I am assuming many reading this do not have an investment in SLR lenses from a particular brand and are looking at their first camera in the current DSLR world, or are upgrading their D40/50/60. I was starting from scratch was upgrading to an SLR for the speed, indoor/low light shooting options, and an improved external flash.

I was torn between the Canon XSI, T1i, the Nikon D200 and the D90. I wanted the body to be less than $1000.
The D200 is the grandpa camera to the D90 and passes on many features: the Pentaprism viewfinder, Multi-CAM1000 AF system, wireless flash operation, EN-EL3e battery, basic menu system and awsome Nikon build quality. Most of these features are enhanced for the D90, especially the CMOS censor (instead of CCD), color depth, movie mode, battery life, higher res screen, controls, high ISO performance and censor dust removal (to name a few). I was considering the D200 because of the weather seals, magnesium alloy body and the price on a recent BBY sale, $600 w/free shipping.

Rebel XSI is a great value right now with live view good overall performance. The T1i has a higher res screen, digic 4 processing, movie mode and a few other features. Both have almost all the features that someone entering the DSLR field will be looking for. I would say the smart auto/preset modes really make these cameras easy to take good pictures.

I really wanted 2 things in my new SLR, built in wireless flash commander for creative lighting of portraits with minimal extra equipment (like extra strobes, portable lights, etc), and the overall "feel" of the camera. If you handle the D90 and any Rebel, you will find there is an obvious feel difference. It is mostly weight, but also the feel of the plastic used is very different. Those interested in manual controls will like the D90/40D/50D/D200. There is nothing I can say "bad" about the Rebel series because the lighter weight will mean less fatigue if carrying the camera for an extended period of time. If this is important go to dpreview.com and compare the cameras you are interested in side-by-side and see the weight difference. After carrying the D90 around, I can say it is something you have to want to carry.

Those familiar with these cameras will be quick to point out that the better comparison would be the Canon 40D/50D. However, I found the D90 for $700 body only and hence are unfairly comparing the "entry" level Rebel series to the Nikon D90. Price was important for my decision, so I went with the most camera for the buck, and I found that to be the D90.

Compared to the 40D/50D the superior weather seals on the Canons and megapixel advantage on the 50D make it quite a good deal. If you have the money for the 40D/50D, then there is no blatant reason to get the D90 over the 40/50D besides needing an $200+ accessory for wireless flash, or the purchase of the 580EX flash. If the 40D had this built in, I probably would have that camera.

More of my friends have a Canon than Nikon, so if lens sharing is a factor, then go with what your friends/family have. Also, if on a budget, be sure to save for quality lenses, flashes, and filters. An important point to remember is that your eye for composition will be the #1 instrument at your disposal.

Many of the features showing up on modern DSLR cameras can be performed in photoshop or other software, like distortion correction, active D-lighting, color balancing, and adding a flash after the picture was taken. In camera abilities are simply a choice and for some, a preference. Many of the mentioned cameras offer some all, or even more software features. Buy Nikon D90 Body Only

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I just got this camera last week. It lived up to all of the positive comments that I read in many reviews. HOWEVER, my camera has a defect that I suspect other cameras might also have. When I compose a shot with horizontal or vertical lines, they appear straight in the viewfinder, but in the picture that is taken, they are skewed by about 10-15 degrees. I take a lot of architectural photos, and my lines need to be straight. Otherwise, I would have to spend a lot of time editing in Photoshop. I called Nikon, but the juvenile at the other end of the line said this was the first time he heard of this problem, and offered no help at all. Just thought you guys should be aware. I'll update this if Nikon can solve the problem.

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As everyone who is critical of this camera says, any shots taken at ISO 800 or higher are incredibly noisy. Even worse, the resolution (not size, the screen is bigger than the D40 and D5000, but has the same # of pixels) of the screen is so bad, while reviewing a shot, the screens resolution prevents you from noticing the noise (the screen resolution will pixel-ate images 4x in) until you transfer the images.

The D40 is less noisy but does not come with VR. The D5000 comes with a VR lens in the kit, has a much better sensor, awesome ISO noise performance, and a full print manual. The price difference is less than $200 in either direction (down to the D40 or up to the D5000).Buy Nikon D3000 Best Price

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Lowest Price Nikon D3000 10.2MP Digital SLR Camera With 18-55mm F/3.5-5.6G AF-S DX VR Nikkor Zoom Lens

I bought my D3000 on Friday and took it to the mountains over the weekend. This is my first ever SLR, I upgraded from a simple point and shoot. I could not believe how easy this camera is to use. It took fabulous pictures right out of the box. I do still have alot to learn about all the features and settings, but you don't need to have an knowledge about SLR cameras to take gorgeous photos with this camera!Buy Nikon D3000 Sale Lowest Price, Order Now! [Click Here!]

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Nikon D3000 10.2MP Digital SLR Camera With 18-55mm F/3.5-5.6G AF-S DX VR Nikkor Zoom Lens Get It Now!

This is probably not the right camera for someone who is an uber-photography hobyist. This is the right camera for someone who enjoys photography and wants to step up from a quality point and shoot digital pocket camera.

I wanted an SLR because I wanted to improve the photos I was taking of my 18 month old daughter. My Canon SD750 pocket camera takes great photos, but not the same quality as an SLR would.

The D3000 is great because it has an auto mode that essentially turns it into a point and shoot camera. There is no shutter lag and - with the right memory card - you can hit continuous shoot to take 3 shots per second. (This is ideal for shots of my daughter going down a slide or kicking a ball in the backyard.)

If you end up "getting into" photography and want to futz with the settings, this camera has everything you could need. 11 point multi-focus and fancy light metering will keep anyone busy. That said, you can also just leave it in auto and it will take phenominal photos.

One of the best features is the "?" button. On any screen, you can push the "?" button to get a quick description of what the different setting options will do. For example, when selecting a manual metering mode, it will tell you the difference between multimetering and spotmetering.

The Guide feature is another helpful option that guides you through questions about what you are shooting and adjusts the settings accordingly. To be frank, I find I don't use that very much.

The camera comes with an 18-55 lens which is perfectly adequate for 80% of shooting. I also purchased a 35mm f/1.8 lens so that I could take more shots indoors without flash. I might also consider a 70-300 or 55-200 at some point down the road. For now, I have not had a need to do much telephoto work. I find that I can take the photo with the lens I have and then just zoom and crop on the computer. The image sensor has enough quality that you can really do a significant crop and zoom without a noticable loss in image quality.

Here are some negatives:

1) Shooting above 800 ISO tends to yield grainy photos. I try to keep it at 800 or below. That is another reason I bought the 35mm f/1.8 lens.

2) You need a fast SD card to avoid shooting delays. The camera has an image buffer. I found that using a standard Sandisk 15mb/s card, I was able to shoot (on continuous shooting) about 6 or 8 photos before hitting the buffer. I bought a Sandisk Extreme III 30mb/s card, and I have not been able to hit the buffer. There are also some shooting effects that involve post shot processing, and these can slightly slow down the camera.

3) I sort of wish I could have bought this with only the body and then added the lenses I wanted. The 18-55 is a very good lens, but I probably would have just ended up buying an 18, a 35 and maybe a longer zoom.

Conclusion

This is a great camera. It is a very good value and is the natural step up from a pocket digital. In my opinion, all of the criticisms I have seen online are from people who expect an entry level camera to have all of the bells and whistles found on models 2-10x the price.Buy Purchase Nikon D3000 Lowest Price, Order Now! [Click Here!]

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I love this camera I really do! I got it a week ago and have already taken almost 1000 pictures (but thats no problem with my 4 gb extreme 3 memory card!) What can I say! I love photography!! I had a canon powershot sd750 point and shoot and let me tell you that camera was no wimp. It gave me stunning shots while retaining lightness and compactness. But it was starting to limit me a bit. Like all the action shots I would take would come out blurry and outdoor shots of animals and such were no better. So I read up on a lot of dslr's for a long time and finally decided on this one. The day I got it I shot 200 shots. It was ready to use right out of the box! I had recently purchased a 4gb extreme 3 memory card and that went immeadiately into my camera. I absolutely love this camera. I didn't realize how badly I had been needing a camera like this!! There is a drawback though! I dont know if it is a defect on mine or not but it will only shoot four frames in a burst and then it slows down to one frame per second and at times slower than that. I dont know quite what to do but this is not to much of a drawback! I can get great action shots still with no problem! Anyway I debated a long time whether to get the canon rebel xs or this but this ultimately looked like a better camera. I would highly reccomend it for its ease of use and user friendliness. If your looking for a step up form a point and shoot this is the camera for you! But if you have a d40 or a d60 I would reccomend the d90 as an update for this camera! The d90 is $1100 but is worth every penny! P.S. I will update this review if I find out why it will only shoot four frames in a burst. Edit...
If you have active d lighting on it will slow down how fast your camera processes pictures. If you turn it off you can shoot as many as you want.Buy Nikon D3000 For Sale Lowest Price, Order Now! [Click Here!]

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Cheapest Nikon D90 DX 12.3MP Digital SLR Camera With 18-105mm F/3.5-5.6G ED AF-S VR DX Nikkor Zoom Lens

I did alot of reaserch before i chose this camera. And i am so glad i did. It is everything the articals and amazon told me it would be.
I am a amiture photographer and love shooting outside. I could not have chosen a better camera. I love that with the lens you can be in Auto mode (for regular family photos) and then change to manual (for the great art shots) I am very happy with this camera.
Just remember it is like a set of lego's. you always want more! Another lens or another filter or a different strap. Try and pace yourself and see what other people have before you get sucked into the Photographers black hole of buying equipment.
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This is my first SLR digital, having owned several small Canon's digital camera's. I bought the Nikon because of the interchangability of many of their older lenses and other customers and professionals evaluations.
The menu system and LCD on rear of camera are excellent. I recommend a UV filter for lense protection and electronic remote.Buy Nikon D90 Sale Lowest Price, Order Now! [Click Here!]

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For some time now I have gotten by with a compact camera with a small sensor that would take fine pictures if you had all day to wait for the thing to start up, listen to the motor whine as the lens zooms in and out to frame the shot, and wait for two more intervals for the camera to focus, expose and record the picture before being ready for the next picture. All that is gone. The D90 is fast. It lets you fire the camera up, frame, focus, and shoot as quickly and often times more quickly than the old film-type SLR's. It is so fast to expose I can easily catch things in mid-air which was something I could do only by sheer luck with the smaller camera. If you are a former film-SLR photographer as I am, the fundamentals of exposure for movement and depth of field are easily implemented with intuitive and convenient controls and menus. My other camera is a Canon G3 and I was concerned that I might suffer confusion between the two cameras but the Nikon is quick to learn and I now prefer it. While the D90 with an 18-105mm lens is relatively large and heavy, it fits nicely in the hands and feels like a real instrument. The 18-105 lens hits the sweet spot for focal lengths, going from wide angle to moderate telephoto and while I had thought that I might need to get a 55-200mm lens I'm not sure I will need it unless a very special need for a longer lens comes along. The viewfinder is excellent and I am glad to be back to using one but the high resolution LCD backpanel is a joy to behold and wonderful for reviewing shots and in live mode for videos. I have had the camera for a month and have gone picture-crazy with it including our Christmas vacation. Pictures are uniformly sharp and beautifully exposed with the usual foibles in tricky or low light situations that are difficult for any camera. Performance with the built-in flash and with an external SB-600 is as close to flawless as one could expect and better than any other camera I have used. Finally, the ease of switching over and capturing great video is outstanding. The 30 frames per second capture rate produces smooth, well exposed video. I have seen criticism that the automatic focus does not work in video mode which is true. You focus initially and start the video and the focus stays there but you can use the zoom. I have not found the focus issue to be a big problem because the videos I take do not typically go from distant to close focus but it is an option to use the manual focus ring which does work in video mode. All in all, what can I say? Photography is fun again.

If I had a gripe, it would be that some cameras like the Canon open a new folder in memory for pictures taken on different days and the Nikon does not. This is very handy to organize pictures if the camera is used over a period of days before downloading the shots to a computer. One other niggle is that the camera does not shut down automatically if it is not used for a period of time. Battery life is qood, by the way, but not so good if you forget to turn it off. Otherwise, I love the camera and while it is not cheap, it is actually a good buy for the features. In default mode this camera takes pictures that average 3.1 MB in size so lots of hard disk space and a capable computer are recommended.Buy Discount Nikon D90 Lowest Price, Order Now! [Click Here!]

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I was a long time Nikon D50 user who decided to upgrade to the D90. The first camera body I received had a clear front-focusing problem (everything shot at a distance of more than a few feet was blurry/OOF). I returned that camera body using Amazon's excellent customer service, and received a new camera body within 2 days. The new body did not have the same front focusing issue, but after reading a lot of reviews AFTER purchasing, it seems a lot of D90's came out of the factory improperly calibrated, and even Nikon's customer service was telling people, it's faster to exchange it than send it to use for calibration.

All that said, the working D90 is great. The LCD screen is awesome. The two command dials take some getting used to but are great. I love that there are more option buttons on the camera body so more settings can be changed without going into the menus. Lots of menu options. One option I also learned about after the fact explained the SOOC (straight out of the camera) softness. I was very frustrated after a week or two that I seemingly could no longer take a sharp picture. The D90's default sharpness setting is set low (in custom settings), resulting in an apparent softness SOOC. The setting is designed for working in post-processing the image for sharpness, etc. However if you don't post-process every image, it does leave you with an overall soft feeling of your images. The setting can easily be changed in camera to compensate; when I changed my setting I experienced tremendous improvement in the SOOC sharpness of my images.

I'm still learning the camera, but overall have been very happy with it so far. I love the high ISO capabilities (there's still visible noise at higher ISO's, but it's great to be able to take pictures without a flash in lower light than with the D50) and the mulitiple focus points (there are 11). All in all, a great camera for more than an entry level dSLR.Buy Nikon D90 Body Only Lowest Price, Order Now! [Click Here!]

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