Nikon Coolpix P90 – Black
The Nikon Coolpix P90 Black Digital Camera has a 12.1 Megapixel resolution, measuring 1/ 2.33in; a tilting 3inch screen and a 24x optical range that’s equivalent to 26-624mm.
Vibration Reduction, a 1cm Macro mode and the same degree of manual exposure control with screen size in the range of 2.7 to 3inches are fitted to a tilting platform in this model. The zoom range on the other hand is increased from 18x (27-486mm) to 24x (26-624mm).The camera measures 114×83x99mm and weighs 490g with its battery. The P90’s sensor delivers images which can be printed up to 13.3×10in at 300dpi. Seven lower resolutions and cropped 16:9, 3:2 and 1:1 modes are available, and images can be recorded with Fine, Normal or Basic JPEG compression. The focal ratio is of f2.8-5.0. A manual focusing mode allow adjustments using the up and down buttons and the aid of a magnified area which either fills the screen or occupies a window in the middle. The basic continuous mode is able to shoot up to 25 full resolution frames at a slow 1.4fps.
The model has three compression settings which deliver files that typically measure 5.8, 2.9 or 1.4MB respectively. The P90 includes around 47MB of internal memory with its sensitivity ranging from 640 to 1600 ISO at the full 12 Mega pixel resolution; 3200 and 6400 ISO options at a reduced resolution of 3 Mega pixels.
Nikon’s equipped the COOLPIX P90 with Vibration Reduction facilities to counteract camera-shake. The VR on the P90 shifts the actual sensor within the body the system can detect horizontal or vertical panning and cancels the stabilization on the axis that’s in deliberate motion.
The COOLPIX P90 has a movie mode too that’s selected from the mode dial and started by pressing the shutter release button. The maximum resolution of 640×480 pixels is available at 30 or 15fps, and there’s the option of a lower 320×240 pixel mode at 15fps only, in the choice of normal color, sepia or black and white.
All movies are stored with mono sound in an AVI wrapper at about 1MB per second using the 640×480 / 30fps mode. The maximum recording time is 25 minutes. Vibration Reduction becomes electronic in the movie mode and is available with a 2x digital zoom.
The COOLPIX P90 offers shutter speeds from 1/2000 to 8 seconds, with an extra 1/4000 speed accessible in Continuous H shooting mode. There are also ten aperture settings from f2.8 to f8 when zoomed-out. All users have complete control over both settings with the P90’s Manual, Aperture and Shutter Priority modes.
The P90’s Continuous H mode, selected from the Sports Continuous mode on the dial, can record up to 45 frames at a resolution of 3 Mega pixels and at a speed of around 11fps.
One bonus offered by the P90 is a time-lapse movie mode option which records up to 1800 frames at intervals between 30 seconds and 60 minutes; these are then assembled into a 640×480 movie at 30fps, so if a full 1800 frames is recorded, the movie will last 60 seconds. Audio recording is also possible on the P90 with files lasting up to two hours provided memory permit is allowed.
Scene recognition is new to the P90 and allows the camera to evaluate the subject before it automatically switches between Portrait, Landscape, Night Portrait, Night Landscape, Close-up and Backlight.
Face detection in this camera is equipped by smile and blink detection options in the self-timer. Smile and Blink detection has a shooting mode which can fire-off up to 45 low resolution frames at 15fps.The P90 will continue to take photos when it spots a smile for up to nine shots, although the process can be cancelled by pressing the shutter release. The Blink Proof option again waits for the subject to smile following a short countdown, but once detected it’ll take two photos in quick succession and reject any with blinking eyes.
The P90 additionally features the Best Shot Selector feature (BSS) of earlier models which can take up to ten images while the shutter release is held, and the sharpest is kept by comparing JPEG file size. A Multi-shot option shoots 16 images at around 7.5fps and arranges them as thumbnails in a 4×4 arrangement on a single image. An Interval Shooting option lets the user shoot between 30 and 600 images at periods of 30 seconds to ten minutes apart.
COOLPIX P90 also offers Active D-Lighting to auto- adjust the contrast of images to avoid lost detail in dark highlights or bright highlights. The P90 offers High, Normal, Low or the default Off options. Any boost of shadow areas is done at the cost of increased noise levels.
