Introduction

Ease of Use

With a large bulky zoom lens on the front and a pop-up flash, the Coolpix S9400 is reminiscent of old 35mm compact cameras. However, if this was a 35mm compact camera, the 18x zoom lens would stretch from a wide 25mm to an eyewatering 450mm. That size zoom lens was unheard of back in the day when 35mm compacts ruled the roost.

The image goes through the lens onto a new 18 megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor. The main difference between CCD and CMOS is that CCD yields a sharper image but a CMOS is more fuel efficient meaning your battery will last longer. The back-illuminated system describes the design of the CMOS. On a standard sensor, the pixels are surrounded by micro-circuitry which takes the information to the processor. The circuitry partially blocks the pixels meaning less light is collected. A back-illuminated sensor has the circuitry on the reverse so if you were to look at it mounted in a camera, it looks like it's on backwards. The lack of circuitry on the front means that more light can be collected theoretically making the sensor perform better in low light.

On the top of the Coolpix S9400 Nikon have opted for a more traditional command dial for switching through the various modes that the camera has to offer. There are eight modes: Auto, Effects, Smart Portrait, Backlighting, Night Portrait, Night Landscape, Scenes and Scene Auto Selector. The latter is an option that will analyse the frame when you compose and select the correct scene mode for that composition. The Effects are accessed by pressing the menu button when the mode is selected on the dial. The options are Soft, Nostalgic sepia, High-contrast monochrome, High Key, Low Key and Selective Colour.

Front	Rear

The shutter release button is flush with the zoom rocker that wraps around it. A small power button sits between the shutter button and the stereo speakers. Note that this particular model doesn't have built-in GPS like its predecessor, the S9300 - you'll need to pay a little extra for the S9500 model to get that feature.

On the back of the Coolpix S9400, Nikon have added a wheel to the pad for speedy navigation through the menu system. It's not overly sensitive and does require some extra rotating than what should be necessary but it still gets the job done faster than pressing a button. Satisfyingly there's the usual medley of options on the navigation pad for flash options, macro, self timer and exposure compensation. A direct video button will start recording Full 1080p HD film whenever you press the button regardless of the mode you're in at the time.

Being reasonably thick, the build quality of the Coolpix S9400 looks to a higher standard that we suspect it really is. We're not implying that Nikon have cut corners but when it comes to stepped products such as the Nikon L, S and P ranges of digital compacts, you do tend to get what you pay for. This S series camera is in the middle of the ranges so has a good build but isn't as good as the P series.

Front	Side

However, it's worth noting that people buying the S9400 aren't going to be as bothered about top lens quality as long as it takes good pictures. They won't care about a quiet focusing motor or lens operation because they won't be taking pictures of wildlife at 5am in a misty meadow. The people who buy this camera will be going on holidays with the family and want to document as much as possible. The build is perfectly sufficient for that. It's a camera that will be carried around all day so the lighter materials used, the better for the photographer.

There are some nuggets of niceness though. The lens barrel has minimal play in it and the battery door has a lock on it which is nice. However, the door is quite flimsy despite this. The covers protecting the HDMI and USB ports are made of rubber and hang off the camera. A plastic hinged version would've been nicer but is unlikely on a camera at this level.

The Coolpix S9400's main menu will vary dependent on the mode you have the camera set to on the command dial. In auto there's lots of features and the S9400 sticks to the traditional Nikon colours of a black background with a grey menu and yellow highlight bar. Everything is pretty easy to work through. The menu is set into three sections for shooting, movie and set-up. Pressing right will go into the highlighted tab whereas pressing left will go back to the tabs for faster navigation.

We took numerous shots in the shutter lag test and the results were a little disappointing. An average delay from pressing the shutter button to the camera taking a picture once the camera is focused is around 0.08 seconds, but the Nikon Coolpix S9400 took 0.12 seconds. On the rare occasion that this happens, we generally give the camera a chance by testing it for longer than usual in case of user error. After all, this test has human reflexes to take into consideration. But the S9400 gave similar results right through.

Memory Card Slot	Battery Compartment

Start up time from pressing the power button to the Coolpix S9400 focusing and taking a picture is just over 3 seconds. That's a little slower than we're used to seeing too, the average being around 2.5 seconds.

The burst mode is on the command dial and after the disappointingly slow performance in the timing tests, we were blown away by comparison. The camera has a burst rate of 7fps. It does this precisely: our test started at 0.86 seconds and finished at 1.86 seconds. However, this is off set by the extra 20 seconds or so that it took to download all the pictures to the memory card - which is a shame. Pictures taken in burst are displayed on the camera as a sort of slideshow. You have to press the OK button to play them then scroll through with left and right.

In playback, the Coolpix S9400 shows basic information about the picture such as the file number, date/time and position in the line of pictures on the card. Pressing OK will change the display to a smaller thumbnail and more information such as shutter speed, aperture, ISO and even a histogram. Playback can be accessed from power off by holding the playback button down. In the menu area, there's a few different editing options such as D-Lighting, an auto quick retouch option and the filter effects. These can't be used on the burst images.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 18 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 6.5Mb.

Although the S9400 pushes the boat out in terms of the available focal length, happily it doesn't over-reach itself. We managed to get very usable results shooting at its extremities. Especially impressive, given that this is a point and shoot model aimed at the general user rather than amateur enthusiast. Too many times with rival travel zooms two or three shots are required to get a sharply focused image in daylight when shooting handheld at maximum 450mm equivalent telephoto – but that wasn't the case here.

Yes there's softening of detail to limit the appearance of image noise at ISO 800 and above, but we can live with that. At ISO 1600 it's only really shadow detail that is taking on the tell-tale sandy appearance, and only if enlarging sections to scrutinize closely. At the maximum setting of ISO 3200 there's a more obvious smoothing/softened effect compared with the previous images. Overall though the S9400 has delivered a very respectable ISO performance for a sub £300 camera.

So the S9400 is reliably consistent, even if, to nitpick, we noticed marginal corner softening at extreme 25mm equivalent wideangle settings. As with just about every other pocket digital compact, purple fringing occasionally also makes an appearance in images with areas of high contrast. Otherwise colours veer towards the naturalistic.

Noise

There are 6 ISO settings available on the Nikon Coolpix S9400. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.

ISO 125 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)
ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)
ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The Nikon Coolpix S9400's 18x zoom lens offers a very versatile focal range, as demonstrated by the examples below.

25mm	450mm

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 soft at the default sharpening setting and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. Unfortunately you can't change the in-camera sharpening level.

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

File Quality

The Nikon Coolpix S9400 has 2 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.

18M Fine (7.38Mb) (100% Crop)	18M Normal (3.66Mb) (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The Nikon Coolpix S9400 handled chromatic aberrations fairly well during the review, with some purple fringing present around the edges of objects in certain high-contrast situations, as shown in the examples below.

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

Macro

The Nikon Coolpix S9400 offers a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is 4cms 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.

Macro	Macro (100% Crop)

Flash

The flash settings on the Nikon Coolpix S9400 are Auto, Auto/Red-eye Reduction, Off, On and Slow Sync./Red-eye Reduction. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

Forced Off - Wide Angle (25mm)	Forced On - Wide Angle (25mm)
Forced Off - Telephoto (450mm)	Forced On - Telephoto (450mm)

And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the On or the Auto/Red-eye Reduction settings caused any significant red-eye.

On	On (100% Crop)
Auto/Red-eye Reduction	Auto/Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The Nikon Coolpix S9400's maximum shutter speed is 4 seconds in the Fireworks scene mode, which is not great news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 1 second at ISO 125.

Night	Night (100% Crop)

Vibration Reduction

Vibration Reduction is Nikon's name for anti-shake, which in the S9400 works via a lens-shift mechanism. To test this, we took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the same settings. The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the second with it turned on. Here are some 100% crops of the images to show the results. As you can see, with anti shake turned on, the images are much sharper than with anti shake turned off.

Shutter Speed / Focal Length	Anti Shake Off (100% Crop)	Anti Shake On (100% Crop)
1/40th / 25mm
1/13th / 450mm

Special Effects

The Nikon Coolpix S9400 offers a number of special effects that you can preview before taking the shot.

Off	Soft
Nostalgic Sepia	High-contrast Monochrome
High Key	Low Key
Selective Color

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Nikon Coolpix S9400 camera, which were all taken using the 18.1 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

Front of the Camera / Pop-up Flash

Isometric View

Isometric View

Isometric View

Isometric View

Rear of the Camera

Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed

Rear of the Camera / Turned On

Rear of the Camera / Main Menu

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 S9400 is the latest iteration of a proven design that's now several years old, principally increasing the megapixel count to 18 and removing the built-in GPS when compared to last year's S9300 model. It's also cheaper than ever before, with the official list price of £249.99 / €294 / $299.95 looking good against the main competition.

If you don't want all the latest bells and whistles but still want a long zoom and decent image quality, then the S9400 certainly fits the bill, all without breaking the bank. If you want manual features beyond a smattering of effects and the ability to control the likes of white balance and ISO, then look elsewhere. The Nikon Coolpix S9400 gives a slick performance, both in terms of its attractive design and handling, while the 18x, 25-450mm zoom is wide and long enough for most photographic situations that you'll encounter.

At the end of the day the Coolpix S9400 offers more expansive framing opportunities than your typical point and shoot for not a lot more money. With respectable scores across its features and that official price tag only ever going to get lower with time, it therefore makes sense that if you're trading up from a humble 3x or 5x zoom snapshot, the Nikon Coolpix S9400 should be given serious consideration as your next potential purchase.

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

Specifications

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