By Leonard Goh
29/06/2009
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/digitalcameras/0,39005881,44515485p,00.htm

Nikon joins the ranks of manufacturers ramping up their top-of-the-line megazoom models to 24x. The replacement for the Nikon Coolpix P80, the P90, outdoes its 18x predecessor with a 24x optical zoom lens. The new model also has increased resolution from 10 to 12 megapixels. But what's really useful is the 3-inch tilting LCD on the camera, bringing it into parity with competing megazooms from Canon, Sony, and others.

Design

With the exception of the improved LCD and some changes on the mode dial, the P90's body doesn't differ much from the P80. It's heavier--more than 400g--and bigger in all dimensions. Like its competitors, you can access most of the frequently used shooting controls via a dedicated button, including exposure compensation, focus modes (macro, infinity, and manual), self-timer, and flash (red-eye reduction, fill, slow sync, and rear curtain sync). In addition to the buttons, you can navigate via the back dial which also controls your shutter, aperture, and exposure-compensation adjustments in the various shooting modes. Nikon has improved the mode dial, moving Setup into the menu and replacing it with two slots for custom settings and a Scene Auto Selector mode.

You can access other controls from the shooting menu. Most notable are an array of ISO sensitivity options. In addition to complete Auto and manual 64 through to 6,400, it offers high ISO sensitivity Auto (64-1600) and fixed-range auto, which lets you choose one of three ranges: ISO 64-100, 64-200 or 64-400. Given how aggressive the blurring gets at ISO 200, we would suggest you stick with the 64-200 range if you're going to use the automatic mode.

Features

With the P90, Nikon introduced its four-Way Vibration Reduction (VR) image stabilization, which consists of optical IS, auto-shutter speed/ISO determination to compensate for moving subjects, and a Best Shot Selector option for choosing the sharpest photo out of a burst of 10. Like the P80, the P90 supports up to ISO 1600 with reduced resolution for ISO 3200 and 6400. Also new is a mode for 15fps continuous shooting for up to 45 frames, though it's at 3 megapixels and automatically sets the ISO sensitivity to at least ISO 640. Given the camera's mediocre high ISO performance, that's a pretty useless mode. As with its competitors, Nikon introduces its own get-the-faces-right system comprising automatic red-eye fix, improved face-priority AF, and smile and blink detection.

Specifications/model	Nikon P90	Canon PowerShot SX1 IS	Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28
Sensor resolution	12 megapixels	10 megapixels	10 megapixels
Dimension/weight	114 x 83 x 99mm/460g	124 x 88.3 x 86.9mm/560g	117.6 x 75.3 x 88.9mm/370g
LCD size	3-inch tilting LCD	2.8-inch tilt and swivel	2.7-inch
Zoom/focal length	14x optical/26-624mm	20x optical/28-560mm	18x optical/27-486mm
Max. video resolution	640 x 480 pixels at 30fps	1,920 x 1,080 pixels at 30fps	1,280 x 720 pixels at 30fps
Image stabilizer	Optical (via lens)	Optical (via lens)	Optical (via lens)
Memory media	SD/SDHC card	SD/SDHC card	SD/SDHC card
Related links		Review	Review

The LCD is pretty good with a wide viewing angle and doesn't wash out in direct sunlight. But we prefer articulated LCDs found on shooters such as the Canon PowerShot SX10 to the tilting ones used by the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H50 and this model. That said, it's still far better than a fixed display. It's supplemented with an electronic viewfinder; both displays update fast enough so they don't interfere with shooting, even in low light where there is some slowdown. However, the EVF displays only 97 percent of the scene, compared with 100 percent for virtually every other camera in this class. While the battery didn't conk out too soon, its 250 shots-per-charge rating (CIPA standard) seems underpowered compared with the competition.

In addition to matrix, center-weighted and spot metering, the P90 offers spot-AF area for use with the AF-area modes. The AF-area modes include face priority, auto, manual, and center. As with these technologies, we found the face-priority setting relatively inefficient, while the auto mode made undesirable choices. As for the manual AF-point selection, it was only useful when we shot the same composition repeatedly. The center focus-and-recompose approach, albeit old-fashioned, was still the most efficient. Other shooting options include image size and quality, Optimize image (custom and preset settings for contrast, sharpening and saturation), white balance, single or full-time AF, flash exposure compensation, noise reduction, and distortion control (which reduces frame size). The lack of support for RAW files is a hole in the feature set, though.

For movie recording, the P90 includes a neat time-lapse mode and a 30fps VGA-resolution movie mode. The latter produces reasonably good AVI clips at a bitrate of about 1.1 megabytes per second, but it's pretty limited--you cannot utilize optical zoom or image stabilizer while shooting.

Performance And Image Quality

The P90's lens isn't great. Barrel distortion is what you'd expect at the widest angle of 26mm equivalent. However, it exhibits serious purple fringing at its maximum telephoto of 624mm equivalent. While the optics doesn't seem to vibrate as much as the P80's did, the stepped zoom gets frustrating when you're trying to frame your shot. This is a typical problem with these types of cameras. The optical image stabilizer works as well as we've seen from Nikon's other VR lenses.

As for shooting speed, the P90 made significant strides over the slow P80, bringing the former in line with what you expect from a camera in its price range. It wakes and shoots in a reasonable 2 seconds, and focuses and snaps about as quickly as its competitors in bright and dim conditions--0.7 second and 0.8 second, respectively. At 2 seconds, it's a bit zippier from shot-to-shot than most. While its flash shot-to-shot time of 3.3 seconds isn't great, it's also not unusual. Continuous shooting performance remains about the same as the P80, at 1.4fps, but the burst rate isn't a problem so much as the EVF which (like all EVFs) blacks out between shots. That said, it's still not quite fast enough to keep up with children and pets, as they're in and out of the frame in a shot or two.

Unfortunately, the P90's photo quality generally disappoints. In some ways, it's worse than the P80's and not what you whould expect for its price. The colors are vivid, but automatic white balance is a little greenish-yellow outdoors and a lot yellow indoors.

Exposures tend to be good, but the lens displays quite a bit of purple fringing and shots look overprocessed. An excessively noisy blue channel combines with Nikon's aggressive noise suppression and blurs most of the details away starting as low as ISO 200. If you have a lot of detail in your scene, the photos are borderline at ISO 200 and unusable by ISO 800. So depending upon what you shoot, the P90's photos can range from good to just OK.

While it's a perfectly serviceable camera, there are simply better options for the money than the Nikon Coolpix P90.