The Nikon Coolpix P90 couples 12.1 effective megapixel image sensor with an extremely powerful Nikkor branded 24x optical zoom offers 35mm equivalent focal length from a very useful 26mm wide angle in a huge telephoto 624mm. Maximum aperture ranges from f/2.8 to f/5.0 across the zoom range. Not only is the Nikon P90 offers true mechanical image stabilization – an absolute must given the power of the zoom – but it also has the ability to automatically vary its sensitivity from a minimum of ISO 64 to a maximum of ISO 6400 equivalent – though it should certainly be able to freeze camera shake and subject movement.
The Nikon P90 is capable of focusing to 1.7 feet (50 centimeters), generally, and as close as 0.4 inches (one centimeter) in macro mode. Coolpix P90 Images can be framed and reviewed on the camera 3.0-inch, 230,000 dot LCD monitor orientable. The LCD can be tilted up 90 degrees to 45 degrees up or down, and comes with an anti-glare coating. As you’d expect from a long-zoom bridge camera, there is no true optical viewfinder, but the Nikon P90 has a fairly high resolution (230,000 points), 0.24-inch electronic viewfinder.
The images are stored on Secure Digital cards, including the latest Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) types, or in a fairly generous 47MB of memory. Power comes courtesy of owner EN-EL5 rechargeable lithium-ion battery is considered good for 200 shots to CIPA testing standards and is included in the product bundle. Other features include fully Coolpix P90 PASM exposure modes, 15 scene modes, a sport in continuous mode can capture up to 45 images 2-megapixel to 15 frames per second, and Nikon Portrait Smart System comprising the device Photo Red-Eye Fix, Face Priority AF, Smile Mode, Blink warning and D-Lighting.
The Nikon Coolpix P90 shipped from March 2009, with prices of $ 400 or less.
Nikon Coolpix P90 User Review
As I observed in previous long-zoom view, this class of camera is a different species, livestock Smarts integrated camera with a small optical brawn are not generally appreciated in a digital SLR. But the species has suffered from shutter lag in auto focus with a long telephoto setting body of irregular shapes that make them difficult to handle, sometimes poor quality of construction and complexity of systems based on menu instead of buttons.
The challenges, however, led to a variety of solutions. The class includes cameras, AA batteries or lithium-ion batteries, and large LCD screens fixed or articulated. By necessity, they all have electronic viewfinders, but they also include full PASM shooting modes.
They are also a bit more sensitive than ultra-compact. The more you know about aperture, shutter speed and ISO sensitivity, the better your results will be. Shooting in Green Auto is not the way to get the best results for this category of camera.
Nikon and Long zoom seems to be a good fit, and my experience with the Nikon Coolpix P90 confirmed this expectation. But I was also in a few surprises.
Nikon Coolpix P90 Look and Feel
. Like other long zooms based on the compact lithium-ion battery for power, the Nikon P90 is lighter than its size suggests. In some cases, it is almost too light, but I thought the Nikon P90 Heft enough to resist the camera when the shutter button is pressed.
Similarly, like other long zooms, the handful of great help to this lot. You can get your fingers comfortably around it and forms the edge of grip also makes a handy carrying handle if you opt for a strap on the included shoulder strap.
The Nikon P90 does not fit into the pocket of your pants or shirt pocket, but there are pockets of the jacket big enough for her. A better bet is a small camera case with shoulder strap or a grant for transport. For actual use you’ll want it dangling from the shoulder or wrist, ready to intervene at any time.
Of all the zooms time I reviewed this year, the Nikon P90 struck me as more attractive. It seems, with nothing cheap about it. The different textures from matte black to black piano all seemed to have a purpose, like the chrome accents on the shutter button and zoom control. The Nikon P90 is a fine camera.
Start has also been relatively rapid. Considering that the lens of the Nikon P90 should Telescope Out, which was impressive. I do not feel as if I had to leave the power to awaken the camera for my next move. It seemed to start as quickly as she wakes up.
The lens is well designed, too. It can be attached to the device and uses two clear buttons on the side to release the barrel. As the camera is not a cheap solution but very well designed.
Nikon Coolpix P90 Controls.
More than most long zoom, the Nikon P90 is based on its well-designed menu system rather than dedicated buttons to configure the camera. There are indeed so few controls on the Nikon P90 that the Quick Start Guide just need a diagram of the back of the camera to show them all.
On the top front of the handle on the shutter button is exactly where you expect to find, surrounded by the zoom control. The zoom ring is a real disappointment on the Nikon P90. There is simply no way to zoom slowly or in small steps. The zoom jumps at the slightest nudge, making it difficult to compose your pictures carefully.
Just behind these two essential controls the power button is chrome with a small green LED in the middle of it. He is back, but we did not have much trouble using it. The LED is a little slow to light when using the Play button on the rear panel to power the Nikon P90 without extending the lens, but it’s our only complaint.
Left on the top panel is the Mode. It extends just over the back edge beveled at hand so you can twist it in another context with just your thumb.
There is a button to pop the flash on the left side of the flash. But there is no control on the front of the Nikon P90. There is an autofocus assist / self-timer indicator between the lens and grip, though. And the microphone is right next to it.
The right side has the AV / USB port behind rubber cover and the left side has the speaker.
The rear panel is dominated by the 3.0-inch, 230K pixel LCD. It is a large LCD screen for every camera is high-resolution digital camera if it is not a digital SLR, but it is also a hinged LCD screen. The articulation allows to swing LCD of the Nikon P90 to 90 degrees and is perpendicular to the camera, you can place the camera on the ground and still see what happens. It also allows you to swing down from 45 degrees to the camera, so you can hold on your head in a crowd.
As HX1 Sony LCD, you can not swing on the side, but a funny thing about it. The cameras have LCD screens that dangle to the side, like the Canon SX1 were so difficult that I finally just shut them in the traditional position on the back. And two very important positions of a hinged LCD screen provide are high and low camera positions. I therefore expressed the LCD more than any other.
The toggle button for EVF / LCD display is to the left of the viewfinder. On the left side of the EVF the Nikon P90 is itself the diopter adjustment control. The electronic viewfinder is hard rubber, not plastic. I would have preferred soft rubber coatings for eyeglasses would not be compromised, but I have not had any problems with the hard rubber. To the right of the EVF is the button to display that scrolls the display options control.
At the right end of the top panel is a knob, one of our favorite checks, borrowed from digital SLRs.
The remaining controls are located to the right of the LCD, the Nikon P90. The multi selector with an OK button in the center is surrounded by three smaller buttons. On the top left is the play button, which also turns the camera on the extension to the aim. Below the multi selector to the left is the Menu button to access the system menu and right click the Delete button.
The four arrow buttons on the dual task multi selector in Record mode. The up cycles arrow in the flash mode (Auto, Auto with red-eye reduction, Off, Fill Flash, Slow Sync and Rear-curtain sync). The right arrow handles EV compensation. The down arrow displays the patterns of development (auto, macro, infinity, manual). And the left arrow cycles through modes Shutter Release (10 – and 2-second self timer, timer Smile, Blink and Proof).
Being able to quickly zoom along to focus at infinity so as not to waste time trying to autofocus on a distant object to lengths long telephoto lens is a big advantage. Some hide long zooms this command key, but the Nikon P90 puts it within reach.
Scale 1:1. Compact, lightweight. Like P90.
And Macro mode focus range indicated by changing the macro icon of flowers in the display changes from white to green. This is useful because, unlike some cameras, the Nikon P90 can shoot macro focal lengths other than the wide angle.
The Smile Timer is an interesting option to consider whenever you might be tempted to use the usual options timer for a group photo. Pressing the shutter button is the shutter delay at least five seconds before the Nikon P90 is seeking a smiling face. If it finds one, it triggers the shutter.
Blink works as evidence of the timer smile, but takes two shots in case someone blinks, then compares the two shots and recorded one without the flash on.
These may seem like small things, but it is encouraging to see some progress in digicam cameras the most serious. Sony opens here with rounds of recognition not only similar but his face Panorama and Sweep modes pocket Twilight. Some companies seem a little reluctant to include items like these, but once you’ve used, you missed.
One thing that we failed on the Nikon P90 is a hot shoe as the Canon SX1 or the Kodak Z980. If you use flash at all, get it off the camera makes a world of difference. A long zoom flash is perhaps less likely to get action. And you can always dial the flash output to fire a slave. So it’s not important, just annoying.
Lens. The 24x zoom on the Nikon P90 is strangely similar to a 24x zoom on the Kodak Z980 and X70 Pentax. And he shares the same characteristics. They start at a range unusually 26mm in 35mm equivalent focal length, which extends up to 624mm. Starting at wide angle does not penalize a lot if you can go to 624mm, especially compared to 20x UltraZoom starting a little less wide and reach a little shorter.
Maximum aperture wide angle and f/2.8 is f/5.0 telephoto. In any focal length, the minimum aperture is f/8.0. There are 14 elements in 11 groups of four aspherical elements.
But unlike Kodak, Pentax, Nikon P90 claims the lens is Nikkor ED glass (ED stands for Extra-low Dispersion, a desirable feature optical glass).
The image stabilization, essential for low light and shooting at telephoto, is ensured by a mechanism for moving the sensor.
There is no son of glass filters on the lens, a missed opportunity. It would be wonderful to screw in a circular polarizing filter on it to draw landscapes.
Our laboratory tests have demonstrated the strong geometric distortion at wide angle, but the option of integrated control can correct this distortion. There was less than one pixel distortion at telephoto, however.
Moderate to moderately high levels of chromatic aberration were observed, more sensitive to telephoto. Digital telephoto amplified some chromatic aberration which is dramatic even in the center. Corners were unclear, both wide angle and telephoto, but does not extend far into the frame.
All this is fairly typical of a compromise is waiting in a long zoom, especially one with this stretch of beach. Nikon’s credit, they responded to certain weaknesses (like distortion) in post-treatment. More to its credit, the Company has made the correction option.
Nikon Coolpix P90 Menu System.
Nikon relies heavily on the system menu to configure the camera. Fortunately, it is a well-organized system that can handle the task.
The arrow keys multi selector to grant access to the settings you’re most likely to change from shot to shot. But if you can not find the setting here, just press the Menu button.
A tabbed interface is displayed vertically. The tab shows up mode shooting, the second tab displays the playback menu and the third shows the setup menu.
Options shooting mode vary depending on the active mode, but its program, for example, offers image quality, image size, image optimize, white balance, ISO sensitivity, measurement, continuous Auto bracketing, AF area mode, autofocus mode, flash exposure compensation, Noise reduction, Distortion control, D-Lighting, Save user settings and user settings Reset.
Under Image Size, for example, you will find a wide range of aspect ratios and more image formats. At 4:3, there are 12-MP, 8-MP, 5-MP, 3 MP, 1-MP, PC and TV (VGA) options. There are also 3:2, 16:9 and 1:1 options to the highest resolution possible.
And ISO is a broad set of options. Manual settings of 60 to 6400 with the automobile. But the Nikon P90 adds high ISO Auto sensitivity and automatic detection fixed (which offers 64-100, 64-200, 64-400 and ranges).
Active D-Lighting is a great advantage, effectively extending the dynamic range of plans for high contrast if the highlights are not blown and shadow detail not abandoned. Curiously, Nikon’s Active D-P90 shots Lighting wash color image with high and normal settings, which we have not seen so dramatically with other Nikon.
Some of these parameters to cancel others. Setting a high ISO, for example, cancel the D-Lighting. And the P90 will not tell you. A careful reading of the manual will highlight these conflicts, but it’s worth taking the habit of checking the important parameters when you change something.
Having just two places to seek an order is a breath of fresh air. Three places seems to be the rule buttons, a menu function and a menu system. And while you can get used to this hierarchy, you do not have to get used to the touch, diet menu system.
Nikon Coolpix P90 Modes
. The Nikon P90 is not proposing an Intelligent Auto mode that identifies which scene mode to fix, but it offers everything else. Intelligent Auto tends to slow the camera down because it takes a few cycles to see what he looks. That brings back memories of shutter lag. Thus, while it is useful for beginners who may be confused about when to set macro and landscape when you can live happily ever after without it.
May beginners feel obliged to use Green Auto mode, which is like holding onto the edge of the pool. Each pool – or camera – has one and you will not drown. But this is not funny either. In the Green Zone, the Nikon P90 on the Menu button lets you just play with the image size and image quality, nothing else.
Try the shallow end with Programmed Auto. This opens many options that you do not use, but can experience. As the ISO, one of three buttons at the exhibition. Or Active D-Lighting, one of the most important things you can turn on the Nikon P90. Programmed Auto and the P90 is actually in your shutter / aperture combination possibilities with convenient jog dial. Some modes allow P a little more menu settings but do not let you touch the shutter opening combination.
There is no poll to support it, but I suspect Aperture priority mode is the setting mode, you will find the most used by more advanced photographers. This is because it radically changes the depth of field from a very shallow opening to a free deep enough to closed ones. The Nikon P90 opens and a fast f/2.8 to f/8.0 closes at wide angle. At telephoto, you start at f/5.0 to f/8.0 and get no more effort than turning the knob. Very well done.
Shutter Priority, famous for freezing or blurring motion, such as waterfalls, works the same way, using the control dial to select the shutter speed you prefer.
And for those times when you want to set both the aperture and shutter speed yourself, the manual is just a click away on the mode dial. To choose between shutter speed and aperture, you press the Nikon P90 EV on the multi selector button and then make your selection with the knob. It’s more complicated on many other cameras, so forgive my enthusiasm.
Nikon provides a wide selection of scene modes for situations that benefit to many small changes to camera settings. As they are handy shortcuts. They include Portrait, Night Portrait, Sports, Landscape, Party, Beach / Snow, Sunset, Dusk / Dawn, Night Landscape, Museum, Fireworks, Close Up, Copy, backlight, panorama assist, and Food.
Panorama Assist lets you set a direction to take in and show some ghosts of the last image on the opposite side of the frame that direction to help align future plans. Press OK to stop shooting. But the Nikon P90 leaves the assembly of images to your computer to do with Panorama Maker software included.
Sports cranks continuous mode up to ISO 640 and beyond while using a small 3-Mp image size buffering up to 10 images when you half press the shutter button and up to 35 images when fully depressed. The capture rate varies depending on the mode you select from continuous L (4 fps), continuous M (6 fps), Continuous H (11 fps), and Continuous H 16:9 (15 fps).
The movie mode is limited to standard definition. That’s 640 x 480 at 30 or 15 frames per second with an option for 320 x 240 at 15 frames per second. You can also catch a movie Time Lapse 640 x 480 and various intervals (30 seconds, 1/5/10/30/60 minutes) for playback at 30 fps. And you can shoot sepia or black and white at 320 x 240 at 15 frames per second.
In movie mode, you can set the target using the optical zoom, but once you start recording, you are limited to a 2x digital zoom (except during the filming of the movie Time Lapse). Digital zoom is not available before the shooting and zooming in, no. While the optical zoom is jerky, the digital zoom is smooth and works well in this capacity.
Click to view animation. AVI Player.
VGA. A 3.6MB file lasting 3 seconds. Only 2x digital zoom is available. (Click to download AVI file).
Nikon Coolpix P90 Raw Mode
. Well, there is no one on the Nikon P90. This may be a blessing in disguise, however. The latest Coolpix, with a Raw mode introduced yet another image format supported.
But if you’re upset about this, I’ll tell you an interesting story that could make you rethink the whole.
Bob Krist, the featured photographer Joe McNally DVD popular tutorial on flash photography for Nikon, recently confessed on his blog, “I shoot JPEG.
Of course, as he quickly added, he always runs great, too. But it turns out that shooting RAW + JPEG Fine, he ends up using the JPEG image “about 80 percent of the time.” And its customers are satisfied with the files.
The trick, he suggests, is sensitive to image adjustments. Using Active D-Lighting to expand the dynamic range adjustment of lens distortion, use the Optimize image to define saturated, neutral or Portrait ( “reading” Velvia, Provia, or Asita ‘for you old “transparency model”, he wrote) if applicable, and allow the device to your RAW processing for you.
Storage & Battery of Nikon Coolpix P90
. There are about 47 MB of internal memory but it is better to consider a tank of gas emergency. JPEG tend to run as large as 5.3 MB on disk, you will not answer a lot of internal memory.
The battery compartment accessible from the bottom of the device includes an SD slot for primary storage. Today, from 2 GB to 4 GB is a good compromise between cost and capacity. And you will appreciate the larger capacity if you shoot movies with the Nikon P90.
The Nikon P90 is powered by a compact EN-EL5 lithium-ion battery rated at 3.7 volts and 1100 mAh. Using the non-taxation of CIPA testing standards, Nikon estimates, a fully charged battery will manage 200 shots, a little below average.
The side of the camera next to the battery compartment has a port to allow a rubber dummy battery cable to the optional EH-62A AC Adapter.
Shooting with Nikon Coolpix P90
. There is no pleasure quite like shooting with a 24x zoom. And when the camera behind it reads like the P90 and the camera as the Nikon P90, there is frustration very little to spoil the party.
Zoom range. 26mm to 624mm to 4x digital zoom.
It does not hurt that it is relatively compact and lightweight, either. Even if it is really too big to fit in a shirt pocket or pants, it adapts to just about anything else. So you can glide along on almost any trip.
Which is exactly what I did.
My first experience was just in the area, capturing every detail of a spider in a geranium to a moderate telephoto focal length, although the background blur. It was a snapshot, captured without any foresight, really. Item (composer) and pull (Presentation). Granted, the highlights are overexposed in this plan, mainly because of the darker background.
Then we jumped on a mountain bike, locked the Nikon P90 to a harness Carrier Cotton (http://www.imaging-resource.com/ACCS/CTN/CTN.HTM) Twin Peaks and ran to take the zoom range try and digital zoom. In the cotton-wool, the camera is not the only route for mountain bikers, but also secure. Both are a wonderful combination.
Even if I did not use the digital zoom to ignore field, I think the goal is to reach as I really did not use it to frame shots from downtown and the Ferry Building. At the equivalent of 624mm, the stroke of the Ferry Building clearly shows the time.
I found some annoyances while shooting with the Nikon P90. A setting often canceled each other and the zoom is difficult to control.
The user settings are important to the Nikon P90, for certain combinations of options that you set with the menu system is not possible. High ISO, as I mentioned, aside Active D-Lighting. So you may want a user setting, which still allows the D-Lighting.
Autumn colors. ISO 64. Note the reflection yellow light to all spaces.
The optical zoom is fast, but almost impossible to control with precision, which is a shame because the speed is not as important as the accuracy with such a long range.
In our laboratory plans, some of my pictures, images and Senior Editor Shawn Barnett, we noticed a tendency for the Nikon P90 to make shots when yellow light is set to Auto White Balance. Skin tones swinging on the yellow in particular when we asked for compensation of positive exposure, and beatings of green leaves have a yellow cast high even without exposure compensation. We scored a little better the transition to Daylight white balance, but often seemed flat color and skin tones had lost part of their life in this setting. Check tab of exposure in extreme conditions: sunny and low light tests.
Conifers. ISO 64.
Inside, the images had a cast with a red tungsten light, daylight while coming in a window shots are very yellow again. Our macro test firing of Bill Dollar is quite yellow, despite our use of 5500K lights, the same lights that we use for all other cameras.
I have the Nikon P90 in the Sierras to capture a little fall color. The EXPEED processor did a good job with color and contrast in the mountains. I also found the different aspect ratios a real blessing. The Boat House had to be 1:1 and Bucks Lake shouted to 16:9. It’s something you can not do with a digital SLR.
Santa. ISO 6400 by a light bulb of 60 watts. Again, the automatic white balance makes his beard a little yellow, but his large prints well enough detail to 4×6 and 5×7 even.
The shots in the gallery of this trip are to EV 0.0, but there was little at twilight, which required a bump in EV. You can also see that Programmed Auto preserved under ISO 200, ISO 64 for preferring the most.
I took some shots ISO low. The keyboard and Santa plans are also two macro shots. The keyboard ISO 464 shows good color and detail if the noise audible. And ISO 6400 shooting of Father Christmas is really one of those things you would not think to take a photo because of darkness. Yet it is there.
I did not miss the sunset mode of pocket a few other recent cameras, but unlike ISO 6400, which will not work for moving subjects.
Thus, while it was fun to take the camera mounted on a walk or a hike or another, the real fun is to watch lasting images I have taken. The LCD really could not show me the details, he had captured or color, however, that my computer screen revealed later.
Lens disperse. Light reaching the target caused the blow to wash a little, so you usually have a lens hood with long zoom cameras such as the Nikon P90.
It is important to note that although I enjoyed with the Nikon Coolpix P90, and was especially pleased with the pictures of my trips, we still have the problem of poor performance in the mode of automatic white balance tends to to daylight regular very light yellow, somewhat randomly, and the overall trend of the images bear a yellow light, strange, especially in the shade. Increase the EV compensation and this effect worsens.
Looking at the histograms of these modes, red seems to saturate in bright tones, while Blue has a strong peak in the shadow, which could create that change yellow. We recommend that for best results with the Nikon P90 changing your white balance as the light changes, especially in daylight or tungsten lighting. Highlights are frequently shattered, and because the Nikon P90 is supplied with a visor, shots done in the sun often have very low contrast with the light flooding the lens.
The last problem with the Nikon Coolpix P90 is its tendency to Mush out detail at all ISO settings, 64 and 100. Other cameras in this category have the same problem, including the Canon SX10 IS, but not to the same degree as that. The performance of the Nikon P90 in our test shots indoors under tungsten lighting showed very limited information through the removal of heavy noise.
Add to our confusion about the yellow cast we found in too many pictures, all our hot flash test were distributed yellow-orange to them. Since flash shots are usually blue, is very strange that they should appear so hot again, the auto white balance is the wrong choice for the type of light it sees, even when c is a camera that is to create it.
Print results. All the above shows in the results displayed as well, but the Nikon P90 is good enough place as it is not a total loss. However, if one considers that it is a 12 megapixel camera, the 13×19 inch prints should be better, but the noise suppression has left a mark on images that were sensitive to this size. But images of 11×14 inches seem very good, even up to ISO 200. ISO 400 shots are to 8.5×11, and ISO 800 and 1600 shots are good at 5×7. Surprisingly, the ISO 3200 shots are actually used to 4×6 if the person fills the frame quite well.
For most people the P90 Nikon will produce results good enough for common print sizes, despite the suppression of noise too aggressive, but the auto white balance is often disappointed, and could use a lens hood. There is no doubt that the Nikon P90 is a pleasure to use, with a zoom lens that covers an amazing range and often produces images that you’ll enjoy, but the auto white balance in particular, it is more difficult to engage long 24x zoom the camera.
In the box
The Nikon Coolpix P90 comes with the following in the box:
* Coolpix P90
* Camera strap AN-CP18
* Lithium-ion battery EN-EL5 with terminal cover
* Battery Charger MH-61 with power cable
* Lens Cap LC-CP19 with cord
* USB Cable UC-E6
* AV Cable EG-CP14
* Software Suite CD installer
