these statues which I have visited and photographed frequently in the past two years and also the most pleasing to the eye I would rate the Auto White Balance second not as pleasing or as accurate but still preferable to the supposedly and probably scientifically most accurate Pre set Manual taken using my Expodisc While the Expodisc s white preset may be the most accurate to my eye it lends a slightly Page 14 of 3
2. Of ill sams i D90 Page 28 of 38 There is much more to photography than pixel peeping of course On separate occasions I took my D90 and D200 and then my D90 and the rental D300 to the Canadian War Museum for some field tests I also used both my D90 and D200 during a three hour photo session during a dress rehearsal of Thirteen Strings in St Andrew s Presbyterian Church in Ottawa During these three outings as well as during my handling of the cameras in my pixel peeping tests I formed some opinions about the comparative operating characteristics and practical performance of these cameras I conclude my review by sharing these opinions giving a few illustrations along the way Comparison between D90 and D200 As does the D300 both cameras use the same batteries However the D90 uses SD and SDHC cards rather than the CF cards used by the D200 and D300 With a few exceptions noted in my discussion of the D300 below the control layouts are similar enough that experienced users of one model should have little trouble shifting to one of the other models All three cameras have the same great Nikon i TTL Commander mode remote flash capability using the cameras built in flash units There are two situations in which I would prefer to use my D200 instead of my D90 Unlike the D90 the D200 has a mirror lock up feature When the camera is on a tripod camera vibration caused by the mirror operation can sti
3. If you own either of those noise reduction plug ins use them on the file before applying the HDR processing and adjust only the shadows and highlights in your RAW processor Findings from my HDR tests at Regeneration Hall Canadian War Museum Ottawa My favourite venue in Ottawa for conducting HDR tests is Regeneration Hall in the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa Photography is allowed there as long as your camera bag isn t so large as to cause concern with the security guards I think they mainly are worried about damage to some of the exhibits if you are careless in carrying the bag According to my incident metering of light from the exterior window and in the deeper shadows in that hall the contrast range is roughly 11 EV on a sunny day there is some artificial lighting in the hall which mitigates the contrast with the window light In theory a single 3F2 0 sequence on the D90 should accommodate this range but it is even better in my experience to created a 5F2 0 series with two overlapped 3F2 0 sequences This results in much less noise and better images than the single 3F2 series A 5F2 0 sequence is created by taking two 3F2 0 sequences one at 2 exposure compensation and one at 2 exposure compensation Before blending the images in your HDR software deleted one of the two 0 exposure compensated photographs that you took In terms of camera settings for HDR shooting in this venue I find that matrix metering gives better results th
4. its face recognition software is not one of them Don t even think of buying this camera for the reason of that feature alone if you do you will probably return the camera to the store in frustration Info display on the LCD monitor The D90 s LCD screen is a nice increase in size over the D200 s screen and a massive improvement over the D70 and D100 screens of yore Better still the D90 has a very helpful Info display that one can call up on the LCD screen at the press of a button This detailed well lit display shows all current camera settings that are likely to matter to the photographer In low light or when the camera is elevated to eye level on a tripod this new feature is a god send and a huge improvement over the viewfinder and control panel displays on all earlier Nikon SLRs I ve owned When the camera is elevated to eye level on a tripod the control panel is almost impossible to see without standing on a step ladder or removing the camera from the tripod The Info display on the LCD screen shows more information than the control panel and is much easier to read since all the icons are larger than on the control panel The Info display also gives more useful battery status information than does the control panel when using the battery grip the Info display shows the charge on both of the batteries in the grip Page 9 of 38 Better still a second press of the Info button activates a quick adjustment menu at the bottom of the displ
5. the dynamic range of negative film and probably out performs most ISO 3200 film pushed to 6400 in sharpness contrast and grain noise as well as dynamic range All three cameras have a greater dynamic range than any slide film I ever used Options for high contrast shooting with the D90 Digital post processing techniques called tone mapping can extend the dynamic range of a digital capture in high dynamic range HDR situations Some techniques involve blending multiple exposure bracketed frames into a single 32 bit file for tone mapping other techniques work with single RAW exposures I have used both techniques extensively with my D200 especially in the Canadian Rockies and I ran comparison tests between that camera the D90 and a rental D300 In this section I will limit my discussion to the D90 see the final section of this review for the comparisons between the three cameras Multiple exposure HDR with the D90 Especially when shooting without a tripod the ideal way to take a bracketed HDR sequence is to set the camera for its highest speed continuous frame rate and use automatic exposure bracketing On more expensive Nikon cameras such as the D200 and D300 you can take a 4 to 4 sequence in l ev steps this is called a 9F1 0 sequence nine frames in steps of 1 0 ev With the D90 you are limited to a 3F2 0 sequence three frames in steps of 2 0 ev giving a 2 to 2 sequence The D90 limitation of auto exposure bracketing to
6. using a remote cord to fire the shutter and using auto focus For each ISO setting tested on each camera I took three exposures I later examined each triplet at high magnification in Adobe Bridge and selected the sharpest exposure for further analysis to guard against contamination of the tests by occasional auto focus errors With the D300 I repeated the tests both at 12 bit and 14 bit depth to see whether the bit depth affected resolution and noise it didn t affect either in my tests as it turned out I also compared the D300 s compressed and uncompressed RAW options since the D90 only records compressed RAW I could see no difference between the D300 s compressed or uncompressed RAW filtes The test images are processed minimally in Photoshop the only adjustment to the images is a Levels adjustment to tighten the shadow and highlight sliders to the edge of the histogram if necessary and to use the mid tone eyedropper to standardize the white balance to neutralize the area immediately above the central test area on the chart This is necessary because at higher ISOs the Page 24 of 38 tungsten illumination in my kitchen competes with the flash illumination and introduces an orange cast to the photograph I then examine the central test pattern and the lower end of the grey scale at high magnification in Adobe Bridge CS3 comparing the equivalent exposures from all three cameras side by side The following photograph shows the te
7. 0 sequence on the D200 but one gets only a 2 to 2 range instead of 4 to 4 Also although the D90 produces less shadow noise than the D200 in HDR shooting blending nine frames instead of three will result in much smoother shadow detail less noise is visible See the two illustrations immediately following this paragraph In this particular location I also took some 5F2 0 sequences on the D90 two overlapped 3F2 0 sequences This was made easy by the ample balcony ledge on which I could rest my elbows to help keep the camera aligned properly during the exposure compensation adjustment that would not always be possible for example on a hike in the mountains While the 5F2 0 sequence from the D90 looks better than the 9F1 0 sequence shown Page 29 of 38 below the 3F2 0 sequence is inferior to the 9F1 0 sequence both in terms of noise but also in its larger dynamic range E D200 9F1 0 HDR sequence processed in D90 3F2 0 HDR sequence processed in Photomatrix Pro software Photomatrix Pro software In most other situations however my D90 would be my camera of choice with the D200 serving only as a backup Some of the reasons for this opinion are As illustrated earlier the D90 has better shadow detail more dynamic range and less noise than the D200 in single exposures The D90 also benefits from the Active D Lighting feature which permits in camera expansion of the dynamic range when it s needed That fea
8. 2EV to 2EV using the 3F2 0 setting is not a serious limitation for most HDR photography The D90 has a dynamic range of at least 8 3 EV from ISO 200 upward 7 6 EV at Low 1 or ISO 100 and an astounding 9 3 EV at ISO 3200 according to the figures on the dpreview website The 3F2 0 bracket effectively expands the camera s HDR range another 4 EV boosting the total range to more than 12 EV Two 3F2 0 bursts take care to hold the camera in registration between the two bursts or use a tripod one shot with 2EV compensation and the other at 2EV compensation produce six exposures one of which is a duplicate at OEV that give a net 4 to 4 EV range further boosting the effective dynamic range to 16 EV Outdoor sunlight has a maximum contrast range of 17 EV when shooting into the sun but more normally sun overhead to the side or behind the camera does not exceed 8 EV unless very bright sunlit clouds or snow are included in the scene The camera can cope with 8 EV easily in a single exposure 12 EV ina single HDR burst and 16 EV in two overlapped HDR bursts which will accommodate almost all outdoor scenes Even excessive contrast indoors sunlight beaming through a window into a darkened room rarely exceeds 14 EV which the camera can manage with two overlapped bursts Night scenes with street lights or small rooms lit with single incandescent lights generally have a contrast range of 12 EV between the lights and the surrounding areas Contras
9. as HDR bracketing will in my tests If you turn this setting on at any of the levels available low normal high extra high and auto and shoot in NEF format in Nikon Capture NX2 you can change the setting after the fact You can t change the setting later with a JPG capture nor even if an NEF capture if you turned ADL Off AF A or auto select autofocus mode in which the camera decides whether the subject on which you focused is moving and accordingly selects either single servo not moving or continuous servo moving mode In either case the shutter will not fire until auto focus confirmation is achieved Page 5 of 38 unlike in AF C or normal continuous servo mode in which the shutter fires whether or not autofocus confirmation is achieved 3D tracking AF area mode If you combine 3D tracking with AF S autofocus mode the camera focuses only on the focus point of the 11 available you select If you combine it with either AF C or AF A autofocus mode you select the initial focus point Once focus is achieved if you change the composition by moving the camera while the original subject is still in the frame 3D tracking selects a new focus point and keeps the focus locked on the original subject as long as you hold the shutter button half way down even if the subject moves within the original frame Retouch menu lets you make certain adjustments to an image and save a JPG copy of the modifications to the flash card These adjustmen
10. find convenient to store in My Menu ISO Sensitivity auto control White Balance Battery info Active D Lighting al AF Area Mode a2 Center focus point a3 Built in AF illuminator Set Picture Control mainly for video or monochrome a7 Live view autofocus f3 Assign FUNC button normally for Spot Metering b3 Center weighted area e4 Auto bracketing set I sometimes change this to ADL a6 AE L AF L for MB D80 d10 exposure delay mode d12 MB D80 battery type if you are going to use AA batteries e2 flash control for built in flash esp for switching between TTL and Commander mode e6 bracketing order maybe Display mode in case I want extra information pages on playback And from the Retouch menu I add the following to My Menu Black and white so I can see after the fact how my shot might look in monochrome in case I might want to re compose NEF RAW Processing to give me a quick option to create a customized JPG copy of any NEF file on the flash card to give to someone Comments on specific D90 features that particularly interest me As the subtitle suggests below I only discuss D90 features that are of particular interest to me These are features that are new since my D200 a few of them may already be familiar to D300 users Menu features common to some newer Nikon SLRs Active D Lighting either at time of shooting or in the camera s Retouch menu expands the camera s dynamic range somewhat though not as much
11. good place to use Picture Control Especially for home movie snapshot videos I d use the Vivid mode otherwise the movie may look a bit flat When shooting stills I would avoid using that mode Page 10 of 38 Comparison with camcorders The D90 s movie mode has several technical limitations that can be frustrating to a serious videographer especially one familiar with comparably priced camcorders First there is no autofocus during video recording so the operator must adjust focus manually This inevitably looks choppy and amateurish in the resulting film clip Also the lens aperture can t be changed once recording begins Exposure is adjusted automatically by the camera by varying the ISO which limits you to a range of about 5 EV as noted above You can tweak exposure beyond that range sometimes using exposure compensation but the control operation is clumsy and the microphone will likely pick up the sound of your fingers operating the controls In contrast to the D90 autofocus and autofocus tracking are very good in most camcorders and cancrders can vary the exposure by changing aperture as well as gain which gives most camcorders a lot more exposure latitude in high contrast situations than the D90 can muster Many camcorders use steadicam optical stabilization for hand held filming Nikon s VR lenses are stable for still photographs but VR is not really designed for video or movie filming As a result hand held pans and z
12. on these Assume that I agree with the Nikon default the one the camera has when you first turn it on for any setting that I don t mention below Setup Menu The D90 has a clean image sensor feature which vibrates the low pass filter to shake dust off it I set this to clean automatically on startup only this is the only Setup Menu default that I changed The only way you can get dust on your low pass filter is by changing lenses If you pay attention to the user manual you always turn off the power before changing lenses to avoid shorting out the lens contacts and frying the camera circuitry You then will take pictures after turning the power back on so that s the logical time to clean the sensor on powering up the camera after you ve exposed it to the risk of dust not before i e at shutdown instead of startup I don t know what sensor cleaning can do to the life expectancy of the sensor but it stands to reason that if you vibrate the thing twice as often you re probably cutting its life expectancy in half Cleaning both at shutdown and startup the third choice isn t going to make your sensor significantly cleaner if at all than just doing it at startup and you re doubling the risk halving the lifetime of the sensor by doing it both ways Not much point in doing that is there Playback Menu Display Mode I think it s important to see the Highlights page all the time but not the other two choices available on this me
13. shooting That would have provided the camera effectively with a mirror up lock important for slow shutter speed photography on a tripod and the camera lacks that feature The remote release does work in Live View which would further have enabled vibration free shooting in that mode However you can use the exposure delay mode in Custom Setting d10 to delay the shutter release about one second after the mirror pops up which probably will avoid most camera generated blur when using a tripod As a result of this complicated mirror action there will be a shutter lag in Live View of about a second even once the camera achieves auto focus However for landscape photography and some macro photography e g photographing a spider spinning a web on a crawling insect on a flower this Live View feature could be very useful Live View has a face recognition auto focus feature In my experience trying to photograph 18 month and five year old grandchildren and their parents in a relatively stationary pose on our living room couch I found this feature utterly lame and worse than useless The focus wouldn t lock or it took forever and I missed the shot I wanted I quickly turned off Live View and returned to normal AF shooting through the viewfinder which was responsive quick and worked as expected Nikon has a LONG way to go to improve their face recognition AF software in my view anyway While the D90 has many features to commend it to many users
14. the final image Page 20 of 38 Single frame options for HDR work with the D90 Bracketed multiple exposures aren t always feasible in high contrast situations The technique won t work with subjects that can move between exposures such as animals birds people vehicles or even flowers or grasses that are blowing about in the wind Also the machine gun like sound of the camera during the rapid fire exposure burst may be too distracting to other people In such cases you have to live with an single exposure There are still some ways to expand the dynamic range of that one exposure The D90 has an interesting contrast range expansion feature in the camera Active D Lighting NEF shooters who process their RAW files in Nikon Capture NX2 have several software options to enhance the dynamic range of an image D Lighting in the Adjust gt Light menu the shadow and highlight protection controls in the Quick Fix part of the Edit List s Develop section and if Active D Lighting was set in camera when the photo was taken options to adjust that setting appear under the Edit List s Develop gt Camera Settings section The D90 has two D Lighting features Active D Lighting ADL which affects the photograph at the time of exposure and D Lighting in the retouch menu which generates a Large Fine JPG from a RAW file or if the photo was shot in JPG mode at the same quality and size settings as were used for the original JPG The camera s Active D Lig
15. to help document or annotate with voice recording a video memo to go with a series of still shots e g on a trip the D90 is probably all the video camera you ll likely want or need It produces quite good videos The resolution matches or excels that of most camcorders in its price range and the CMOS chip is bigger than that of most camcorders Paired with Nikon optics and superb low light performance the D90 can produce video images as sharp and clean or better than any amateur camcorder I ve used I rented a Sony hard drive Handicam similar to the SR 11 for a weekend which is my basis for comparison I have a few tips for using the movie mode in the D90 based on several days of playing with the feature Your exposure is limited by ISO step adjustments from 200 to 3200 a 5 stop range the aperture cannot be changed once the movie is recording So if you are going to film in low light start off using an f 2 8 or faster lens Before beginning the movie go into Aperture Priority Matrix mode and set the aperture at f 4 or wider smaller f number At f 5 6 or more your movie will probably look dark and exposure compensation probably won t fix the problem due to the 5 stop ISO range Conversely for outdoor filming use any lens but don t plan on opening the aperture more than f 5 6 or so or the bright areas in the movie may be blown Since I can t edit photos afterwards at least not with any software I own movie recording is a
16. up a button space for Bracket instead of OK The My Menu feature is more useable and encompasses more settings than on the D300 for example you can access the battery meter this way on the D90 but not on the D300 The D300 s use of separate buttons to raise the flash and to adjust flash settings is a needless departure from the single button approach on the D90 and also on the D200 and D100 As with D70 and D80 the D90 s built in infra red IR sensor and affordable optional IR remote trigger makes it very convenient to use the camera for self portraits or to position the photographer with a group for a photo none of the higher end Nikons have had this option as affordably and conveniently which has always surprised me Price Enough said Six D300 features the D90 doesn t have that should matter in theory but don t in reality IMO The ability to capture images at 14 bit depth If I can t see a difference from 12 bit capture at 400 magnification and I can t why should this be of any interest to me In theory higher bit depth should produce better dynamic range sharpness and noise at high ISOs compared with the D90 s 12 bit capture It doesn t in fact the D90 has more dynamic range and less noise than the D300 as I show above It isn t just me who s noticed this in their comprehensive review of the D300 the Dpreview website did one direct comparison of 12 bit and 14 bit depth in their D300 review under RAW headroom whe
17. upgraded camera a year or so after the release of a top line camera is a curious practice to say the least Now that I have noticed this it encourages long time Nikon owners like me to ignore new big brother models when they come out and wait a year for the little brother model with all the important features of the earlier model a number of design and bug fixes and a lower price tag I m not complaining just making the observation I suspect that when Nikon introduces its replacement for the D300 I will probably ignore that camera and wait to see what the D90 replacement will look like about a year later Even if at that time I decide to keep my D90 and finally to replace my D200 leap frogging between the enthusiast and older brother upgrades after a year on the market the D300 replacement probably will have dropped about 500 in price since its initial release as happened to the D300 once the D90 was released The moral of the story think twice before racing to pay top dollar for the newest big brother Nikon model as soon as it hits the stores When the D100 first came out it sold for about 3600 Canadian when I bought it after it had been around for nearly 18 months I paid only 2000 for mine new off the shelf at a local camera store You can see similar pricing patterns in the history of the D200 and D300 Caveat emptor Page 38 of 38
18. 0 Noise and shadow range These tests are surprising In them even at ISO 200 the D90 shows less noise and better shadow definition than the more expensive D300 not to mention the D200 The superiority of the D90 in noise and shadow definition is especially striking at ISO 3200 For brevity I omit showing the intermediate ISO results which confirm the D90 s superior performance in these tests Bear in mind that no noise reduction was performed on these tests either in camera or later Because of the space required I show each set of three test results on separate pages The Kodak Grey Scale s patches are in increments of 0 3 EV notice that at ISO 3200 the D90 is able to discriminate the boundaries between adjacent patches 1 7 EV darker than the D300 There is no question in my mind from these tests which I confirmed in HDR field tests in the Canadian War Museum that the D90 is superior to the D300 and also the D200 for low light high ISO photography At low ISOs it matches or slightly exceeds the D300 Note how much more noise the D200 produces at ISO 3200 than either the D90 or the D300 The D200 uses a CCD chip the other two cameras use CMOS chips These examples illustrate why CMOS is the technology preferred by photographers who like working in low light or with high ISOs Page 26 of 38 Noise and shadow definition at ISO 200 D200 D90 D300 Page 27 of 38 Noise and shadow definition at ISO 3200 a A
19. 70 I ve used the D200 for infrared as well and I have briefly tested my D90 against both cameras see the illustrations that follow In my tests D90 is about 7 EV more sensitive to IR requires 7 EV less exposure than is the D200 but about 4 EV less sensitive than D70 The D90 produces very fine IR images better than either of the other cameras in my judgment The autofocus on the D90 works well in cloudy bright light through an IR filter Due to the superior noise reduction and shadow range in the CMOS chip the IR images have more punch and are better than one can get from the D200 In spite of its older chip and lower megapixel count the D70 still compares quite well to both the other cameras in infrared Page 13 of 38 The illustrations that follow were taken within a few minutes on a tripod using the same lens and infrared filter with each camera I have cropped all three images for a side by side comparison Bear in mind the D70 has only half the megapixel count of the D90 which affects the resolution of the D70 example All three images were taken through a Hoya IR72 glass filter at ISO 800 and a lens aperture of f 8 on a sunny day in the early afternoon without any noticeable wind or breeze focusing on the cedar hedge in my back yard All three photographs were converted to monochrome using the same software settings Vig pi re y HS H i a p D70 1 6 sec exposu AN PAS Nikon D90 20 s A
20. 8 greenish or cyan cast to the statues My eye noticed and remember the warm tones on those statues arising from the incandescent lighting in the ceiling of that hall and the Incandescent White Balance setting unadjusted on the D90 more closely matched that memory not the correct white balance My memory of the colour that my eyes saw suggests the best white balance would be about half way between the Incandescent and Auto results shown below All three exposures are 1 40 second f 8 and ISO 1000 hand held with a Sigma 18 50mm f 2 8 lens at a 26mm focal length i me 0 Pre set Manual white D90 unadjusted Incandescent D90 Auto white balance balance white balance I have found over the past three years that a similar result has obtained with my D200 namely that Auto White Balance or the appropriate in camera picture white balance setting generally gives results more pleasing to my eyes and closer to my memory of what the camera saw than does a manual pre set white balance even though I admit the latter is by definition the most accurate white balance from a scientific standpoint when using the very precisely calibrated Expodisc to get the reading I find with the D200 and will probably find with the D90 that making manual white balance settings is normally not a good use of my time in the field The D90 s dynamic range The D90 has an impressive dynamic range by any criteria I show my own noise and shadow deta
21. D90 Menu Settings Nikon provides a wide number of menu options in its Setup Custom and Shooting menus total of 69 to be exact That s a large number of choices to make This section of my review in intended to help readers who are overwhelmed by the menu options If you are comfortable with making your own choices and think you understand all the options that Nikon provides you skip to the next section on specific D90 features If you are reading this review partly to decide whether to buy one you might want to skip this section as it isn t going to make much sense to you without the camera or user manual in front of you By the way Nikon provides free PDF downloads of all its camera models on its websites if you are curious about the features of a camera that you haven t bought yet the user manual download will give you much more information about a particular camera model than you re likely to find in any review no matter who wrote it j My perspective is that of an owner of a string of Pentax SLR film cameras from 1965 1993 a string of Nikon SLR film cameras from 1992 2004 several Nikon Coolpix models from 1999 2004 and Nikon digital SLRs the D100 D70 D200 and most recently D90 since 2003 Page 1 of 38 Nikon provides default settings on most of the 69 options I agree with Nikon on 48 of them but I changed 21 of them I discuss below what I changed giving my reasons for changing them You re welcome to disagree with me
22. My Take on the Nikon D90 Ed Overstreet Ottawa Canada February 2009 All photos in this document are Copyright Ed Overstreet 2009 all rights reserved Introduction Nikon s ads for the D90 say the new Nikon D90 is everything you need That s not much of an exaggeration It s everything a serious amateur still photographer needs Arguably it could supplant a D300 for many if not a majority of potential users certainly it supplants my D200 which now serves as my backup to the D90 From my perspective it is a better camera than the D300 for reasons I will give below I bought my D90 in mid November 2008 a little more than two months before writing this review I ve put the D90 through its paces in my standard testing in several photo outings and short out of town trips and in a low light volunteer assignment to photograph a three hour dress rehearsal of a small orchestra in an Ottawa church I ve tested it head to head against my D200 and a D300 that I rented for a weekend you will find these results with sample photographs at the end of this review My review is divided into three large sections my recommendations for the D90 menu settings to use different from Nikon s recommended defaults comments of specific D90 features that particularly interest me and comparisons with two other Nikon SLRs the D200 and the D300 I have illustrated some of my comparisons with test photos that I ve taken My Recommended
23. Set the aperture to f 8 outdoors to avoid exposures beyond the range of the camera or f 1 4 2 8 indoors to avoid high ISOs and excessive shadow noise Another option is to use Manual metering the D90 varies only the shutter speed in AE bracketing in Manual mode Never use Shutter priority or Program exposure modes for HDR as they will vary the aperture and hence depth of field between frames which will likely cause serious ghosting in the HDR blend A and M modes vary the shutter speed in AE bracketing which won t normally introduce any more ghosting in moving foliage or water than is going to occur anyway due to motion that occurs between exposures In scenes where nothing is moving A and M modes will never introduce ghosting but S and P modes almost always will Use a tripod or if unable or unwilling to use a tripod take care to concentrate on holding one of the auto focus brackets in the viewfinder steady on a specific object in the frame throughout the HDR shooting sequence If possible when not using a tripod brace your elbows on something solid When using a tripod use the optional cable release or the optional infrared remote trigger to trip the shutter McCullough would recommend turning Auto ISO in the Shooting Menu off but I leave it On in hand held HDR shooting to ensure the shutter speeds don t drop so low as to cause camera shake issues in some exposures Arguably use manual focus However I find I can get away using au
24. an spot metering off the window light To hold detail in the contrasty exterior lighting it is best in this case to set the aperture for f 8 rather than f 2 8 I find that I get better results with an HDR sequence on the D90 if I turn Active D Lighting ADL Off before taking the sequence In cases where I think I might need to use only a single exposure from the set due to image ghosting I might consider taking the sequence with ADL set to Auto Since I always shoot in NEF RAW quality and almost always process the NEF images in Nikon Capture NX2 with any ADL setting in camera I can later adjust the ADL setting or turn it off entirely in that software I would then save the results in 16 bit TIF format for further processing in Photomatrix Pro software Below I present one of the 5F2 0 sequences that I took in this venue on the D90 adjusted with additional edits using Nik Color Efex Pro 3 s Tonal Contrast and Brilliance Warmth filters Note the difference between the 5F2 0 sequence and the edit of one image selected from that sequence Page 19 of 38 pn This is the best I could do with a single exposure from the same sequence used to produce the preceding 5F2 0 HDR sequence this is the 2 EV exposure from that 4 to 4 ev sequence Notice the significant increase in shadow noise and the very flat appearance of the Parliament buildings through the window The HDR processing makes a significant difference to the quality of
25. ay giving fast access to a number of useful settings that otherwise would require drilling into one of the camera menus to access These settings include Noise Reduction both long exposure and high ISO Active D Lighting Picture Control the Func button and the AE L AF L button Interestingly and not really mentioned in the Manual the Info View display for the location of the focus point responds live to presses on the multi selector If after changing the AF area you then press the Live View button if you had set LV focus for Wide Area or Normal auto focus rather than Face Priority the AF area in Live View will automatically correspond to whichever part of the frame you had previously selected in Info View This is a quicker way of moving the AF area around the Live View window than using the multi selector which moves the AF area more precisely in very small and time consuming increments The D90 s new movie mode The D90 was the first SLR in the world to have a movie capture mode beating the only other SLR currently with that feature the Canon 5D Mk IJ onto the market by about three weeks The Canon is a full frame 21 megapixel camera that produces higher resolution movies than the D90 but it also costs between two and three times as much money Expect to see this feature in more affordable Canon SLRs and probably more Nikon SLR models in the future For someone who only shoots video occasionally or uses it primarily
26. ce from the D90 All sequences were processed in Photomatrix Pro software The noisiest result was the D90 s 3F2 0 sequence the smoothest result and the most pleasing overall in my judgment was the D90 s 5F2 0 sequence I reproduce all three examples below Banding in the window in all three shots was introduced by the word processing software and does not appear in the JPGs that I imported below Page 36 of 38 SS N lt S X D90 5F2 0 HDR sequence Highlight clipping on the rear statue introduced by WordPerfect not in the JPG Page 37 of 38 Conclusion Over the years Nikon has developed a curious habit of issuing an enthusiast camera about a year after each of its 100 series camera Each enthusiast camera had some notable improvements over its more expensive older brother The D70 was an improvement over the D100 as was the D80 over the D200 Now the D90 maintains this improvement pattern relative to the D300 Even the F80 had some new features that were major improvements over the more expensive big brother F90 back in film days for example if I remember correctly the F80 was the first film SLR by Nikon to incorporate built in on demand gridlines in the viewfinder and an on board auto exposure bracket button features that on the F90 required the purchase of expensive optional pieces of equipment such as a special focusing screen and a data back for the camera This habit of issuing a more friendly
27. compose a shot after focusing on a subject of your choice while keeping that subject in focus However a good alternative when taking candid photos of a child or grandchild might be to use the Auto Area mode this is the Nikon default for most of the exposure modes In this mode the camera automatically chooses the subject and focus area but gives priority to people using Nikon s face recognition algorithm This works if the person is facing the camera and probably best if there is only one person in the frame or if more than one they all are at the same distance otherwise there is no guarantee the camera will choose the right face to focus on This might also work well with AF C mode if the person small child especially is moving erratically However I think Auto Area is a poor choice as a default for most P S A and M mode settings for most serious photographers In Auto Area mode the camera decides what the subject of your photo will be and picks the focus point Except when trying to capture a swiftly moving child and assuming that Nikon s face recognition will work correctly this isn t a very good idea in my opinion unless you are a point and shoot only photographer in which case it s unlikely you d be reading this review Most serious photographers who I know would rather choose their own subject and focus area than have the camera make that decision for them Face priority focus in Live View shooting will at least indica
28. d automatically reset exposure compensation to zero when the meter or camera turn off On the D90 any exposure compensation you dial in with Easy Exposure Compensation remains set that way even if you power the camera off and then back on You must remember to reset the compensation to zero manually the camera won t do that for you Live View Live View shows the photographer on the LCD screen what the sensor is seeing though not the depth of field unless shooting at maximum lens aperture depth of field preview is disabled in Live View Using the optional remote cord and a tripod one can monitor the frame and trigger the Page 8 of 38 shutter without ever touching the camera or peering into the viewfinder which risks jarring the camera Auto focus does work in Live View but only in contrast detect mode which is quite sluggish For a quick shutter response one is probably better using manual pre focus Live View displays what is actually on the sensor so manual focus in that mode is absolutely accurate for stationary or very slowly moving objects Live View performs curiously when you actually take a photograph in it The mirror locks up when you enter LV but when you take a photograph the mirror drops back down the camera takes a photo as it normally does with the mirror going up and down and then the mirror locks back up again I don t understand why Nikon didn t just leave the mirror up all the time in LV including during
29. e to me This is the only instance where someone I know has encountered a problem that might not have occurred with one of Nikon s more sturdily constructed and more expensive and heavy SLRs I 2 The D90 shares the same battery pack with the D80 if you re trading in a D80 on a D90 and already have the D80 battery pack keep it and the second battery you got for it as they ll both work with the D90 as will the D70 D80 AC adapter and the infrared remote release trigger for those two cameras Page 7 of 38 used the plastic bodied Nikon F80 and D70 cameras for years and never encountered any problems due their construction Luckily for me I hate taking photographs outdoors in bitter cold and also I don t often use remote cords out of doors even in the summer As a result the sturdier construction of the D100 and D200 cameras that I ve owned hasn t really made a difference to me compared with the less sturdily constructed models People who are wedded to using cameras in very cold weather or other adverse environments might want to think carefully before committing to a plastic construction camera made by any manufacturer I used to get confused about how the Command and Sub command dials work on Nikon SLRs I finally figured out a simple way to remember this The following applies to all Nikon digital SLRs as far as I know and as long as you stick with the Nikon default setting for these dials Both dials work as follows in A S and M e
30. e D90 has 10 sharpness adjustments instead of 7 on the D300 7 contrast adjustments instead of 5 7 saturation adjustments instead of 5 anew Quick Adjust feature on all Picture Control choices that automatically adjusts all settings in the given mode by 2 to 2 in one step increments new Landscape and Portrait modes in the Picture Control menu though Nikon now lets you download these from their website and install them on your D300 a belated attempt to upgrade the D300 s PC menu partially nine custom sets that you can create by tweaking the other Picture Controls the D300 gives you exactly zero custom sets The D90 has a new Extra High setting for Active D Lighting which is very useful in high contrast scenes also an Auto setting which often gives intermediate values can be over ridden or reset easily in Capture NX2 afterwards The D300 doesn t have either of these settings The D90 has a couple of Live View enhancements beyond the D300 s Live View features face priority auto focus in Live View which may be of interest to some though I can t get it to work fast enough for my taste you can move the AF sensor in Live View anywhere on the screen no longer are you limited to specific AF sensor positions 51 on the D300 auto focus is possible both in hand held and in tripod mode while the Live View is active in the D300 it is possible only in tripod mode On the D300 in hand held work with Live View auto focus only ha
31. en the two cameras using the same subject matter camera position lighting and lens I actually preferred the D90 result to the D300 result The D300 has AF fine tuning to correct back or front focus problems with specific lenses and the D90 doesn t nor did the D200 I believe the D300 was the first Nikon with this feature I really don t understand the excitement over this feature In the past 30 years of using SLR lenses back and front focus this has almost never been an issue for me My very first zoom lens a cheap Vivitar 80 200 back in the 70s could never focus sharply at infinity and that s the only lens I ve ever owned where I noticed a focusing problem I traded in the lens as soon as I noticed the problem after the warranty period unfortunately I think this AF fine tuning feature is just one more thing to fiddle and fuss with and is much over rated if your lens is so out of focus take it back for a warranty repair or exchange if you can A few field tests at the Canadian War Museum over a rental weekend I took my D90 and the rental D300 to the Le Breton Gallery at the War Museum in Ottawa This is the warehouse like space in which are housed a variety of vehicles tanks and artillery pieces dating from colonial days through the very recent past I also used both cameras to photograph the statues in Regeneration Hall which is adjacent to the Gallery My objective was to see how both cameras would perform under the set
32. etal the camera body is high impact plastic Metal contracts when it becomes cold plastic does not contract or not as much as metal and can become brittle in the cold Probably as a result of different coefficients of contraction the terminal may be much more susceptible to breaking loose under very cold conditions I used the same remote cord repeatedly with my D90 during the same period with no problem but I only used it in a well heated room I did notice however that the cable fits rather snugly in the terminal and requires some pressure in attaching and removing it Attaching or removing accessory connections in cold weather is probably not a good idea with this or any other plastic construction camera If you want or need to use the accessory terminal in cold weather it might be best to connect the accessory in a warm room carefully place it in your camera bag and leave it attached throughout your outdoor shooting taking care not to jar the connection Detach the accessory only indoors once the camera has warmed up These precautions probably are not necessary with a metal body camera such as the D200 or D300 where I suspect the accessory terminal and body would expand or contract roughly at the same rates during temperature extremes thereby reducing the chances of the terminal breaking loose from the body I don t know whether Nikon would agree with this explanation of the problem and the recommendation for avoiding it but it makes sens
33. fact at will In Capture NX2 D Lighting under the Adjust gt Light menu and Shadow Highlight adjustments in Quick Fix can be done in addition to the Active D Lighting adjustments in camera or in Capture NX2 s Develop gt Camera Settings menu However these multiple boosts can result in a substantial increase in shadow noise so they need to be used judiciously Page 23 of 38 Comparisons between the Nikon D90 D200 and D300 SLRs Other reviewers generally compare the D90 to comparably priced cameras made by Nikon s competitors For me a Nikon user with many Nikon mount lenses that isn t relevant What is relevant is a comparison with Nikon alternatives to the D90 that I might consider At the time I bought the D90 my principle SLR was my Nikon D200 with my trusty D70 as a backup I wanted to know what were the relative merits and demerits of the two cameras to help me decide which would be my principle camera which my backup and when I might prefer to use the backup instead of the principle camera So I did my standard head to head comparisons of the D200 and D90 using the same lenses I was also curious to discover what if anything I d missed by getting the D90 instead of the somewhat older pricier D300 which has much in common with the D90 especially the same pixel count In particular I was curious whether the D300 s 14 bit depth option it also shoots NEF in 12 bit depth was worth the price difference relative to the D90 wh
34. g the centre for centre weighted metering as either a 13mm circle and using the full frame options not available on the D90 As someone who would rather do full frame average metering than centre weighted averaging because I really don t know what the relative weights are nor how that affects the metering in many situations that is a plus As with the D200 the D300 gives you the option of auto exposure bracketing up to nine frames in one EV increments which as discussed earlier can be an advantage in some HDR shooting The D90 limits you to three frames in up to two EV increments Page 32 of 38 Like the D200 the D300 has a mirror up shooting mode very useful for eliminating camera vibration even on a tripod with shutter speeds in a certain range The D300 gives you up to 8 frames per second of continuous shooting versus 4 5 fps on the D90 This could be a plus for serious action or sport photographers of which I am not one Eleven features where the D90 is better than the D300 In spite of and even at 14 bit depth the D300 doesn t have as much dynamic range and as good high ISO low light peformance as the D90 see my tests above The D90 has 3D Tracking Auto Focus mode the D300 doesn t I discuss this feature earlier in this review Though I don t often use Picture Control a feature on both the D90 and the D300 Nikon added a lot more parameters to the D90 s Picture Control menu than what it gave to the D300 Th
35. he flash card with a one size fits all JPG duplicate of everything I shoot except when working for a client I always set the Colour Space for Adobe RGB for NEF capture If I m shooting NEF JPG then I ll use sRGB planning to convert the NEFs back to Adobe RGB for editing Adobe RGB has a Page 2 of 38 wider gamut than sRGB and is better for editing but sRGB is probably your best choice for out of the camera JPG proofs I set Long Exposure Noise Reduction to On It doesn t activate until the shutter speed drops to 8 seconds I don t often use a tripod so I rarely use shutter speeds that slow If I set this Off there s a risk I d forget to turn it on when it s needed So I just leave it on all the time I turn OFF the High ISO Noise Reduction There are better ways to do high ISO NR than with an in camera automatic setting plug ins like Nik Dfine 2 Noise Ninja or the controls in both Nikon Capture NX2 and Adobe CameraRAW are generally better than the in camera control NR is something I want to control not abdicate control to the camera NR always involves a trade off with image sharpness I want to judge that trade off on the monitor on a case by case basis not default it to a fixed in camera setting I use the Movie setting for 1280x720 quality why not go for the best available Custom Settings Menu al AF area mode I set this for 3D tracking which I think is a good all around setting it makes it easy to re
36. he images in the sequence so the noise in an HDR blend will always be less than it was in the noisiest of the single frames that make up that blend After taking the series always play back the sequence on the LCD screen and check the histogram for the 2 and 2 EV shots to ensure there is no shadow clipping in the 2 shot and no highlight clipping in the 2 shot there usualy will be highlight clipping in the 2 shot and shadow clipping in the 2 shot this is to be expected otherwise you wouldn t need HDR for the scene If there is such clipping in either or both shots you will need to take extra exposures using larger exposure compensation Don t forget that HDR can be used in panorama sequences and that HDR can be very effective for sunset or sunrise photography Ghosting is inevitable in an HDR blend if the scene includes moving water or foliage or sometimes clouds affected by wind or breeze Also ghosting may result from birds animals people vehicles windmill blades etc that moved in the scene during the AEB sequence There are four ways to deal with ghosting in HDR try using the ghost removal feature in your HDR software if it has that feature try cloning away the problem in Photoshop try blending the single OEV image from the AEB sequence with the HDR blend using a layer mask on the single image placed as a separate layer on top of the HDR file in Photoshop or if all else fails try tone mapping a single image from
37. hting control gives you the choice of Low Normal High Extra High and Auto Auto in my tests seems to give the same result or very close to it as Normal The Retouch menu D lighting feature only gives you the choices of Low Normal and High Active D Lighting both brightens shadows and dims highlights bringing back detail in both D Lighting in the Retouch menu only brightens the shadows it does not affect the highlights In Capture NX2 the two D Lighting options both affect both shadows and highlights The D90 s Retouch Menu option is much less tempting than the others in my opinion since it doesn t affect highlights Owners of either Photomatrix Pro software or the Photomatrix Tone Mapping plug in for Photoshop both available from www hdrsoft com also have the further option of doing pseudo HDR tone mapping processing of a single exposure This and all the preceding options that ve mentioned generally work better for me than the Shadow Highlights adjustment control in Photoshop versions CS and later and the Black and Recovery sliders in Adobe CameraRAW CS3 and later I tested all the non Adobe options with NEF photographs taken in Regeneration Hall from the same camera position I used for my HDR sequence tests I present below a few of the test results followed by a summary of my conclusions from these tests Page 21 of 38 Sample A D90 in camera ADL Sample A processed with turned off highlight amp shadow PhotoMat
38. ich only captures in 12 bit depth So I splurged 150 plus tax for a weekend rental of a D300 body and compared it head to head with my D90 using the same lenses and targets To cut to the chase and spoil my ending I think the D90 is a better camera than both the D200 and the D300 The price of the camera does not form any part of that assessment though the D90 is much less expensive than both those cameras were when they first entered the market Pixel peeping resolution and noise Icompared all three SLRs using my standard resolution and noise tests To do this I use an Edmund Scientific Company Lens Resolving Power chart to which I attach a Kodak Grey Scale The chart shows me the resolution of the cameras the Kodak scale shows me the shadow range and on close examination of the grey patches the noise To do these tests I use the same lens focal length and lens aperture for all three cameras for this review I used my Sigma 50mm f 1 4 lens with the aperture set at f 8 The cameras are placed on atripod at the appropriate distance from the test chart Each camera uses the same Nikon Speedlight SB800 attached to the hot shoe for standard illumination Each camera is set for manual matrix metering with TTL flash metering shutter speed set at 1 125 second the in camera sharpening and high ISO noise reduction controls are turned off I systematically vary the ISO setting on the camera taking NEF RAW exposures at each ISO
39. if a VR lens was attached Particularly valuable for debugging sophisticated flash photography if you use the camera s built in flash in Commander mode for iTTL flash with remote Nikon Speedlights you will find that the same Shooting Data Page 1 will display for you all the flash settings you used both with the built in flash and with the remote flashes No need to keep separate notes in a notebook Ergonomics and continuity with previous Nikon SLRs I think the control and menu layouts on the D90 are very sensible and intuitive I had no difficulty getting used to the camera Much of the design is already familiar to me from the D70 and the D200 and the changes and additions are sensible and easy to locate Like the D70 and D80 before it the D90 is a smaller and lighter camera than its big brother the D300 For some users and specifically for me the smaller size is a bit inconvenient when the camera is attached to certain lenses that I own People who find the camera body a little smaller Page 6 of 38 than they might prefer would do well to buy the optional battery pack The battery pack holds two lithium ion batteries doubling the shooting time before the camera shuts down until the batteries are recharged The alternate shutter release on the pack also makes portrait format shooting more comfortable and more stable The pack expands the camera size and heft sufficiently to meet the needs of anyone whose hands are too large comfor
40. ighlights within the sequence f3 I usually assign the Assign FUNC Button to Spot metering on both my cameras I generally use Matrix metering but sometimes I want to see if it s going to get me into trouble before shooting A quick press of the FUNC button lets me switch temporarily to Spot metering in order to check the range between highlights and shadows in the scene f4 Assign AE L AF L Button I prefer to use AE lock hold for this setting You do have to remember to press the button a second time to release the exposure reading after you re finished with it though the AE lock releases as soon as the meter or the camera turns off so you re unlikely to get into too much trouble with this setting I find the Hold choice more convenient and less stressful on the small muscles in my right hand than having to hold the AE lock button down with my thumb constantly to keep the setting active especially for more than one shot The lock feature also frees my thumb for example to change the AF area with the multi selector or to operate the main command dial while retaining the exposure lock I used the AE Lock Hold setting for years on the D70 and the D100 as well as on my D200 so this use of the button is second nature for me Page 4 of 38 My Menu choices for the D90 The selection and ordering of things to store in My Menu is very personal and idosyncratic For whatever it s worth to the reader I list below the settings in order that I
41. il comparisons with the D200 and D300 later in this review but it is instructive to examine the reports of dynamic range tests on the dpreview website for three Nikon SLR cameras of interest to me the D90 D300 and D700 Of these five cameras the D300 has the most highlight range at any ISO between 100 and 6400 It also has the highest overall range of the five cameras from ISO 100 through 800 But what is striking is that the D90 has the highest reported dynamic range between ISO 1600 and 6400 suggesting it is arguably the best low light high ISO SLR of the three and from the range ISO 200 6400 it has the second highest highlight range and overall ranges after the D300 Moreover the D90 s highlight and overall dynamic ranges generally only lag about 0 2 0 8 EV behind the D300 which isn t much Most strikingly the D90 s dynamic range as reported in that website Page 15 of 38 consistently exceeds that of the much more expensive full frame sensor D700 at all ISOs tested 100 6400 For an 1100 camera the D90 s dynamic range is nothing short of astounding From ISO 200 through 3200 the D90 range varies between 8 3 EV and 9 3 EV at ISO 6400 the reported range is an amazing albeit very noisy 11 4 EV To put this in context most colour slide films had a dynamic range of 6 EV and negative films had a dynamic range of 10 11 EV At most ISOs the D90 s and the D300 s range nearly matches that of negative film and at ISO 6400 the D90 exceeds
42. impressive 7 8 fps in Continous High servo mode at 12 bit depth switch the camera to 14 bit depth and the CH servo is slower than molasses in January maybe 1 5 fps probably due to the extra processing for the 14 bit depth This for me defeats the purpose of CH servo in 14 bit depth especially as I use it mainly for multi frame AE bracketing for HDR compositing While in the 1 2 seconds needed to complete a 7 or 9 frame bracket burst in CH mode at 12 bits is sufficient to avoid serious camera registration or subject motion issues at least in landscape photography the several seconds needed to complete these bursts in 14 bit depth isn t at all helpful and may make a sharp well registered HDR composite much harder to achieve especially without the use of a tripod However not to worry as I mentioned earlier the 14 bit depth on the D300 seems utterly pointless anyway I can t see any differences in my test photos with the rental D300 between 14 bit and 12 bit versions even at 400 magnification on my monitor The larger size of the D300 means it is more comfortably in my hands without a battery grip than is the D90 without a battery grip Five features where the D300 is better than the D90 The D300 s construction is more rugged and weather tight This isn t a major concern for me but those who do a lot of shooting in very cold wet or dirty environments might find this a plus Like the D200 the D300 gives the user options of settin
43. lization generally works more smoothly than Nikon s in lens VR mechanism at least partly because the Lumix is working with a vastly smaller and lighter lens Also the Lumix only weighs 310 grams without the battery therefore being easier to hold steady than the D90 with battery grip two batteries and the 18 200 VR lens working out to 1180 grams for the camera and lens and probably another 200 grams for the batteries and grip between three and four times the weight and bulk of either Lumix camera That Nikon lens alone weighs nearly twice as much as either Lumix camera I can t hear any difference in sound quality between the D90 s and Lumixs movie clips Sound is monaural on all three cameras and the microphones on all three consist of pinholes in the front of the camera bodies The Lumix cameras can film continuously until the flash card fills the D90 limits the length of its movie clips to protect the camera circuitry But if you are serious about capturing 30 minute video clips you probably want to use a good camcorder anyway When panning across a high contrast scene I find that the exposure adjustments during filming are smoother in the Lumix cameras than in the D90 The D90 s ISO adjustments occur in discrete and quite visible steps causing the image brightness to pop during playback I rarely see that with the Lumix video clip In summary movie capture on the D90 is better than on my Lumix cameras for keeping the
44. ll cause some image blur at shutter speeds generally between 1 15 second and about 8 seconds depending on the focal length in use By locking up the mirror you can wait a few seconds for the vibration of the mirror to end before tripping the shutter One would use a remote cord to trip the shutter Both cameras also have a shutter delay feature that delays the shutter about one second after the mirror pops up This delay can partially alleviate the vibration problem but at the cost of precise control over shutter release timing for decisive moment photography With mirror lock up however one can watch the subject not through the viewfinder of course and trigger the shutter precisely using the remote cord With hand held HDR auto exposure bracketing it may be preferable in some situations to capture a 4 to 4 EV sequence in a single burst This can be done on the D200 using the 9F1 0 bracket setting in 5 fps continuous fire mode with the D90 one would have to take two overlapped 3F2 0 sequences adjusting exposure compensation between them This inevitably results in some camera movement which can cause alignment problems in the HDR software and takes longer to execute which can result in extra ghosting in situations where any significant subject matter in the frame is in motion including water clouds or vegetation not to mention animals birds people and vehicles A 3F2 0 sequence on the D90 can take less time to execute than the 9F1
45. ne Tune Optimal Exposure Always check your camera with a grey card to see if it s recording 50 brightness at 50 If it isn t here s where you set permanent compensation On my D90 I need 2 6 for matrix 2 6 for center weighted and 4 6 for spot Every camera s meter may be different in terms of pin point accuracy test yours and adjust this setting accordingly d1 Turn the damn Beep off I hate hearing it whether on my camera or on anyone else s I also hate cell phones and pagers d2 I always have the viewfinder grid display On to help level the camera d7 I always want to use the same file number sequence no matter what folder or card I m using so this goes On Otherwise you risk having too many files with the same name in different folders which can cause unexpected problems if you copy files from these folders and put them into a common folder e g for an audio visual presentation e4 I generally prefer Auto Bracketing Set for AE only but sometimes I use ADL bracketing I don t use flash often but when I do I doubt I d want to bracket both the flash and the main exposure the default use auto bracketing often for HDR high dynamic range sequences and I never use flash for those e6 Bracketing order of under gt MTR gt over makes much more sense to me especially for HDR shooting when I always want to review the exposure sequence on playback to be sure that I got the correct histograms both for shadows and for h
46. nu The RGB Histograms really aren t necessary beyond the Composite histogram you already get unless you re shooting through an infrared filter and therefore need to keep the Red from clipping which you generally can t tell from the composite average histogram in IR The three extra data pages don t provide data that I d normally want to see that isn t already provided in the standard Overview screen Activating all the data pages makes it more time consuming to scroll through the playback menu to find the page you really want to see my advice is to strip the display mode to the minimum that meets your own needs Shooting Menu Under Set Picture Control I have a custom setting that I created and almost always use called Unadjusted in which all the sliders are set at zero The only canned picture controls I ever might use are Monochrome if I want to check what my scene would look like as a monochrome and Vivid which I use exclusively for movies which otherwise can look pretty flat However I have created a few more custom settings mainly various filtrations for monochrome that I might want to activate easily I set Image Quality set for NEF RAW only unless I am shooting for a client who wants some JPG proofs in a hurry If I want JPGs of specific NEFs immediately off the camera I can create them in the Retouch menu where I can do some basic retouching to them before passing them to someone I don t see the point of cluttering t
47. ooms on the D90 look quite jittery on playback even when using VR if you own a VR lens Also camcorders use an electronic motor to zoom their built in lenses manually zooming a Nikkor attached to the D90 results in further jitters in the appearance of the movie The D90 only records monaural sound and the microphone doesn t pick up sound well beyond a distance of perhaps ten feet Most camcorders have sophisticated stereo often surround sound microphones which have a zoom feature that can isolate sounds or voices from background noise at considerably more than ten feet from the camera This difference is not surprising when you notice that the D90 microphone consists of three pinholes in the front of the camera body Camcorders have much more advanced microphones that are much less susceptible to sounds of the photographer s fingers stroking controls on the camera body However the D90 has some advantages over most comparably priced camcorders First because of the large CMOS sensor the D90 s image quality and shadow noise are much better in low light and low light While many camcorders can record still images these are JPG and not RAW images and the D90 s still images are much better than the still images from any camcorder I ve seen If you are primarily interested in still capture and only use video capture occasionally the D90 is a better choice than a camcorder The new movie feature means you don t need to carry a dedicated camco
48. ose from Using Custom picture control a dedicated monochrome shooter can save up to 9 custom picture control sets each one a different monochrome configuration to make the choice of settings faster through the My Menu feature Once you select a specific monochrome configuration if you switch the camera to Live View you can see the scene live through the lens filtered by your particular configuration so you will see what you ll be getting before you take the photograph This is better than trying to visualize what you ll get and you can watch how the composition changes in monochrome as you move the camera position and watch the LCD monitor The monochrome picture control is compatible with Active D Lighting which can expand the dynamic range of the shot noticeably NEF RAW photos taken in monochrome mode can be converted back to full colour mode in Nikon Capture NX2 if you wish so you aren t losing any real information by shooting this way You can also take movie clips using your monochrome picutre control settings You can also create a monochrome JPG copy of a colour NEF or JPG file on the flash card using the monochrome feature in the retouch menu However that feature is more limiting giving you only the choice between B amp W Sepia or Cyanotype with no filtration saturation or brightness adjustments I compared the in camera monochrome picture control with the in camera monochrome retouch option greyscale conversion in Pho
49. ously or lightly I begin my discussion with a couple of observations about camera ergonomics Then I discuss five features that may matter to some photographers maybe even to me sometimes for which the D300 is superior to the D90 Next I discuss eleven features that may matter to some photographers especially to me for which I think the D90 is superior to the D300 I conclude Page 31 of 38 with a discussion of six features that the D300 has and the D90 doesn t features that should make a difference but in fact probably don t in my opinion Just doing a feature count from this discussion weighting each feature equally and I recognize that not everyone would agree with that I think the D90 wins the comparison Camera Ergonomics Someone familiar with the D200 and the D90 not to mention earlier Nikon SLRs will have little trouble figuring out the D300 s controls and menus with two notable exceptions On the D300 Live View control is hidden in the Mode Dial at the top of the camera on the D90 there is a very conveniently located and much easier to find Live View button on the back of the camera Though my D100 D70 D200 and D90 all had have a dedicated Bracket button as did my F80 film camera for reasons that I cannot fathom on the D300 Nikon buried the Bracket control in the operation of the Func button which is both inconvenient and non intuitive especially to a long time Nikon owner Though the D300 can fire at an
50. ppens after the mirror drops back down shutting off the Live View and risking loss of framing since you re essentially blind and not on a tripod In my view this was a really stupid design flaw in the D300 it would have made Page 33 of 38 more sense to have AF in hand held mode and not in tripod mode where you re much more likely to be using manual focus in Live View than auto focus anyway New to the D90 is the Info View option for the LCD screen As I mentioned earlier this is a very nice feature especially when you have the camera on a tripod at eye level in dim light I think that this feature more than offsets the D300 s somewhat larger control panel in dim light the LCD Info View is vastly easier to read as the icons displayed can be and are much larger than on the control panel The D90 s new Movie recording feature a first for Nikon SLRs is potentially very useful I discuss it earlier in this document The D90 is 205 grams lighter than D300 and takes a bit less space in your camera bag This is a plus for travel photographers who carry their equipment all day for several weeks The D90 has several helpful improvements in controls and control layout compared with D300 in addition to the D300 s puzzling and unfortunate lack of a dedicated bracket button On the D90 you use centre press on the multifunction button on the camera back as OK instead of having a dedicated OK button on D300 This makes more sense to me and frees
51. r only as much time as it took me to switch the lens between the camera bodies The Page 35 of 38 camera positions and lighting were identical within each pair as of course was the lens and focal length I show two paired comparisons below one in Regeneration Hall statues and one in Le Breton Gallery close up of a Soviet T 34 tank I can t see a difference in the statue comparison in both cases 1 40 second f 4 and ISO 250 There is a definite difference in the colour of the T 34 tank with the D90 yielding an olive green hue and the D300 a more brown toned hue in both cases 1 40 second f 8 but ISO 1250 from the D90 meter and ISO 900 from the D300 meter both exposures were adjusted in Photoshop to the same brightness level The D90 s hue is definitely more accurate in that comparison after viewing the results on my monitor I re visited the T 34 at the same time of day and confirmed that to my eyes the olive green tone in the D90 photo is the more accurate of the two The T 34 detail comparison provided the most striking contrast between the two cameras of the 15 pairs I examined bee D90 example D3 00 example At Regeneration Hall I did a number of HDR sequence comparisons with the D90 and the D300 Below I show the best D90 3F2 0 sequence the best D90 5F2 0 sequence two overlapped 3F2 sequences with 2 and 2 EV exposure compensation and the best D300 9F1 0 sequence equal in exposure range to the 5F2 0 sequen
52. rder around with you as long as you aren t hoping to produce a movie to submit to the Toronto Film Festival I own two compact digital cameras both Panasonic Lumix models the FZ8 and the LX3 which also have a movie mode It is interesting to compare and contrast these with the D90 s movie mode The Panasonic Lumix FZ8 s movie mode is inferior to the D90 s The resolution is about half that of the D90 and the FZ8 s CCD chip can t handle low light as well as the D90 s CMOS chip The Lumix LX3 however has a movie mode whose resolution and frame rate exactly match that of the D90 though the low light performance isn t quite as good Unlike with the D90 with the Lumix cameras you can t turn off the sound during movie recording if you wish to do so Page 11 of 38 The D90 records video clips in AVI format most compact cameras record in MOV format AVI is a Microsoft format and plays back in Windows Media Player MOV is an Apple format and plays back in Quick Time With the Lumix cameras focus aperture and focal length are all locked at the onset of filming With the D90 you can adjust the focus and focal length on a zoom lens manually during filming However the lack of focus adjustment in a compact camera doesn t generally matter except with very long focal lengths The true focal length of most compact camera lenses is quite short and hence they have plenty of depth of field to accommodate focus problems The Lumix image stabi
53. re in theory the bit depth should matter but reported they couldn t see any difference between the two modes Nor can I The D300 s Custom Settings Menu and Shooting Menu Banks four each may be useful to some photographers but my experience with the same feature in the D200 is this is nice to have but not worth a price difference I rarely use this feature on the D200 and with the D90 I can just as easily use My Menu to modify key settings and keep track of what I ve changed Page 34 of 38 The D300 s interval timer shooting feature may be of interest to some photographers D200 has that feature but I ve never used it yet in nearly three years of owning that camera If you do lots of time lapse photography this may be of interest Ah yes the number of auto focus points The D300 has 51 AF points versus 11 on the D90 and the D200 Frankly this is a negative in my view 51 points give me too many choices to make I ve found 11 auto focus points is plenty for me For years I somehow coped with cameras that only had five and before that they all had just one What a silly numbers game to get into The D300 s 1005 pixel Matrix meter vs the D90 s 420 pixel meter theoretically should provide more accurate metering and white balance but I don t see it in my head to head comparisons with the D90 see discussion below with a couple of examples In the majority of relatively few field tests where the metering and white balance differed betwe
54. rix Tone mapping plug in adjustments in NX2 Quick Fix menu Photoshop CS3 Sample B D90 in camera ADL set for Auto no software adjustments Sample B with shadow protection adjustment in NX2 Quick Fix menu Sample B ADL re set for Extra High in NX2 amp shadow protection adj in Quick Fix Page 22 of 38 Sample C D90 in camera ADL set for Sample C with shadow protection Extra High no software adjustments adjustment in NX2 Quick Fix menu In summary I found the following works best for single frame HDR work None of the single frame results were as satisfactory as a 5F2 0 bracket sequence processed in Photomatrix Pro software The best results were using Active D Lighting in camera set at Extra High coupled with further Highlight and Shadow adjustments in Quick Fix in Capture NX2 I can see no difference between shooting the photograph at one Active D Lighting setting and later adjusting that setting to a different setting in Capture NX2 and shooting at the latter Active D Lighting setting in the first instance For this reason it makes sense to me to leave the D90 s Active D Lighting set permanently at Auto when shooting NEFs unless I am certain I will be using auto exposure bracketing for HDR which works best without any ADL applied in camera The Auto setting in the file gives me access to the Active D Lighting adjustment in Capture NX2 where I can change it to one of the other settings or turn it off after the
55. rrect the auto white balance that the camera used Then I applied the Tonal Contrast filter using the default settings and adjusting the shadow and highlight protection sliders appropriately Finally both images were resized to the same pixel dimensions sharpened using Nik Sharpener Pro 3 s Display default settings and saved as JPGs at the same compression ratio While the D90 final image is less noisy than the D200 s when examined under high magnification the difference is not noticeable at normal viewing distance or magnification I find both versions quite pleasing and would be hard pressed to choose between them Certainly the D200 remains a perfectly acceptable tool in my kit though I suspect the D90 will likely get more use most of the time D200 with Sigma 30mm f 1 4 lens 1 50 second D90 with Sigma 50mm f 1 4 lens 1 100 second 73 5 ISO 1600 J 4 ISO 2200 Comparison between the D90 and the D300 Before presenting a few illustrations from my field tests I will discuss my impressions of the specifications and handling of the two cameras After spending a weekend using both cameras I am convinced that at least for my purposes and tastes the D90 is much preferable to the D300 That conclusion may surprise or upset some people especially those who rushed to purchase the D300 when it first hit the market and was selling at roughly double the price at which the D90 sold when it hit the market I did not arrive at this conclusion caprici
56. shadow noise down in low light and when I want to zoom the lens during filming However in other situations either Lumix camera and especially the LX3 which matches the D90 s HD resolution is as good a choice for video filming as the D90 For me the big advantage of the D90 s movie mode is the option of recording a movie clip with my own voice over to annotate or document a location before I begin shooting still images In reviewing photos from overseas trips I often have trouble remembering in which church or town I took a specific photo During my shooting I can annotate that information in a video clip with voice over and the D90 will record the AVI file with the same name prefix and number sequence as it uses for the still images This makes it very easy to find the video annotation that goes with a series of still images when reviewing my photos at home in a file browser The D90 s monochrome settings The D90 is an ideal digital camera for monochrome shooters The camera s Picture Control Monochrome setting lets you customize sharpness contrast brightness filtration and toning for your monochromes The choices of filtration similar to using a filter over the lens include none yellow orange red and green There are ten toning effects B amp W no toning sepia cyanotype Page 12 of 38 red yellow green blue green blue purple blue and red purple Within each of the tones there are seven degrees of saturation to cho
57. st chart setup uncropped 5 lt EDMUND SCIENTIFIC COMPANY RESOLVING POWER CHART Riel is ELIE t Z Sj m 22 m WME s m ll Be Sim 3 n 2 a YVA sam WS Sims 3 SI geo ME ae m ek 4 SZM ya e m WE Typical test photograph cropped slightly around the edges of the chart I attempted to fill the viewfinder with the test chart but as the cameras do not display 100 of the photograph in the viewfinder there inevitably was some extraneous space around the chart edge The comparisons that follow involve the central test pattern and the left hand half of the Kodak Grey Scale in the lower left corner of this image Resolution results There is no difference between the various ISO levels tested in every case the D90 and D300 displayed the same resolution while the D200 displayed somewhat less resolution No surprise the D90 and D300 are both 12 megapixel cameras while the D200 is a 10 megapixel camera There is no visible improvement in the D300 s resolution when increasing the bit depth to 14 bits the other two cameras only capture at 12 bit depth I do not bother to show these results to save space Page 25 of 38 ae a 2 4 2 N S 3 S I zine 7 3 E IM se u 3 Ml es iz Az eer E 4 S l ewe MES T A on D 5 l Sill es SEW m 2 sEm WS sam Wh s n WS D200 ISO 200 D90 ISO 200 D300 ISO 20
58. t range figures taken from The Complete Guide to High Dynamic Range Digital Photography by Ferrell McCollough As McCullough notes the 3F2 0 AE bracket series or 5F1 0 bracket series on cameras like the D200 and D300 which don t allow bracketing in increments greater than 1 0 EV is the workhorse Page 16 of 38 of HDR shooting and can handle most HDR needs either on its own or in two overlapped 2EV compensated series Given the choice 3F2 0 is arguably preferable to 5F1 0 which gives the same dynamic range because the use of fewer frames generally results in less ghosting and greater sharpness in the HDR blend though more frames in smaller exposure increments may result in somewhat less noise in the HDR blend If anything the D90 is arguably a better camera for HDR shooting than either the D200 or the D300 Evidence to support this statement will be presented in the comparison section at the end of this review My advice for multiple exposure HDR photography with the D90 is as follows Set auto exposure bracketing AEB for 3F2 0 at all times Always use AEB for HDR even when the camera is on a tripod to avoid jarring the camera out of alignment when making manual exposure adjustments Shoot using Continuous shooting mode at the High rate Images shot closer together in time are less likely to result in HDR ghosting than are images shot further apart Aperture priority Matrix metering arguably is the best exposure mode for HDR
59. tably to hold the camera on its own or who feels better with a heftier camera On the subject of weight the D90 weighs roughly half as much as the D200 and D300 the D90 is 420 grams without a battery or flash card the D200 is 830 grams without a battery or flash card and the D300 is about the same weight as the D200 During a 3 4 week overseas trip when you re carrying your camera gear over your shoulder or on your back 10 12 hours every day that weight difference can matter especially if you re doing a lot of hiking or back packing Not to mention the weight on your bank balance when you purchase the camera I ve seen some reviews that complain about allegedly flimsy design or operation for the cover to the flash card chamber on the side of the right hand grip but I don t have any problems with that cover Maybe the other reviewers had defective models or hold the camera in their right hand a lot differently from me I do have one caution about the D90 s construction A friend at the photo club has a D90 which he had to replace four times because the accessory terminal on all four cameras broke loose and failed to function If I understand correctly my friend used all four samples in very cold weather to photograph birds with the MC DC2 remote cord attached to that accessory terminal I suspect the problem was partially caused by attaching or detaching the cord in the cold The terminal and the connection for the cord are m
60. te in red which face is being used for focusing so if one wishes to rely on face priority auto focus one arguably is better off doing so in Live View when more than one person is in the scene The manual says that in Live View presumably also in regular shooting with Auto Area though this is not clear the camera can select from up to five faces in the scene If there is more than one face the camera will always focus on the face closest to the camera in Face Priority or probably Auto Area AF When shooting a person in a scene where extraneous persons are in the foreground of the frame one would best rely on AF S and single point focus with a stationary person or AF C AF A dynamic area focus with a mobile person a3 turn the built in AF assist illuminator Off Most of the time the camera s auto focus doesn t need this light The light can be very distracting to other people I don t want that light to be startling people without my knowing beforehand it will happen so I d only use this if I found the camera really needed it a6 I prefer to use the AE L AF L for MB D80 button on the battery grip for Focus Point Selection Page 3 of 38 b2 set Easy exposure compensation On This is a nice feature an easier way to set exposure compensation than the alternative Curiously this feature works in Live View but not in Movie mode b3 I prefer the largest possible Center Weighted area when using that mode so I go with 10 mm b4 Fi
61. the set see above The resulting image may not have the depth and punch that a tone mapped HDR blend would have but it won t having ghosting HDR works very well with black and white photography A black and white transformation of acolour HDR image can reduce the visibility or impact of haloing chromatic aberration and colour noise problems noise in a B amp W transformation will look very much like film grain and may add to rather than detract from the appearance of the image Also the tone reversal problems that excessive tone mapping can create are usually less visible or objectionable in monochrome Some HDR software can produce monochrome images or you can probably get more satisfactory results by processing the colour tone mapped image through the excellent Nik Silver Efex Pro plug in or other sophisticated conversion tools Page 18 of 38 If you don t like the result of your HDR blend of an AEB sequence you can always select one image from the AEB series and try to process it through single exposure HDR see more detailed discussion in the next section This is always best with an NEF image With the NEF file do as much pre processing as possible of the highlights shadows and noise in Adobe CameraRAW or Nikon Capture before exporting the file to TIF for single exposure HDR processing However two Photoshop plug ins I ve tried Nik Dfine 2 and Noise Ninja both do better noise reduction than either Adobe CameraRAW or Nikon Capture
62. tings I normally use for most of my shooting aperture priority matrix metering auto focus auto white balance and auto ISO On both cameras I used my Sigma 30mm f 1 4 lens generally either at f 4 or f 8 Auto ISO was constrained to a maximum of ISO 3200 and a shutter speed limit of 1 40 second the slowest speed at which I can usually get a sharp hand held image with that lens I set Active D Lighting to Auto for the D90 and Normal for the D300 which has no Auto setting on the D90 Auto generally seems to give a Normal result in most situations In camera sharpening and noise reduction were turned off in both cameras and all other settings were standardized between the cameras as much as possible In my tests I was particularly interested in the performance of the metering systems and the auto white balance I shot 15 paired comparisons over a range of subjects and lighting mixed incandescent and window light In 7 comparisons I judged the D90 s white balance colour rendering to be more accurate than that of the D300 In two cases I felt the D300 s metering was slightly more accurate In the remaining 6 cases I thought the two cameras produced identical images In all cases in spite of the difference in the lower number of pixels used in the Matrix meter the D90 produced colour fidelity equal to or better than the D300 in these tests That s convincing enough for me In every pair the photographs were taken within a minute or so of each othe
63. to focus with no serious danger of significant auto focus shift during the exposure set if I use AF S or AF A mode with Custom Menu al set for Single Point and a2 set for Normal central focus zone or AF S mode with al set for 3D tracking Set the ISO for 200 at ISO 100 the D90 loses 2 3 EV in dynamic range not worth the very minimal improvement in noise that lower ISO setting might bring relative to 200 If you are using a Nikon VR or Sigma OS lens turn the image stabilization On if you aren t using a tripod Do not use Auto White Balance use an appropriate fixed temperature white balance setting instead to ensure the white balance doesn t shift between exposures Page 17 of 38 Ideally shoot only NEF RAW files you can do HDR with JPGs but the results won t be as satisfactory In my field tests see below I found that I got the best HDR mergers if I turned Active D Lighting Off Turn High ISO Noise Reduction Off unless you know that all your exposures will be taken at ISO 800 or higher which means that NR will be applied to all the exposures and not just to some of them on the D90 High ISO NR only activates at ISO 800 or higher Noise reduction always reduces image sharpness to some extent and in my opinion a little extra noise in some exposures used in the HDR sequence would be preferable to variations in sharpness across the sequence The HDR blending of multiple exposures always smooths averages out noise relative among t
64. toshop using the Mode control and more sophisticated software controls such as the BW Conversion filters in Nik Color Efex Pro 3 and Silver Efex Pro I have concluded that the monochrome Picture Control isn t as good or as flexible as the Nik filters but the Picture Control options are better than doing a simple greyscale mode conversion in Photoshop and generally better than using the D90 s retouch menu feature In my opinion the best of all worlds for a monochrome shooter would be to use the D90 to shoot NEF RAW files in monochrome picture control previewing in Live View and then to convert the files back to colour in Capture NX2 for editing in Color Efex Pro 3 or for export to Photoshop for editing in Silver Efex Pro Ifa client wants quick monochrome proofs your best bet would be to set Picture Control for monochrome and set the camera for NEF JPG image quality which would give you both the raw and a JPG file automatically stored to the flash card the JPG would be in monochrome but the NEF could be converted to colour later Infrared shooting with the D90 Occasionally I like to take infrared photographs using either a Hoya or Singh Ray infrared filter over the camera lens It is not necessary to modify the camera to do this although without modification the camera will require significant exposure times To date the best camera I ve found for this kind of infrared shooting in terms of relatively short exposure times is the Nikon D
65. ts generally aren t as good as they would be in Photoshop or Nikon Capture NX2 However if you want to provide a somewhat edited JPG of selected NEF files for a client friend or family member quickly without needing access to a computer and without having to do NEF JPG capture for every picture you take this menu might be of some use Monochrome options with filters and toning The Set Picture Control in the Shooting Menu lets you configure the camera to take monochrome photographs In this configuration the camera will give you a live preview in monochrome in Live View If you are capturing in NEF format you can always recover the original colour Nikon Capture NX2 if you are capturing in JPG you lose that option when capturing monochrome The monochrome options are quite sophisticated on the D90 You can simulate the effect of using a yellow orange red or green filter over the lens You can simulate the effect of 8 different types of toning with saturation options within each tone Playback zoom In the RGB histogram playback page you can zoom in on the image and the four histograms red green blue and composite will automatically update to display the histogram only for the pixels in that portion of the image visible in the monitor There are also some enhancements to the display on playback and in the IPTC field capture Among other things the camera records on Shooting Data Page 1 whether you were using the VR vibration reduction
66. ture is also available on the D300 but not on the D200 The D90 has much better options than the D200 for taking scenes in monochrome The D90 s Live View feature also on the D300 but not on the D200 permits previewing the scene in monochrome with options something that is not possible on the D200 The D90 takes movie clips the D200 doesn t nor does the D300 The AF A and 3D Tracking auto focus features on the D90 discussed above are very useful neither is available on the D200 Page 30 of 38 Finally and significantly when one is carrying photo gear for long periods of time the D90 is a signifcantly smaller and lighter camera I conclude my comparison of the D200 and the D90 by presenting an example of very similar photographs taken during the Thirteen Strings dress rehearsal that I photographed Both photos were taken as NEFs and were processed identically in Photoshop CS3 Each image was opened in Adobe CameraRAW in which I adjusted the Recovery and Black sliders to recover clipped highlight and shadow detail as much as possible Both images were then processed for noise reduction using Nik Dfine 2 s automatic setting Both images were straightened and keystone corrected using Andromeda Lensdoc The dynamic range was expanded using the PhotoMatrix Tone Mapping plug in with identical settings in both cases Nik Color Efex Pro 3 was used twice first the White Neutralizer filter was applied to one musician s white shirt to co
67. xposure modes if you turn the dial to your left you would otherwise if you weren t in an automatic exposure mode increase the amount of light reaching the sensor by in S mode decreasing the shutter speed Command dial in A mode increasing the aperture reducing the f number Sub command dial at the front of the camera closest to the lens Aperture in M mode the two dials work the same as they do in S and A mode above The inactive dial in S A or M mode if used with Easy Exposure Compensation menu b2 set to On will increase the exposure compensation Of course in S and A modes these changes don t actually change the amount of light reaching the sensor because as the shutter or aperture changes the other setting adjusts in the other direction to preserve the same exposure Only in M mode and in Easy Exposure Compensation are you actually changing increasing if moving a dial to the left the exposure In P exposure mode turning the Command dial to your left doesn t actually change the exposure but it simultaneously lowers the shutter speed and decreases the aperture uses a higher f number for more depth of field In P mode the shutter adjusts in the same direction as it does in S mode with the Command dial the aperture of necessity to preserve the same total exposure works in the opposite direction Unlike the D200 and D300 on the D90 there is no Auto Reset option in Easy Exposure Compensation which woul

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