Performance
The Nikon Coolpix P3's performance is disappointing, with some infuriating delays between shots. The camera takes slightly more than 4 seconds to turn on and shoot, and performance goes downhill from there. Shutter lag in bright light was an irritating 0.9 seconds, with dim light bumping that time up to 1.4 seconds. After taking a shot, it was a full 3 seconds before we could take another one. Burst mode was acceptable, with a rate of 1.5fps in five-shot bursts. The screen refreshes quickly but has a narrow viewing angle. Unfortunately, users are stuck with the LCD as the P3 lacks an optical viewfinder.
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
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Typical shot-to-shot time |
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Time to first shot |
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Shutter lag (typical) |
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Typical continuous-shooting speed |
Image quality
Image quality is where the Nikon Coolpix P3 really shines, overshadowing any shortcomings in its Wi-Fi implementation and almost overcoming its flawed performance. Colours are neutral but rich and pleasing, from the bright greens and blues in landscapes to the subtle tones of human skin. Reds, usually difficult to capture with digital cameras, are reproduced with fine gradations and detail -- one macro shot of an apple revealed the texture of the fruit's skin with detail intact.
Sharpness and resolution are high at all subject distances. There is slight vignetting, or darkening of corners, and other image distortions at large lens apertures, but those problems hardly ruin the picture and disappear at more moderate settings. 'Bokeh', or out-of-focus highlights, looks pleasing with a soft and round quality to it.
The P3 keeps flare and blooming well under control, even when shooting at the sun. Chromatic aberration, the purple fringing that appears on high-contrast edges, is also in check, appearing only slightly even in extreme backlighting.
Noise levels are below average in the Nikon Coolpix P3, with images appearing very clean at ISO 50 and ISO 100, usable at ISO 200, and tolerable at ISO 400. Unfortunately, at ISO 400, the noise softens the detail significantly. That said, the noise wasn't overpowering and produced some decent, albeit speckled, shots that you could use at small sizes.
Edited by Will Greenwald
Additional editing by Kate Macefield
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David Plein 11 June 2006
Good: Wireless - freedom from wires! Brilliant!
Bad: The Nikon PC software, I need to still get used to it...
Comment: Fantastic, it took me under 5 minutes to setup my wireless connection, and the files transfer really well. Thank God, no more wires!
The image quality and functions are really first class. I haven't fully tested the battery life yet, but will buy a spare battery as most people I'm sure would. I really can't wait to fully test it on holiday in July!
I like the fact that it takes SD cards, it has wireless, the charger is really small, the camera is just the right size, any smaller would be too small.
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