Hey, this is Scott of Photography Banzai. Today I'm gonna look at the Nikon Coolpix A900.
Thanks to Camera Craft in Rockford Illinois for let me try this out at the
shop. We'll be comparing to A900 to the B500 a little bit because I had also
done a hands-on video on that camera as well. This camera has a 20 megapixel
1/2.3 inch sensor with an ISO range of 80 to 1600. You can also get 3200 ISO
in some of the modes, so that's a little unusual. The lens is probably the best
feature of this camera. 24 to 840mm equivalent f3.4 to f6.9
through the zoom range. So you definitely get a lot of range for a relatively
small camera. It is a little slower aperture wise and shorter range wise
than the B500. But considering the size difference I do think it's a very good
trade-off. Button and control wise, there's a decent amount of tactile controls on a
camera this size. Does have a dedicated video record button. Press the button, it
starts up the video recording right away, which is nice. I was using image
stabilization at one point. There was some lag under that situation which was
not appealing, but good enough. No real surprise it does have a pop-up flash.
Pretty decent, it goes upwards a little bit. Definitely enough of course for the
zoom lens at certain focal lengths. The camera has bluetooth and Wi-Fi, of course,
through the standard Snap Bridge application. The screen can articulate upwards and
downwards. Good for macro work. Doing the selfie stuff especially with photos. However,
the screen does not have any touch capability. I did notice the shutter
button has a very short throw to it. Making it difficult to focus and then
take the picture. There might be some type of setting, I'm not sure, I didn't
look into that. So let's go over some of the negatives of this camera.
A 1/2.3 inches sensor size is on the small end of things. Image quality, I looked at
my quick sample photos... There all right. Nothing special. It's really no different
than the B500 image quality wise and that's a much cheaper camera. As I mentioned
before this does not have a touch screen. That's a very prevalent feature and I'm
used to it especially on cameras like this. Without a mic port, vlogging
features are not ideal. But if you want try it out, you can still at least see
yourself with the flip screen. And if you get it close enough the audio might be
decent. The tripod is offset from the lens. That makes it difficult to do
panoramas and things on a tripod. Just something to consider. Materials are a
strange mixture of metals and plastics. Build quality was on the decent side, but
not really amazing especially considering the price. It's a little
higher on price for a camera like this. So let's go over some of the more
positive features of this camera. You have a huge amount of zoom range.
Especially in a smaller definitely pocketable size camera. Having the screen
being able to face the lens or face downward in a macro situation works well.
The lens has vibration reduction in the lens. That's always good to have. Helps you
take better photos. Especially on a small camera like this. It does do 4k video. It's
not technically true 4k resolution, but it's there at 30 frames a second. You got
the 1080p stuff, of course, as well. Not too bad with the video. Does have a
special zoom feature. A button that looks like a rectangle with arrows pointing
out. What you do is you zoom out. You hold the button down and you'll able to
quickly zoom back in and find your subject re-adjust let go the button it
zooms back out. Very nice feature to quickly deal with those super long zoom
ranges. Thanks is David at Camera Craft for reporting that feature out to
me. This is definitely a serviceable camera. It's on the pricier end of things,
but you do get a relatively small camera with a long zoom lens. If that's your
main feature that you need, it's something to consider. I wouldn't say
it's good for any type of vlogging really. Because it doesn't have a mic
port. It doesn't have a hot shoe where you can put the mic on it. But at
least if you want to do kind of touristy travel selfie pictures, it's definitely a
good one for that. That said, it's a decent camera... a little pricey. Again
thanks to Camera Craft in Rockford Illinois for letting me try this out at
their shop. Thanks again!