Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 16 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 5.5Mb.

The Nikon Coolpix P510's image quality is good for a compact camera with a small image sensor. The Nikon Coolpix P510's dealt fairly well with noise, which becomes obvious at ISO 400 along with some colour loss. The noise, colour desaturation and loss of detail gets progressively worse as you go from ISO 400 to ISO 1600 and finally the unusable 3200 and 6400 settings. The Nikon Coolpix P510 handled chromatic aberrations excellently with limited purple fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations. The 16 megapixel images were a little soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpen setting and either require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you should increase the in-camera sharpening level.

The Nikon Coolpix P510's maximum shutter speed is 8 seconds, which is fairly good news for night photography enthusiasts. Macro performance is excellent, allowing you to focus as close as 1cm away from the subject. Vibration reduction is a compulsory feature on a camera like this and one that that works very well when hand-holding the P510 in low-light conditions or using the telephoto end of the amazing zoom range. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and good overall exposure. The backlighting feature increases detail in both the shadows and highlights, although at the expense of some additional noise and loss of fine detail, while the Picture Controls, Special Effects during shooting and Filter Effects during playback offer a lot of creative control over your images.

Noise

The Nikon Coolpix P510 has 7 sensitivity settings ranging from ISO 100 to ISO 6400 at full resolution.

ISO 100 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)
ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)
ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)
ISO 6400 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The Nikon Coolpix P510's 42x zoom lens provides an astonishing focal range of 24-1000mm in 35mm terms, as demonstrated below.

24mm	1000mm

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops - the right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images from the Nikon Coolpix P510 are slightly soft at the default sharpening setting and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can alternatively change the in-camera sharpening level to suit your tastes.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

File Quality

At full resolution, there are three JPEG quality settings availableon the Nikon Coolpix P510 - Fine, Normal and Basic.

Fine (5.01Mb) (100% Crop)	Normal (2.94Mb) (100% Crop)
Basic (1.72Mb) (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

Given the range of the zoom lens, the Nikon Coolpix P510 shows remarkably little purple fringing, with limited effects in areas of high contrast as shown in the examples below.

Example 1 (100% Crop)	Example 2 (100% Crop)

Macro

The Nikon Coolpix P510 allows you to get as close as 1cm to your subject, in this case a Compact Flash card.

Macro Shot	100% Crop

Flash

The flash settings on the Nikon Coolpix P510 are Auto, Auto with Red-eye reduction, Fill Flash, Manual (Full, 1/2, 1/4 1/8, 1/16, 1/32 and 1/64), Slow Sync, Rear-curtain Sync and Flash Off. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m. Some vignetting and barrel distortion is apparent at the 24mm wide-angle setting, irrespective of whether you use the flash or not.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (24mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (24mm)
Flash Off - Telephoto (1000mm)	Flash On - Telephoto (1000mm)

And here are a couple of portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Fill Flash or the Auto with Red-eye reduction options caused any amount of red-eye.

Flash On	Flash On (100% Crop)
Red Eye Reduction	Red Eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The Nikon Coolpix P510's maximum shutter speed is 8 seconds in the Manual mode, which is fairly good news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 8 seconds at ISO 100.

Night Shot	Night Shot (100% Crop)

Vibration Reduction

The Nikon Coolpix P510 has a vibration reduction 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 with the lens set to the same focal length and ISO speed. The first shot was taken with vibration reduction turned off, the second with it turned on. As you can see, with vibration reduction turned on, the images are definitely sharper than with vibration reduction turned off. Here is a 100% crop of the images to show the results.

Shutter Speed / Focal Length	Anti Shake Off (100% Crop)	Anti Shake On (100% Crop)
1/20th sec / 24mm
1/15th sec / 1000mm

Backlighting

The Nikon Coolpix P510's Baclighting mode captures three consecutive shots at varying exposures and combines them into a single photo with a broader range of tones. Three different HDR settings are available for selection.

Off	HDR 1
HDR 2	HDR 3

Picture Controls

The Nikon Coolpix P510 has four different Picture Controls, which can be individually tweaked (sharpening, contrast and saturation) to suit your taste.

Standard	Neutral
Vivid	Monochrome

Special Effects

You can apply nine different special effects as you shoot with the Nikon Coolpix P510, with a live preview on the LCD screen showing exactly what the final image will look like.

Off	Soft
Nostalgic Sepia	High-contrast Monochrome
High Key	Low Key
Selective Colour	Painting
High ISO Monochrome	Silhouette

Filter Effects

You can apply five different filter effects in-camera to photos that you have already taken with the Nikon Coolpix P510.

Selective Color	Cross Screen
Fisheye	Miniature Effect
Painting

Easy Panorama

The Nikon Coolpix P510's Easy Panorama mode allows you to take vertical or horizontal panorama photos simply by moving the camera in the direction of the on-screen guides. Multiple shots are then combined into a single panorama photo. The angle of view can be selected from 180° (normal) and 360° (wide).

Easy Panorama - 180°

Full-size Image

Easy Panorama - 360°

Full-size Image

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Nikon Coolpix P510 camera, which were all taken using the 16 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample Movie & Video

Product Images

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera / Turned On

Front of the Camera / Pop-up Flash

Isometric View

Isometric View

Rear of the Camera

Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed

Rear of the Camera / Turned On

Rear of the Camera / Shooting Menu

Rear of the Camera / Function Menu

Fold-out LCD Screen

Fold-out LCD Screen

Fold-out LCD Screen

Top of the Camera

Bottom of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The Nikon Coolpix P510 ups the ante in the ultra-zoom camera stakes by offering an incredible telephoto zoom setting of 1000mm. Remarkably it's still possible to hand-hold the camera in good light and achieve sharp pictures thanks to the excellent vibration reduction system, although you really need to use a tripod or other support for consistent results. The move to a 16 megapixel sensor hasn't spoiled the image quality, but it hasn't improved it either, being merely good, and the P510 still struggles to keep up with fast-moving subjects and lacks support for the raw file format.

The main attraction of the P510 is of course that 24-1000mm equivalent zoom lens, which covers the focal range of at least 4 SLR lenses, but there is a lot more to the Nikon P510 than just an insanely long zoom. It also offers SLR-like handling, manual exposure and focus, an eye-level viewfinder, an articulated and high-resolution LCD screen, built-in GPS and full HD movies with stereo sound, full-time AF and optical zoom as well. The P510 is a very well rounded package that is surprisingly compact and lightweight and which will more than satisfy the needs of many users.

In terms of handling, the P510 unfortunately suffers from some of the same issues as its predecessor. These include a lack of direct access to the ISO speed and white balance (although you can assign one of those to the new Function button), a missing second control wheel and the inability to attach an external flashgun. Generally speaking, however, the Nikon Coolpix 510 offers better handling and ease-of-use than the P500 and some of its competitors, with the inclusion of the side zoom control on the lens barrel a very welcome one, especially for videographers.

Image quality remains something of a mixed bag. It's not bad for a compact camera, but the ambitious move to a 16 megapixel sensor, despite it still being a back-illuminated CMOS one, hasn't done the P510 many favours. There is a little too much smearing of fine detail in the full-resolution images, even at the lower ISO speeds, with things starting to fall apart at ISO 400 and getting progressively worse as you go up the range. The P510's overall image quality is pleasing enough in good light, but simply not as good as its rivals as you move up the ISO range.

Despite retaining similar flaws that also afflicted the P510's predecessor - namely the so-so image quality, lack of RAW mode, slightly sluggish auto-focusing and some handling issues, this new ultra-zoom is still well worth a look if want the all-in-one convenience of a superzoom that can shoot everything from wide-angle landscapes to close-ups of birds and other small subjects. That 1000mm telephoto setting may sound a little ridiculous on paper, but in reality it is actually a usable setting in good lighting conditions. The Nikon Coolpix P510 may not produce the best photos at higher ISO speeds or focus quickly enough for fast-moving subjects, but it's a lot more portable and convenient than an SLR with a bag full of lenses and also doubles up as an effective video camera thanks to its excellent movie mode, making it worthy of our Highly Recommended award.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4.5
Features	5
Ease-of-use	4
Image quality	3.5
Value for money	4

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Nikon Coolpix P510 from around the web.

Specifications

Your Comments