Nikon Coolpix P90 Review

The Nikon Coolpix P90 is an advanced digital camera offering plenty of zoom power. It has 12 megapixels and a 24x, wide angle lens. There are a range of manual exposure controls and a number of other more advanced features that give you control over the final photo.

The lens offers plenty of scope and flexibility for most photo opportunities. Picture quality is good and there is an impressive set of features.

Outdoor 1 (Medium Zoom)
The Coolpix P90 benefits from the fact the trees are in full bloom and the sky is a pleasant, warm shade of blue. This helps the camera to produce a bright, colourful first test shoot. On the whole the camera handles the strong sunlight well.

Outdoor 2 (No Zoom)
This picture shows just how much extra width you are able to squeeze into the shot thanks to the extreme wide angle offered by the Coolpix P90. Sharpness is inline with expectations with a small loss of quality that I normally associate with a wide angle lens.

Outdoor 3 (Maximum Zoom)
I realise Nikon are pushing the boundaries with this length of lens, but purple fringing is more noticeable with the Coolpix P90 than with most other super zoom digital cameras. This is the bit where I normally say, but you will only notice this on larger sized prints. The fact is with this camera you may notice purple fringing in very bright conditions even on smaller prints.

Outdoor 4 (Building)
Overall the Coolpix P90 can take sharp photos. There is a slight tendency for sharpness to slip as you move towards the edges. Here though you will struggle to notice much of a fall off unless you make large sized prints.

Outdoor Portrait
Standard portraits taken outside should not pose any problems at all. You should be able to take sharply focused portraits. The length of the lens can also give you a few creative options when shooting.

Indoor Portrait with Flash
With the flash unit popping up away from the lens the chances of red eye appearing in your portrait shots taken using flash is reduced. The light produced is very even and colours remain true.

Indoor Portrait without Flash
Noise does start to show in this photo even though the natural lighting available was quite bright. This takes the edge off the definition of the shot.

Colours
The colours and lighting produced by this camera give photographs a very natural look. This is one area where I feel Nikon digital cameras are very strong.

Macro
As I have mentioned with other super zoom cameras the physical size of the lens unit makes it easier to produce lenses capable of taking good quality close up shots. The macro shot I took with the Coolpix P90 is some way above average.

Higher ISOs
I found that pictures could show noise quite quickly as higher ISO setting were used. I think it is a case of taking photos in bright conditions where possible and using flash as soon as lighting begins to dip.

Overall
I have few complaints about the picture quality offered by the camera. Watch out for purple fringing from time to time. It may need to be cleaned up with a tool such as Photoshop.

Shutter lag times were ok, but I found the camera on the slow side when trying to take more than one photo at a time. A single shot took 0.38 seconds and five timed 22.23 seconds. Flash made little difference with times of 0.45 seconds for one photo and 23.23 seconds for five.

To turn the camera on and take the first shot took 2.76 seconds. This is a standard time.

You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.

The Coolpix P90 looks like a typical super zoom camera. It is based on the design of a Digital SLR and is available in matt black.

83 x 114 x 99mm

400g

Lithium ion (EN-EL5). Nikon estimates you should be able to take up to 230 shots in between charges. A battery and charger are supplied as standard.

Nikon has built 47 megabytes of storage into the Coolpix P90. This is enough for around 18 shots. The camera is also compatible with SD and SDHC cards.

Click here to save money on SD cards..

Difficult. This camera picks up a difficult rating owing to the wide range of features it offers. Nikon make it as easy as they can with the menu system being well laid out and easy to read. It will take time to master all the controls the Coolpix P90 has.

Colours - picture quality - features

Purple fringing can be an issue - taking more than one photo at a time can be slow

For a top of the range model take a look at the Canon Powershot SX1 IS.

The Nikon Coolpix P90 offers a cheaper option to the top of the range Canon and Sony models. It does most things well, takes a good quality photo and has an impressive set of features.

Front View

Back View

Top View

Sample Menu

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Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, please make sure you double check the feature set and specification at the point of purchase.

Nikon Coolpix P90