The super-zoom compact camera segment has a new champion; packing glass capable of x83 optical zoom, the new Coolpix P900 from Nikon is a hands down winner.
Being a super zoom camera means that it can’t be as small as many would like, but Nikon’s designers made it look like a DSLR, which helps it score some decent appearance points instead. In order to keep pricing reasonable, there is no weather resistant magnesium or aluminum body. The high quality plastic used, feels nice in your hands and at least makes the camera look like something definitely not cheap. Design-wise, there are a few clever things going on, like the left and right hand zoom controls that let you choose the hand more convenient at the moment life happens. Especially when shooting video, the control mounted on the side of the lens makes it easy to avoid shaking the camera while zooming in or out. Another clever feature comes in the form of the quick zoom out button, located right next to the zoom control. What it does is, at x83 zoom, it is easy to loose track of your subject, so the quick zoom-out button helps you quickly zoom out, find your subject again and zoom right back at it, a system that works quite effectively.
The LCD screen is clear and bright enough to remain visible even under direct sunlight, and with the 921k pixels, it is crisp enough to evaluate the focus before your shot. It flips out and articulates to make live viewing easier. A great feature is the electronic colour viewfinder that will be your best friend when accurate framing is important. It is clear and provides an almost full viewing angle, so getting your picture – like a pro – has never been easier.
The main menu is controlled via a rotating ring and a four-point cross type push button navigation system with a centre selection. In action it is easy to use, with clean accurate steps and no mushy vague feeling. There is a dedicated button for recording video that can be triggered from any mode selected. The dial on top is a DSLR type dial and the modes available are Auto, P, S, A, M, Scene, User, Cross Process, Landscape, Night Landscape and Night Portrait. The Cross Process mode allows for real time colour grading, a very welcome feature for those not into post-production.
There is a quick access Fn button for selecting your shooting modes and a display button to toggle between views on the live view screen. The flash needs to be popped-up manually via a button on the side, and the available ports on the camera are a micro USB port and a mini-HDMI out. The battery and SD card are fed from the bottom and charging happens by default “In-Camera”, through the USB port. Charging time is a couple of hours and should be good for approximately 360 shots.
On the top, the pop-up flash goes quite high, something that helps avoiding shadows projected by its own body. The light reaches far enough, illuminating details very well. Also, a stereo microphone shares the flash’s housing and offers decent audio quality in your movies.
The lens is capable of x83 optical zoom and that is a pretty big thing; market leading to be precise. With an equivalent focal length of 24mm-2000mm, this camera will become the new paparazzi favourite, simply because it can get incredibly close. And it comes with a stabilizer fully able to capture the shot at full zoom, handheld or not. Forget about breathing techniques and special grip and posture, they are not needed. The lens is a bit noisy when zooming, but the auto focus is accurate most of the time and very quick to lock on to your target. At full zoom, the corners are very slightly softer than the centre of the image and lens distortion is not very noticeable. At the widest 24mm position, geometry is good and the image quality is overall impressive for such a flexible lens. Colour aberration is minimal and way better than the category average.
The menus are typical Nikon, with the categories composing a column to the left and grouping the elements of each category in a list to the right. Setting values is as easy as selecting your options with the centre ‘OK/Select’ button and the settings available are not too advanced or confusing, even for a beginner. Referring to the user manual is something very rarely needed, but need it be it, the user guide is exceptionally written and well organized, covering every single topic.
The camera is very easy and accurate to use in Auto mode. Focus tracking is quick and most of the time correct, dealing with a few problems only when at the full x83 zoom. Holding the camera feels nice, the quite large size also means that there is plenty of real estate to grab on to. It packs good enough weight to help with stability but it is not too heavy to cause quick fatigue.
At ISO 100-400, colours are accurate and the 16MP censor delivers images that are well worth keeping as family memories. In good lighting conditions or when using the flash in near proximity to your subjects, images are sharp with a hint of softness, mainly at the corners. Low noise levels make for impressive shots and JPEG artifacts are not very noticeable. In low lighting conditions or at full zoom, the widest aperture of f/6.5 will make you bump up the ISO to get that clear fast shutter shot. Having a small censor, noise can become an issue when ISO goes above 1600, so shooting a still subject with a tripod makes things much better.
The video (movie) shooting experience is generally good. The image quality is impressive and there is very little rolling shutter effect when panning fast, even in full zoom. The stabilizer works well, unlike the auto focus that likes focusing on the subject before getting closer. Some compression noise was noticed on fast panning shots, but nothing off-putting. It records in MOV format and the audio quality is good, unless it is very windy.
There is a mobile app available for your smartphones or tablets and it works quite well. It covers all the basic operations, like remote shutter release, preview and sharing. It allows for basic editing and has some interesting filters you could apply before saving or sharing.
At this price point (MSRP CAD $669.95) there is nothing else able to get you this deep into the action. It also feels like a gateway to the DSLR world but with an incredible kit lens. With all the features it offers, this super-zoom package is unbeatable for the time being. If you need something that can get closer than close and just get the job done, look no further.
Image Samples (resized to 1920×1280). Click HERE for the FULL SIZE images (.zip file 116MB)
SPECS
Image Sensor
Effective Pixels 16.0 million
Image Sensor CMOS
Sensor Size 1/2.3 in.
Total Pixels 16.76 million (approx.)
Image Size (pixels) 4608 x 3456 (16M)
Lens
Lens 83x optical Zoom-NIKKOR ED glass lens
Lens Focal Length 4.3-357mm (angle of view equivalent to that of 24-2000mm lens in 35mm [135] format)
Lens f/-number f/2.8-6.5
Lens Construction 16 elements in 12 groups
Lens Zoom 83x
Digital Zoom Up to 4x (angle of view equivalent to that of approx. 8,000mm lens in 35mm [135] format)
Vibration Reduction Lens shift VR (still pictures)
Lens-shift and Electronic VR (movies)
Aperture Electronically-controlled 6-blade iris diaphragm
Autofocus
Autofocus (AF) Contrast-detect AF
Autofocus (AF) Focus-area selection Face priority
Manual (spot)
Manual (normal)
Manual (wide)
Subject tracking
Target Finding AF
Focus Range [W]: Approx. 50cm to infinity
[T]: Approx. 5.0m to infinity
Macro mode: Approx. 1cm (wide-angle position) (All distances measured from centre of front surface of lens)
Focus Lock Yes
Viewfinder
Viewfinder Electronic viewfinder, 0.5 cm approx. 921k-dot equivalent LCD with the diopter adjustment function (-3 to +1 m-1)
Viewfinder Frame Coverage Approx. 100%
Monitor
Monitor Size 3.0 in. diagonal
Monitor Type Vari-Angle TFT-LCD with Anti-reflection coating
6-level brightness adjustment
Monitor Resolution 921,000-dots
Monitor Frame coverage (shooting mode) 100% horizontal (Approx.)
100% vertical (Approx.)
(compared to actual picture)
Monitor Frame coverage (playback mode) 100% horizontal (Approx.)
100% vertical (Approx.)
(compared to actual picture)
File System
Storage Media SD memory card
SDHC memory card
SDXC memory card
Storage File System DCF
EXIF 2.3 compliant
Storage File formats Still pictures: JPEG
Movies: MOV (Video: MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, Audio: LPCM stereo)
Movie
Movie Full HD: 1920×1080/ 60p
Full HD: 1920×1080/ 50p
Full HD: 1920×1080/ 30p
Full HD: 1920×1080/ 25p
HD: 1280×720/ 60p
HD: 1280×720/ 50p
HD: 1280×720/ 30p
HD: 1280×720/ 25p
HS 1920×1080/ 15p
HS 1280×720/ 50p
HS 1280×720/ 60p
HS 1920×1080/ 12.5p
HS 640×480/ 100p
HS 640×480/ 120p
VGA 640×480/ 30p
VGA 640×480/ 25p
Sensitivity
ISO Sensitivity ISO 100-1600
ISO 3200, 6400 (available when using P, S, A or M mode)
ISO Hi 1 (equivalent to ISO 12,800) (available when using High ISO monochrome in special effects mode)
Lowest ISO Sensitivity 100
Highest ISO Sensitivity 6400
Exposure
Exposure Metering Matrix
Centre-weighted
Spot
Exposure Control Programmed auto exposure with flexible program
Aperture-priority auto
Exposure bracketing
Manual
Shutter priority auto
Exposure compensation (-2.0 to +2.0 EV in steps of 1/3 EV)
Exposure Modes Auto
Scene
Scene Auto Selector
Smart Portrait
Special Effects
Scene Modes Backlighting
Beach
Black and White Copy
Close Up
Dusk/Dawn
Easy Panorama
Fireworks Show
Food
Landscape
Museum
Night Landscape
Night Portrait
Party/Indoor
Pet Portrait
Portrait
Scene Auto Selector
Snow
Sports
Sunset
In-Camera Image Editing Crop
D-Lighting
Filter Effects
Quick Retouch
Skin Softening
Small Picture
Exposure Compensation ± 2 EV in steps of 1/3
White Balance
White Balance Auto
Cloudy
Daylight
Flash
Fluorescent
Incandescent
White Balance Preset
Shutter
Shutter Mechanical and CMOS electronic shutter
Shutter Speed 1/4000-1 sec.
1/4000 – 15 sec. (when ISO is set to 100 in M mode) When aperture is set to f/8 (wide-angle end)
Top Continuous Shooting Speed at full resolution Up to 7 shots at approx. 7 frames per second
Continuous Shooting Options Best Shot Selector
Continuous H
Continuous H 60
Continuous H 120
Continuous L
Interval Timer
Multi-shot 16
Pre-shooting cache
Single
Self-timer Can be selected from 10 or 2 seconds duration
Flash
Built-in flash Range (approx.) (ISO sensitivity: Auto) [W]: 0.5 to 11.5m
[T]: 5.0 to 7.0m
Built-in Flash Control TTL auto flash with monitor preflashes
Built-in Flash Yes
Interface
Interface Hi-speed USB
Interface Data transfer protocol MTP
PTP
HDMI Output HDMI micro connector (Type D)
I/O terminal Digital I/O (USB)
Wi-Fi Functionality Yes
GPS Yes (Built-in)
Supported Languages
Supported Languages Arabic
Bengali
Bulgarian
Chinese (Simplified and Traditional)
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English
Finnish
French
German
Greek
Hindi
Hungarian
Indonesian
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Marathi
Norwegian
Persian
Polish
Portugese (European and Brazilian)
Romanian
Russian
Serbian
Spanish
Swedish
Tamil
Telugu
Thai
Turkish
Ukranian
Vietnamese
Power
Power Sources One Rechargeable Li-ion Battery EN-EL23 (supplied)
AC Adapter EH-67A (available separately)
Charging Time 3 hours and 40 minutes (when using Charging AC Adapter EH-71P and when no charge remains) (Approx.)
Battery / Batteries Rechargeable Li-ion Battery EN-EL23
Battery Life (shots per charge) Still pictures*: Approx. 360 shots
*Based on Camera and Imaging Products Association (CIPA) standards for measuring the life of camera batteries. Measured at 23(-/+2)°C (73(-/+4)°F); zoom adjusted with each shot, flash fired with every other shot, image quality set to Normal, image size set to 4608 x 3456 (16M). Battery life may vary depending on shooting interval and length of time menus and images are displayed.
Movies: Approx. 1 hour 20 minutes
Miscellaneous
Tripod Socket ¼ in.
(ISO 1222)
Approx. Dimensions (Width x Height x Depth) 139.5mm x 103.2mm x 137.4mm
excluding projections
Approx. Weight 899g with battery and SD memory card
Operating environment Temperature: 0 to 40°C