D90 for Sports

[chuck_j]

<p>Right now I have a D70 and I want to upgrade. The AF on the D70 is lacking especially in lowlight football and indoors. Is the D90 considerably better? What are your thoughts on a D90 for sports, especially lowlight? or should I consider finding a used D200? The budget isn't there for a D300. Thanks for your input.</p>

[richard_reeve3]

<p>The D90 will perform way better than the D70 in low light particularly. There is a school of thought that it outperforms the D300 in some respects.<br>

I would not buy a D200 in lieu of a D90.<br>

I think the two areas where you may miss out compared to the D300 are the 11 focus points instead of 51 if you use 3D focussing and the frame rate for multiple exposures.</p>

 

[bsutter]

<p>D90 is pretty good even at ISO 3200. Sure, it's no D3, but my ISO3200 images are very usable. At 1600 it's better than my D40 too. And it has the AutoFP flash sync, which with an SB-600, 800, etc will give you flash sync at high shutter speeds.</p>

<p>AF is pretty responsive, and has a lot of good settings, including the 3d focus tracking that you'd use for sports. Nice my menu button lets you program it to display a quick menu, you can put AF settings and AutoISO in there, so you can force shutter speeds like 1/500 and 1/1000 in A or P modes for sports.</p>

<p>I'd say the D90 is better than the D200, and a generation newer and lighter.</p>

[nathan_meador]

<p>You don't say what lens you are using, is it an f2.8 or faster? That would make a big difference as well, more light = faster focusing.</p>

[chuck_j]

<p>I do have an 80-200 f2.8 and a 50mm f1.8 still lolight I have issues with AF. Thanks.</p>

[bsutter]

<p>Mine focuses pretty quick with 18-200mm VR AF-S, 24mm AF-D, 35mm AF-D and 50mm AF-D. </p>

[elliot1]

<p>As only the center focus point is of the cross type, you will want to use that point when shooting in poor lighting.</p>

[john_decker1]

<p>i have the same stuff you have including the d70 - i got a d90 last december- at most HS football stadiums the lighting is horrible - i shoot at 3200 and at some areas get 1/400 but mostly 1/250... unless you can get a d3 thats as good as it gets for under $1000 for the camera... shoot with a monopod and check out the image engineer for a way to make shots pop with a flash mounted on the monopod<br>

d90, 80-200 2.8, 85 1.8, 50 1.8, 24 2.8, and a tokina 11-16 2.8</p>