Nikon Coolpix P100

Video Mode (18.25)

The most notable improvement between the standard-definition Nikon P90 and the new, CMOS-sensor-equipped P100 is the jump to full HD recording, at 30 fps. Now the video resolution delivered by the P100 is up to expectations. Unfortunately, the video controls didn’t get a matching upgrade; with no option to set a manual white balance, and no way to adjust color reproduction manually, we found the color accuracy disappointing, particularly under common incandescent bulbs.

The P100 captures stereo audio with a pair of top-mounted mics. There’s no option to use an external mic, which is unfortunate, since the built-in rig picks up camera noise and is prone to wind noise too (there is a digital wind filter available, which makes a marginal difference). You can zoom while shooting, but you’ll certainly hear that loud and clear on the soundtrack. And while continual autofocus is an option, it’s best limited to silent movies.

Slow Motion / High-Speed Video (2.00)

Thanks to its backside illuminated sensor, the P100 can perform some interesting slow-mo and high-speed video effects. By shooting more frames than the usual 30 per second, the camera can create slow-motion video. And unlike some cameras, this video is captured at the full selected video resolution, though not for very long (up to 10 seconds tops). The available frame rates for slow-mo are 240fps, 120fps and 60fps. This can create cool video of runners on a basepath, for example, but it’s not going to freeze a popping water balloon or any of laboratory-style tricks we’ve seen (at lower resolution) with several Casio cameras.

One peculiarity of the high-speed mode required some head-scratching to figure out. By default, even when you’ve set the HD/HS to HS (High Speed), the video you record when pressing the shiny red button is taken at standard speed. You have to press the OK button to switch into high-speed mode. And if you want the slow-mo video to start when you start shooting, you need to enable this choice via a menu choice. It all seems very counter intuitive and confusing.

For a speed-up effect, the frame rate can be cut down to 15fps. Fast-motion video can run for up to 2 minutes of shooting time.

Video Color (2.66)

As with the Nikon P90, the P100 tanked in our video color accuracy testing. The problem is easy to see in the test video: the camera starts out with a very inaccurate automatic white balance setting (manual white balance is available for stills, but ignored in movie mode). With that as a baseline, color reproduction could only be painfully off. More on how we test video color.

Video Sharpness (6.38)

While not quite as sharp as the Sony HX1, the Nikon P100 delivered very respectable 1080p video resolution, in stark contrast to its predecessor. More on how we test video sharpness.