Product Reviews

Nikon is one of the foremost players in the conventional 35mm camera arena and made its first steps into the digital camera market with the Coolpix 100 (reviewed issue 31, p156). A rather ungainly piece of functional design to look at, it was targeted very much at the point-and-click photographer. Nikon's new Coolpix 900, however, has upped the ante somewhat and brings the company up to the level of the heavyweights of the digital photography world, alongside the Kodak DC260 (reviewed issue 47, p160) and the Olympus Camedia C-840L (reviewed issue 47, p167).

Initially, the Coolpix 900 is fascinating to hold and manipulate. All of the photographic apparatus, such as the lens, flash, image sensor and view finder, are grouped at one end, while at the other, you'll find a 2in colour LCD panel, various control buttons and another monochrome LCD display on the camera's top. The two are linked by a joint that allows the lens to be rotated independently of the various viewfinders through 360 degrees, rather like the Agfa ePhoto 1280 (reviewed issue 44, p181). This means that you can take self-portraits with the lens facing you and the image displayed on the LCD screen. More conventionally, you can frame forward-looking shots by using the colour display or the more familiar viewfinder.

Beyond the innovations, the Coolpix 900 is actually very comfortable to use and offers a solid grip for the right hand, while there's no danger of getting the left hand's fingers over the lens. Considering it packs a mechanical zoom, the design remains very compact - a feat made all the more noteworthy if you stand the Nikon next to the bulbous Kodak DC260.

You can take pictures in one of two modes: the first is an automatic setting, and the second, aimed at the more accomplished photographer, allows manual setup. The A-REC automatic mode works perfectly in all lighting conditions, sorting out the duration of the flash, exposure and other important variables involved in taking a good picture. All that's left to do is to operate the zoom function, which is controlled by a rocker switch situated conveniently

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by your right thumb.

Particularly useful is the red-eye reduction function, which works by shining an amber light at the subject for a second before the main burst of light. Red-eye is caused by light reflected back from the retina, which is covered in blood vessels; what this system does is shrink the pupil so that the amount of red light bounced back is reduced.

Unlike the Olympus Camedia C-840L, the Coolpix 900 has a true 3x optical telephoto lens which is equivalent to a 38-115mm lens on a conventional 35mm film camera. The Camedia uses just a software zoom, which is ultimately the same as taking a picture and enlarging it using any decent graphics package. That said, the Coolpix also extends its optical zoom to a 6x zoom in this way. This can be selected by keeping your finger on the zoom button after the lens' optical limit has been reached.

The M-REC manual setting allows far more control over the quality and mechanics of your photograph. For the serious photographer, the camera gives access to exposure settings, white balance, brightness and contrast. You can also toggle between fisheye and wide-angle lenses, and for those who get lost in the maze of variables you can quickly set everything back to the factory defaults.

Getting the pictures from the camera into your PC entails simply connecting them with a serial cable and allowing the data to trickle down the wire at 115Kbits/sec. If you're a notebook owner and have bought the more expensive Nikon premier bundle you'll be able to use the CompactFlash Card adaptor, making the whole operation considerably quicker.

Of course, all this is pretty meaningless if the image quality itself is poor. However, if you're working to the Nikon's highest resolution of 1,280 x 960, this is far from the case. It's very close in terms of quality to the Olympus C-840L, which scooped a Recommended award last month. It really is marginal, but the Coolpix 900's pictures appear slightly more detailed. And, in a direct comparison with the Kodak DC260, the quality difference is so small as to be almost indistinguishable.

Ultimately, the Coolpix 900 is a well-designed, high-quality camera, which, thanks to its 1.3 million pixel CCD, is unlikely to disappoint even the most demanding user. What may do, however, is the price. This stands at a hefty £859 for the reviewed premier bundle and £759 for the standard package, which doesn't include the Flash adaptor, features only a 4Mb memory card and has no mains power adaptor.

The bottom line is that, even in its cheaper form, the Coolpix is still £250 more expensive than the Olympus Camedia C-840L, which is close enough in quality to retain its A List status.