PHOTO QUALITY. This 16-megapixel superzoom camera captured images with very good quality. We judged this model excellent for outdoor performance, such as shooting landscapes in the daytime; good for indoor performance, such as photographing a well-lit basketball game in a gym.
FLASH. The CoolPIx P900 captured flash shots that were very good. In our distance test, we found the camera's flash could illuminate subjects very well, both near and far. The flash also has excellent, very even coverage.
LENS. It has a very long 83x zoom lens that can be great for travel and sports shooting when you need to zoom in far to capture your subjects. The lens also has very wide-angle (24mm) capability that's very useful for landscapes and group portraits, although you may notice a bit of distortion when you're shooting faces up close, for instance.
IMAGE STABILIZATION. This is an important feature with a long zoom lens; taking hand-held shots at the telephoto end of the zoom range can generally blur or soften images due to the slight movement of your hands. Shooting zoom set at 4x in well-lit scenes, this model did a very good job of minimizing the effects of camera shake. Shooting telephoto in well-lit scenes, this model did a good job of minimizing the effects of camera shake. In low-light settings, it performed excellently and almost never produced blurry photos. Overall, the shake reduction results from our tests were very good.
SPEED. In terms of performance, the Nikon CoolPIx P900 powers up very quickly. It has a very short interval between shots, which can be important when shooting fast-moving or unpredictable subjects.
VIDEO. The Nikon CoolPIx P900 takes fair video. It captures full HD video at 1920 x 1080 60p. As for sound, it captures fair audio in stereo.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS. It has an electronic viewfinder, a rarity for point-and-shoot models, which we found to be good. The display also swivels; this can be helpful when shooting self-portraits or hard-to-reach shots. This superzoom is much bigger, thicker and heavier than most in its class. Although this model has many features and controls, this superzoom is bulky and heavy, which may not make it the best model if you travel a lot.
