Thoughts on Nikon D90

[joiei]

would this work for you?   http://dealnews.com/Nikon-D5000-12-3-MP-Digital-SLR-Camera-w-18-55-mm-lens-more-for-832-free-shipping/298208.html

[nathanm]

I was thinking of this package:

Nikon D90 with 18-105mm lens
Nikkor 70-300mm lens
SB600 Flash
and extra Li-on battery

all for $2074.50.  It is at Best Buy and is the best price I could find for what I think is going to be my purchase.  Anyone familiar with the 70-300mm lens?

I like the fact that the D90 has the autofocus motor built in so I can use any lens not to mention the VR feature is pretty nice as well in the lenses.

Thanks for all the input guys.  Plan on purchasing in the next 2 weeks.  Does anyone know if Camera Gallery will match prices?

Thanks again everyone.

B&H has the D90/18-105 kit for about $150 less than Best Buy's price, FWIW. Adorama has a refurb D90 body for $725 or so.

[TUalum0982]

Took the plunge and purchased the Nikon D90 Kit with 18-105mm lens.  Also purchased the 70-300mm lens, along with the SB600 flash, two 8GB sandisk extreme III memory cards at best buy (brand new for 40 bucks).  Needless to say I love the camera so far, I have one other question for you camera guys!

I am going to St Maarten for our honeymoon in two weeks, any recommendations on a good wide angle lens? or will either one of these be good enough already?  I am thinking of going to Camera Gallery and talking to them, can anyone recommend a nice Nikon wide angle lens?

Thanks for all the help BTW, it was very useful information!

[patric]

any recommendations on a good wide angle lens? or will either one of these be good enough already?  I am thinking of going to Camera Gallery and talking to them, can anyone recommend a nice Nikon wide angle lens?

You will probably be happy with the 18mm portion of the 18-105mm zoom, as any more will introduce distracting distortions.  Be aware that your maximum aperture decreases as you zoom in (on any setting other than manual) so you may be shooting wide in low light anyway.

Also, watch your ISO sensitivity -- dont set it higher than necessary if you think you might be cropping your images and dont want a lot of "grain" (noise) muddying the shot.  Use your camera as much as possible to shake out any bugs before an important project, and to learn it's capabilities and limitations.

[Cats Cats Cats]

+1 to that.. I took a ton of Seattle at Night recently and it is all grainy .  Day time shots are cake, practice on dark shots.

Note that I used AUTO iso on those shots, so you will have to know how to switch to manual.

[TUalum0982]

You will probably be happy with the 18mm portion of the 18-105mm zoom, as any more will introduce distracting distortions.  Be aware that your maximum aperture decreases as you zoom in (on any setting other than manual) so you may be shooting wide in low light anyway.

Also, watch your ISO sensitivity -- dont set it higher than necessary if you think you might be cropping your images and dont want a lot of "grain" (noise) muddying the shot.  Use your camera as much as possible to shake out any bugs before an important project, and to learn it's capabilities and limitations.

thank you for the advice patric.  I am in the process of reading over the manuals it came with, quite a bit of information.  I am hoping to learn alot of its capabilities before we leave.  I learned alot from Ken at Camera Gallery, he was very helpful.  Once again, thanks patric for the advice, much appreciated!

[nathanm]

+1 to that.. I took a ton of Seattle at Night recently and it is all grainy .  Day time shots are cake, practice on dark shots.

You need either Neat Image or Noise Ninja. They deal with ISO noise very well on my D70s, which is much worse in that department.

TUalum: The 18 is pretty wide. I only find myself wishing for wider every once in a while. I've been looking at the off brand wide angle zooms.

http://www.nikonians.org/nikon/nikkor-12-24mm/super-wide_shootout_4.html

(Nikonians is a great resource, btw)

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tokina/11-16mm.htm

[TUalum0982]

You need either Neat Image or Noise Ninja. They deal with ISO noise very well on my D70s, which is much worse in that department.

TUalum: The 18 is pretty wide. I only find myself wishing for wider every once in a while. I've been looking at the off brand wide angle zooms.

http://www.nikonians.org/nikon/nikkor-12-24mm/super-wide_shootout_4.html

(Nikonians is a great resource, btw)

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tokina/11-16mm.htm

nathanm, I have stumbled across nikonians before, and like you said has a wealth of information, I just despise the fact that it actually costs money.  I wouldn't mind paying 25 or 50 dollars for a lifetime membership, but per year? C'mon.

Also, I have read kenrockwell's website, very useful as well.  I have caught myself reading it numerous times.  Another great source of information is slrphotographyguide.com  I was reading it this morning at work and lost track of time! haha.

Once again, you guys are great. I will try the lens it came with tonight and see what it can do.  I am still taking pics in full auto settings, I am trying to figure out how to adjust apertature, Fstop and iso as well, should be interesting, thanks guys.

[Cats Cats Cats]

nathanm, I have stumbled across nikonians before, and like you said has a wealth of information, I just despise the fact that it actually costs money.  I wouldn't mind paying 25 or 50 dollars for a lifetime membership, but per year? C'mon.

Also, I have read kenrockwell's website, very useful as well.  I have caught myself reading it numerous times.  Another great source of information is slrphotographyguide.com  I was reading it this morning at work and lost track of time! haha.

Once again, you guys are great. I will try the lens it came with tonight and see what it can do.  I am still taking pics in full auto settings, I am trying to figure out how to adjust apertature, Fstop and iso as well, should be interesting, thanks guys.

I am not sure about the current JPG standards but if you save a RAW file and get the right program... The RAW file saves the setup of your camera so you can see what you were shooting.

[nathanm]

nathanm, I have stumbled across nikonians before, and like you said has a wealth of information, I just despise the fact that it actually costs money.  I wouldn't mind paying 25 or 50 dollars for a lifetime membership, but per year? C'mon.

Also, I have read kenrockwell's website, very useful as well.  I have caught myself reading it numerous times.  Another great source of information is slrphotographyguide.com  I was reading it this morning at work and lost track of time! haha.

Once again, you guys are great. I will try the lens it came with tonight and see what it can do.  I am still taking pics in full auto settings, I am trying to figure out how to adjust apertature, Fstop and iso as well, should be interesting, thanks guys.

FWIW, you can get half off Nikonians Gold. (I can send you the code if you're interested)

I'm not sure if the D90 has an ISO button like my D70s, but if it does, just press the button labeled "ISO" and spin the rear command dial to switch ISO. For aperture and f stop, set the camera in manual mode (M), then spin the front and rear dials. You'll notice the change in the viewfinder display which will let you know which one you adjusted (I forget which is which). Be familiar with the light meter, but do be aware of its limitations. Remember that its goal is to expose the scene at an average of 85% gray, so if you're shooting something like snow, you'll want the meter to read overexposed, while if you're shooting something black, say a guy in a tux, you'll want the meter to read a bit underexposed.

It's really quite easy, but it does take some time to get used to. The best way to become familiar with it is just take a bunch of pictures of whatever. It doesn't matter, just fire off a few hundred shots. One of the great things about digital is that it costs the same either way.

That said, since you're going on vacation with it soon, you'll want to become familiar with aperture priority (A) and shutter priority (S) modes. Or at least program auto, which is the same thing as auto, but gives you the option of varying the shutter speed and aperture combination the camera chooses.

Basically, A mode locks the aperture setting to whatever you choose and the camera then picks the shutter speed to get the correct exposure. S is the opposite, you lock in the shutter speed and the camera chooses the right aperture. S mode is great for flowing water, as you can quickly and easily vary the shutter speed to either freeze the droplets in place or get a nice blurry flow. A is good when you want to control the depth of field.

P is nice because it's essentially auto mode but you can scroll through the possible aperture/speed combinations that will reach the right exposure with the rear command dial. In P mode you can also quickly change the exposure compensation with the front command dial without having to press the EV button on the top(?) of the camera.

A final thought. If you're ever in a fast changing situation and get flustered, flip the camera to full auto. It'll probably take a pretty good picture on its own. One of the best shots I got of a friend's wedding reception happened just that way. I was using aperture priority trying to mess with the depth of field, but I wasn't comfortable with the camera yet so I inadvertently changed the exposure compensation value on the meter, leading to a bunch of badly exposed pictures. At the time I realized that they on the way out the door and I had no idea how to fix it quickly, so I switched over to full auto in a moment of clarity and ended up with a nice picture of their departure.

Also, even in JPEG, the camera saves all the relevant information about the photo so you can see what settings you were using when you look at it later. It saves date/time, ISO, shutter speed, f-stop, meter EV, what mode you were in, which lens you were using, the focal length of the lens, the shutter count of the camera, and all sorts of other things.

Oh, and I strongly suggest using Picasa or Lightroom or something to keep your photos organized. They are a life saver. And back up your photos. At least twice. Maybe once on DVD and once on a portable hard drive, in addition to the copy you leave on your computer. :p

[Danny]

I was thinking of this package:

Does anyone know if Camera Gallery will match prices?

all I know, is that they already match the highest price you will find.
BUT....they do know their stuff

[nathanm]

all I know, is that they already match the highest price you will find.
BUT....they do know their stuff

LOL, they were pretty reasonable on the Nikon 50mm f1.8 lens and the color matching filters for the SB-600 and SB-800 I bought from them a couple years back.