"Picky Details" for the Nikon Coolpix P2 Digital Camera
(Timing, Power, and Storage Info)

Timing

When you press the shutter release on a camera, there's usually a lag time or delay before the shutter actually fires. This corresponds to the time required for the autofocus and autoexposure mechanisms time to do their work, and can amount to a fairly long delay in some situations. Since this number is rarely reported on (and even more rarely reported accurately), and can significantly affect the picture taking experience, I routinely measure both shutter delay and shot to shot cycle times for all cameras I test, using a test system I designed and built for the purpose. (Crystal-controlled, with a resolution of 0.001 second.) Here are the numbers I collected for the Nikon Coolpix P2:

A range of performance, from slightly slow to faster than average for a consumer camera.
The Coolpix P2's performance ranges from slow to faster than average, depending on what you're trying to do. Start-up time is on the slow side, but shot to shot times in normal single-shot mode are average to a bit better than average for cameras of its class, and it can capture a long sequence of large/fine JPEG images at that rate without slowing down. (Provided of course that you equip it with a suitably fast SD memory card: Our results here were measured with a fast 133x card from Kingston Memory.) Shutter response is faster than average, and positively blazing when you "prefocus" the camera by half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before the final exposure. Continuous-mode speed is about average, at a bit over two frames/second, for up to five shots in succession. The flash takes about six seconds to recharge after a full-power shot, again on the slower side of average. Connected to a computer, download speeds are slow by current standards, but most users won't feel the need for a separate card reader. Bottom line, the Coolpix P2 probably isn't the camera for capturing high-speed action, but should be able to handle most normal family and travel situations just fine.

Power

Proprietary lithium-ion battery with average capacity.
The Coolpix P2 uses a custom rechargeable EN-EL8 Lithium Ion battery rated at 730 mAh for power. Because it has no external power connector, we couldn't perform our usual direct measurements of power consumption. Using the CIPA standard, Nikon claims approximately 190 shots on a fully charged battery for it, a number that's a bit on the low side. - And WiFi usage undoubtedly takes more power to drive the radio link. (We managed to completely drain a fresh battery in just over an hour of playing with the camera, with WiFi active about half of the time.) Overall, our standard recommendation that you purchase a second battery right along with the camera applies doubly to the P2.

Storage Capacity

The Nikon Coolpix P2 stores its photos on SD / MMC memory cards or in approximately 13.5MB of internal memory, and no card is included with the camera. (We strongly recommend buying a large capacity SD/MMC memory card. -- These days, 128 - 256 MB is a good trade-off between cost and capacity.) The chart below shows how many images can be stored internal memory at each size/quality setting.

Download Speed

The Nikon Coolpix P2 connects to a host computer via a USB interface. Downloading files to my Sony desktop running Windows XP (Pentium IV, 2.4 GHz), I clocked it at 461 KBytes/second. (Cameras with slow USB interfaces run as low as 300 KB/s, cameras with fast v1.1 interfaces run as high as 600 KB/s. Cameras with USB v2.0 interfaces run as fast as several megabytes/second.)