So, I was digging through some old boxes the other day, and guess what I found? My old Nikon Coolpix P90. Man, that camera brings back some memories. It’s funny how tech moves on, you know?
Getting My Hands on It
I remember when I first got it. Must have been, what, over a decade ago? The big draw for me, and probably for everyone else who bought it, was that massive zoom. I think it was like 24x optical zoom or something. Back then, that was a huge deal for a point-and-shoot. I was all excited, thinking I could finally get those far-off shots without needing a giant professional lens.
I unboxed it, charged up the battery, and immediately started pointing it at everything. The bird on the roof across the street? Zoomed right in. The neighbor’s cat sneaking through the bushes two gardens over? Gotcha! It felt pretty powerful, I gotta admit.
What I Actually Did With It
I took that P90 on a few trips. It was my main camera for a family holiday to the coast. And you know what? For daytime shots, in good light, it did okay. I got some decent photos of the kids playing on the beach, landscapes, that sort of thing. The swivel screen was also pretty handy for taking shots at weird angles, or even the occasional selfie before phone front cameras were really a big thing.
- Zooming in on boats way out at sea.
- Trying to get pictures of seagulls.
- General holiday snaps.
But, and this is a big but, it wasn’t all sunshine and roses.
The Not-So-Great Parts
Okay, let’s be real. The P90 had its problems. It was slow. Trying to take a picture of something moving quickly? Forget about it. The autofocus would hunt around, and by the time it locked on, the moment was gone. That was super frustrating.
And low light? Oh boy. Pictures indoors or when it started to get dark were just… not good. Grainy, blurry, you name it. The flash helped a bit, but then everything looked washed out. So, it was mostly a daytime, outdoor camera for me.
I also remember the image quality at full zoom wasn’t always the sharpest. Yeah, you could see things far away, but they often looked a bit muddy or soft. It was cool to see, but not always great to print big.
That One Time at the Airshow
I really remember taking it to an airshow. I thought, “Perfect! I can zoom right in on the planes!” And I did. I pointed it up, zoomed all the way in, and started snapping away. The problem was, those jets move FAST. The P90’s autofocus just couldn’t keep up most of the time. I’d press the button, and there’d be that slight delay, and I’d end up with a picture of the sky where the plane used to be, or just a blur.
I got a few half-decent shots, mostly of the bigger, slower planes. But for the fast jets, it was a struggle. I spent more time fighting with the camera than actually enjoying the show, trying to anticipate where the plane would be. My arms were aching from holding it up and trying to keep it steady at full zoom too. That day, I really understood its limits.
Where It Is Now
Eventually, phone cameras got a lot better, and then I got myself a DSLR. The P90 started gathering dust. It just couldn’t compete with the speed and image quality of newer stuff, even if it didn’t have that crazy zoom.
Looking at it now, it’s a bit of a relic. A cool piece of tech for its time, definitely. It tried to bridge that gap between simple cameras and big fancy ones. For some things, it was fun. For others, it was a bit of a letdown. But hey, that’s how things go, right? It served its purpose for a while, and I got some memories with it, both good and slightly annoying.
