An Analysis of the Nikon Coolpix P5100 Digital Camera

Aperture: F7.6, speed: 1/390 sec, ISO 64

The Coolpix P5100 has a large aperture of F2.7 and a 3.5X zoom when the lens is wide angle, but when it is at its maximum extension, the aperture is only f5.3, which makes the VR Image (Vibration Reduction) stabilization system absolutely necessary to obtain clear images. These values of the aperture are quite common among compact cameras, this being a major reason for the initialization of the image stabilization.
The Nikon Coolpix P5100 camera uses optical image stabilization, which is to say that a lens system compensates for the photographer's movements. It should not be mistaken for the mechanical stabilization system, which is based on the movement of the sensor. These systems diminish the impact of the camera shake that would otherwise cause the image to be blurry because of the low speeds.
Following the current trend, the Coolpix P5100 digital camera offers a maximum resolution of 12 megapixels and the 16:9 format, apart from the 4:3 and 3:2 ones. Moreover, its sensitivity range is very wide, going from 64 ISO to 3200 ISO. However, the image d is very noisy and contains very little information when the ISO sensitivity reaches 3200, despite the 5 megapixels resolution.
Lower sensitivities are more acceptable, but you can still see noise in the images at 1600, 800 and 400 ISO.

Aperture: F3.8, speed: 1/115 sec, ISO 100

The noise is more difficult to see when the sensitivity reaches 200 ISO, especially when the images are printed, although it is immediately noticeable when the image is displayed on a monitor at full size. However, the images captured at an ISO sensitivity between 64 and 100 are generally free of noise, especially when they are captured in good lighting conditions.

Aperture: F2.7, speed: 1/35 sec, ISO 100

The objective mounted on the P5100 digital camera seems to have the same characteristics as those found on other models belonging to the same brand. Nonetheless, it should be pointed out that the model seems to be suffering from an alignment problem. The upper left image shows a loss of sharpness as compared to the rest of the frame when the lens is wide angle. Overall, the images obtained at the shortest focal length are a little less impressive than those taken at greater focal lengths.
The zoom does not reveal any defect. The barrel distortion with wide angle lenses is negligible and there is no pincushion distortion with TV lenses. There is no trace of chromatic aberration throughout the zoom range.
The P5100 saves all the images in JPEG format, with three levels of compression for each image size. The highest image quality, Fine, is described in the manual as corresponding to a compression ratio of about 4:1, but there seems to be a mistake. None of the pictures obtained with the P5100 are very complex and the compression ratio is lower than 8:1 (directly comparing the file size to that of the image without compression), which seems common to all devices with 12 megapixels resolutions.

Aperture: F3.4, speed: 1/110 sec, ISO 100

If this level of compression corresponded to medium compression on devices with lower resolutions some time ago, it seems that this has become the standard with compact cameras today. As a result, you see a clear loss of detail when the images are displayed on a monitor in full size.

But you must admit that the results are usually excellent when these images are printed in a reasonable format.
With the P5100, this is largely due to the excellent matrix metering and the excellent white balance. The matrix metering delivers images which reproduce the lighting conditions faithfully even when they are very poor. The automatic white balance is very efficient regardless of the weather and even with incandescent lighting. The auto mode gives more natural colors than the incandescent setting.

Find more camera reviews at www.cameraaccessories.info.The Coolpix P5100 is designed as a compact unit that will satisfy both an experienced photographer and an amateur one, having the advantages of manual settings.

If the images are sometimes disappointing when viewed in full size on a monitor or on a smaller HDTV, the pictures taken with the Coolpix 5100 camera are very attractive when printed.