I’ve been a mostly casual photographer for more years than I can count, starting with cheesy little cameras and working my way up through Konica gear to Nikon, the gold standard in the world of professional photographers. Today I take photos, sometimes paid, mostly just for fun, with a Nikon D90 tricked out with a full set of additional Nikon gear, about $2500 worth, plus or minus a few hundred dollars.
The results are quite pleasing and I have photos all over the walls of my home, photos that I took, mostly of my children. When I upgraded from the D80 (which was itself an upgrade from my D100), I had shot about 18,000 pictures on it. The D90 is newer, so I think I’m still below 5,000 shots taken.
When Nikon contacted me to try out one of their Coolpix cameras, the P90, I was quite intrigued. After all, in addition to my big Nikon DSLR setup, my other cameras are a Sony DSC-W90, about the size of a deck of playing cards, and my Apple iPhone. The P90 fits neatly in the middle, less complicated (and expensive) than the D90, and far more capable than the frankly crappy Sony, where 90% of the pics are too grainy to print.
What most attracted me to the P90 was its 24x digital zoom, effectively giving you a staggering focal range of 26-624mm. That’s quite a zoom factor in a small camera that can easily nestle in a backpack or computer bag. But since most every feature of a modern digital camera has been commoditized and then end up identical on every camera in a specific price range, regardless of vendor, the only real question to me was: how do the pictures look?
I tested the Nikon P90 quite extensively. I wasn’t interested in the dry performance specs and didn’t really care much about battery life (though it definitely has less battery life than the heavy Nikon D90, about 250 photos or thereabouts), I was just interested in how the camera performed in real conditions.
As a result, I took hundreds of photographs, from those within my home to around the neighborhood, at parties, in Denver, focused on the urban landscape, and even took it with me on a trip to Chicago to see how it worked on a vacation.
The results? Quite impressive for a $339 self-contained digital camera.
I’ll start by saying that the zoom was fabulous.
Check out these two pictures, taken from exactly the same spot in the middle of the crosswalk:
and, when I zoomed in all the way and stood as steady as possible:
Now, check out this interesting sequence of three photos. Believe it or not, I stood in exactly the same spot for all three and zoomed in tighter and tighter on the fireplace and, ultimately, the fountain behind it:
On that first picture, the P90 didn’t do very well, but I zoomed in to just the fireplace and the CCD was able to do a considerably better job:
But where it really amazed me was when I zoomed all the way in, so I could see the fountain behind the glass, through the fireplace:
Nice! What’s also cool is that the Coolpix P90 has a bright 3-inch LCD screen on the back of the camera that’s hinged, so you can tilt it up to 90-degrees and take pictures from above a crowd, holding the camera above your head and still seeing the view screen:
Or you can lay the camera on the ground and take pictures from that vantage point too:
As you’re viewing these pictures, look at the crisp colors and lack of grain. They would print up quite well at 11×16 and possibly even larger. I dropped in a 4GB SD Card and had plenty of space for 700+ photographs, even when set to image quality FINE and image size 4000×3000 (tip: always use the biggest image size you can. Lots more data = better picture resolution).
The camera couldn’t always figure out what to do, even with all its smarts. The photo below was admitedly a tough one: pasta under an infrared heat lamp, but I was still surprised to see that it couldn’t get any color spectrum at all out of the subject matter:
In particular, the broccoli was bright green, the pasta was a very pale yellow, and the sauce was red. The camera couldn’t capture any of that.
Then again, yellow daisies against fallen leaves? A great color palette results:
There were some other shortcomings with the camera too. The biggest? It’s too darn complex. It can take videos, it has special modes for food photography, a smart sensor to retake portraits where the subject is blinking, on-camera red eye reduction editing, a multi-picture stitching capability for panoramic shots, and much more. Cool stuff, but, really, my focus is on the subject, not the gear, so even with my Nikon D90, I adjust it to the settings I like and never, ever touch or tweak it in the field.
Dying for specs? Here are a bunch from Nikon.
The final question, then, is would I recommend it? I think I would, particularly if you’re a “zoom junkie” and like to really get up close and personal with your photographs. The self-contained zoom on this camera is nothing short of amazing, and it’s light and solidly built, giving it a nice feel and great usability.
Super-zoom bridge cameras have been getting a lot bigger recently. Nice write up. I got all the info that I needed.
Dave:
I have a Nikon D90 camera for about 2 years now. When I download my pictures before it always showed IMG. Now I am trying to load new pictures and it is showing DSC and it shows red three quarter boxes on the pictures itself (only on the computer) On the camera the pictures look fine. What did I do?? Help
I just heard Nikon will put out the same one but better technology.. i can’t wait for it 🙂
Hi Dave
A very thorough review.
As a zoom in junkie I this is one feature of the camera I find most addictive, I especially like the close up feature of the camera.
The one thing I haven’t mastered is night time pictures I end up deleting 10 for every one I keep.
Regards
Sean
Hey Dave!
Carrie and I love our little Nikon Coolpix P2 – bought 3 years ago.
It has been everywhere with us – to the top of Kilimanjaro, to Stonehenge, and now in Boquete, Panama (which is beautiful by the way, and much cooler in temp. than the rest of Panama we’ve seen so far).
Thanks for the review of the P90. We’re actually in the market for a new camera and this could be a good one.
As much as we love the Coolpix P2 (bought for $150 in 2006), we have used and abused it and the lens (covering part) is starting to stick every time we turn it on… with as much travel as we’re doing, we’re thinking it’s time to spend a little more money on a bit nicer Camera.
With a zoom like that, I’m thinking the Coolpix P90 stands a good chance of being our next camera.
Hope all is well with you Dave! Thanks again for the review.
Warmest,
Jonathan
http://www.carrieandjonathan.com/from-david-panama-to-boquete-panama-by-bus.html
i gat the same one…. & i love it ! thanks for this post which is a good explaination for people who’s looking for a camera
Hi Dave,
Thanks for taking the time to reply to my questions.
I’m no camera engineer…just a photographer, so anything I say is subject to correction:
Basically, the definition of an SLR is that there is only one lens (rather than a separate viewfinder) so you’re seeing the image exactly as it will be recorded. Without the other defining characteristic of an SLR (the movable mirror with a pentaprism that directs the light coming in through the lens to the viewfinder), the P90 cannot in any way be considered an SLR…and Nikon does not refer to the camera as an SLR.
I don’t have the specs for the P90, but I’ll also guess that its optical sensor is nowhere near as large as the sensor typically found on a digital SLR, which means less ability to shoot in low light and more digital noise in the photos.
And then, of course, there’s the issue of interchangeable lenses that is typically another hallmark of the SLR.
Either way though, I think the photos you showed in your review were impressive…showing the capabilities of that great 24x optical zoom…really not bad stuff…and I trust your opinion that the P90 is a very nice camera.
You’re absolutely right, I am using those terms sloppily. The P90 has a dual mode zoom as far as I can tell: the lens extends to zoom, but I believe that there’s some digital enhancement going on too (I had to send the camera back already, so can’t check the manual).
In terms of whether it’s a DSLR, whether you’re using the viewfinder or the LCD display, I’m pretty darn sure you’re seeing the image through the lens itself (otherwise you wouldn’t see the zoom effect). Isn’t that the definition of a single-lens reflex style camera, through-the-lens viewing?
Dave,
I really like your web site…the answers you supply are always very helpful. But I’m confused by your posting about the Nkon P90.
You refer to it as an SLR…but I don’t think that’s correct. Everything I see elsewhere shows this is a point-and-shoot.
Big difference.
You also refer to the zoom as a “digital” zoom…but what I’ve seen elsewhere says it’s an optical zoom.
Also a big difference.
Would you mind clarifying all this for me, please?