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:
ISO 50 (100% crop) |
ISO 100 (100% crop) |
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ISO 200 (100% crop) |
ISO 400 (100% crop) |
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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.
Original
100% Crop |
Sharpened 100% Crop |
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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.
| 8M
Fine (2.58Mb) |
8M
Normal (1.34Mb) |
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| 8M
Basic (0.83Mb) |
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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.
| Example
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Example
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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.
| Macro Shot (click to view full-sized image) |
100% Crop |
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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.
| Flash Off - Wide Angle (36mm) |
Auto Flash - Wide Angle (36mm) |
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| Flash Off - Telephoto (126mm) |
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.
| Flash On |
Flash On (100% Crop) |
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| Flash - Red-Eye Reduction |
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.
| Night Shot (click to view full-sized image) |
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.
| Shutter Speed | Anti Shake Off |
Anti Shake On |
| 1/5th |  |
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| 1/5th |  |
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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:
| D-Lighting - Off |
D-Lighting - On |
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| D-Lighting - Off | D-Lighting - On |
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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.
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