Nikon Coolpix P2

Reviewed November 2005

Introduction

The Nikon Coolpix P2 is a member of yet another dual release, its partner being the P1, an identical camera, but one with an 8-megapixel resolution to the P2's 5.1 megapixel. Both these cameras come equipped with Wi-Fi capability (IEEE802.11b/g), allowing them to access, and be accessed, wirelessly.

The top right of the P2 has only 3 controls:

• The On/Off button, which has a small green LED above it;
• The 2-stage shutter release, that provides AE and AF lock when pressed and held halfway down;
• And the Mode Dial which has 10 settings.

Of the Mode Dial's 10 positions half are used for various capture modes while the other half serve for camera configuration.

The capture modes of the Coolpix P2 are bracketed by the Movie mode and the Auto mode:

	Auto, a mode intended for beginners, lets the Coolpix P2 act as a point-and-shoot camera. Set to Auto mode, the P2 takes care of all photographic settings.
	Programmed Auto leaves the selection of the aperture and shutter speed up to the camera, but leaves the control over many other capture parameters such as sensitivity, white balance, etc. accessible to the user. Moreover, a Flexible Program can be used to select alternative combinations of aperture and shutter speeds that will also result in a correctly exposed photo, but which will emphasize either depth of field or the way in which movement is captured.
	Aperture Priority Auto leaves the selection of the aperture to the user while the camera selects a matching shutter speed. With the zoom lens set to the widest angle, the P2 offers a choice of 10 apertures ranging from f2.7 to f7.6. With the zoom lens set to the maximum telephoto, the selection narrows to 4 apertures covering from f5.2 to f7.3.
	The Scene position on the Mode Dial sets the camera to use whichever of the P2's 16 Scene modes was last used. Scene modes are designed to set the camera appropriately for specific subjects, and pressing the Menu button presents a screen with all the other Scene modes. 11 of the Coolpix P2's Scene modes offer an Advanced option that adds 2 additional options called Effect 1 and Effect 2 which are intended to "fine-tune" the scene mode: Portrait (Face AF) Portrait

Sports

The last of the capture modes is the Movie Mode:

The Movie mode can capture movies with sound, and the following formats are available: TV movie : captures a 640 x 480 pixel movie at 30 frames per second. TV movie: captures 640 x 480 pixel movie at 15 frames per second. Small size 320: captures a 320 x 240 pixel frame size at 30 frames per second. Smaller size 160 : captures a 160 x 120 frame size at 30 frames per second. Time-lapse movie: captures up to 1800 still images at a specified time interval and joins them to create a silent movie with a 30 frames per second frame rate and a frame size of 640 x 480 pixels. Sepia movie: captures a sepia-toned movie at 5 frames per second and a frame size of 320 x 240 pixels. B/W movie 320: captures a black and white movie at 15 frames per second and with a 320 x 240 frame size. The length of the movie depends on the capacity of the memory card in use, or if no memory card is used, is limited by the 16MB internal memory of the Coolpix P2. Focusing can be either Single AF, which locks the focus at the beginning of the recording, or Continuous AF, which is constantly adjusted. Single AF is recommended to avoid having the noise of the camera focusing being recorded. The white balance and optical zoom position are set at the first frame — the optical zoom is locked during recording — but exposure is adjusted as necessary. A 2X digital zoom can be used, as can Electronic Vibration Reduction (Electronic VR) , which reduces the effect of camera shake.

The remaining dial positions serve to set certain parameters on the P2:

	Is the access to the P2's Setup menu. (See the Interface and Software section of the review for a listing of the options of the Setup menu.)
	Image Size and Quality: acts as a shortcut to the section of the menu that contains the image quality and size settings (see the Characteristics section of the review for more information).
	Accesses the section of the menu where the CCD sensitivity is set. (See the Characteristics section of the review for more information.)
	White Balance accesses the section of the menu where the white balance is set (see the Characteristics section of the review for more information).
	Wireless Transfer Mode: serves to select a previously configured wireless LAN, or connect wirelessly to a printer to print images. (See the Characteristics section of the review for more information.)

Beyond these top-mounted controls, the Coolpix P2 has a few more controls positioned on the right side of the 2.5-inch LCD monitor.

First, in the upper right corner of the camera's back is the rocker switch zoom control which is labelled Wide and Telephoto. In addition, the zoom control also has a function when the P2 is in Playback mode.

The W side shows thumbnails. Pressed once, the camera displays 4 thumbnails; pressed twice the camera shows 9; and, taking advantage of the large LCD monitor, when pressed a third time the camera displays 16 thumbnails per screen.

	The T side serves to zoom into an image and allows magnifying any part of it up to 10X.
	Moreover, while a camera menu is displayed on the monitor, the button can be used to display a short text description for any highlighted option.

The next button below the zoom control, and the red flash ready/charging LED is the MENU button. The button simply displays the menu available for the mode currently selected by the Mode Dial position.

A 4-direction control with a round button at its centre follows. Nikon calls the control the Multi selector, and in addition to its function as a way to navigate the camera's menus or switching from one image to another in Playback, the control and the OK button at the centre have additional functions.

The OK button's primary function is to confirm choices made in the menu. Beyond that, when the Coolpix P2 is connected to a computer running Nikon's supplied software, the button also serves to start the automatic picture transfer mode .

More information is superimposed on the lower part of the image, with the image size and quality on the left and its position within the images in the folder. Above that information, the camera displays a reminder that pressing the shutter button allows recording a 20-second voice annotation.

Pressing the OK button changes the display, presenting the image as a thumbnail in the upper left of the monitor and a histogram showing the distribution of brightness in the image below.

On the right side of the monitor, the display shows a bulleted list that indicates the shooting mode, the shutter speed, the aperture, the exposure compensation, and the CCD sensitivity setting (ISO).

As noted above, the four direction control that encircles the OK button also provides additional functions:

The up arrow control is used to choose the Flash mode: Auto, Auto with Red-eye reduction, Forced off, Fill Flash, Slow Synch, and Rear Curtain Synch.

The left arrow starts the Self-timer which can have a 10 second delay, or a 3 second delay.

The last two external controls of the P2 are the buttons below the Multi selector. The one on the left starts the Playback mode [] and, if held pressed for more than a couple of seconds when the camera is turned off, starts the Coolpix P2 directly in the Playback mode, without deploying the lens.

The other button, on the right, is the Delete button to erase one image at a time, and which can be used both while the camera is set to a capture mode, or the Playback mode.

The Coolpix P2 is very compact and very well-suited for a smaller hand. The few external controls it has react quickly, for instance the zoom transits from the wide end to the telephoto setting in approximately 1 second. Similarly, the P2 is relatively quick to start, especially if the start-up animation is disabled.