Nikon Coolpix 7900

Reviewed June 2005

Test Photos

STILL LIFE PHOTO

This subject is photographed in a room that has a mix of fluorescent and incandescent light, but which is not brightly lit. The camera's flash is used to add fill light. The backdrop is 1.95 m (6.5 ft) from the camera.

Using a sensitivity of 50 ISO, the level that is the least prone to noise, and matrix metering, the Coolpix 7900 yields an image which is a touch too dark. Therefore, an exposure compensation of +0.7EV is used to increase the brightness of the image.

At the highest image quality, Fine, the Coolpix 7900 still applies a fairly strong compression — in this case 8.3:1 — and with this wide angle shot some of the finer details of the image appear softened.

ZOOM PHOTO

Now we zoom in on a specific area. The intent is to test the sharpness of the image at the zoom's maximum setting. The camera remains at the same distance as with the preceding photo.

When the Macro mode is engaged using the down arrow of the Multi controller, the Coolpix 7900 has an ideal macro range that covers from 7.8 to 8.5mm, focal lengths at which the camera can focus on a subject 4 cm (1.56 inch) from the front element of the lens, and which yield a field of view of approximately 3.4 cm (1.33 in) horizontally when measured from one edge of the frame to the other.

While with some subjects barrel distortion is quite noticeable, with others such as the one shown here, it is not and the shots can be excellent. This is particularly true if the subject is very well lit, allowing the camera to use a small aperture, which increases the depth of field.

BUILDING PHOTO

This image is our outdoor test. The architecture of the building, in particular the angled girders, immediately show the presence of jaggies. The shadowed entrance can also often reveal the quality of the exposure.

Set to 50 ISO, and with a directly lit subject, the Coolpix 7900 produces a good image with no chromatic aberration.

However, a bit of noise is discernible in the uniformly coloured areas, a speckling that is most noticeable on the metal beams (image below) And, although well-camouflaged by the shape of the subject, some barrel distortion can be detected as a slight outward curvature in the vertical sides of the building.

ZOOM PHOTO

Zooming in on the entrance of the building, the shadowed entrance takes on a greater importance for the metering and can cause an overexposure of sections that are directly lit.

Zoomed in, there is no visible distortion, and the metering yields an excellent image that contains detail in both the shadow areas and in the brightly lit ones.

Moreover, although the zoom provides only a 3X magnification of a 114mm lens, the 7 megapixel resolution of the CCD is high enough to image the lettering on the small metal plate on the right door — Please use other door — so that it is almost legible.

NIGHT PHOTO

Since this camera offers a Night Scene mode, so a photo taken at night is included here.

The Coolpix provides a Night Scene mode to capture night shots but it is limited to a maximum exposure time of 2 seconds. A 2 second exposure at 50 ISO, the lowest sensitivity of the camera and the level that is the least prone to noise, does not allow capturing a bright image. So, set to the Night Scene mode, the camera automatically increases the sensitivity to the maximum allowable with the Auto ISO mode: 200 ISO.

While the image becomes much brighter, the 200 ISO sensitivity also picks up significantly more noise.

And, even after noise processing, noise remains visible in the image when it is inspected at full scale.

Worth noting, the Night Scene mode automatically sets the white balance, and in this case the sodium vapour city lighting imparts the image with a strong orange cast.