Please note: this camera is not available yet, pre-orders are being taken.
This time last year Nikon were readying the Nikon Coolpix 800, a quick progression from the Coolpix 700, which in turn had taken the guts of the 950, made the body smaller, removed the swivel and added a fixed (in the case of the 700) and a 2x zoom lens (in the case of the 800). So it was fairly easy to predict that Nikon would do something similar this year. Obviously they've skipped the Coolpix 770 as it wouldn't be a huge seller... Instead they've gone straight for the 880 which is essentially the guts and imager from the 990 in a redesigned (fixed) case with a 2.5x optical zoom and some new features not found on the 990. This will be their main new digital product at Photokina 2000, Europe's biggest photography exhibition.
Baby 990?
It certainly seems to be, from our test and image quality comparisons the 880 comes very close to the 990. Obviously you lose the split body, you lose the excellent magnesium alloy case (not that the 880's body feels particularly fragile), aperture range, some flexibility in control and a few mm of zoom as the 880 only has a 2.5 x optical zoom, the 880 also appears to have a very slightly smaller internal buffer making burst abilities a little less than the 990 but still far beyond it's competition.
The 880 also has a few features the 990 doesn't, most notably the SCENE modes which will make it easy for beginners and more advanced users alike to select a preset shooting mode which puts the camera into the correct setup for shooting a particular scene. In addition to this it appears that the SCENE modes also apply differing colour / contrast settings to achieve a certain "look" depending on which SCENE you've chosen. Scene shooting modes provided:
- Portrait
- Party/Indoor
- Night Portrait
- Beach/Snow
- Landscape
- Sunset
- Night Landscape
- Fireworks Show
- Close up (macro)
- Copy (black & white)
- Back light
Here's a quick run-down of what's the same and what's different between the two models (green indicates better or the same, so here your decision is based on features versus price):
Nikon Coolpix 880 | Nikon Coolpix 990 | |
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Price | US$750 (street) | US$950 (street) |
Case | High Impact Plastic | Magnesium Alloy |
Design | Fixed body | Split body, twist lens / imager |
CCD | 1/1.8" 3.34 megapixel (3.14 megapixel effective) | |
Image resolutions | 2048
x 1536 1024 x 768 640 x 480 |
2048
x 1536 2048 x 1360 (3:2) 1024 x 768 640 x 480 |
Image modes | JPEG (3 levels) & TIFF | |
ISO | Auto, 100, 200, 400 | |
Zoom (35mm equiv.) | 38 mm
- 95 mm (2.5x) F2.8 - F4.2 |
38 mm
- 115 mm (3.0x) F2.5 - F4.0 |
Digital Zoom | 1.2x - 4.0x in 0.2x steps | |
Auto Focus | Yes,
4896 steps continuous 5-AF area selectable |
|
Manual focus | Yes, 50 steps | |
Metering | 256 segment Matrix, Center-Weighted, Spot, Spot AF Area | |
Exposure modes | Auto, Program, SCENE, Aperture Priority, Manual | Auto, Flexible Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual |
Exposure adj. | -2EV to +2EV in 1/3EV steps | |
Shutter range | BULB, 8 sec - 1/1000 sec | |
Apertures (Wide) | F2.8, F7.8 | F2.5, F2.8, F3.1, F3.5, F3.9, F4.4, F4.9, F5.5, F6.2, F7.0 |
Apertures (Tele) | F4.2, F11.3 | F4.0, F4.4, F5.0, F5.6, F6.3, F7.0, F7.9, F8.9, F9.9, F11.1 |
White Balance | Six modes plus manual preset | |
AE Lock | Yes | |
Best Shot Selector | Yes | |
Auto Bracketing | Yes | |
Focus Confirmation | Yes | |
Playback Histogram | Yes | |
Fixed Aperture | No | Yes |
Image adjustment | Yes, seven modes | |
Preset scene modes | Yes, eleven modes | No |
Sharpnes adjustment | Yes, five modes | |
User setup sets | Two: Normal, CSM | Three |
Internal Flash | Yes, range ~ 4 m | Yes, range ~ 9 m |
External Flash | No | Yes, Nikon speedlight sync connector |
Flash modes | Auto, Fill-in, Anti-red-eye, Slow, Off | |
Lens thread | Yes, requires optional adapter | Yes, 28 mm |
Burst | Yes (1.5 fps full size) | |
Movie | 320 x 240 QuickTime | |
Video out | User-switchable (PAL / NTSC) | |
Self-Timer | 10 or 3 seconds | |
Storage | Compact
Flash Type I 8 MB card supplied (16 MB in UK) |
Compact
Flash Type I 16 MB card supplied |
Viewfinder | Optical | Optical with diopter adjustment |
Connectivity | USB, Serial with optional accessory | |
Battery | 1 x 2CR5 battery or optional Nikon rechargeable | 4 x AA batteries (NiMH rechargeables recommended) |
Weight | 320 g (11.3 oz) | 450 g (15.9 oz) |
Dimensions | 99.5
x 75 x 53 mm (3.9 x 3 x 2.1") |
143 x
79 x 38 mm (5.6 x 3.1 x 1.5") |
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