A sure sign that we live in remarkable times: I bought this Nikon N90s body, which retailed new for anywhere between $700 and $1000, for just $27.
Twenty-seven bucks for this professional-caliber 35mm SLR with more features than I will ever be able to use. And I tried. I shot three rolls of film before writing this review, but barely scratched the surface of what this camera can do.
Nikon made the N90s (F90X outside of North America) from 1994 to 2001. It superseded the earlier, very similar N90/F90, which was made from 1992 to 1994. Nikon aimed these cameras at advanced amateurs and as alternate bodies for pro photographers who otherwise shot the F4.
Don’t let the plastic body fool you: this metal-framed camera is built for rugged use. It doesn’t take much Internet searching to find stories of N90s’s that kept shooting after harrowing treatment.
The Nikon N90s has so much going on it would take me five paragraphs to describe it all. But a few key facts: its shutter operates from 30 seconds to a super-fast 1/8000 sec., and it takes film from ISO 6 to 6,400. It offers four exposure modes (program, shutter-priority, aperture-priority, and manual) and three metering modes (spot, center-weighted, and 3D matrix). You get all of those exposure and metering modes when you use AF-D Nikkor lenses; you lose some of those modes with AF-G and plain AF Nikkor lenses and more of them with AI Nikkor lenses. If you’d like to know more, check out the details at camera-wiki.org.
The N90s was designed before the now-ubiquitous mode dial was invented. To select modes and settings, you have to press various buttons and spin the dial that’s to the right of the LCD panel. It works well enough, but it’s tricky to learn.
It’s not at all obvious how to rewind the film: simultaneously press both buttons that have a film canister on them. Also, you can reset the camera to its defaults by pressing both green-dot buttons simultaneously. Some users recommend doing this with each fresh roll of film, so you don’t end up with some wacky setting from the last roll messing up your shots.
By the way, if you like auto-everything Nikon SLRs you might enjoy my reviews of the N60 (here) and N65 (here). I have also reviewed classic Nikon iron including the F2AS (here) and F3 (here), as well as two Nikkormats, the FTn (here) and the EL (here). Or check out all the cameras I’ve ever reviewed here.
The camera came with a couple rolls of expired color film. I was so eager to shoot this camera that I loaded a roll, Fujifilm Superia X-tra 400, right away. Loading is simple: drop in the cartridge, draw the film leader to the red line, close the back. I also dropped in the four AA batteries the camera needs to do anything and mounted a 28-80 mm f/3.3-5.6G AF Nikkor lens that I already owned. It was after dark, so I just shot things around the house on my tripod. That lens lacks an aperture ring, so I could shoot only in Program mode. Here’s my kitchen and dining room.
And here’s a glass of the rye whiskey I was sipping that night, along with some miscellaneous desk clutter. The camera handled flawlessly.
This is what I was sipping: High West Double Rye. All of these shots had a lot of noise and grain, which I blame on the expired film. I boosted levels in Photoshop but then used this new-to-me software called LUCiD that offers a bunch of quick fixes to challenged images. It smoothed out that noise pretty well.
Oh my gosh, was that fun. I wanted to go deeper. So I bought a 50mm f/1.8 AF Nikkor lens off eBay and ran a roll of fresh Eastman Double-X 5222 through the N90s. Meet my lawn tractor’s port flank. The tractor is dark green in real life, but that Double-X deepens dark colors. I think my tractor would look awesome in all black.
I learned too late that if I had bought the “D” version of this lens, I could have taken advantage of the N90s’s 3D matrix metering. But even without it, this camera delivered flawless exposures. And that wonderful Double-X film delivered its signature contrast. This is a detail of the lamp on the desk where I write this blog.
This is my next-door neighbor’s new dog. Good grief, does he bark. And bark and bark and bark.
Margaret and I traveled to Woodstock, Illinois, in a blinding snowstorm to see her older sister get married. I brought the N90s, that 50mm lens, and some Arista Premium 400 to document the day as best I could. This is the interior of the First United Methodist Church.
Some people find the N90s’s autofocus system to be slow. My demands of autofocus are usually light; the N90s focused fast enough for me. And it absolutely nailed exposure every time.
I finished the roll Downtown. We had an unusually warm December, just right for a late-year photo walk. Here’s a trashy alleyway.
This is the Anthem Insurance building on Monument Circle. Long before I moved to Indianapolis, this building was a windowless JCPenney store.
Finally, here’s a scene from the Indiana War Memorial that shows off that 50mm f/1.8 lens’s sharpness.
To see more photos, check out my Nikon N90s gallery.
Even though I’m much more a manual-focus kind of guy, there are times when autofocus shooting is the way to go. I’ve tried before with Nikon’s N60 and the N65, but found these consumer cameras’ limitations to be frustrating. In contrast, the N90s handled absolutely everything I threw at it and returned flawless exposures every time.
The Nikon N90s is a keeper.
If you like old film cameras, check out all of my reviews here!
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