Hiya SL... as promised, here's what my thoughts were about the Nikon D90...
After renting the Nikon D90 over the weekend I found many things that really annoyed me and many things I liked. But at the end of the weekend, the annoying issues, to me, were bigger than the positive things.
The biggest problem was with the fact that you MUST use the view finder and not the screen if you intend to shoot quickly at anything... the focus time on screen takes FOREVER and I lost loads of potentially great shots because of that... once I turned off the screen, I then had to shoot blind many times but at least it would fire the shot! I'd rather have a bad shot than NO shot at all, at least then I know I had the chance and didn't miss it!
For me, there are loads of times when using the view finder is just not a possibility, especially when bouncing around in a car trying to get a street shot while driving past at 80+mph! The last thing you want is a camera stuck to your eye or poking out your eye! YIKES!
The view screen doesn't move either and that created many problems when taking the shot to a different level, either over my head or on the ground. Those shots had to virtually be shot blind... nothing could be seen on the screen & the of course the view finder, again was not always a usable option!
I've been told that ALL DSLR's have a shutter snap sound and that NONE of them are programmable to go 'silent!' I can't say if this is true or not, as i have not done the research on this specific feature. However, for me, a silent camera is a very important feature. The Nikon will let you turn off the beeps, but it does nothing to silence the fire, so when you take a photo, everyone within 100 feet know you've fired a shot. There are many, many, many times I take a photo when I don't want the people or animals around me to know I've taken the photo. I could have had some fantastic wildlife photos in Arkansas, but the sound on the shutter sent all the wildlife for miles around running for cover!!!
I found the camera to be a bit on the heavy side... it weighs in at around a pound for just the body alone... so after adding the lens or any other accessories, the arm wears out after a full day of constant usage,,, and it wasn't just the arm, it was the HANDS... I found my hands were cramping by the end of the day from holding the camera in different positions all day long, for four days in a row!
The Macro lens was not as responsive as I had hoped, it had no communication with the camera and it didn't have an IS built in and the only way I could get the camera to respond to the lens was to put it in auto macro mode, which meant I lost a bit of flexibility.
The good thing about all of the 'Auto' features is that YOU can tell the camera what auto settings you want - mixing your manual requirements with the ability to use auto on the fly.
The focal point had a toggle feature that allowed you to select where on the screen or view finder you wanted the camera to focus on... so you could move it around from top left to center or bottom right,,, anywhere you wanted. That was cool.
The other really cool, in fact the coolest feature for me, was that you could select up to three focal points on any plane... so if you were shooting a DOF but wanted three targets in focus, front, middle and back, then you can do it with this camera. That's cool, but its really a pain to set up (maybe because I was not interested in 'learning' the camera, just testing it) so I didn't use it but once. Its a great feature if you have the luxury of time to 'set up' your shot. Most of my images do not afford me the luxury of any time to set up anything, so as cool as it was, it still was not a feature I would use on a regular basis.
The #1 feature of the Nikon D90 for me was the ability to fire FAST (when not viewing the screen). I had a fast card in so it could handle up to 6 to 8 shots at a time before playing catch up. When I put in a standard SD card, it could take 4-6 rapid fire shots before playing catch up. Not bad!
I liked that this camera used SD cards, mostly because I have a stock of over 300gb of SD and don't really want to re-invest into the CF format... but, no doubt I'll have to bite the bullet and do it anyway. Unless I go with the Sony A series, which takes ALL three card formats (very cool, indeed!).
The battery life was decent. I used about one full battery per day, taking between 900 to 1000 shots per day. I think there was one day I used 2 batteries for the whole day, but that was when I was spending extra time and effort on Macro shots as well as a full day of active use around town.
The lens quality is said to be one of the best, but I don't have a good base of comparison for to agree or disagree with that statement. This was the very first Nikon I've ever used,,, I've always had Canon or Minolta which were always great cameras for me, but they were SLR or Digital P&S... both of which are very different animals from the DSLR! The 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF lens was AWESOME ~ I loved every second of using it! The Macro 60 mm - F/2.8, as stated before, was a bit of a trouble maker!
The other nice features are the tried and true ones that everyone is familiar with and are found on most all DSLR cameras of every make and model as well as most higher end P&S,,, so no need to really rattle on about that stuff.
I can't say if the Canon would be any better or worse or the same as this camera was... I think many of the DSLR's are standardized up to a point. The differences come in on some of these notes I made above... the tilt screen, the mobile focus point, the quick focus, rapid fire, weight, etc...
No doubt there are many other things that are important to know about... every person's style and preferences will vary, and therefore so too will the features they find important or not! You might try doing what I've done, rent before you buy! Renting the Nikon D90 was very useful and well worth the money spent. It helped me use the digital features in 'real world' applications which helped me narrow down my 'Must Haves' from the long list of 'I Wants!' It also helped me realize what I can live without, what would be a nice 'perk' and what I absolutely don't want from my next DSLR!
With SO many new camera models coming on the market this summer, I really wanted to know which digital would be right for my life-style and photo-style.... the Full Size DSLR requiring a slow but steady on going investment in lenses & new digital card stock, or a Fully Loaded, Top of the Line, Mid-Size DSLR with a kit of basic starter lenses with no new investment in digital card stock or a High End Compact P&S with no future investment other than frequent replacement. To tell the truth, I'm still undecided.
Good luck in your decision!
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I'm a bit biased though...
