Nikon Coolpix P4 Review
Review Date: April 19th 2006
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using
the 8M Fine mode, which gives an average image size of around
2.5-3.5Mb.
Noise
There are 4 ISO settings available on the Nikon Coolpix P4
which you can select at any time if the camera is in the normal
shooting mode. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise
levels for each ISO setting:
There is virtually no discernible noise at the slowest settings
of ISO 80 and 100, and ISO 200 isn't too bad at all. The fastest
speed of ISO 400 has obvious noise but is fine if you are
only making small sized prints.
Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality
50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening
applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little
bit soft at the default sharpening setting of Auto and benefit
from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop.
You can change the in-camera sharpening level to one of four
preset levels (Off, Low, Normal, High) if you don't like the
Auto setting.
File Quality
The Nikon Coolpix P4 has 3 different image quality settings
available, with Fine being the highest quality option. Here
are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various
options, with the file size shown in brackets.
Chromatic Aberrations
The Nikon Coolpix P4 handled chromatic aberrations very well
during the review, with limited purple fringing present around
the edges of objects in certain high-contrast situations,
usually at the edges of the photograph.
Macro
The Nikon Coolpix P4 offers a Macro setting that allows you
to focus on a subject that is 5cms away from the camera when
the lens is set to wide-angle. 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.
Flash
The flash settings on the Nikon Coolpix P4 are Auto, Auto
with Red-eye Reduction, Flash Cancel, Anytime Flash, Slow
Sync. These shots of a magnolia coloured wall were taken at
a distance of 1.5m.
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Auto Flash - Telephoto (126mm) |
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And here are some shots of yours truly. As you can see, neither
the Flash On setting and the Red-Eye Reduction option caused
any red-eye.
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Flash On (100% Crop) |
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Flash - Red-Eye Reduction (100%
Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Nikon Coolpix P4's maximum shutter speed is 8 seconds
in the Night Landscape scene mode, which is fairly good news
if you're seriously interested in night photography. Less
helpful is the fact that you can't set the aperture or ISO
speed in this scene mode, and the P4 always seems to set a
large aperture and fast ISO speed to get the fastest shutter
speed possible, which isn't well suited to landscape photos.
The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 1.3 seconds
at f/2.9 at ISO 200. I've included a 100% crop of the image
to show what the quality is like.
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100% Crop |
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Vibration Reduction
The Nikon Coolpix P4 has an anti-shake mechanism, which allows
you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other
digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld shots of
the same subject. The first shot was taken with anti shake
turned off, the second with it turned on. Here is a 100% crop
of the image to show the results. As you can see, with anti
shake turned on, the images are much sharper than with anti
shake turned off. This feature really does seem to make a
difference and could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot
or missing the opportunity altogether.
D-Lighting
D-Lighting 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 shutter button button when an
image is played back, so it is applied after the image has
been recorded. The Nikon Coolpix P4 processes a copy of the
image (which takes around 10 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:
Overall Image Quality
The Nikon Coolpix P4 produced images of very good quality
during the review period. The 8 megapixel images were a little
soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpening
setting and ideally require some further sharpening in an
application like Adobe Photoshop. Alternatively you can change
the in-camera setting to one of four levels to suit your taste.
The Nikon Coolpix P4 dealt very well with chromatic aberrations,
with limited purple fringing appearing only in high contrast
situations and at the edge of the frame. Macro performance
is above average, allowing you to focus as close as 4cms away
from the subject. The built-in flash worked well indoors,
with no red-eye and good overall exposure. The night photograph
was a weak point, with the maximum shutter speed of 8 seconds
in the Night Landscape scene mode not being that versatile.
The D-Lighting feature works very well with the right images,
balancing out the shadow and highlight areas nicely, although
at the expense of introducing extra noise. Anti-shake is a
new feature on Nikon compact cameras and is something that
sets this camera apart from its competitors. It works very
well when hand-holding the camera in low-light conditions
or when using the telephoto end of the zoom range. The Nikon
Coolpix P4 also handled noise well. The 1/1.8 inch, 8 megapixel
sensor used in the Nikon Coolpix P4 produces noise-free images
at ISO 80 and ISO 100, with ISO 200 looking good and even
ISO 400 proving quite usable for small prints.
 PhotographyBLOG
is a member of the DIWA
organisation. Our test results for the Nikon Coolpix P4 have
been submitted to DIWA
for comparison with test results for different samples of the
same camera model supplied by other DIWA
member sites.
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