Nikon D90 unboxing and hands-on

Here she is -- the world's first DSLR to capture 720p HD movie footage. But let's be honest, the high-def action is just a cherry on top of Nikon's D90 ($1,299 kit; $999 body only), as the expansive Live View LCD, high ISO options and heralded image quality are the real draws. You've already heard what the experts in the field had to say, but if you're just lookin' for some old fashioned gadget glamour shots to get your weekend started right, take all the time you need in the gallery below.

Gallery: Nikon D90 unboxing and hands-on

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[Bendy @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:26PM]

Wait... why would you even want a live-view display on an SLR??

[DBrim @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:43PM]

Because there's some times where it's impossible to look through a viewfinder.

Although since you're Bendy, I suppose that you're more flexible than I am.

[zoopthegame @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:01PM]

"Wait... why would you even want a live-view display on an SLR??"

Well, first of all, Ashton Kutcher backs this camera. He's pro.

[happy_penguin @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:02PM]

I have always wished I had a live view on my D70. Too bad the economy is shit and I'm not getting as much work these days because I want want want this camera.

[CraigJ @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:28PM]

I'm not particular interested in live view myself, but it can be helpful in composition when using auto focus. It's not that useful with manual focus.

[gb @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:31PM]

Very useful getting low angle shots. Especially, say, of something like geese. Geese poop a lot, and all over the place, and i guess if I were a professional photographer I would've just sprawled out on that goose poop. Instead, I used live view. So, in summary- Live view saves you from getting goose poop on yourself.

[Tank @ Oct 4th 2008 9:31PM]

Why would you want live view? For pictures like this:

http://flickr.com/photos/egarc2/2854557389/

[GreekGeek @ Oct 8th 2008 5:06PM]

"the world's first DSLR to capture 720p HD movie footage" LOL it's a gimic either way. Even so on the Nikon poorly executed as most reviews have said the video quality of the 90D is horrific while the 5D Mk II takes very nice 1080P footage (again a gimic but cool still)...

Nikon cameras have more usability features, but Canon focuses their efforts on the sensor. Back in the film days I was strictly a Nikon guy. In the digital realm Canon trumps Nikon. The three most important features of a camera are the lens, the photog, and the film/sensor... You can change 2 of those after the fact (i.e. use a adapters to get your fav lenses on you fav body) but the sensor, your stuck with-it. This is where Canon trumps Nikon big time and most online reviews agree with this point.

One area that I can't understand Canon neglects is on weather sealing in the prosumer models. I only buy prosumer for the "family point and shoot SLR" as they have built in flash, but even so weather sealing is not that big a deal so kudos to Nikon in that area.

Nikon only just started using CMOS to reduce noise in the D300... When it came out I considered jumping ship, but after using a D300 in the field for 6 months I was not as happy with it's higher noise compared to the family's Canon 30D and in camera settings adjusted. I've also used the D3, and again Canon's 1Ds blows it away.

I'll continue to stick with Canon for the time being and use the money I save over the comparable Nikon to upgrade to CS4...

[bob sakamano @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:27PM]

very nice how much

[CraigJ @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:29PM]

That meme died two years ago. Live in the now.

[Jeff @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:29PM]

My D90 got delayed by 3 weeks. I am anticipating it like crazy now. Why must you mock me engadget

[MFong @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:36PM]

No comments yet? I'm surprised. I wish that I bought a DSLR, I have a bridge camera (Olympus SP-570UZ) and I feel like a tool whenever I take pictures.

[sam @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:40PM]

go upload a sample 720p video made from this!

[Kevin Song @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:42PM]

Aww, and I just ordered the 50D too...

[milkit @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:47PM]

a bit late? ive had mine almost a month. bought from bestbuy on the 9th of sept.

[farfisa @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:08PM]

Yeah, they're even showing up in Canada! That makes it officially old.

[joel.zimmer @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:34PM]

Ummm. Seconding the late comment train - I've had this for a month - sample pics are here, I'm going to upload a video as soon as i figure out how to remove audio - fscking iMovie...

[joel.zimmer @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:35PM]

Dammit, sample pics are up here: http://flickr.com/photos/joelzimmer

[mayhem85 @ Oct 3rd 2008 10:57PM]

man i should start taking pics when we get these in at my store... i unboxed this camera almost a month and a half ago...

unboxed the 50d about 2 weeks ago...

im sure if i take pics of the apple computers when i get them in ill be famous on engadget lol...but alas i am lazy... maybe one day ill be genorous and let engadget have the pics up before it goes out of style...

[nmmalone @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:48PM]

NC State! My school mascot made it into one of the photos in the gallery!

[Darren @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:49PM]

Go Pack!

Class of '06 here, enjoy homecoming this weekend!

[Alex C @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:48PM]

i got mine two weeks ago and absolutely love it.

[Jeff @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:55PM]

Just got mine on Wednesday and I love it. It's my first DSLR, so I'm a n00b but I don't have any complaints as of yet. I was thinking about shelling out another 500.00 for the 70-300mm lens. Any suggestions?

[Dave @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:08PM]

I would suggest not getting a crappy lens. Most of the Nikon zoom lenses are slow (meaning they are f/4 or worse) and the glass is low-quality, which will result in desaturated images with distracting bokeh.

I would suggest the following lens to get you going:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/518483-REG/Sigma_582_306_18_50mm_f_2_8_EX_DC.html

Since the D90 is a smaller-than-full-frame camera, it "multiplies" your lens (this is the crop factor) and it will be like owning a 27mm-75mm.

Once you feel comfortable with that range, I would suggest getting yourself a really nice ~35mm prime lens (ie no zoom) which will roughly emulate the feel of a 50mm lens. This article explains it very well: http://www.vothphoto.com/spotlight/articles/forgotten_lens/forgotten-lens.htm

Zeiss makes an incredible 35mm f/1.4 lens. It's $800, but entirely worth it. I have their 85mm f/1.4 manual focus lens, and it blows my mind every time I take a photo. Good luck!

[CraigJ @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:31PM]

The Nikon 12-24 is an awesome piece of glass...

[jollyllama @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:34PM]

I've got to disagree with Dave. He's right that most *cheap* nikon glass is slow, that's true of Canon as well. However, recommending to someone who's looking for a tele to get a 18-50, regardless of DX multiplyer, doesn't make sense. If you're looking for a tele, I'd recommend looking for a used Nikon 80-200 f/2.8. They're big, but if you can stomach that, they're wonderful investments that you'll never grow out of in terms of image quality. All the 70-300's I've used will disappoint you eventually, although I have not used the current VR one. Point is, for $500 you're almost at a used 80-200 (I got mine for $625 about a year ago).

[Jeff @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:45PM]

I am really looking for something with a bit more zoom, for family sporting events (swim meets, soccer games, etc). I guess I'm not too concerned with speed although faster would be nice. The stock lens that came with it seems to be fast enough for what I need. As I said, I'm just starting out and don't really want to spend a fortune just yet, but at the same time I don't want a piece of crap if I could have spent 200.00 more for something decent. I appreciate all of the advice...keep it coming!

[CraigJ @ Oct 3rd 2008 7:02PM]

A friend of mine (a very picky friend) has the 70-300 VR lens and is very happy with it on the D90. The 90 has such a low noise sensor that it's probably more than fast enough if you are shooting outdoors during daylight. You should be able to get motion freezing shutter speed with f5.6 even at ISO 200...

[Dave @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:56PM]

I've had mine for about a week now and it rocks my world. Absolutely fantastic photos come out of it. I've also made some timelapses: http://vimeo.com/user621201/videos

[VAlmendarez @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:28PM]

Nice Vids. In your livingroom time lapse, looks like your friend knows how to roll his own.

[Michael LaFramboise @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:07PM]

Guys, please upload some sample videos; I'm especially curious about night shots, thanks in advance.

[loosely_coupled @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:22PM]

The "HD" video is worthless because of the horrendous CMOS "rolling shutter" effect. I don't understand why this significant drawback isn't pointed out more... Don't get me wrong, this is a great DSLR for its intended purpose as a still camera, and I think adding in this poor quality video gimmick cheapens the whole product.

See the D90 rolling shutter effect here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y484jV_2IfA&fmt=6

[CraigJ @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:38PM]

That effect is not that big of a deal if you don't move the camera so much. It's not a professional video camera, but it's far from worthless.

[arkweld @ Oct 3rd 2008 8:51PM]

If you're buying this for the video you have your priorities wrong.

The video is a neat addition but the lack of autofocus and 5 minute HD recording length are far more limiting than rolling shutter. Since you can't actually move the camera a great deal without manually adjusting focus you shouldn't be moving it that fast anyway. It's at it's best when mounted for static recording.

As for the rest, for the price this is a fantastic camera with plenty of pro-level features, nice build, superb noise control, great LCD screen, fast response, sharp images, live view for flexibility and a decent zoom lens included in the kit

[Briland @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:30PM]

Peace Camera or Southeastern?

[RJ @ Oct 3rd 2008 6:04PM]

Don't know what some of your guys' delays are from but I've had mine since 9/24 from BB. Great image quality and so much fun to use. Upgrading from a canon Xsi and I just love how much more control over the image you have on the camera itself. The xsi is a great camera but the D90 is an excellent camera.

[CraigJ @ Oct 3rd 2008 7:04PM]

I didn't get that there was a delay. My take-away was that one of the Engadget guys finally spent the $1300 + tax to get the thing, and this is the report of that.

[youdiejoe @ Oct 3rd 2008 8:27PM]

For TONS of test footage head over to Vimeo, Here is one of mine:

http://www.vimeo.com/1808895

and you can see many more here:

http://vimeo.com/D90

[Backlin @ Oct 3rd 2008 8:48PM]

That was simply amazing! Really makes me want to get this camera for good landscape and architecture shots and some sweet 720p clips of people doing really stupid stuff.

That was my last assignment in photography class, taking landscape and architecture shots. I just used the camera's movie feature to record three people wiping out on kick-flips.

[farfisa @ Oct 3rd 2008 10:02PM]

I've been following the D90 channel on Vimeo since the first vids started to leak out, but hadn't seen yours yet.
Beautiful, just beautiful! (and the Brian Eno was a perfect choice, even though I watched it first without and was equally entranced)

I love my Pentax DSLR, but seeing things like this makes me want to jump ship!

[Nick @ Oct 4th 2008 12:34AM]

Wow, I really really want this camera. I only have the Sony DSC-H50 high Zoom camera, which is great for me cause of my low budget, but I really want to get this camera. But gotta learn out to walk before you can run!

[joel.zimmer @ Oct 4th 2008 11:39AM]

Sample Video:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joelzimmer/2911625730/

[MK @ Oct 4th 2008 12:34PM]

Just got mine yesterday, and I'm thoroughly impressed. Low light, High ISO test shots were excellent. Movie mode is just the icing on the cake.

[David @ Oct 4th 2008 6:47PM]

Did someone really suggest a sigma lens for the D90? the nikon 70-300 is amazing it might not offer the lower f stops that some look for but with the D90s low light ability the 70-300 is a perfect fit, focus's extremly fast as well it is tack sharp from what I have seen in the shooting ive done with it during the day as well as alot of use at night. The 70-300 is a great lens to get into telephoto work and a great combo with the D90 - the D90 is nothing but fantastic in every frame ive shot with it, I have pushed it to ISO 3200 so far with non existant noise.

[dee yan @ Oct 5th 2008 11:50AM]

$999.9 for DSLR Nikon, it's so expensive, i should find another DSLR which is cheaper and the specs almost same.

[D Money @ Oct 6th 2008 3:46AM]

Milkit - standby to be sorely disappointed. Due to the rolling shutter used by the D90, panning the camera while recording video will result in any vertical component in your image appearing to wobble like jelly (or jell-o if you're American). A major, MAJOR mistake.

I am NOT a Canon fanboy...I shoot Nikon both in press and commercial work but would really point anyone keen to have video on a DSLR toward the frankly excellent 5D Mk 2. It's so good Getty are evaluating it for issue to PJ shooters in the field.

Peace out.

[PatrickS @ Oct 11th 2008 3:51AM]

I like live-view in D90 coz some situation we need to see LCD instead of Viewfinder. About HD movie footage feature, I think it's not much necessary. I have some HD camcorder already and I don't often use it.

http://cheapdslrnow.com/nikon-d90-dx-123mp-digital-slr-camera/

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[Will @ Oct 24th 2008 12:52AM]

nom!