Nikon N90 35mm Film Camera

I have more than a passing interest in photography, and have enjoyed taking pictures for several years. Up until this year, I had been using a Canon EOS Elan IIe, and I was for the most part very satisfied with the camera. There were only 2 things I thought it lacked: professional build quality and fast focus speed. Unfortunately, I had the camera stolen from me September of last year, which began the long and arduous process of finding a new camera to continue my photographic pursuits with.

During the process of talking with many photographers and reading several reviews, I came to find out that my photographic needs had progressed beyond consumer-grade cameras. After a 3 month long exhaustive search, I came up with the definitive answer for my needs: a Nikon N90s, a 28-105mm lens with macro capability, a 70-300mm "ED" telephoto lens, the SB-28 flash, and a few accessories. I had come to the conclusion that Nikon lenses have superior optics in the $200-$1000 range, and that in my price range (under $1000 for the camera body), Nikon had the only offering that was truly "professional" grade.

The N90s combines an impressive list of features with excellent performance and intuitive controls to produce what is, in my epinion, far and away the best camera in its price range. From the moment I pulled it out of the box, I was struck by it's sturdiness and build quality. Before I had even read the manual, I had figured out almost all of the controls, and by the time I had shot a few rolls of film, they felt second nature.

One of the things that surprised me right off the bat was how responsive the camera felt. The focusing was fast and precise, the shutter seemed to release instantaneously, and changing the settings was quick and fluent. After having my first 4 rolls of film developed, I became even more impressed with the accuracy of the metering system in the camera. The N90s uses what Nikon terms "3D Matrix Metering", which uses 8 metering zones and distance information from the lens (along with a comparison by the camera's computer to thousands of "reference" photos) to determine exposure. The results were impressive, and situations where other cameras would have produced a photograph that was severely overexposed or underexposed came out as perfect as you could otherwise expect from manual settings.

I have now shot several hundred rolls of film with the camera, and have come to trust the automatic settings in the N90s for most situations. The flash photography (when used in conjunction with the SB-28 flash) has been impressive. The camera uses distance information and a series of undetectable "monitor pre-flashes" to determine the correct flash exposure, and produces excellent results.

The only thing I have found missing from this camera is mirror lock-up (something Nikon claims was unnecessary due to excellent damping), and multiple exposures (which I have no use for, but can be obtained by purchasing an optional data back). I am more impressed with this camera than I could have ever hoped to be, and I am sure it will be my camera of choice for many years to come. It has fueled my passion for photography and inspired several friends and family members to revive their own photography interests.