The Bad: Our D90 broke down.
The Good: It happened before our trip so we can do something about it!
Over the weekend, I was doing my monthly routine of downloading the pictures from my D90 to the computer for post processing. The import from ViewNX seemed ok but that tool doesn't show the whole picture. Imported to Lightroom - again seemed ok at first. But when I started to attempt to edit the photos, I received End Of File (EOF) errors. To confirm my worse suspicions, I do a synch with Picassa and I get nothing but garbage images from both the RAWs and JPEGs. The errors are more noticeable with Picassa since the rendering and error correction is not nearly as good as Lightroom where it can compensate.
After some quick tests it see if it was the memory card, it did turn out to be the camera. :(
This is the exact same problem that we had with our D70 with one notable difference. The D70 lasted 55k shots and 3.5 years. The D90 lasted only 12k and 22 months. The D70 sensor was rated for 50k so it was expected. The D90 sensor is rated for 100k.
What lucky timing in that the D90 is still under warranty (with 2 months to spare!). Extremely impressed with the customer service at London Drugs, where we purchased the camera. All we did was drop off the body and they will take care of the rest. The bad part is that it will take 4-6 weeks to fix, which is about the time we will be at the Louvre. Solution? Buy a new camera!
Of course this will lead us to have 2 DSLRs when we come back - something that we'll deal with later. Hmm - what to get? D700? D3s? or better still D3x? If we weren't going on such a significant trip I'm pretty sure that I'd make the jump to the FX format (i.e. full frame). Doing this though would require me to get FX glass. Depending on the body I get, this is at least a $4500 investment.
The camera we ended up purchasing was the D5100 that just came out 2 weeks ago. It has the same sensor as the D7000 [which is the top DX format Nikon] and comes in a much more compact form factor with a ton more features than the D90. It is super light for a DSLR and seems to fit the bill for what we need for our trip. At <$750, it is a great deal for what you get. Stay tuned for posted pics! T-minus 11 days.
