Nikon Coolpix P90

Manual Controls

Using manual controls on the Nikon P90 is very much like using a digital SLR. The camera has a mode dial that includes aperture priority, shutter priority, program, auto, and manual settings (along with scene mode, movie mode, and the sports/action setting). When using manual or either priority mode, shutter and aperture can be adjusted using the dial on the back of the camera (in the upper right, where your thumb rests). This is a comfortable, easy way to make precise adjustments and it is a much better design than you're likely to find on more compact digital cameras.

Focus

According to Nikon, in auto mode the P90 has a focus range of 50cm to infinity. Using macro or close-up mode the range goes from 1cm to infinity. The autofocus system has three detection areas: face, auto, and center.

ISO

The ISO sensitivity can be manually set to 64, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, and 6400. There are also settings for auto, high ISO auto, or fixed ISO range. With fixed ISO range you get the choice of 64-100, 64-200, or 64-400. It would have been better if Nikon had simply implemented an ISO limiter so you could have a wide range of fixed ISO settings.

White Balance

White balance presets include Daylight, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Cloudy, and Flash. There is also a manual white balance setting on the P90.

Metering

The auto exposure metering modes available on the P90 are Matrix, Center-Weighted, Spot, and Spot AF Area. There's also an exposure compensation option that ranges from -2 to +2 and an auto bracketing feature.

Shutter Speed

The shutter speed range runs from 8 seconds to 1/2000 seconds. On a camera with as many features as the P90, we would have liked to see a bulb setting or at least some manual long-exposure options. Shutter speed can be controlled manually in both shutter priority and manual mode. The adjustment dial on the back of the camera is used to make shutter speed adjustments.

Aperture

Aperture ranges from f/2.8 to f/8 on the P90. It can be controlled in aperture priority and manual mode using the adjustment dial on the back of the camera. The dial is easy to use and comfortable—very similar to the design Nikon implements on SLR cameras.

Image Stabilization

The P90 features what Nikon calls 4-way vibration reduction. Optical image stabilization is simply one pillar of this system (and likely the most effective). Also part of the vibration reduction setup is a motion detection system that will automatically adjust shutter speed and ISO when a moving subject is detected within the frame, a high ISO 6400 setting to reduce blur in low light conditions, and the Best Shot Selector (BSS) feature that automatically takes up to 10 shots when you press the shutter button and saves the sharpest one.

We have to say, while the '4-way vibration reduction' sounds a bit like an advertising gimmick, these four features are actually quite useful for reducing blur and getting crisp shots in difficult situations.

Picture Quality & Size Options

The camera takes photos in three image qualities (fine, normal and basic) and can capture images in a variety of sizes and aspect ratios.

The complete list of size options on the Nikon P90 is as follows: 4000 x 3000 (12M), 3264 x 2448 (8M), 2592 x 1944 (5M), 2048 x 1536 (3M), 1600 x 1200 (2M), and 1280 x 960 (1M), 1024 x 768, and 640 x 480.

The camera can also capture images in a 3:2 aspect ratio at 3984 x 2656, a 16:9 aspect ratio at 3968 x 2232 and 1920 x 1080, and a 1:1 aspect ratio at 2992 x 2992. The 3:2 and 1:1 aspect ratio settings are of particular note as they aren't commonly available on point-and-shoot camera's.

Picture Effects

Under the optimize menu, Nikon puts all the P90 picture effects like normal, softer, vivid, more vivid, portrait, black/white, and custom. With the custom menu you can adjust contrast, sharpness, and saturation individually—each with -2 to +2 incremental control).