Nikon COOLPIX A - Initial Impressions

Andrewteee said:
This past Sunday I took a number of pictures with the Nikon A (and Sony RX1) at the family Easter gathering, under tough conditions inside a dark floating home with bright windows all around, and I was mightily impressed with the A! I believe that Ray called the A a Ricoh GRD on steroids, and that's just about true. Even though it operates differently than the GRD I can use it for most part in the same way. The JPGs are very good, but I'm anxiously awaiting RAW support. I need to make an editorial pass of the images and tweak the files, but I'll try to post a few pictures here soon.

The only hiccup was that we took a few group photos and with each photo the 10 second timer reset to single shot mode (without the timer). Need to look that one up in the manual :confused:

I'll say it again... it is so nice to have a high quality single focal length 28mm serious compact camera! For me, the A is really a dream, and I'm very glad that I dove in (after hearing about Ray's first impressions).
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Glad you're liking it Andrew. The RX1 and the Coolpix A really is a hell of a combination. One a more deliberate camera with insane IQ, the other a quick little spontaneous shooter with very damned good IQ. I'm gonna have both of them in New York City for a quick weekend visit in a few days. Just slightly looking forward to it!

-Ray
 
Ray Sachs said:
Glad you're liking it Andrew. The RX1 and the Coolpix A really is a hell of a combination. One a more deliberate camera with insane IQ, the other a quick little spontaneous shooter with very damned good IQ. I'm gonna have both of them in New York City for a quick weekend visit in a few days. Just slightly looking forward to it!
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I admit that 28 and 35mm are pretty close, but both are amazingly capable cameras and so far each has a purpose for me. Though I wish there was an equivalent 50mm option, then I would probably stick with 28mm and 50mm. Funny how my GXR does that now :rolleyes: But a 28mm A and a 50mm A would be quite a combo. Only thing is, with the 50mm camera I would like a VF option. The 28mm is perfectly fine without that.

Enjoy your weekend in NY!
 
Higher end Nikons sometimes have a "drive" dial like the D7000's I had. The dial is concentric with the mode dial. You can set it to timer and it stays.
 
The new Lightroom update, version 4.4 supports the Coolpix A raw (NEF) files. I did a couple of high ISO test shots in a dark hallway this morning. MUCH MUCH better than the jpegs. With the jpegs, even when you turned the NR to "off", it still added NR above ISO 1600 and the artifacts could be pretty ugly up north of 5000. The raw files show a nice tight noise/grain pattern at 6400 that's easily cleaned up in Lightroom while still showing plenty of detail. This camera is looking more and more like a keeper...

-Ray
 
Ray,

I have been following this thread since the beginning and its making me want to try this camera. Love to see some LR processed RAW's...Keep em coming and thanks
 
Stnolan said:
Ray,

I have been following this thread since the beginning and its making me want to try this camera. Love to see some LR processed RAW's...Keep em coming and thanks
Click to expand...

I'll probably have a bunch to put up on Flickr (and a few here) early next week. Probably not a lot of opportunity before then, but if I can manage a few, I'll put 'em up.

-Ray
 
Armanius said:
How about a few full size photos for the pixel peeper in me? :)
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If you click through to the Flickr page, I think you can view the full size files from there. Some of them are processed to the point that it might not be much use, but those landscapes I put up earlier in this thread at f2.8 and f5.6 are pretty much untouched and should give you an idea of the basics. Once I have some decent high ISO raw shots early next week (spending the weekend in NYC), I'll put some raw files up where you can get to them if interested.

-Ray
 
OK, Armando and anyone else interested, I managed a couple of high ISO shots in near darkness on the walk back from dinner tonight. So here is a decent ISO 6400 shot - there's definitely a good bit of noise in the shot but its relatively fine grained with plenty of detail and it cleans up pretty easily with a bit of NR in Lightroom. Here's the link to a Flickr version with minimal processing in lightroom, but includes a bit of noise reduction. You can click through to see a full version if you'd like.

View attachment 67469
High ISO from RAW-9 by ramboorider1, on Flickr

And if you want to play with the raw file directly, you can download it here and play with it to your heart's content:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzYbLKEAQf-lNm41SHRpLTlCZlU/edit?usp=sharing

I had a couple of others that were taken into the still receding glow of the sun that were much brighter and much cleaner. I figured this one was a pretty good representation of what it'll look like in truly low light. For my purposes, I'll trust this camera at 6400 for any type of street work in low light, I doubt I'll go higher because 12,800 and 25,600 are not native ISO and I think use some sort of jpeg processing to get there. And I already didn't like the jpeg results above 3200, so I'll likely stick to raw and a limit of 6400 with this camera.

-Ray
 
The Flickr file is limited to 1600 pixels.

On the other hand, I played with a Nikon A, X20 and X100S at the local store today. I brought a couple of SD cards, and took several photos of my go to sales guy in the JPG + RAW mode. After pixel peeping on the 27" imac, surprisingly, I found myself liking the files from the Nikon better than X100S. If the Nikon had a built in VF, and was in 35mm instead of 28mm, I would choose the Nikon over the X100S in a heart beat. I'm super tempted to get one anyway.
 
I stopped by the local camera store and got a chance to play with the nikon A, everything seemed to work as expected, no big suprises really, except for how much the salesman pushed the rx100. Next to the fuji x100s the camera doesn't really seem to stand out though. I think i'll still stick to my plan of testing out the halfpriced x100 for a few months and see if i can live with the size and focal length. If not i may move on to the nikon A(when it's cheaper) or the ricoh GRD V if it ever gets released.
 
Armanius said:
The Flickr file is limited to 1600 pixels.
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Sorry, I think I fixed that now. You should be able to see at least 2048 pixels now, if not full size. Flickr is always slightly mystifying to me.

As 28mm is my favored focal length and I don't care much about viewfinders in wider lenses, this camera is kind of a no-brainer for me. Only the RX1 is kind of messing me up a bit, but I sold enough m43 stuff and bags recently that I might be able to swing both this year.

-Ray
 
Mike Kobal put his first impression comparison btw Nikon A and X100s in his blog (includes full size images):

First impressions: Fujifilm X100s vs. Nikon Coolpix A: a mini review
Coolpix A: Getting rid of the AA filter paid off again, mind blowing detail, if you like your images ultra sharp, then this sensor is for you. The lens appears to be crazy sharp wide open. This lens/sensor combo delivers the sharpest shots I have seen from an APSC sized sensor.
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Also dpreview posted their sample images:
Nikon Coolpix A real-world samples gallery
 
Ray Sachs said:
Sorry, I think I fixed that now. You should be able to see at least 2048 pixels now, if not full size. Flickr is always slightly mystifying to me.

As 28mm is my favored focal length and I don't care much about viewfinders in wider lenses, this camera is kind of a no-brainer for me. Only the RX1 is kind of messing me up a bit, but I sold enough m43 stuff and bags recently that I might be able to swing both this year.

-Ray
Click to expand...

I've tried giving 28mm more love. I tend to reach for the 35 or 50 whenever using primes. Only time I generally use the 28's is on zoom lenses or zoom cameras that are widest and brightest at 28. I'm considering whether or not I'd be able to live with using an add-on OVF like the Ricoh Mini.

On the other hand, I might as well get an EPL5 or EPM2 and put the 14/2.5 on it for a cheaper small big sensor 28mm camera. Faster AF, and not too big of a loss in IQ. Although the "pop" on the Nikon is more appealing to me than that of the OMD + 14/2.5.

Aargh.
 
Armanius said:
I've tried giving 28mm more love. I tend to reach for the 35 or 50 whenever using primes. Only time I generally use the 28's is on zoom lenses or zoom cameras that are widest and brightest at 28. I'm considering whether or not I'd be able to live with using an add-on OVF like the Ricoh Mini.

On the other hand, I might as well get an EPL5 or EPM2 and put the 14/2.5 on it for a cheaper small big sensor 28mm camera. Faster AF, and not too big of a loss in IQ. Although the "pop" on the Nikon is more appealing to me than that of the OMD + 14/2.5.

Aargh.
Click to expand...

The focal length is totally down to personal preference and there's no right answer, except for you. The Nikon would still be more pocketable than any of the m43 options even with the 14mm, but with the 15mm body cap, it evens out somewhat, but you gotta love f8 for that. And the Nikon is dead silent, which doesn't really matter but is kind of nice anyway.

-Ray
 

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