To change the continuous shooting mode, you have to go on to a second menu screen. And all this assumes you are using the LCD screen and not the EVF. You can view the menu on the EVF, but the display is so tiny that it’s much easier to change settings on the LCD screen. This means pressing the display mode button to switch to the LCD screen.
The LCD screen also highlighted shortcomings in the EVF
It’s probably asking too much for a camera at this price point to offer eye-detection technology, but it would be nice if pressing the menu button automatically activated the LCD screen. And another oddity is the battery level icon, which only appears when the battery is low. What’s that all about?
Likewise, performance was a mixed bag. The zoom lens is certainly flexible and you can take a good range of wide and telephoto shots. But we noticed a tendency for the P90 to over-expose shots, and this was exacerbated when using the extreme end of the telephoto. Indeed, some shots were horribly bleached out - see our telephoto sample shot. Yes, you can tweak exposure settings, and this camera offers oodles of manual control, but nevertheless, we were surprised at how poor some of the P90’s images looked.
Tests revealed rather sluggish auto-focusing and signs of chromatic aberration on some shots. Yet, on the other hand, colours were vibrant, sharpness was impressive, and the continuous shooting modes were superb. We took a shot of a footballer running up to kick a ball and the results were outstanding.
Good value, but flexibility has its compromises
The panoramic system produced good results too, although there is no in-camera stitching. Also, when shooting at the extreme end of the telephoto, the VR system does an excellent job in keeping things steady. Noise wasn’t noticeable until ISO 400, but there’s a big leap in noise level when you move up to ISO 800.
Verdict
When you think how much it would cost to buy a set of lenses that gave you as much versatility as the zoom offered by the P90, then the this camera offers very good value for money. The problem is that while there is much to like about the P90, there is also a lot to dislike, including a clunky user interface and some less than startling results. We think inside the P90 is a good superzoom camera struggling to get out, and if Nikon can address some of the issues we’ve raised, it will break free. ®
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COMMENTS
very beautiful
this camera looks very beautiful , I l ike it !
here I have a good place that is Tradestead there are many kinds of beautiful and powerful consumer electronics with very cheap price that I like it very much!
Image stabilisation FTW
Alex said "I have a 300mm (450mm equivalent) zoom on my APS-C SLR camera and have a job getting steady shots with that. You have to have a tripod."
Thankfully, Nikon are now quite good at vibration-reduction - it's the really big advance in lens technology in the last decade, you no longer need to hold the camera still. One of the pictures in the article is taken hand-held at 624mm equivalent and looks pretty sharp; even the pocket Canon camera I have can take sharp macro shots of coins in poorly-lit museums with a quarter-second exposure.
65%, what does it actually mean?
Do things ever get <50% these days? If not, we must assume 50% as the new zero, meaning this camera comes in at what, 30%? Sounds round about right from the pictures.
P90
Does it strip down into 3 parts for easy cleaning? where's the 50 rounds of 5.7mm kept? a P90 remodelled for the toruist/terrorist market? i'll take 2
Pointless waste of money.
Nobody with any experience of taking good quality photos would ever specify a camera like this. It is riddled with compromises - the sensor is too small and the zoom range is too big.
I have a 300mm (450mm equivalent) zoom on my APS-C SLR camera and have a job getting steady shots with that. You have to have a tripod. At 624mm you would need to cement it into the foundations to get a steady shot.
With this camera you end up paying twice for each "feature". You pay extra to have a 12MP sensor but it's so small you have to pay extra for the all the noise reduction tech that blurs out much of the detail that is "captured" by the high resolution sensor.
I defy anyone to get a decent shot at the maximum zoom without spending more on the tripod than the camera itself cost.
This is a camera designed by a marketing department not a photographer.
I pity anyone who wastes their money on this device.
