Nikon Coolpix P90 Samples

Below are sample crops from an indoor photograph of a book-spine at each of the Nikon P90's ISO settings. A crop from the Fuji Finepix S100FS at the same ISO setting is shown next to each crop from the P90. Images below are all unmodified 100% crops from their respective cameras taken at the highest quality setting. ISO and white-balance were set on camera, everything else was left on automatic. The last few crops are of lower resolution because of camera limits.

These crops help determine which ISO settings can be acceptably used on these cameras. As noise increases, most cameras compensate with noise reduction which introduces softness. The result is that, while you can partly reduce noise at the expense of details, the maximum acceptable print size gets smaller as ISO is increased. The point at which a print become unacceptably noisy is a matter of personal taste.

Nikon Coolpix P90	Fuji Finepix S100FS
ISO 64 - 1s F5.6
ISO 100 - 1s F6.3	ISO 100 - 1.5s F5.6
ISO 200 - 1/2s F6.3	ISO 200 - 2/3s F5.6
ISO 400 - 1/4s F6.3	ISO 400 - 1/3s F5.6
ISO 800 - 1/8s F6.3	ISO 800 - 1/5s F5.6
ISO 1600 - 1/15s F6.3	ISO 1600 - 1/10s F5.6
ISO 3200 - 1/30s F6.3	ISO 3200 - 1/20s F5.6
ISO 6400 - 1/60s F6.3	ISO 6400 - 1/40s F3.5
The Nikon Coolpix P90 produces very usable ISO 64 to 200 shots. The ISO 400 clearly shows increased noise and softening from noise reduction, still it could be used for a small print. ISO 800 should be an emergency-only setting to produce a small print with little detail but still a recognizable subject. Anything above ISO 800 should not be considered useful, noise and softness are high and there is a distinct boost in the yellow channel. Next to the P90, the Fuji Finepix S100FS really shines, note how the Fuji's ISO 3200 crop looks better than the P90's ISO 800, that is roughly a 2 1/2 stop disadvantage for the Nikon Coolpix P90.	ISO 10000 - 1/60s F3.5