Introduction

Ease of Use

The Nikon Coolpix P530 follows the bridge camera mould, meaning you get the feel and much of the control of a DSLR, combined with plenty of effects modes and compact-camera toys. It’s the best of both worlds for enthusiastic photographers wanting something more serious than a basic point and shoot, plus you get that huge 42x zoom lens to really sweeten the deal.

This kind of focal length range is enough to cover pretty much any scenario you’ll ever encounter, and although the same can be said of the P520, the new camera packs this optical punch into a slightly more svelte body that’s approximately 3mm narrower and shallower than before. Weight is also down 56g to 494g, making the P530 surprisingly light for its size. The camera does feel rather plasticky as a result of its crash diet, but the fit and finish is still very good. That chunky design also makes the P530 very comfortable to use and it feels secure in the hand, helped by the rubberised grips at both ends. A rubber rear thumb pad would have been a nice addition, but the embossed plastic alternative still gives your thumb something to grip on to.

Front	Rear

Although the P530’s bridge camera ethos means you get more manual control than a regular Coolpix camera, this certainly isn’t a daunting device to operate. Up top is the usual shutter release and zoom-ring combo, just ahead of a customisable function button. By default this is set to switch between single or continuous shooting modes, though it can be reprogrammed to control settings like ISO sensitivity or white balance. The power button sits a few millimetres behind the function button, so the two can often be confused when attempting to turn on the camera without looking.

It’s great to see a proper mode dial on the P530, as this makes it far easier to switch modes than the menu-based system used on most Coolpix models. It enables you to instantly move between the aperture and shutter priority options, full manual control, programmed auto and fully automatic modes. A separate user-customisable setting means you can store your own shooting mode for quick recall, or you can turn the dial a stage further and reveal the P530’s 9 special effect filters. Check out the image quality section for examples of these. A separate setting accesses the 21 available scene modes, whilst the landscape, night landscape and night portrait presets get their own individual place on the mode dial.

If you do fancy getting a bit creative and experimenting with manual photography, the control wheel at the top right of the rear is well placed to alter shutter speed, whilst the multi selector ring dial below cycles up and down the aperture range. This also doubles as a useful way to quickly cycle through menu lists, or you can press it up, down, left or right when shooting to change the flash mode, macro mode, self-timer and exposure compensation. A dedicated video record button is also present, and alongside this is a control to switch between the LCD monitor and electronic viewfinder.

Front	Side

It’s a shame Nikon hasn’t fitted the P530 with a sensor to automatically switch between the LCD and EVF when your eye is placed against the camera, and the EVF’s resolution isn’t particularly impressive either. It’s still a welcome feature to have though, especially in bright sunlight when it’s hard to correctly judge exposure via the monitor alone. However, in most lighting conditions you won’t have any trouble seeing the LCD screen as it’s nice and bright and boasts great viewing angles, detail and colour reproduction. Strangely Nikon has ditched the tilting monitor mechanism present on the P520 and fixed the new camera’s screen. This does contribute to the P530’s slimmed-down dimensions and lighter weight, though we suspect it may also be to keep the P530 from snapping at the heels of the pricier P600 in the features stakes. The new monitor has also shrunk from 3.2” on the P520 to 3.0” for the current camera.

The P530’s screen isn’t its only downgraded element though. Keen students of Nikon’s Coolpix model line-up may have spotted the new camera’s 16.1 megapixel sensor is down from the 18.1 megapixel device in the P520. That may be a bit of a marketing faux pas, but there are gains to be had from a pixel purge. Both cameras use sensors of the same physical size, hence the P530’s pixels can be slightly larger, making them more light-sensitive and less prone to generating unwanted image noise. Upshot? Theoretically cleaner photos for a marginal drop in image dimensions.

Both cameras will record Full HD 1080p video with stereo sound, and the P530 does this to good effect. The results show plenty of detail and although sound quality is less impressive, it’s perfectly adequate for this level of camera. If you’d rather capture a series of stills rather than video, the P530 will record at 7fps, albeit only for a 7-shot burst. Reduce the shooting rate to 1fps and you can capture up to 200 consecutive shots, or drop the image resolution to Full HD 1920x1080 and the camera will chug away at 60fps. Alternatively if you can live with a titchy 640x480 image size, high-speed 120fps shooting is possible.

Top	Battery Compartment

Back to the business of cut features and we find an oddly positioned plastic panel on the left side of the lens, which was once home to the secondary zoom control on the P520. Consequently you can no longer zoom with your left hand and keep your right hand free to adjust settings or snap the shutter. If you’re expecting GPS geotagging and location mapping to make an appearance in the P530 as they did in the P520, then you’re in for another disappointment as GPS has also been cut from the features list. Nikon hasn’t seen fit to pack in proper Wi-Fi connectivity either. It wasn’t present in the P520 either, and despite claims that both cameras do sport Wi-Fi connectivity, you’ll need to shell out around £50/$70 for an optional WU-1a Wi-Fi dongle to achieve it. At least the new camera does extract more life out its 1100MAh rechargeable Li-ion battery. The pretty paltry 200-shot lifespan of the P520 has now been upped to a more useful – if still relatively mediocre – 240 shots.

Power up the Coolpix P530 and it’s ready for action in a fraction under one second. Autofocussing is almost instant in most lighting conditions, though when the going gets dim the camera can require a frustrating few seconds to find its mark. The problem is compounded if you shoot in low light at the upper end of the camera’s zoom range, whereby autofocussing occasionally fails altogether. Thankfully such instances are rare.

We’ve got no complaints with the P530’s auto white balance though, which didn’t fall foul of some trickier lighting scenarios which have been known to faze similar cameras. Likewise the camera’s exposure metering invariably struck the correct balance of highlight and shadow detail during our testing.

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 5Mb.

The big question here is whether the P530’s drop in sensor resolution has given image quality a boost. Well fortunately it seems to have done the trick, as for what’s still a small 1/2.3-inch sensor, it does produce some very nice shots. Fine detail is well retained and images can look impressively sharp. Even landscape scenes where grasses and foliage are often prone to appearing smeared and painterly when captured on similarly small sensors come out looking crisp and realistic.

Nikon’s ability to produce stellar optics is again proven with the 42x lens on the P530. Despite the huge focal length range there’s virtually no visible barrel or pincushion distortion and sharpness is excellent across the entire frame. Chromatic aberration (purple fringing in high contrast areas) is also very well controlled and rarely visible. The camera’s Vibration Reduction system works a treat too, stabilising shots taken at the extreme telephoto end of the zoom range which would otherwise be impossible to hold steady.

The P530’s exposure metering produces bright, balanced exposures with vibrant, punchy colour reproduction. Some highlight detail can blow out as a result of the fairly average dynamic range, and although activating Nikon’s Active D-Lighting feature claws back some highlight and shadow detail, it’s no miracle cure. If you want to really increase dynamic range, you’re better off switching to the camera’s Backlighting scene mode, whereby two shots of differing exposures are captured and combined into one image with much-improved shadow and highlight definition.

The P530 also impresses in low light and at higher sensor sensitivities. Sure, grain is visible even at low ISO settings if you pixel-peep, but this is inevitable with any small-sensor camera so it shouldn’t be cause for concern. What’s more important is how well the P530 controls this noise. Only at ISO 800 does grain start to become more pronounced, but it’s by no means distracting. Even ISO 1600 shots bear up to close scrutiny and it’s only at ISO 3200 where image noise really takes a turn for the worst. Even so, we’ve seen far worse at this sensitivity setting from other cameras with similarly-sized sensors. However, the maximum ISO 6400 is best left as a last resort, such is the high level of grain and visible colour speckling. All in all an impressive performance though.

Some may lament the absence of raw capture in a bridge camera such as this, however the P530’s decent image quality is in a large part down to clever JPEG image processing. Strip this away to shoot raw files and the results won’t look nearly as appealing as they do from a larger-sensor camera like a DSLR. You’d have to put in some serious post-production work to restore them to the JPEG quality automatically outputted by the P530.

Noise

The Nikon Coolpix P530 has seven sensitivity settings at full resolution. Auto mode uses a range between ISO 100 and ISO 1600, or you can switch to Program mode to reveal ISO 3200 and ISO 6400 settings. Select the High ISO Monochrome effect and you’ll be shooting at ISO 12800, though the results are intentionally grainy as a result.

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 P530’s 42x zoom lens achieves a maximum wide-angle focal length equivalent to 24mm, and is capable of a telephoto reach of 1000mm (in 35mm-camera terms).

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 P530 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

Every image size option on the P530 is accompanied by two quality settings: Normal and Fine. Going for the latter will roughly double the file size of each saved image from approximately 3MB to 6MB.

Fine (6.42Mb) (100% Crop)	Normal (3.91Mb) (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

Given the range of the zoom lens, the Nikon Coolpix P530 shows remarkably little purple fringing, with limited effects in areas of high contrast as shown in the examples below.

Chromatic Aberrations 1 (100% Crop)	Chromatic Aberrations 2 (100% Crop)

Macro

The P530’s lens will focus as close as 1cm. This image is taken from around 5cm, as shooting any closer will usually mean the camera casts a shadow over your subject.

Macro	Macro (100% Crop)

Flash

The camera’s flash has a range of up to 8.0 meters and includes four settings: Standard, Red-eye reduction, Slow sync and Rear-curtain sync. Shooting a white surface from a distance of 1.5m, the flash provides even coverage with the lens zoomed in, though some vignetting is visible in the wide-angle shot.

Whether the flash is set to Standard or Red-eye reduction, the camera successfully avoids any trace of red-eye.

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)

Vibration Reduction

Lens shift Vibration Reduction successfully avoids blurring from camera shake and is essential when zoomed up close. Try shooting handheld with VR disabled and you’ll end up with blurry mess.

Shutter Speed / Focal Length	Anti Shake Off (100% Crop)	Anti Shake On (100% Crop)
1/15th sec / 300mm

Backlighting

This setting automatically captures two exposures of a high-contrast scene to record shadow and highlight detail separately. The results are then merged into a single HDR image with three possible intensity levels. This shot was snapped using the second level.

HDR Off	HDR On

Special Effects

The P530 offers nine colour effects, all of which are previewed live. Your options are: Soft, Nostalgic sepia, High-contrast monochrome, Painting, High key, Low key, Selective colour, High ISO Monochrome & Cross process.

Soft	Nostalgic Sepia
High-contrast Monochrome	Painting
High Key	Low Key
Selective Colour	High ISO Monochrome
Cross Process

Easy Panorama

Pan the P530 left or right and it’ll automatically stitch together a 180 or 360-degree panorama. The system is in dire need of an update however, as the considerably downsized output files are severely lacking in detail. Not being able to stop panning at will also means capturing a panorama narrower than 180-degrees is impossible.

Easy Panorama - 180°

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Nikon Coolpix P530 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 Nikon Coolpix P530

Front of the Nikon Coolpix P530 / Pop-up Flash

Side of the Nikon Coolpix P530

Side of the Nikon Coolpix P530

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix P530

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix P530 / Image Displayed

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix P530 / Main Menu

Top of the Nikon Coolpix P530

Bottom of the Nikon Coolpix P530

Side of the Nikon Coolpix P530

Side of the Nikon Coolpix P530

Front of the Nikon Coolpix P530

Front of the Nikon Coolpix P530

Memory Card Slot / Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The Nikon Coolpix P530 is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand it’s hard to justify it as a compelling upgrade over the P520, mainly as it cuts so many features from the old camera. Gone are its GPS ability, tiltable (and slightly larger) screen, plus its useful secondary zoom control. Optically the P530 doesn’t bring anything new to the table either, and the same can be said of the build quality and control layout.

However the P530’s saving grace is its new sensor. It helps the camera produce pleasing images in a variety of conditions and is backed up by reliable exposure metering and white balance. Autofocus performance isn’t quite as accomplished, but it’s good enough not to let the side down. Team all this with the capable and versatile lens and you’ve got a camera that will handle most shooting scenarios with ease.

Ultimately it still stings that you’ll have to shell out nearly 30% more for a camera with fewer features than its predecessor, but the omissions made by the P530 are relatively minor given how well it nails the essentials. It may not have the widest zoom range or the most impressive feature set in the bridge camera class, but the P530 still stacks up well against similarly-priced rivals like the Canon PowerShot SX50 HS and Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ72.

If you’re in the market for a capable super-zoom bridge camera, you could do a lot worse the Nikon Coolpix P530.

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

Main Rivals

Listed below are some of the rivals of the Nikon Coolpix P530.

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Nikon Coolpix P530 from around the web.

Specifications

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