"Sunlit" Portrait:
(This is my new "Outdoor" Portrait test - read more about it here.)

High resolution and strong detail, with nearly accurate color. Contrast is high, with limited detail in the highlights when midtones are set to a proper exposure range.

Contrast and saturation were slightly high with the camera's default contrast setting, under the deliberately harsh lighting of this test. (+1.3 EV exposure)	The 5900's low contrast and saturation adjustments were minimal in effect, but helped slightly with the high-key lighting. (+1.0 EV exposure)

• Exposure compensation: +1.3 EV, more than average.
• Contrast/Tone: High contrast in the default setting, some highlight detail lost, even with dark midtones. Contrast adjustment seems to have relatively little effect.
• White Balance: Daylight is best overall, though slightly cool. Auto is warm, Manual reddish.
• Color accuracy: Good, blues are close to accurate, reds slightly magenta, but pretty good overall.
• Skin tones: Pretty good, but a bit too reddish.
• Resolution/sharpness: Good.
• Shadow detail: Very good, fairly low noise.
  
  

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.7 EV, see files CP59OUTDP0.HTM through CP59OUTDP5.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Contrast Series:
The contrast adjustment seems to affeect brightness more than anything, actually has relatively little effect on contrast.

Contrast Series
Low	Normal	High

Saturation Series:
A similar story with the Saturation adjustment, it has a strong effect on brightness. - It does have some effect on color intensity though.

Saturation Series
Low	Normal	High

High resolution and good detail, but again, high contrast, very yellowish color cast with the auto white balance setting.

• Exposure compensation: +0.7 EV, about average.
• Exposure/Tone: High contrast creates harsh skin tones. Strong highlights and very dark shadows. (Strong yellow cast with auto white balance.)
• Detail: Increased resolution and stronger detail, with better definition.
• Distortion: Good, zoom lens avoids distortion close-in like this.
  

To view the entire exposure series from -0.3 to +1.3 EV, see files CP59FACAM1.HTM through CP59FACAP4.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Normal Flash +1.0 EV

Slow-Sync Flash +0.7 EV

Good exposure in the normal flash mode, though slightly better results in Slow-Sync (with a slight warm cast).

• Exposure: Good at +1.0 EV, though the default exposure is quite dim. Slow-Sync mode results in a brighter exposure, at +0.7 EV.
• Flash balance with room lighting?: Good, very little bluish cast from the flash.
• Color: Somewhat reddish skin tones, but on the whole not bad.
  

 To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.3 EV in the normal flash mode, see files CP59INFP0.HTM through CP59INFP4.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

To view the same exposure series in the Slow-Sync flash mode, see files CP59INFSP0.HTM through CP59INFSP4.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Auto White Balance

Incandescent White Balance

Manual White Balance

Good color with the Manual and Auto white balance settings, though higher than average exposure compensation required.

• Exposure: +1.3 EV adjustment needed, a little more than average.
• White Balance: Manual very good, just slightly greenish; Auto (very) slightly red; Incandescent warm. (Some users might actually prefer the Auto result.)
• Color: Skin tones are red, blue flowers are purple, though other flowers good. (About average though, given the tough light source.)
  

 To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.7 EV, see files CP59INMP0.HTM through CP59INMP5.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

ISO Series:
Slight noise is present even at the lowest ISO setting of 64, but it isn't visible unless you specifically look at just the blue channel in Photoshop(tm). Noise is held in check quite well at higher ISO levels, but at considerable cost to image detail. At ISO 400, 8x10 inch prints are very soft, 5x7 probably acceptable for most users, 4x6s should be fine for anybody.

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Good color, with high resolution and good detail.

• Sharpness/Detail: Good detail, high resolution.
• Sharpness in Corners: Good, only slight falloff in the top left corner.
• Color: Manual white balance is best (just slightly cool), Auto and Daylight settings both slightly warm.
• Detail lost to anti-noise processing?: A little detail lost in the brick patterns that are in shadow.

High resolution and strong detail, but a slightly limited dynamic range.

This image is shot at infinity to test far-field lens performance, and to present a near-infinite range of detail to the camera. NOTE that this image cannot be directly compared to the other "house" shot, which is a poster, shot in the studio.

• Sharpness/Detail: High resolution and a lot of detail.
• Sharpness in Corners: Pretty good, slight softening in the top corners, but not too much.
• Color: Fairly accurate.
• Dynamic Range: Slightly limited. Good shadow detail, but limited highlights. (And we were forced to capture this shot on a hazy/slightly cloudy day, so the subject lighting isn't nearly as bad as it is sometimes.)
• Detail lost to anti-noise processing?: Very slight, in the brick pattern.
  
  

Resolution Series:

ISO Series:

Sharpness Series:
A good range of sharpening adjustment. "Hard" loses some of the finest detail, but looks good for inkjet prints at 5x7 inches or below. The no-sharpening images take strong/tight unsharp masking in Photoshop exceptionally well. (Try 400%, 0.3 pixel radius)

Contrast Series:
As before, the "contrast" control seems to affect brightness much more than contrast.

Contrast Series
Low	Normal	High

Saturation Series:
In this shot at least, the saturation adjustment does boost or cut saturation, affecting brightness only slightly.

Saturation Series
Low	Normal	High

Color Series:

Color Series
Standard Color	Vivid Color	Black & White	Sepia	Cyanotype

Lens Zoom Range

A typical 3x zoom range.

The Coolpix 5900's focal length range of 38-114mm equivalents is typical of most point & shoot digital cameras. It corresponds to a moderate wide angle to a modest telephoto.

	Wide Angle
	3x Telephoto
	Digital Telephoto

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Slightly reddish color, but still good results. High resolution and strong detail.

• White Balance: Daylight setting best overall, though red. Auto is very warm (tricked by all the blue in the composition), and Manual is cool.
• Color: Reddish skin tones, purple tints in the blue robe and background.
• Sharpness/Detail: Very good. (Close to the limits of the poster though.)

Standard Macro Shot

Macro with Flash

A very small macro area with great detail. Flash has trouble up close though.

• Minimum Macro Area: 1.26 x 0.95 inches (32 x 24 millimeters), very small.
• Softness in corners?: Some, but less than average. (Most cameras get fairly soft corners in macro mode.)
• Flash performance in macro mode?: Very close shooting range results in flash overexposure, shadowing by the lens.
  

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Nearly accurate color with the Manual white balance, good exposure.

• White balance: Manual setting produced good results. Auto setting quite warm, and Daylight slightly yellow.
• Color Accuracy: The Coolpix 5900's color is generally quite hue-accurate, but it oversaturates bright reds and blues a fair bit. Cyan is shifted slightly toward pure blue, a common tactic in digital cameras, to get better sky colors. The default color will be appealing to consumers though, and the low-saturation control delivers better than average overall color accuracy overall. (If you don't like highly saturated color common to most consumer digital cameras, you may find the 5900's color handling at its low saturation setting very appealing.)
• Shadow detail and noise: Moderate detail in the briquettes, fairly low noise.
  

The images series below duplicate examples of various camera controls we've already covered above. I include them here though, for our more analytically-minded readers, who'd like to see the effect of various camera controls with a well-known target like the MacBeth Color Checker (tm).

ISO Series:

Color Effects Series:

Color Effects Series
Normal Color	Vivid Color	Black & White	Sepia	Cyanotype

Contrast Series:

Contrast Series
Low	Normal	High

Saturation Series:

Saturation Series
Low	Normal	High

Low-Light Tests

Slightly limited low-light performance, with higher than average noise and warm color balance. Autofocus OK for city night scenes, or darker with AF-assist enabled. Should handle average city night scenes fairly well.

• Exposure limit: 1/4 foot-candle at ISO 400. (About 1/4 as bright as typical city street lighting at night.) 1/2 foot-candle at ISO 200 (and arguably ISO 100). One foot-candle at ISO 64.
• Autofocus Limit: About 1/4 foot-candle without AF assist light, total darkness (for nearby objects) with the AF assist enabled.
• White Balance: Slightly warm.
• Noise Levels: Moderate at the lower ISOs and brighter light levels, though increases at higher ISOs and darker light levels.
• Detail loss to anti-noise processing?: Minimal at one foot-candle, noticeable at 1/4 foot-candle.
• General Notes: The Coolpix 5900 isn't a fantastic low-light performer, but it's certainly entirely usable for typical city night scenes. Its autofocus works down to about 1/4 the brightness of typical city night lighting without the AF-assist light enabled, and the camera can focus in total darkness on nearby objects with the AF light turned on.

(Note: If you'd like to use a light meter to check light levels for subjects you might be interested in shooting, a light level of one foot-candle corresponds to a normal exposure of two seconds at f/2.8 and ISO 100.)

	1 fc 11 lux	1/2 fc 5.5 lux	1/4 fc 2.7 lux	1/8 fc 1.3 lux	1/16 fc 0.67 lux	1/16fc No NR
ISO 64	2 sec f2.8	2 sec f2.8	2 sec f2.8	2 sec f2.8	2 sec f2.8	2 sec f2.8
ISO 100	1.62 sec f2.8	2 sec f2.8	2 sec f2.8	2 sec f2.8	2 sec f2.8	2 sec f2.8
ISO 200	1/1 sec f2.8	1.69 sec f2.8	2 sec f2.8	2 sec f2.8	2 sec f2.8	2 sec f2.8
ISO 400	1/2 sec f2.8	1/1 sec f2.8	2 sec f2.8	2 sec f2.8	2 sec f2.8	2 sec f2.8

Flash Range Test

Slightly underexposed at eight feet, with slightly decreasing intensity to 14 feet.

• Flash range at telephoto lens setting: Barely eight feet at ISO 64.

8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft	12 ft	13 ft	14 ft
1/30 sec f4.9 ISO 64	1/60 sec f4.9 ISO 64	1/60 sec f4.9 ISO 64	1/60 sec f4.9 ISO 64	1/60 sec f4.9 ISO 64	1/60 sec f4.9 ISO 64	1/60 sec f4.9 ISO 64

ISO-12233 (WG-18) Resolution Test

Good resolution for its 5-megapixel class, 1,200 lines of "strong detail." Higher than average barrel distortion at wide angle, no distortion at telephoto. Moderate chromatic aberration at wide angle, low at telephoto, good sharpness in the corners.

• Resolution: 1,200 lines both vertically and horizontally.
• Artifacts begin at: ~800 lines.
• Extinction point: ~1,600 lines.
  
  
• Barrel/Pincushion distortion: 1.3 percent barrel at wide angle, none at telephoto.
• Chromatic Aberration: Moderate at wide angle, low at telephoto.
• Corner Sharpness: Good at wide angle and telephoto.

Resolution Series, medium focal length

Resolution Test, Zoom Series

2,592 x 1,944 (Fine, Wide Angle)	CP59RESW
2,592 x 1,944 (Fine, Telephoto)	CP59REST

Sharpness Series: