This lightweight digital camera also boasts 4K/UHD movies at 30p and comes with a full-size hot shoe mount and mic input. These additions put this compact bridge camera as a strong option for vloggers and enthusiast filmmakers. The new Nikon P950 also adds RAW (NRW) photo recording, an enhanced high-resolution EVF and Nikon Snapbridge to seamlessly share images or remotely control the camera. Micro-USB connector (Do not use any USB cable other than the included UC-E21 USB Cable.), Hi-Speed USB The viewfinder is one of a small number of improvements which have been made to the Nikon P950 compared with the P900. At 2359k-dots, it has more than twice the resolution of its 921k-dot predecessor. In use, it’s much more pleasant to use the newer viewfinder, giving you a bright and clear view of the scene. If you’re somebody that very often uses a viewfinder, and you’re struggling to decide between the P900 and the more expensive P950, this is something which may just sway you. An improvement to the Nikon P950 comes in the shape of adding raw format recording support. This means you now have more flexibility to tweak images after the fact, which is likely to be welcome news for enthusiast photographers.

Nikon Coolpix P950 review - Digital Photography Review

Up to 4x (angle of view equivalent to that of approx. 8000 mm lens in 35 mm [135] format); Up to 3.6x when recording movies with [2160/30p] (4K UHD) or [2160/25p] (4K UHD) The downside of shooting Raw is that .NRW files eat up more card space and they take time (and a degree of expertise) to process. If you don't want the hassle, you can shoot JPEG and manually select white balance depending on your situation, from the usual range of presets, including daylight, cloudy and incandescent. Bird-watching mode lets you select three different AF areas to keep fast-moving subjects in focus. Moon mode optimises camera settings for clear astronomical images: ideal for capturing the moon in all its phases. When you have a camera with a long zoom range the first thing everyone does is zoom to the furthest point of the lens. And it’s amazing how far you can zoom when the lens goes to 2000mm. Again, as before, automatic white balance is excellent, producing accurate colours under a variety of different lighting conditions. Though specific white balance presets are available, you might find little need to use them - especially with the addition of raw format shooting support.Edit with high-quality files. The COOLPIX P950 supports RAW (NRW) image capture, letting you save and export uncompressed image files to your processing/editing program of choice. As we saw before, images directly from the camera have an overall good impression of detail when you’re viewing them at normal web or printing sizes (A4 or below). It’s possible to see some evidence of image smoothing when viewing images at 100% at even reasonably low or mid-range ISOs, such as ISO 400, but it only becomes particularly apparent at normal viewing sizes from ISO 800 onwards. Being able to shoot 4K video and in Raw format are perhaps the headline features. But improving the electronic viewfinder is another important update that improves the overall usability of the P950. In most instances the matrix metering setting does a good job of assessing the exposure. However, the exposure compensation control is conveniently placed should you need it. I found the -0.3Ev was usually all the adjustment that I required. Using a card slot or card reader, copy the “firmware” folder to a memory card that has been formatted in the camera.

Nikon | Download center | COOLPIX P950 Nikon | Download center | COOLPIX P950

may be less important to you if you’re not often shooting videos, but it’s good to have it available for travel/holiday clips and family videos. Run F-P950-V13W.exe to extract the firmware to a sub-folder in the new folder. The resulting file and folder hierarchy is shown below: There’s also a small collection of Picture Control modes (Standard, Neutral, Vivid and Monochrome) and each can be adjusted to taste.As well as the switch around the shutter button, there’s a toggle switch on the lens barrel for adjusting the zoom setting. The zoom is a little slower with the side switch- which can be useful when you’re finessing the composition.

Nikon P950 sample gallery - Digital Photography Review Nikon P950 sample gallery - Digital Photography Review

Given the range of the zoom lens, the Nikon Coolpix P950 shows remarkably little purple fringing, with limited effects in areas of high contrast as shown in the examples below.For those who already owned a P900 camera, very little has changed on the outside of the camera. There’s a chunky grip at the front of the camera, while much of the camera has a textured coating which helps to give a feeling of high quality. Of course, a lot of people shopping for cameras of this type might not have any experience of shooting with an ILC, or even know what the terms Raw mode or 4K video mean. They just want a camera with a really powerful lens that they can take anywhere, and use to shoot whatever they find there. Framing scenes at very long focal lengths can be challenging, and to help, Nikon provides two tools: one is built-in, and one is an optional accessory. The built-in helper is a 'snap' zoom button on the lens barrel, which scoots the lens out from extreme telephoto to approx. 350mm equiv to help you re-frame a shot if you lose your subject at 2000mm. The second tool is the (arguably over-engineered but very cool) accessory ' dot sight', which clips onto the P950's hotshoe and provides an optical target-finder so that you don't need to rely on the EVF.