Nikon Coolpix P4

Reviewed July 2006

Test Photos

STILL LIFE PHOTO

This subject is photographed in a room that has a mix of fluorescent and incandescent light, but which is not brightly lit. The camera's flash is used to add fill light. The backdrop is 1.95 m (6.5 ft) from the camera.

As is often the case with compact cameras, the camera produces a brighter image if it is set to Auto ISO, which allows it to boost the sensitivity and in turn boost the effect of the small built-in flash. For this subject, the P4 increases sensitivity up to 100 ISO only, keeping noise, which increases with sensitivity, down to a minimum.

ZOOM PHOTO

Now we zoom in on a specific area. The intent is to test the sharpness of the image at the zoom's maximum setting. The camera remains at the same distance as with the preceding photo.

With the zoom lens set the maximum optical magnification, the brightest aperture available to the camera becomes f5.3, causing the camera to increase sensitivity to 168 ISO. Still, the colour rendition is visibly different form those that were captured when the lens was set to wide angle.

At this level of sensitivity, a bit of noise can be detected in areas of uniform colour.

Set to the Macro mode, the icon representing the mode on the monitor turns green when the zoom position reaches the most effective focal lengths for macro photography.

Set to the Macro mode, the P4 is able to focus on a subject that is 4cm (1.6 inches) from the front element of the lens. At this distance, the camera captures a field of view of 3.9 cm (1.6 inches) when measured horizontally in the frame.

In macro mode, even at the smallest aperture of the lens, the depth of field remains quite shallow.

BUILDING PHOTO

This image is our outdoor test. The architecture of the building, in particular the angled girders, immediately show the presence of jaggies. The shadowed entrance can also often reveal the quality of the exposure.

With this shot, the Coolpix P4 benefits from ideal shooting conditions. The sun being behind the camera, the exposure the camera yields is very well balanced between the zones that are directly lit, such as the paved area in the foreground, and those that are in shadow, and which still contain details.

ZOOM PHOTO

Zooming in on the entrance of the building, the shadowed entrance takes on a greater importance for the metering and can cause an overexposure of sections that are directly lit.

Now at the maximum telephoto, the image captured by the camera exhibits similar characteristics in terms of light and colour as the one captured with the wide angle. Dark and light zones in the images are correctly evaluated by the Matrix metering, and contain a lot of detail. And, while the focus is a touch soft with the default settings, the text of the yellow sign affixed to the right door is quite legible.

NIGHT PHOTO

Since this camera offers a long exposure, a photo taken at night is included here.

Only when using the Night Landscape scene mode can the camera capture an exposure that can be as long as 8 seconds. And when set to this mode, the camera sets both sensitivity and white balance.

Moreover, since the camera determines the exposure time, to capture an 8-second exposure that would be bright enough to be interesting, the lens had to be partially covered to force the camera to the longest exposure time. However, this is not a perfect method to force the camera to its longest exposure, and it boosts the sensitivity to 66 ISO as well.

The white balance selected by the camera produces an image with a yellow cast, caused by the urban lighting. Sharpness is a touch soft but the image remains quite detailed and noise is minimal.

Worth noting, to capture this image the Vibration Reduction system (VR) was turned off since the camera was on a tripod.