The race continues. Nikon has unveiled Nikon P90, the new ultrazoom camera as a successor to the popular and average-reviewed Nikon P80. High, Super, Ultra, I am sorta worried they’ll run out of superlatives soon. Oh and if you didn’t get it, the race is to make the lenses zoom so much that you can peep through the window of your favorite astronaut (when she’s in space of course).
Pardon me for all the the ranting; it’s just that I recently switched to a DSLR with grossly unaffordable lenses.
The camera has a 24x (26 – 624) zoom lens! I just checked Amazon. This kind of telephoto lens will cost me over $1300 (Don’t even ask the Indian price) and weigh over 1 kg. If only I had that kind of money 🙁
The other specs look great too – 12.1 Megapixel sensor, 3.0 inch tilting LCD and a burst mode running at 15 fps (5 times better than my DSLR!). It obviously has other regular stuff like full manual controls, vibration reduction and loads of picture and movie modes. Some cool ones being smile timer, blink warning and time-lapse movies. Oh and it allows you to go as close as 1 cm from your object and take gorgeous/weird (take your pick) macro shots. You don’t need another super expensive macro lens for that.
Nikon also mentions ISO sensitivity upto 6400 but I’d ignore that. Unless Nikon did something out of the world in the labs, the pictures will start sucking at ISO 800. This is one thing where DSLRs with there larger sensors are inherently better.
But all in all, this looks like a great camera for a launch price of $400. It really makes me wonder whether I made the right decision switching to a DSLR. If you’re looking for something cheaper Nikon also announced a budget model with a decent 15x zoom lens, Nikon L100 at $280.
Oh and about that zoom race, Nikon is still not at the top. Olympus already has a 26x ultrazoom in the market.
3 responses to “Nikon announces new ultrazoom, I cry [Digital Cameras]”
Hey Chirag,
I am planning to but a camera, will you advise me to go for COOLPIX L100?
Hey Salil,
I won't advise you to get an L100. The only reason being it's really new and reviews aren't out yet.
For this budget you can get some previous gen cameras which are well reviewed.
seth suar……..advise…….camera…….which one??