We have all heard of the image processor name like Canon's DIGIC IV, Pentax's PRIME and the Nikon's EXPEED, but what they actually do is not exactly spelled out in a paragraph in any user manual.
Talking to Nikon directly has helped a bit and here's what I found to be the capability of Nikon's Expeed image processor. To what I often hear from friends and folks around me, I am constantly accused that my camera - Nikon D90, does more than taking the pictures! And in several occasions, the output of my shots surpasses that of the original!
To begin with, the Nikon Expeed image processor manages features such as real time chromatic aberration correction and Active D-Lighting. For those of you who are not familiar with the D-Lighting technology, D-lighting can “light” the dark parts of the image by using a filter. This way the system will lighten pixels in depends to where the pixel is in the image. Also interesting to note is the new “Picture Control”, a unified color system for all Nikon Cameras. There are Standard, Neutral, Vivid and Monochrome Picture Control settings. Each can be tuned by the user and could be transferred to other cameras. Nikon claims EXPEED is capable to produce the same image quality as Nikon Capture NX, which normally does produce excellent image quality. To top it all up, the retouch menu on our Nikon D90 has capabilities that can actually be found on the actual Capture NX program! This means the Capture NX processing power and Noise Reduction algorithms are now packed into a chip for each of our shot.
Now, this is indeed an unfair advantage!