Nikon DL premium compacts
The compact camera market is declining because of smartphones. Several manufacturers announced they only going to make premium compact cameras, because of this competition. It is an interesting move that Nikon announced the new DL line of compact cameras.
Nikon DL premium compacts the basics
This cameras has a 1″ sensor (13.2 x 8.8mm), most compact cameras has a 1/2.3″ sensor(app. 6x4mm). The bigger sensor is normally translates to better image quality, lower noise etc. The sensor is a 21 Megapixel BSI-CMOS sensor, with an ISO sensitivity of 100-12,800.
The optics are the following for these cameras:
24-85mm f/1.8-2.8 an ideal zoom for landscapes and general usage
16-50mm f/1.8-2.8 (this is an ultra wide angle)
24-500mm f/2.8-5.6 (super telephoto)
Just based on specification this looks quite impressive: brightness, reach, wide angle everything you can dream of.
Nikon DL 24-85mm
What is interesting the this camera offers 1:1 macro with manual focusing, which is rare in compact cameras. Optional viewfinder can be purchased for this camera for extra money. The camera has a 3″ tilting touch OLED monitor.
Nikon DL 16-50mm
This super wide angle camera has distortion correction, which corrects keystoning. (if we photograph a building from below the lines are not straigt but become closer and closer). Optional viewfinder can be purchased for this camera as well. This camera also has a 3″ tilting touch OLED monitor.
Nikon DL 24-500mm
Only this camera has an inbuilt viewfinder out of the three, but the price is higher as well. The viewfinder is an 2.359 million dots OLED screen. An optional external mic is also can be purchased to this camera which can record UHD videos. For this camera apart from the viewfinder there is a 3″ vari-angle OLED touch monitor.
Connectivity
All there cameras has Wifi and NFC compatibility with compatible systems. Nikon snapbridge application must be installed on the device. Out of the three the one with the big lens is the most interesting for me. This is what many wildlife/bird fans always wanted: a big sensored compact with a long lens. But the Nikon P900 is much more interesting regarding reach: 2000mm instead of 500mm. This is a huge difference. Other competition is the otherwise not so successful Nikon 1 line (with similar sized sensor) where you can attach Dslr lenses with bigger reach as well. A 300mm lens will be 810mm equivalent.
The super wide angle is also interesting and unprecedented in this compact segment. The widest angle offered in a compact was a 21mm equivalent if I remember well. It all comes on the lens, how good the lens will be, how control flare, which is usual problem with these types of lenses and things like that. If the lens will be very good a camera can be a hot seller.
Concurrence / competition
This segment is dominated by the Sony RX 100 line of cameras out of which the Mk IV is the latest, but the earlier ones has a great value as well. Apart from the little confusing/complicated menu system, which most Dslr users don’t like, these cameras offer the best quality in premium compacts.
Apart from compact cameras at this prices Dslr’s are the biggest competition, which are much better in terms of image quality but a good optics can cost a fortune, especially the long one.
Nikon DL price
The price of the Nikon DL camera with the 24-85mm lens is 650 USD, the one with the long 24-500mm lens is 1000 USD, the third one with the ultrawide angle lens is 850 USD.