Nikon Coolpix A Review
The compact camera with a large sensor shooting as an alternative to DSLRs or mirrorless system cameras like mushrooms. Nikon Coolpix jumps to the extremely compact A train on these and decided as Fujifilm, Leica, Sigma and Ricoh for a fixed focus lens, which although not particularly bright fails with F2.8. This offers the Nikon Coolpix A with 28 mm format equivalent wide-angle image more than the Fujifilm X100S and Leica X2.
Nikon Coolpix A – Ergonomics and Processing
The metal housing of the Nikon Coolpix A shines with excellent workmanship, with Nikon uses a very straightforward and simple, but striking angular design. By their angular, flat case, you cannot call the Coolpix necessarily as a flatterer, with the small handle bar and the rubberized thumb rest is Nikon’s but at least some effort to make the ergonomics bearable.
While it is with the A basically shoot with one hand, with the index finger is the ring-shaped power button and the shutter convenient to use, but designed it is for a two-handed stance, for both the multi-function ring on the lens and the keys left of the display can only be with the left hand use, which, in view of the lack of the optical image stabilizer for a more stable camera position is recommended anyway.
Thanks to only 300 grams in weight and compact dimensions, the Coolpix can be in a pocket or jacket pocket easily have always with you, dangling around the neck makes it hard for neck pain. The flaps on the left and right side cover up the USB, HDMI and combined remote release and GPS connection.
Although they are made of plastic, but thanks to the metal hinges make quite a long-lasting impression if you do not just break off with violence.
The same applies to the flap on the bottom that allows access to the lithium-ion battery and the memory card. It is compatible with the Nikon Coolpix A to SD, SDHC and SDXC memory cards for extended large photo tours or longer movies in Full HD resolution, nothing stands in the way.
Thanks to APS-C sensor with 16 megapixel resolution, the permanently installed 18.5-mm lens corresponds to the small-screen equivalent of a 28 mm, bringing the Nikon Coolpix A recommended more for street, landscape and architectural photography and less for portraits, apart from group shots. When you turn the lens extends slightly. Although it has no filter thread an optional, bolt-on attachment allows the use of 46-mm filters, and the lens hood is also optional.
With a focusing time of about half a second, the Nikon is not one of the sprinters, but with this, speed can be handy in the above-mentioned subject worlds. Also, the shutter lag of 0.06 seconds joins in solid midfield. Thanks central locking solves the Coolpix up to the highest shutter speed of 1/2,000 second and synchronized way, almost inaudible even at that shutter speed the flash.
Serves as a viewfinder, the rear, 3 inches (about 7.5 centimeters) tall and perfectly the housing is equipped screen. Unlike some other camera, the protective glass so the design does not interfere with the back out. With fine 921,000 dot resolution, crisp contrasts, strong colors and high viewing angles, the display does offer a brilliant picture, comes in very bright environments, such as sun and sea, but its limits, so that the subject is then somewhat more difficult to recognize, especially under such conditions, there is a lack of deep drawing.
Nikon offers the only remedy to a purely optical viewfinder, but that without a hefty. For the same money, you get an electronic viewfinder (for example, the Olympus VF-4 with 2.3 million pixels), but of course will not fit on the Nikon Coolpix A for other manufacturers.
The operation of the Coolpix is a sometimes mystified. Although the menu is clearly structured and Nikon typically not overloaded, but the use or idle function throws some controls but riddles. With two user programs, two Fn buttons (one pre-configured as ISO button) and an extra menu for the menu settings last used the Nikon quite a few customization options, but should like to see more Nikon Coolpix A direct selection keys or programmable buttons to be present. The four-way rocker switch for example, is broke or only shifts the auto focus area, the rear adjustment and the lens ring are often no function.
Here Nikon would like to rectify, because on flash mode, white balance, ISO, exposure compensation, shutter mode and perhaps the exposure would you like to know can access simultaneously, instead especially since the FN1 button to occupy space in only two of these functions, only one of three functions can, after all, with the FN2 key one in seven.
Nikon Coolpix A – Image Quality
At full aperture, the Nikon Coolpix A in the diagram shows the center already high sharpness and resolution that is higher than 40 line pairs per millimeter (lp / mm). This can hardly be increased by stopping down yet. From F11, the resolution decreases slightly by diffraction from F16 even significantly.
At the edge of the picture, Nikon cannot convince at the open aperture, where the resolution is just at 20 lp / mm – that’s half the resolution in the image center! In F4, the edge resolution but increases already at 32 lp / mm and from F5, 6, the edge resolution on par with the image in the center.
This loss of resolution is seen unfortunately already on 20 x 30 centimeter prints, so if you want sharp edges, should stop down to at least F4, F5, better still, 6th Also visible is the vignetting of about one f-stop. Although the course is quite gentle, but even dim little help here.
Even with chromatic aberrations, the Nikon to fight well – at least at the extreme edges of the image, there are fringing visible already at 20 x 30 inches, they are about 1.5 to two pixels wide. Near the center these fringes are not visible, even the average has no appreciable fluctuations, so that really only the outermost edge of the image is affected. The minimal distortion of about 0.9 percent barrel shape is for a 28 millimeters perfectly fine and is a hardly negative effect.
Convince the Nikon in the signal-to-noise ratio, this is up to and including ISO 400 at about 40 dB in the green area, at ISO 1,600 and 3,200, the critical limit of 35 dB undercut just barely, here you can again turn a blind eye. The image noise is fine enough, with around two pixels grain size, only the red channel breaks with about three pixels from ISO 3,200 slightly upwards. Color noise still plays a minor role because, only at the highest sensitivity of ISO 12,800 and 25,600.
It is visible, whereas the luminance noise start at ISO 6,400 is easily visible, and it rises steeply. Nikon waived an overly aggressive noise reduction, especially at the highest sensitivities, but this is the detail to good.
Up to and including ISO 1,600, the Nikon COOLPIX A Fine textures are without measurable loss again. In the detail decreases although minimal, but even at the highest sensitivity, the photographer can still look at detailed images instead of mashed.
The restrained noise reduction ensures more consistent readings when dynamic range, the Coolpix A scratching at ISO 800 with 9.6 f-stops while almost at the mark of ten f-stops, moves but otherwise rather slightly above nine stops and falls over ISO 1,600 even lower from. With 25,600 poor dynamics of only 7.3 f-stops is only achieved. The measurement of the tone curve confirms the crisp, high-contrast visual impression, in contrast, sharpening the Coolpix is conservative to the point, so that the artifact rate does not fall below five-percent negative effect.
The output tonal range is convincing only up to ISO 800, it uses the Nikon less than 160 of the 256 possible gray values. Even with the actual color depth, the Coolpix at high sensitivities is not quite so convincing, over ISO 1,600 distinguishes them less than two million colors.
At ISO 100 and 400, on the other hand, there are even more than four million, a good value. While the manual white balance works perfectly, preferably the A slightly warmer colors and these are also a bit stronger again, which also applies to be green. Overall, the deviations move but the green area and may well pass as ” beautiful ” color reproduction.
The video feature appears to be well hidden, it can be found in the release mode, where the sequence mode is to be found. A similar strategy also pursued Fujifilm some classic-inspired cameras. In video mode, auto focus is automatically tracked, but reacts very sluggish, slow and sometimes tends to pump. Manual focus, manual exposure, as well as the semi-automatics are also available for video recording, but the exposure cannot be corrected during recording.
The sound is recorded via the built-in stereo microphone, an external microphone but cannot connect to a meter or similar provision missing. For silent movies, the Nikon Coolpix A microphone can be switched off.
After all the videos with H.264 compression, as in the MPEG-4 standard, as MOV files are stored on the memory card. The frame rate is either 30, 25 or 24 frames per second in HD or Full HD resolution.
Nikon Coolpix A – Conclusion
The Nikon Coolpix A shows to be the extremely interesting digital camera with very good image quality packed into a well-crafted, compact body. This way, you can always have with them, the need for very good image quality, thanks to an APS-C sensor to very high ISO values enter into the compromise that it is a fixed focus camera. 28 mm format equivalent images are not particularly universal, nor is the lens with F2.8 particularly bright.
But even at a full aperture, it has excellent image sharpness in the center, from F5.6 is the edge of the image in nothing. The solid operation with somewhat little individual button assignment or too few direct access is complemented by the rather average for a modern camera equipment, advanced functions like HDR panorama or missing entirely.
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Our Opinion
PROS : From F5.6 excellent uniform resolution to the edges., Well-made, ultra-compact package., Excellent image quality up to ISO 400, good up to ISO 1600., Many camera image editing functions, including effects filters and raw development.
CONS : Too little direct selection buttons for example white balance, shooting mode, flash mode, etc., By default, highly supersaturated colors., Missing features such as HDR, Panorama and image stabilization.
- Design
- Features
- Performance
- Value of Money
