Nikon P50 Review

The Coolpix P50 has a sensor resolution of eight megapixels coupled to a Nikkor-branded 3.6x wide angle zoom lens, although due to the more economical price it forgoes image stabilization offered by its more expensive sibling, the P5100. The Nikon P50 includes a 2.4-inch LCD display with a pretty average 115,000 pixel resolution, but despite the lower pricetag it does still include an optical viewfinder - an increasingly rare option these days, and one that's useful in difficult lighting conditions or when you need to economize on battery life.

The P50 features Nikon's enhanced Face-Priority AF which automatically finds and focuses on one person's face or up to 12 people's faces within one frame. In addition to Program and Manual exposure mode, the Coolpix P50 offers a selection of 15 different scene-optimized modes, movie modes, and a macro mode. Nikon has also incorporated its user-friendly "In-Camera Innovations" into the P50, designed to make the photo-taking process easier and more intuitive. These technologies include In-Camera Red-Eye Fix, D-Lighting, and Face Priority AF. In-Camera Red-Eye Fix automatically detects and corrects red eye, a common condition that occurs in flash photography. In playback mode, D-Lighting compensates for excessive back-light or insufficient flash in images.

Other features of the Coolpix P50 includes a maximum ISO sensitivity of 2000, a built-in flash (but no hotshoe), power from two AA batteries, USB connectivity and an SDHC / SD / MMC card slot plus 52MB of built-in memory.

The Nikon Coolpix P50 will ship October 2007, priced at about US$230