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This is a camera not everyone likes, and I suppose that's understandable. The 'Fan' UI has only ever been featured on the LCD of *this* camera and never replicated elsewhere. It requires extra button presses to get to where you want to be in it, and it was clearly unpopular as the F75, its successor, ditched the 'Fan' for a more traditional layout LCD.
However, it is still quite capable. Its max shutter speed of 1/4000 (one four-thousandth of a second) is impressive, though understandable as it was the highest end of Nikon's mid-range class of cameras when it was releaed in 1994.
I really like this camera. The Fan UI does take a little getting used to, but people whined a bit too much I think. It's perfectly usable - I just don't think people gave it a fair shot. As for its build, it's very plastic-y, but it feels pretty good in the hand, especially with the ginormous hand grip.
If there was one thing I *had* to be negative about, it's the shutter button. It is very easy to accidentally expose the frame currently in front of the shutter. You have to put almost feather light pressure to tell it to autofocus and not much more to actually take the photo. Once you get used to it, it isn't so bad, but it is still a bit of an issue that I can't not mention.
Overall, this to me is a 9/10 - the shutter button is all that's missing to get that extra point from me. Hell, it's my main 35mm camera because I like it so goddamn much! I switched systems for this thing and honestly it was worth it.
(Written 13/10/2023)
This I got after trading my Pentax K20D in. I chose to go with Nikon again because I already have lenses that fit my F70. It just made sense to consolidate my gear into one system for typical use.
The main issue I immediately had out of the box was, well... the rubber grip. It's unfortunately the quality of rubber that loves to revert back to a liquidy sort of state after a while. As the D90 released in 2008, it's had 15 years or so to start on that process. It's not as bad as it could be - it's only *slightly* sticky, but I can absolutely feel it when I grab the body. I need isopropyl alcohol to give it a clean and currently don't have any, so I'll just have to deal with it.
Autofocus is a *vast* improvement over the K20D. It's very accurate to the point where it focuses on things where I don't actually want it to focus! I'll take this over having just bad in general AF. It was the main reason I did a trade so I'm very happy in this area.
A one-up it has over the K20D is that it can record video! This was a newish feature in 2008, and it can record up to 720p video with mono audio. AF performance seems poor in Live View though so I won't be using it.
It's also lighter than the K20D, at least that's how it feels to me. This may be because it lacks in-body SR / VR (Pentax call it shake reduction, Nikon call it vibration reduction) - this is because Nikon implements VR in-lens instead of in-body. I suppose this means it makes the body lighter and possibly cheaper, but it means lenses get more expensive if you want it. I plan on getting a VR capable lens at some point in the future.
As the D90 was a lot more popular, the MB-D80 vertical battery grip is actually buyable and common, so it'll be something I'll be buying sooner or later so I can shoot vertical photos easier. It's a bit of a pain to do it without one.
The final thing to mention is it's very hard to accidentally take a photo with the D90, unlike the F70. As in, they implemented a proper two stage shutter button that has two very obvious stages to pressing it.
Overall, it's a 10 out of 10 for me. I don't have very high expectations admittedly, so you will probably think differently if you're into photography.
Another unusual choice! This is my only digital SLR, and it's an oddity for sure. I'm no Pentax diehard, but I wanted something a bit different. Its 14.6 megapixel sensor was state of the art for its time in early 2008, and it takes K-AF2 mount lenses.
It's a heavy one, weighing in at 790g with the battery, and I can definitely feel that weight when I pick it up. I suppose the comparison of something's weight to its capabilities actually does hold up here, becuase it can do a lot. Most of which I haven't used yet.
I've never shot in automatic and always used manual (with light meter assist because I'm not a masochist) on this camera - the meter is pretty accurate. However, the autofocus is... well, it's the camera's main problem. It's nowhere near as accurate as Canon's or Nikon's from the time, and honestly it's the main reason I regret this purchase, as Pentax just hadn't gotten that good yet with its autofocus system. It gets close, but it's incorrect more often than Canon's or Nikon's is.
Pushing aside the autofocus pain, I am very satisfied with the quality of the images coming out of this camera. The shake reduction helps a lot.
I'd give it a 6/10. The autofocus is my main pain point, and I may honestly sell this and go for a Nikon D7000 at some point in the future, despite it being more expensive.
Update: Sold on the 12th October 2023 and traded for a Nikon D90.
Closeup of the magical O-Lux switch
IR emitters glowing white to the camera with IR turned on
This is a MiniDV camcorder that I picked up in September 2023 because I really wanted IR night video but didn't want to shell out some £800+ for a new (or used) camcorder that records to SD cards or whatever stupidly expensive format they're pushing for creators this week.
Given my desire for good looking photos, you may be surprised that I bought this thing. It's standard definition, good old 576i PAL video recorded onto the tapes I insert into this camcorder. Well, here's the thing - I actually really like how SD PAL video looks, analogue and digital. Anyway, onto what I think...
It's good. Honestly, it's pretty good for one Panasonic made, as Sony tended to get all the spotlight for their Handycams of varying formats. The DS27's main standout feature - infrared nighttime video (labelled 'O-Lux' on the switch near the lens) works pretty well, but doesn't have that much range due to it being built into the front of the camcorder's body, and also working off a rather small 1800mAh battery with specs from probably the very early 2000s. The lens has a base focal length of 37mm and also sports 15x optical zoom. There's 600x digital zoom but I would not use it, as digital zoom degrades the quality of video far too much for me to ever care about it.
Other highlights include a full size S-Video output, a full size 3.5mm mic jack (doesn't provide power though), and a colour electronic viewfinder. Its build quality isn't much to write home about - feels plastic-y and kinda cheapish but still decent enough.
Rating: 8/10.
