Nikon Coolpix 5600

Review Date: May 9th 2005

Page 1
Introduction / Price
Page 2
Features
Page 3
Specifications
Page 4
Design
Page 5
Ease of Use
Page 6
Image Quality
Page 7
Sample Images
Page 8
Conclusion / Links

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 5M High image mode setting, which gives an average image size of around 1.5Mb.

Noise

The Nikon Coolpix 5600 does not allow you to choose the ISO speed, instead automatically choosing the appropriate speed from ISO 50-200. Here is a 100% crop which shows the noise levels for ISO 50:

ISO 50 (100% crop)

 

The noise levels look fine at ISO 50, but I did find that the camera chose ISO 50 whenever possible, resulting in some bizarre shutter speed and aperture combinations e.g. 1/8th second at f/2.9 at ISO 50 for an indoor shot with people, which isn't at all appropriate. Not being able to set the ISO speed severely limits the Coolpix 5600 in terms of its usability.

Sharpening

You cannot change the sharpening level on the Nikon Coolpix 5600. Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Adobe Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are quite soft, with post-processing showing some extra detail, so you will have to either accept the soft images or edit them all in Photoshop or a similar program later.

Original 100% Crop

Sharpened 100% Crop

   

File Quality

The Nikon Coolpix 5600 has 5 different image size/ quality settings - High (2592), Normal (2592), Normal (2048), PC screen (1024) and TV screen (640). Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various settings, with the file size shown in brackets.

High (2592 x 1944px) (1.61Mb)
Normal (2592 x 1944px) (1Mb)
   
   
Normal (2048 x 1536px) (654Kb)
Pc screen (1024 x 768px) (197Kb)
   
TV screen (640 x 480px) (98Kb)
 
 
   

Chromatic Aberrations

I had to look extremely hard to find any examples of chromatic aberrations in the review shots taken with the Nikon Coolpix 5600. You can see a faint purple-fringing around the edges of the knife and the roof structure against the very high-contrast sky, but it's not too obvious at all. A great performance by the Nikon Coolpix 5600.

Example 1
Example 2
   

Macro

The Nikon Coolpix 5600 has a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is 4cms away from the camera. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.

Macro Shot (click to view full-sized image)

100% Crop

   

Flash

The flash options on the Nikon Coolpix 5600 are Auto, Auto with Red-eye Reduction (Advanced Red-eye Reduction), Anytime Flash, Flash Cancel and Slow sync. These shots of a white wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (35mm)

Auto Flash - Wide Angle (35mm)

   

Flash Off - Telephoto (105mm)

Auto Flash - Telephoto (105mm)
   

And here are some shots of yours truly. The flash underexposed the scene very slightly in the standard Flash On mode. Both the Flash On and Red-eye Reduction (with Nikon's new Advanced Red-eye Reduction) flash modes produced no discernible redeye.

Flash On

Flash On (100% Crop)
   

Flash - Red-Eye Reduction

Flash - Red-Eye Reduction (100% Crop)
   

Night Shot

The Nikon Coolpix 5600's maximum shutter speed is only 4 seconds which isn't that great if you're seriously interested in night photography. The following example was taken using the Night scene mode, which used a shutter speed of 1/2 second with an aperture of f/2.9 at ISO 200. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like.

Night Shot (click to view full-sized image)

100% Crop
   

D-Lighting

D-Lighting is similar to HP's Adaptive Lighting technology, in that it lightens under-exposed parts of the image whilst ensuring that correctly exposed parts remain the same (and are not also lightened). This basically balances the shadows and highlights in a high-contrast image, for example a scene that includes deep black shadows and a bright white sky. D-Lighting is selected by pressing the OK button when an image is played back, so it is applied after the image has been recorded. The Nikon Coolpix 5600 processes a copy of the image (which takes around 15 seconds) so that some areas of the photograph are lightened and some are left as they are. Here are some examples which show the effects of using the D-Lighting feature, showing that it works well, although there is extra noise in the images that have had D-Lighting applied to them:

D-Lighting - Off

ISO 64
 
D-Lighting - On
ISO 64
 

D-Lighting - Off

ISO 64
 
D-Lighting - On
ISO 64
 

D-Lighting - Off

ISO 64
 
D-Lighting - On
ISO 64
 

Overall Image Quality

The Nikon Coolpix 5600 produced an average set of test images. The 5 megapixel photos are quite soft out of the camera and benefit from further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop. You cannot change the sharpening level in-camera, so you will either have to accept the soft images or edit them all in Photoshop or a similar program later. Noise was not visible at ISO 50 (as you would expect). The Nikon Coolpix 5600 does not allow you to set the ISO speed - instead it chooses a suitable speed from ISO 50-200. In practice I found that it chose ISO 50 in virtually all situations, which led to some very inappropriate shutter speed and aperture combinations. This combination of not being able to set the ISO yourself and a tendency by the camera to choose the slowest speed at all times means that the Nikon Coolpix 5600 is only really suitable for use outdoors in good lighting conditions, or indoors with the flash on for every shot. The built-in flash was unfortunately also a weak-point for the Nikon Coolpix 5600. There is no auto-focus assist light on the Coolpix 5600, so focusing in the indoor test shots was very difficult, and when it did achieve focus the camera had a tendency to underexpose slightly. Thankfully there was no evidence of redeye. Night-shots are limited due to the 4 second maximum shutter speed. The Nikon Coolpix 5600 dealt extremely well with chromatic aberrations, which only appeared in a few images and even then was barely noticeable. Macro performance was good, allowing you get as close as 4 cms away from your subject. The new D-Lighting feature works very well with the right images, balancing out the shadow and highlight areas nicely.

Page 1
Introduction / Price
Page 2
Features
Page 3
Specifications
Page 4
Design
Page 5
Ease of Use
Page 6
Image Quality
Page 7
Sample Images
Page 8
Conclusion / Links

DIWAPhotographyBLOG is a member of the DIWA organisation. Our test results for the Nikon Coolpix 5600 have been submitted to DIWA for comparison with test results for different samples of the same camera model supplied by other DIWA member sites.