Nikon Coolpix P90 Comments

Thanks for this review - I'm after a new bridge camera this summer to replace my worthy Fuji S5500. This camera seems like by far the least compromised of all the current crop of mega-zoom cameras, so I think it's going to have to go on the shopping list!

Are there supposed to be more pictures on pages 2 and 3? Because I'm not seeing any...

How do you think the Coolpix P90 compares to the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 of last year? I was seriously tempted to purchase the Panasonic but for various reasons have not yet done so... is the Nikon a better buy?

The Nikon's certainly a far more expensive buy ... I paid a gnat's whisker over £200 for my own FZ28, and have been absolutely knocked out with it. Even if the P90 were the same price, the review suggests it has marginally lower overall IQ, so a £130 premium for worse pictures seems an unwise investment. If you're planning on using the video facility, there's no competition - the FZ shoots in HD and allows full use of the optical zoom. The P90's only real trump card - the extra zoom 'reach' seems not to be a card it can play very often as sharpness appears to drop off considerably when the full zoom is used. Buy an FZ28 and I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

Just a note a note if you live in the UK, however, that the vast majority of the UK stock of the FZ28 has been sold, with Panasonic apparently not specifying any date for resupply. It's still available in some places, but is generally in short supply so therefore commands higher prices than it did perhaps a few months ago. I bought an FZ28 myself recently, and the cheapest I found anywhere on the high street was £280, with £220 being the cheapest on the web.

I reckon I will also be going for the Panasonic FZ28 it seems the better option.
Had a look at one instore and was very impressed, needless to say £100 cheaper online so why delay?

Hmm - I had noticed that the price of the FZ28 had shot up somewhat.... I think £240 is about the cheapest I can find at the moment. I may hang on a while and see if any upgrade offers significant improvement... thanks to all for the votes in favour of Panasonic though, I certainly feel I wouldn't be buying a dud if I went for the FZ28 :)

Thanks for the review. We live in Singapore and were evaluating for bridge camera for the last 3-4 weeks. Almost purchased Panasonic FZ28 as we liked the features, size/handling and good reviews. Until we saw the Nikon P90 & Olympus P-590 in recent IT sale in Singapore. Both cost only slightly higher than FZ28 (practically the same if we include all the freebies) while come w/ bigger zoom and mega pixels. Liked Nikon for the tilt-able LCD and Li-Ion battery. Ended up w/ olympus SP-590 as we liked the design/handling, 26X zoom and picture quality (did many shots at the show w/ the above 3 cameras). The Olympus is also slightly lower price (~S$50 lower) to the Nikon P90.

"Can the P90 outgun its competitors?" What, like the H&K MP7? Nice reference to the geektastic Belgian gun, bane of Cylons and Jaffa everywhere.

Why your ratings for Nikon P90 are so high as compared to anybody else in the industry? Some of them have practically trashed Nikon P90 and Olympus SP590 for their poor picture quality - I don't know whom to believe anymore.

I don't see there is any RAW format as written on the specifications. Are there any firmware updates?

Hi first just a quick love your site etc blah blah... But I cannot agree with some of the comments. My main grip is with the build quality, it rattles, it ticks when the power is on. Minor faults you may think but when I received mine (bought mail order because I work for job satisfaction and not financial reward) i cannot express how disappointed I was with its general feel. So much so that I went to a local camera shop to see one of their stock as I honestly thought mine was duff. Sadly it was the same, yes maybe I should have gone to them in the first place, hands on and all that but i needed the discount of online sales. I was soooooo looking forward to getting this as like many people I always wanted a Nikon, well not any more I have just bought some new batteries for my old faithfull Canon S1 IS, maybe I should have got the S10 IS. Hey ho we live and learn. The new Nikon is going on ebay soon if anyone wants it!
Regards to all

hi cliff,

thanks for this great reviews on nikon coolpix p90. I have bought yesterday one and I can't seem to figure out the best settings for p90. I tried to revert everything back to normal but then again the image quality is horrible. Can you please suggest the best settings for both indoors and outdoors shots.

24X and no optical zoom while shooting? insane! P90 seems to be useless on video mode

Read the user manual before using P90. Learn to use manual mode as image quality comes from there. Tilting LCD and 624mm telephoto is very useful in certain situation. Very expensive for a 600mm lens. Best for those who wants to learn about photography..