Nikon Coolpix A Flash

Coverage and Range
Short flash range with narrow coverage. Our standard shots required an average amount of exposure compensation.

Coverage and Exposure. Flash coverage was rather uneven with very dark corners and edges, though much of the corner darkening is caused by the lens itself. For our Indoor Portrait scene test, the Nikon Coolpix A's flash required +0.7 EV exposure compensation adjustment to produce bright results in normal Auto flash mode with a 1/60 second shutter speed, which is about average for the cameras we've tested. The camera's Slow-Sync flash mode at 1/13 second produced fairly bright results with +0.3 EV compensation, though with a strong pinkish-orange cast from the ambient lighting.

ISO 200 Range. With the lens set at maximum aperture, Nikon Coolpix A's flash exposures started out bright at 6 feet in the center of the target, but brightness gradually dropped off from there. We'll call the usable range at ISO 200 at about 10 feet.

Manufacturer Specified Flash Test. The Nikon Coolpix A's flash guide number is 6 m / 21 ft in Auto mode at ISO 100. That translates to about 10.6 feet at ISO 200 and f/2.8, the maximum aperture of the lens. In the shot above, the Coolpix A appears to underperform slightly relative to Nikon's specification, producing a slightly dim exposure at the rated distance. The flash target is underexposed compared to the ideal exposure by only about 1/10 f-stop. Our standard test method for flash range uses a fixed setting of ISO 200, to provide a fair basis of comparison between cameras. We've now also begun shooting two shots using the manufacturer-specified camera settings, at the range the company claims for the camera, to assess the validity of the specific claims.