Wow. It’s been awhile since I penned any blog entries again. Alas, all I can say is that work and life are more hectic than ever and somedays I’m happy just to know which way is up. I finally had a few free moments, though, so I wanted to write another of my equipment “non-reviews.” As a reminder, this series isn’t about doing formal reviews of my gear; it’s really just an overview of my experiences with a camera/lens/etc.
A quick bit of history with the Coolpix A. When Amanda and I went to Africa, I decided to augment my camera bag with some borrowed and rented gear. My good friend Gary was extremely generous and let me take his D800 halfway around the world and use it for the trip. I also rented a Nikon 200-500mm f5.6 lens as my main camera lens. On a whim, I also added a Nikon Coolpix A as something that I could keep in a jacket/cargo pants pocket. The idea was that this would give me a quick wide angle option while I had the 80-200mm on the D600 and the 200-500mm on the D800.
Long story short, I absolutely loved the Coolpix A. It performed better than I could have ever imagined in its defined role on that trip. When I sent my gear back to LensRentals, I thought long and hard about keeping the Coolpix A with their “Keeper” program. I had just spent a lot of money on a major trip, though and I couldn’t really afford the cost. Ever since then, though, I’ve thought about the Coolpix A almost constantly. I finally broke down and picked one up off of everyone’s favorite auction site. It’s been travelling essentially everywhere with me ever since.
So what is the appeal? Pretty succinctly, it’s essentially a D7000 that fits in one’s (jacket) pocket. Well, except for the autofocus which is not D7000 like at all. But I don’t really need it to be. For the stuff I shoot with the Coolpix A, I can get by with the slow but very accurate contrast-detect autofocus.
There are also two advantages over the D7000. The first is the lack of an anti-aliasing filter on the sensor. This is the first camera I’ve owned without an AA filter and my goodness! there is very nice little increase in image quality without it. I have yet to run across any objectionable moiré, either. The second advantage is that the Coolpix A carries a simply stunning 18.5mm f2.8 lens onboard. Why Nikon doesn’t make a version of this for their DX DSLRs is something that I will never understand. Then again, I don’t understand most of Nikon’s lack of lens support for DX DSLRs.
The Coolpix A is certainly not a do-everything compact camera like the Sony RX100 series. That’s fine with me. I’m learning to see with the Coolpix A’s fixed focal length and a smile crosses my face every time I open one of the files in Lightroom. It’s simply an image quality dynamo that is easy to carry just about everywhere I go. And because of that, I’m incredibly happy. Highly recommended if you don’t need great autofocus speed or more than a fixed, wide angle lens.
Approaching Storm – Pueblo Memorial Airport
(panorama stitched from 4 Coolpix A files)