Nikon COOLPIX P330 Review

Maureen
Maureen
July 05, 2013

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The Nikon COOLPIX P330 is a new pocket compact camera designed to appeal to the keen enthusiast photographer. It is virtually identical to its predecessor, the P310, in terms of its external design and look. You can easily carry the P330 around in a trouser or shirt pocket, as it measures 103.0 x 58.3 x 32.0 mm and weighs 200g with the battery and memory card fitted.

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The camera manages to house a 12 million pixel 1/1.7-inch CMOS sensor. There is a rubberized thumb rest at the back and a small ridge in front so you can hold on to it firmly with one hand.

Full manual control is available here, as well as semi-automatic shooting modes, such as aperture priority and shutter priority. Full automatic shooting is also included, along with scene modes. Raw format shooting is a possibility, too.

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Shallow depth of field
A 5x optical zoom lens boasts an f/1.8 maximum aperture (at the wide end). In 35mm terms, you’ve got the equivalent of 24-120mm.

I love its F/1.8 aperture as this means you can get creative with attractive shallow depth of field effects. The drop-off in focus is very pleasing and you really can achieve some beautiful results (especially during daylight). Bokeh is also represented nicely, thanks to the lens’s seven-blade iris diaphragm.

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Image Quality
The ISO sensitivity starts from 80 all the way to Hi 2. I think I can accept till ISO 1600. Anything after that will be too grainy for me. An ND filter is integrated to help expand exposure control in bright conditions.

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Special Effects
There aren’t any digital filters that can be used while shooting, but there are special effects such as soft, nostalgic sepia, high contrast monochrome, high key, low key, high ISO monochrome, silhouette and cross process which enable you to enhance your photos. There’s also the ability to perform quick retouches and process raw files in the camera.

Samples

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Cologne Cathedral

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We climbed up the cathedral and the view is BREATHTAKING!

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Rhine River Cruise from St Goar, using Portrait mode.

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Lovely flowers from Keuknenof

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Paranoma shot of Zaanse Schans. The camera has the ability to shoot 360 or 180-degree panoramas, 3D shooting mode and a monochrome shooting.

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This is Brussels town hall taken using Landscape mode.

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Not forgetting my favourite scene option: FOOD! Waffles from Belgium.

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Rows of restaurants in Bruges.

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Les Invalides in Paris.

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Roast chicken from L’Arpege.

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Ferris wheel in Paris!

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EIFFEL TOWER, NICE ANOT!

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I think the COOLPIX P330 is good for night photography. They have a dial especially for night landscape so I tried it by shooting the Eiffel Tower at 10pm. I am impressed with the result. It also has vibration reduction, which compensates for camera shake by offering faster shutter speed.

P330’s Expeed C2 processor helps to facilitate both Full HD video recording and ISO capabilities from 100-3200. This is manually extendable up to ISO 12800, when using the Hi2 setting. HD video recording can be achieved at 60, 50, 30 or 25fps.

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Conclusion
I am impressed by the image quality from Nikon COOLPIX P330, especially given its size and convenience. When the lighting is good, it is on par with other compact cameras – bright and colourful images. Especially with the F1.8 aperture, it sure helps to make the bokeh sexy!