One of the key attraction of this month had to be the Nikon D90, which is also the costliest camera we’ve tested so far. Nikon has brought in the D90 to replace the trusted D80. The D80 was one of the best upper entry level to mid range cameras from Nikon. The D90 then has a lot to prove before it can earn its place.

Going through the D90′s key features, it certainly looks impressive. The D90 utilises a 12.3 Megapixel CMOS sensor going up from the D80′s 10.2 Megapixel CCD sensor. The sensor size remains unchanged. Most entry level cameras are supplied with an 18mm to 55mm lens which can be quite limiting to the kinds of photos you can take. We received the camera with a Nikkor DX 18 to 105mm VR zoom lens. This makes a good all purpose kit for wide angle and telescopic shooting.

Nikon D90 Front View

The shape and size of D90 is somewhat larger then the D60 and also the D80 itself. The body is made with plastic, but feels extremely sturdy and the buttons are great as expected on any Nikon DSLR.

The D90 now comes with a 3 inch screen that is incredibly vibrant and crisp. The other thing that makes the camera interesting inclusion of Live View that allows you to use the LCD screen to focus. This is a feature rarely found on DSLRs.

The D90 is undoubtedly one of the easiest cameras to operate, if you have that a basic knowledge of using a decent point-and-shoot camera. All the functions of the camera such as ISO, White Balance, Exposure Metering and Focusing Modes can be accessed by holding down the respective buttons and rotating the jog dial. Shutter speed and aperture size have dedicated dials.

Its very difficult to criticize the D90 on quality as well. The 12.3 MP CMOS sensor does its job well. Photos turn out crisp across the entire aperture range. The lens isn’t made for marco photography, so, you will have difficulty with up-close shots. Mind you, great close ups can be shot by moving back and zooming into the target. Good depth of field can be achieved easily too. The flash is powerful and good enough for indoor photography every now and then.

Nikon D90 Back View

Nikon D90 Top View

The auto mode works well along with the auto focus feature. Focusing is instantaneous and there is no delay whatsoever. There are a few auto focus hiccups every now and then, but nothing that can’t be fixed using the other auto focusing bracket modes. As expected from any DSLR, the manual mode gives you total control of the camera. You won’t be disappointed with the D90, if you like to select a scenario preset either, a dial for doing that is present.

Another new feature hardly ever seen on DSLRs is video recording, The D90 can capture up to 1280×720 resolution videos at 24 FPS. What makes it even more special is that you can zoom and focus manually while shooting videos. The video quality is great and the frame rate is quite stable but you will need to buy a fast SD/SDHC card for it.

We’d be lying if we said that weren’t impressed with the D90. It’s filled with surprizes. The camera is incredibly simple to use, it has the performance, the features and is undoubtedly miles ahead of the D80 in every aspect. Nikon has yet another winner on its hands and we highly recommend this if you have a serious interest in photography and also the money. The D90 along with its lens is priced at a whopping $1500. The body by itself can be bought for $1200. This makes the D90 almost as costly as the D300. It makes better sense if you spend more and go for the D300 instead.

Nikon’s lens are known to be cheaper than some other brands, so buying just a body then a good lens can also be a good move. If you don’t need the Live View or the video recording or even the small changes Nikon has made, then other older D80 is a better buy, especially with its more wallet friendly price.

The Canon Digital IXUS 80 IS is a camera very similar to the slightly superior IXUS 85 IS. It brings along a decently built design for people on the move. There aren’t too many settings and controls to play around with on this camera. It is made for users who want a camera that’s really compact to carry around – like a mobile phone of short.

One of the first issues is the battery door: as is the case with the IXUS 85 IS, the battery door here too feels weak and flimsy. Most of the interface design as well as the frame design is identical. The big change is in the Megapixel rating – the 80 IS is a 8 MP camera.

Canon Digital IXUS 80 IS

All the other Canon cameras in this price bracket run on AA batteries, but the IXUS 80 IS has a Lithium-ion battery. This, coupled with its compact design makes it a lot lighter than the rest. However, the shrunken size means its no longer chunky enough to hold in your hand as easily as the Powershot Series cameras.

Its overall performance isn’t bad at all. In just plain image and video quality tests, it lags behinds all the canon cameras, but not the others. Macro shots aren’t as easy to take as with the SX100 IS or the A720 IS. In video quality, once again, colors are a little too prominent, but the exposure meter helps changes the intensity of light instantly, and there’s not a lot of lag in lightning correction while moving from bright areas to dimmer ones. Overall, it’s a very good camera if you aren’t particular about pristine quality and manual controls.

The Canon PowerShot A720 IS is an upgrade to the A710 IS, which was a very good point-and-shoot camera-one of the best that we saw during our comparison test lest year. The most prominent change in the A720 IS, is it’s resolution. It is now an 8 Megapixel camera as posed to the 7.1 MP A710. The picture quality has stayed pretty much the some too. The ISO level on this camera goes up to 1600. The A710 IS had a maximum of 800. The amount of grain beyond 800 is pretty bad and should be avoided as fer as possible. The zoom lens is decent and theres no serious degradation of quality at maximum zoom.

The colors- as with all other Canons-are vary neutral and not exaggerated. The images aren’t too high on contrast so there’s a smooth balance between the dark and the bright areas. This makes for some good portrait photography. The flash is pretty powerful too and the slow sync mode works rather well in illuminating the background in shots with the flash on Macro shots are fairly easy to shoot and it’s possible to get extremely close to the object. The A720 IS now has a face detection feature , which works well and tracks people through darker areas as well.
The movie quality is decent and actually usable in low light situations . there are no sudden jumps in exposure while moving from bright areas to dark ones. Image stabilization evens out the bumps and the zoom works well, although a little aggressively, in the movie shooting mode. The A720 IS, is incrementally superior to the A710 IS. The problem with the A720 IS, is not so much to do with the camera itself, but with the other cameras even from canon itself in the same price bracket. The SX100 is more or available for the same price in the market and comes with a 10X optical zoom. If any, the A720 IS’s only advantage is that of being a little more compact then the SX100 IS.

With touchscreen devices getting cheaper and making their way into every possible gadget, cameras aren’t being left out. Now, it’s Kodak’s turn. The EasyShare V1073 is an 11MP camera with a 3x optical zoom. It is thin enough to fit into a shirt pocket easily, but that also make it a little difficult to hold with a single hand. The touchscreen also makes it difficult to use the camera with just one hand. The power and shoot buttons are positioned close to each other. The 3-inch screen doesn’t have great quality-it is pretty difficult to use outdoors even with the brightness turned up high.

The quality of photos isn’t too different from its predecessors. The colours in the photos are pretty natural but the sharpness will likely be a little too much for most people,s liking. There is image stabilization, but images still end up a little blurry in well-lit scenarios. There is vary little control given to the user, so there is not a lot you can experiment with. One of the key features is the HD 720p video recording resolution. A typical 25 second clip is 43 MB in size. The quality of the video clips is pretty impressive. The touch screen makes a few other features easily accessible. For example, you can actually type in a tag for every single photo that you shoot using an on-screen keyboard. The high definition video recording is a feature that will interest many.
The price of $300 is a fairly attractive price for a camera with these unique features.

The Canon PowerShot SX100 IS is the first ultra-zoom camera boasting 10x optical zoom in its compact body. Touted as the perfect camera in the hands of any family member, we found it to be true-the Sx100 IS is simple to use, and delivers superb photographs with minimum tweaking. The SX100 is relatively bulky and can only be carried around in a pouch-too large for any pocket. Similar to other A-series Cameras from Canon, the SX100 has a plastic body, however it is well put together and exudes a built-to-last feel. Instead of a five way rocker, the SX100 IS has a rotating click wheel for browsing the menu-quite intuitive to use.
The SX100 IS an 8 Mega pixel camera with 10x optical zoom, face detection and image stabilization. The camera has other features typical to the A series of cameras-scene modes, manual focus, color swap-ping, panorama mode and so on. The 10x optical zoom combined with an excellent image stabilization works wonders taking distance shots. The flash on this camera is simply superb-in fact, the best flash we have seen on any point-and-shoot camera. The SX100 IS uses AA size batteries-on an alkaline pair, we got around 120 photograph; using Ni-MH, batteries we got 400 shots-terrific. the down-side to the use of AA batteries is the flash recycle time-painfully long, and becomes noticeable when batteries are low. color rendition is accurate and natural. the camera performs admirably even in low ISO settings-we got excellent photographs even at 80 ISO. Higher sensitivity ISO setting such as ISO 800 and 1600 are completely useless-grainy images.
Working with manual focus and macro was fun, and it delivered some really good shots. The best part about SX100 IS is the ease with which any one can take good photographs. Video capture is excellent. A 20 second video requires 30 MB of space. Priced at $300, the camera is a steal for the features and performance it offers. If you have any friends coming from abroad, ask them to get you the camera.

The Samsung NV8 is the younger sibling of the NV10 that we tested in October 2007. This is an 8 MP camera with 3x optical zoom, and looks and feels exactly like the NV10. The interface on the camera is simple to use, and is controlled by the touch sensitive buttons on either side of the screen. They’re easy to use, but take a little getting used to. The camera has a rough matte finish with a 2.5- inch screen.
Image quality is also very similar to the NV10. The clarity and crispness is there, and higher ISO levels give out a little grain in the image. The colours aren’t very vibrant; and have a washed look to them-especially in outdoor lighting. Indoor shooting is a different story altogether, and the NV8 seems to be better indoor then outdoors. You can get macro shots from up 4 cm away with good results. The video quality is good, and the same macro feature works for videos as well. Video resolutions are 640*480 and 320*240, and are saved as AVIs using MPEG4 codecs. The audio birate is 64 kbps, though the quality is nothing special.
Face detection and image stabilization are present as features, but image stabilization only kick in when you turn the mode knob to ASR (Advanced Shake reduction). If you use ASR for videos, a small area of the capture is cropped. This camera is pretty much the the NV10 with a lower MP rating. This average performing camera is priced at $350, and to be frank, there are better cameras available in the same price range.