Why You Can Trust CNET Nikon Coolpix P900 review: Unprecedented zoom range, but unremarkable photo quality
It might not be the best camera, but if you simply must have the longest zoom lens available for the least amount of money, the P900 wins.
- More than two decades experience writing about PCs and accessories, and 15 years writing about cameras of all kinds.
The word "whopping" doesn't really do justice to the zoom range on the Nikon Coolpix P900.
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The camera's 83x optical zoom starts at an ultrawide 24mm and ends in an astounding 2,000mm. Its Dynamic Fine Zoom digitally increases the range to approximately 4,000mm with minimal loss in quality.
That kind of zoom range is something I have little use for. I don't go to a lot of sporting events. I'm not a birder or into wildlife photography. The same goes for maritime photography. The moon is about the only thing I can see in the night sky where I am and, well, you can only take so many moon shots. My family and friends are typically close enough to me that a modest zoom range is sufficient. I'm also not a stalker.
The fact that I don't typically shoot these things didn't make the camera any less fun to shoot with, though. Being able to zero in on a bird that you can barely see or capture a sailboat at sea or shots of athletes from very, very far away with what is essentially a point-and-shoot camera is just plain cool. If these are things you want to do, the P900 is -- at least for the moment -- going to get you the closest to your subject in the smallest, least expensive way possible.
That doesn't mean it's cheap, though: The Coolpix P900 is $600 in the US, £500 in the UK and AU$700 in Australia. It's also not exactly small and light at 140 by 103 by 137mm (5.5 by 4.1 by 5.5 inches) and 899 grams (1 pound, 15.8 ounces). Still, it beats lugging around giant lenses (I mean, have you ever seen a 2,000mm lens for an SLR camera?) and the cost of matching the P900's lens for a dSLR would be astronomical.
Picture quality
A long zoom lens doesn't mean better image quality, though. In fact, it usually means the opposite, especially for point-and-shoots. The P900 uses a small 1/2.3-inch 16-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor, significantly smaller than what you'd get in a mirrorless compact or dSLR or higher-end compacts. A big sensor typically translates into better image quality, so don't expect the quality of a dSLR just because the P900 looks like one.
That being said, the P900's photos are good. They definitely benefit from some post-shoot editing to help with color, sharpness and contrast. Because there is no raw capture option -- it shoots JPEG only -- you can only do so much though, and that goes for improving on Nikon's heavy noise reduction at higher ISO sensitivities, too.
Pixel peepers won't like what they see when viewing the P900's images at full size. Up to ISO 200 you get a fair amount of fine detail so that enlarging and cropping in is possible, particularly with close-up shots. Details start to turn to mush above that, though, and you can more easily see artifacts. If you keep your crops modest, however, sensitivities up through ISO 1,600 are usable, if soft. I would steer clear of ISO 3,200 and 6,400. Because of this, and how slow the lens gets when zoomed in, the P900 is not a camera you'd want for indoor shooting.
Shots toward the end of the zoom range lack detail regardless of ISO setting, though. I've included several samples in the slideshow below so you can see that, while subjects can look good at smaller sizes, once you start to blow things up you lose a lot of detail. (There is a link to the right of each picture to download the full-size image.) Are they shareable online or fit for small prints? Yes, but I wouldn't go blowing them up for big prints.
Also, even though the camera's Dual Detect Optical VR technology works very well, you'll want to use a tripod or some other support to get the sharpest possible shots.
Video quality is good as long as you have a lot of light; with low-contrast subjects the camera will struggle to focus when zooming all the way in. There is no mic jack, but the stereo mics on top of the camera does well enough. If you zoom in and out while recording, the mics will pick up sound from the lens movement that you'll hear in quiet scenes. You might also hear the autofocus system clicking away if it's hunting for focus. These are things that are typical for this class of camera, though.
If you're looking for a camera that works well as both an all-purpose family camera for photos and videos and for more specialized uses like birding or sports, please consider the 24x zoom Panasonic Lumix FZ200/FZ300 or, if you need more zoom range than that, the 60x zoom Nikon Coolpix P600/P610 or 65x zoom Canon PowerShot SX60.
Shooting performance
Telephoto autofocus speeds haven't been the best with Nikon's other extreme megazoom cameras, but the P900's lag isn't bad, all things considered. In my lab tests, the camera turned on and was ready to shoot in 1.8 seconds and averaged 1.2 seconds from shot to shot. Popping up the flash -- which is not automatic, by the way -- only increases the shot-to-shot time to 1.3 seconds.
Shutter lag -- the time it takes from pressing the shutter release to capture without prefocusing -- was minimal at 0.1 second in bright lighting and 0.2 in dim conditions. That was with the lens positioned at 35mm, though, and zooming in can result in quite a bit more hunting for focus.
The camera's fastest continuous-shooting speed at full resolution is 7 photos per second. Unfortunately, it takes roughly 6 seconds for the camera to store those images before you can shoot again. Also, this is with focus and exposure set with the first shot, so if you're shooting a moving subject, there's a good chance only the first shot will be in focus.
Design and features
Despite appearances, the P900's design and shooting options lean more toward an average point-and-shoot than a dSLR or even most other bridge cameras. If you like a lot of direct controls for settings, you'll be disappointed. There's a single programmable function button just behind the shutter release; its default is changing continuous-shooting modes, but it can be set for ISO, white balance, metering, AF area mode, color mode or image size.
There's also a thumb dial for making shutter speed or aperture changes, but that's pretty much the extent of direct controls for settings outside of the usual flash, exposure compensation, self-timer and macro buttons.
You do get a 921K-dot-resolution 3-inch Vari-angle display and 0.5cm (0.2-inch) electronic viewfinder (EVF) with a proximity sensor so that it will automatically switch from the LCD to the EVF when you bring it up to your eye. There's no hot shoe for a flash or an external mic jack for video. There is a rocker switch on the lens barrel for controlling the lens. It can be used to zoom in and out (handy when shooting movies) or for manual focus with peaking. Next to the rocker is a button to snap the lens back a bit when zoomed in should your subject move out of frame.
The lens isn't a fast mover, either, which can make it a bit frustrating to shoot with. Note, too, that the closest the camera can focus at the wide end when not in macro mode is 50cm (1 foot, 8 inches). At the telephoto end, you'll need to be 5 meters (16 feet, 5 inches) away from your subject to focus. In macro mode, the camera can focus as close as 1cm (0.4 inch) to a subject with the lens at its widest position.
Shooting modes cover everything from full auto to full manual, but the manual and semimanual modes have shutter speed limits on them depending on the ISO and aperture settings you use. For example, to shoot at its top shutter speed of 1/4,000 second at the wide end of the lens, the aperture has to be f8 (the smallest aperture available, by the way). To use its longest shutter speed of 15 seconds, the sensitivity must be set to ISO 100.
There are, however, abundant auto options such as several scene modes including moon- and birding-specific options, filters and effects and night modes for portraits and landscapes. Movie capture is fully automatic with a maximum resolution of full HD (1,920x1,080 pixels) at 60 frames per second.
The P900 also has Wi-Fi with NFC, so you can view and transfer photos and video clips to your smartphone or tablet, or use one to remotely control the camera. The remote controls are limited to zooming in and out and the shutter release, and it only does stills, no video. But considering the self-timer has to be set every single time you use it, the app is a workaround. GPS is also built in for geotagging shots and finding points of interest you might want pictures of when travelling.
Conclusion
There are plenty of people out there who just cannot get enough zoom. The Nikon Coolpix P900 exists for them. The lens delivers the most shooting flexibility you're going to get in a camera this size. Or really any size for that matter. The photo quality isn't the greatest, though, particularly at the maximum telephoto end. Yes, you'll get some shots of distant subjects that other cameras simply can't get. And that part of the P900 is a lot of fun. But unless that's something you aim to do regularly, I would skip it and go with one of the many other megazooms available.