Digital Camera Home > Digital Camera Reviews > Nikon Digital Cameras > Nikon Coolpix 5400

Nikon Coolpix 5400 A solid update to Nikon's upper-midrange Coolpix. 5 megapixels, 4x zoom, tons of features! Select a topic Reference: Datasheet C5400 Sample Images --------------------------------- 1. Intro and Highlights 2. Executive Overview 3. Design 4. Viewfinder 5. Optics 6. Exposure & Flash 7. Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests 8. Operation & User Interface 9. Camera Modes & Menus 10. Image Storage & Interface 11. Video, Power, Software 12. Test Results & Conclusion --------------------------------- Print-Friendly Review Version Additional Resources and Other Links Reader Comments on C5400 Review --------------------------------- Digital Camera Comparometer (TM) --------------------------------- <-- Digital Cameras (Home) <-- Digital Camera Reviews Index <<Video, Power, Software :(Previous) | (Next): Reference: Datasheet>> Page 12:Test Results & Conclusion Review First Posted: 07/12/2003

Test Results

In keeping with my standard test policy, the comments given here summarize only my key findings. For a full commentary on each of the test images, see the Coolpix 5400's "pictures" page.

As with all Imaging Resource product tests, I encourage you to let your own eyes be the judge of how well the camera performed. Explore the images on the pictures page, to see how Coolpix 5400's images compare to other cameras you may be considering.

• Color: For the most part, the Coolpix 5400 produced good, pleasing color throughout my testing. Color saturation was typically just about right, and hue was also pretty accurate. The only exceptions were a little difficulty with the difficult blue flowers in my Outdoor Portrait shot, and an over-bright, yellowish rendering of the grass and some of the foliage in my Far-Field test. Apart from these specific hues, other colors seemed to be rendered accurately. Skin tones were rendered pretty well too, with just a shade of excess pink, to my eye. The camera's auto white balance system did a good job under most lighting conditions, failing only under the very warm-toned household incandescent lighting of the Indoor Portrait shot. The 5400's manual white balance setting handled even that very difficult light source (and everything else I threw at it) with aplomb though.
  
  
• Exposure: The Coolpix 5400's metering system accurately gauged exposure under most of my test lighting very well. On the very harshly-lit Outdoor Portrait shot, it required a good bit less positive exposure compensation than do most cameras I test, while on the Indoor Portrait shot, it required about the same as other models. When shooting very contrasty subjects like the Outdoor Portrait shot, I felt that the 5400's default tone curve was a bit too contrasty, although many competing cameras share this trait. What frustrated me with that shot though, was that the 5400's "low contrast" menu option appeared to decrease the exposure, rather than the contrast. By the time I'd boosted the exposure back up where it needed to be, the actual contrast was even higher than it had been in the original image. Given that I really like the ability to adjust contrast on cameras, I found the failure of the 5400's contrast adjustment particularly irksome. (A bit of a personal preference/bias thing, other users may not be as bothered by this as I was.)
  
  
• Resolution/Sharpness: The Coolpix 5400 performed well on the "laboratory" resolution test chart. It started showing artifacts in the test patterns at resolutions as low as 800 lines per picture height, in both horizontal and vertical directions. I found "strong detail" out to at least 1,200 lines. "Extinction" of the target patterns didn't occur until about 1,600 lines. On natural subjects though, I found that the 5400 tended to lose detail in low-contrast areas, apparently due to an overly aggressive noise-reduction algorithm. (See the bricks on shadowed portions on of the house in my Far-Field shot, to see this most clearly.) I'm seeing more and more of this sort of thing lately, possibly the result of the continuing push to higher pixel counts on prosumer cameras. - The resulting smaller sensor pixels result in higher image noise, which the manufacturers attempt to compensate for by cranking up the noise-reduction processing, at the cost of subtle image detail. Nikon's not alone in this, but I felt that I saw evidence of it more clearly in some of the 5400's photos than in others I've tested recently.
  
  
• Closeups: Like most Coolpix models, the 5400 turned in an exceptional macro performance, capturing a tiny minimum area of only 1.48 x 1.11 inches (38 x 28 millimeters). Resolution was high, with strong detail in the printing of the dollar bill. The coins and brooch were soft due to the very shallow depth of field at such short shooting distances. At such a close shooting range, the Coolpix 5400's flash had trouble throttling down for the macro area (no surprise really, this is close), so plan on using external illumination for the very closest macro photos.
  
  
• Night Shots: The Coolpix 5400 has a maximum exposure time of eight seconds, and a Bulb shutter setting for exposures as long as 10 minutes. Combined with adjustable ISO and a Noise Reduction feature, the Coolpix 5400's exposure offerings ensure excellent low-light performance. The camera produced clear, bright, usable images down to the 1/16 foot-candle (0.67 lux) limit of my test, with good color at all four ISO settings. The Coolpix 5400's Noise Reduction setting did an excellent job of controlling image noise, as even images taken at ISO 400 show only moderate noise levels, and 60-second time exposures show only a few hot pixels. Overall, an excellent job.
  
  
• Viewfinder Accuracy: The Coolpix 5400's optical viewfinder is a little tight, showing approximately 92 percent frame accuracy at wide angle, and about 83 percent at telephoto. (92 percent coverage is pretty good, but 83 is a bit below average, and I particularly dislike viewfinders whose accuracy varies as a function of zoom setting, because that makes it very hard to know how much to adjust mentally for them.) The LCD monitor proves to be much more accurate, showing about 97 percent frame accuracy at both telephoto and wide angle lens settings. Given that I like LCD monitors to be as close to 100 percent accuracy as possible, the Coolpix 5400's LCD monitor performed well here, but I'd have liked a more accurate optical viewfinder.
  
  
• Optical Distortion: Optical distortion on the Coolpix 5400 was very low at the wide-angle end, where I measured only one pixel of barrel distortion (!). The telephoto end had slightly more difficulty, as I found 0.5 percent pincushion distortion there. Overall, this is less geometric distortion than I find on most cameras, all the more impressive given the 5400's 4x zoom lens. Chromatic aberration was exceptionally low as well, showing almost no color around the target lines in the corners of the res target shot. (This distortion is visible as a very slight colored fringe around the objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target.) The one recurring defect that I found was that image details were very often a bit soft in the left half of the frame. (This suggests that the CCD chip was slightly cocked in its mount. I'll investigate the possibility of obtaining another sample from Nikon, to re-test this aspect.)
  
  
• Battery Life: Overall, the Coolpix 5400 shows good battery life, with a worst-case run time of almost two hours. This is better than much of the competition, but not as good as a few. As always, I still strongly recommend purchasing a second battery along with your camera, and keeping it charged and on hand. Murphy's law clearly applies to digicam batteries, as they always pick the worst possible times to run out of juice.
  
  

Conclusion

Free Photo Lessons

Learn how to take stunning photos with simple pro lighting tips, in our free Photo School area!

The original Coolpix 5000 model was an excellent digicam that I found well-suited to the prosumer as well as the amateur, and the Coolpix 5400 seems to fill its shoes quite well. The 5.1-megapixel CCD and 4x optical zoom lens are benefits in themselves, but the Coolpix 5400 also offers increased exposure options as well. The 15-setting Scene mode is perfect for common, yet challenging, shooting situations, and the full Auto exposure mode is a great starting point for novices. I have a few quibbles over its image characteristics, feeling that the 5400's images are a bit on the contrasty side (although honestly, no more so than many competing models), and also that they show the affects of somewhat over-aggressive noise reduction. - For whatever reason (a noisier CCD chip?), Nikon seems to have cranked up the noise reduction algorithm used in all the camera's images (as opposed to just the long-exposure ones) to the point that some detail is lost in shadows. On a positive note though, the camera's lens appears to be of higher than average quality, with unusually low geometric distortion at its wide-angle setting. The 5400 also snaps very clean images under low light conditions, even with very long exposures. It also carries forward the Coolpix tradition of exceptional macro capability. Like all of Nikon's high-end Coolpix models, the 5400 also offers an amazing range of creative and exposure controls, easily at the top of the market in that respect. I've thus made it a "Dave's Pick," despite my concerns about contrast and noise-reduction processing - This is an exceptionally capable camera that's equipped to delight any enthusiast, but that also works very well for novice users when working in pure point & shoot mode, or one of its many scene modes.