[pingflood]

anyone know if there's an equivalent of the "Green Button" for Nikon or Canon users? I find this extremely helpful in almost all situations.

On Canon side, there really isn't. For my type of shooting it doesn't matter much, but it would certainly be a nice feature to have on the bodies. No clue why Canon (or Nikon) haven't picked up on this, or the TAv mode for that matter.

[jsherman999]

anyone know if there's an equivalent of the "Green Button" for Nikon or Canon users? I find this extremely helpful in almost all situations.

.

No, not on Nikon, and that's one of the things I really appreciate on my K20D.
Also, the focus-confirmation in MF is less accurate than the K20D's, and none of the Nikon MF lenses allow aperture control or recording in-camera - meaning, there are no 'A' equivalents for the D90 (the D200 and above does allow aperture control with the AI Nikon MF lenses.)

These factors make MF on the D90 not very much fun at all, frankly. As a result, I have something like 15 MF lenses for my K20D, and only one for my D90.

The D90 does not have SR in camera, something I noticed with the first couple shots indoors. It also does not have AF-adjust, so if you get a lens that has just a tad FF/BF, you're out of luck.

The 14.6mp Samsung sensor has noticeably more resolution than the 12mp Sony, and I find the K20D more croppable.

What the D90 does have is faster AF, and better high-ISO performance with jpegs - if you're shooting raw, the difference isn't as stark, but the Nikon implementation of NR in camera is a stunning achievement, IMO - detractors say the results look 'plastic', but they're really just repeating what they've heard, I think. I'm here to tell you that the high-iso results are detailed and very nice, even when printed large.

Lenses - Nikon can't compete with the Pentax limiteds, and its $450 85 1.8 isn't in the same class as the Pentax 85's - but the $1400 85 1.4 is. As far as small, inexpensive but good primes go, Nikon really has only one - the brand new 35 1.8G. $199, and exceptional.

Used lenses is a better story for Nikon - I was able to buy a 180 AF ED IF 2.8 and 300 AF ED IF f/4 used for just under $1000 combined - and they are superb.

So it's a mixed bag - you have to decide what features and lenses are important to your shooting. But don't expect that the D90 is going to be an 'upgrade'. It just allows you to do a few different things.

[Samsungian]

D700 allows for aperture metadata capture from 9 Ai & AiS lenses.
I've input my 8mm 2.8, 85mm 1.4, 300mm 2.8 then with 1.4xTC input 420mm f4 and w/ 2xTC 600mm 5.6. I do get auto~aperture "A"setting , thats the f22 setting on older Nikon lenses. Or if I set aperture manually on lens it is reflected in the metadata.

I think Pentax is great platform for Crop format especially due to its shake reduction option. When considering CaNikon options I was more concerned with acquiring full frame over CaNikon's aps-c options. I'd be hardpressed to ever buy an aps-c canon or nikon dslr. D700 is quite nice & 12mp is perfectly fine with me.

The bonus in owning a D700 is Nikon's pro glass from 1977 foward is quite plentiful & far more affordable than Pentax older pro glass equivilents. A Pentax manual focus 300mm 2.8 SMC-A would have cost me an additional $1,400 over what the exceptional 300mm 2.8 AiS ran me. A few strategic AiS lens purchases can essentially make a D700 cost nothing inleiu of buying same exact glass for Pentax. For me I achieved this "Free D700" goal by adding just two Nikon lenses to my kit:

85mm 1.4 and 300mm 2.8.

[joele]

Anybody have opinions on the D90? I still really like this camera for some reason, and it would be nice to own the cutting-edge model again like the K20d instead of buying an outdated 40d.

Hey I am an ex pentax user (here as the k7 is tempting me back) and ex-mod of this forum;-)

Anyway, I had numerous pentax bodies (D, DS, K100d, k10d, K200d) and too many lenses to name.. I went to Olympus with the e3, 12-60 and 50-200 and have Nikon at the moment D90 and a stack of lenses..

The D90 is a nice camera, kind of cheap compared to the K7 in terms of build quality but nice camera none the less..

Now +/- of each brand (that are important to me)

Olympus
+ Fantastic zooms
+ Great build of cameras (well e3 was)
+ Did I say fantastic zooms
+ Fast AF
- High ISO not great
- Complete lack of primes
- no long macro from olympus (100mm vanished)
- No lens roadmap anymore, I think they see their future in micro 4/3

Nikon
- Many of their primes are not that good on digital (there are exceptions of course) and most lenses worth having are very expensive.
- Very expensive bodies for what you get (at least in Australia)
- no inbody IS, I actually found VR worse than inbody IS esp in the cheaper lenses
+ good quality camera bodies
+ good image quality all around
+ great 3rd party support
+ Fast AF

Pentax
+ Commitment to small prime lenses of various price ranges
+ fantastic value camera bodies
+ very good long primes 200 and 300 that aren't oversized or drastically overpriced.
- some lackluster zooms especially wide-normal (sorry that is just my experience, either not great in quality or problematic quality control, luckily I keep coming back to primes anyway)

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Last edited by joele; 10-12-2009 at 02:47 AM.

[VAV]

D700 allows for aperture metadata capture from 9 Ai & AiS lenses.
I've input my 8mm 2.8, 85mm 1.4, 300mm 2.8 then with 1.4xTC input 420mm f4 and w/ 2xTC 600mm 5.6. I do get auto~aperture "A"setting , thats the f22 setting on older Nikon lenses. Or if I set aperture manually on lens it is reflected in the metadata.

I think Pentax is great platform for Crop format especially due to its shake reduction option. When considering CaNikon options I was more concerned with acquiring full frame over CaNikon's aps-c options. I'd be hardpressed to ever buy an aps-c canon or nikon dslr. D700 is quite nice & 12mp is perfectly fine with me.

The bonus in owning a D700 is Nikon's pro glass from 1977 foward is quite plentiful & far more affordable than Pentax older pro glass equivilents. A Pentax manual focus 300mm 2.8 SMC-A would have cost me an additional $1,400 over what the exceptional 300mm 2.8 AiS ran me. A few strategic AiS lens purchases can essentially make a D700 cost nothing inleiu of buying same exact glass for Pentax. For me I achieved this "Free D700" goal by adding just two Nikon lenses to my kit:

85mm 1.4 and 300mm 2.8.

Samsungian - thanks for your insight on the AiS manual focus lenses. I am considering lens for my D700 and that is very useful information. I am just apprehensive that my poor manual focussing skills will negate the other advantages I would get from the D700.