We gave you our first impressions of the Nikon Coolpix P5000 from the PMA trade show floor in March 2007. A few months later, we’ve subjected the P5000 to our test routine and taken thousands of pictures and videos to see if it’s all Nikon talks it up to be. The 10-megapixel Coolpix has a range of manual and automatic modes and controls along with the flexibility of a hot shoe and conversion lenses.
Front
The front of the Nikon Coolpix P5000 looks like a standard compact digital camera. The lens, labeled Nikkor 3.5x Optical Zoom VR, is located on the right side and is decorated in chrome. Along the bottom edge of the lens’ rim are its specs: “7.5-26.3mm, 1:2.7-5.3.” There is a larger chrome ring around the base of the lens that protrudes about a quarter of an inch from the rest of the camera body. The very outer rim of the chrome is serrated and can be screwed off to reveal threading for conversion lenses. Above and to the right of the lens is the built-in flash; it isn’t directly on-axis with the lens, which is unfortunate. To the upper left of the lens is the optical viewfinder with the Nikon logo just below it. Below the “on” of the logo is a round auto focus assist/self-timer lamp. To the lower left of the lens is a hole in the body that serves as the built-in microphone, with a Coolpix logo beneath it. On the left side of the front is a sizable hand grip with a rectangular rubber patch. At the top of the patch is the shutter release button.
Back
The back of the P5000 looks like a cross between a DSLR and a compact. Most compacts cram all the control buttons to the right of the LCD screen, while DSLRs tend to have more buttons and scatter them around a larger area.
The Nikon P5000’s 2.5-inch LCD screen is slightly left of center. On the far left edge is a vertical strip of five circular buttons. The top button is labeled “Fn” for “function.” The next button down can change the LCD’s display - the Playback button, Menu button, and Delete button are below that. All of the buttons are chrome and raised on a platform that slopes downward to the left edge of the camera body.
Below the LCD screen is a Nikon logo and above the screen is a miniscule optical viewfinder that sticks out only as far as the LCD screen. To the right of the viewfinder are two LED indicators; the top one is labeled with the flash icon and the bottom one “AF.”
To the right of the LCD screen is an inch-wide area with a comfortable rubber thumb rest at the top and a round multi-selector below it. The multi-selector has a central OK button and large icons around it to show what the control does when not wandering through menus. From the top and moving clockwise the icons are flash, exposure compensation, macro, and self-timer. An icon below the multi-selector indicates that the OK button doubles as a transfer function for printers and computers.
A few features are visible across the top edge of the camera’s back. The curled metal of the hot shoe can be seen on the left. The mode dial has ribbed edges and is located just right of the viewfinder. On the right edge is the similarly ribbed control dial. Both dials hang over the back edge a bit so they are easier to rotate.
Left Side
There isn’t much to speak of on the left side. There is a strap eyelet on top and a series of holes that serve as the speaker on the bottom.
Right Side
Another neck strap eyelet sits at the top of the right side, which is considerably thicker. At the bottom of this side are two tiny rubber doors. The bigger of the two is labeled USB/AV, while the smaller one opens a little hole to the battery compartment where the AC adapter can fit through.
Top
The top of the Nikon Coolpix P5000 looks thick. The lens and hand grip protrude from the front, and the optical viewfinder protrudes from the back. The left side has a long and narrow neck strap eyelet that is visible from the top. To its right, but still very much on the left side, is the hot shoe that accepts Nikon Speedlight SB-400, SB-600, and SB-800 flash units. A Coolpix P5000 logo is printed to the right of the hot shoe and the optical viewfinder’s housing sticks out the back. To the right is the circular mode dial, which is labeled with a mix of icons and text. On the right side of the P5000’s top is a chrome oval plate that surrounds the shutter release/zoom ring, power button, and command dial. The shutter release button is circular and domed, and surrounded by the zoom ring that has a small nub that can be pushed right and left. The much smaller power button is located to the bottom left of the shutter release. Hanging over the back of the camera is the command dial, which is just slightly smaller than the mode dial. On the right side, but visible from the top, is the neck strap eyelet that matches the one on the other side.
Bottom
The bottom of the camera has a battery door on the left side and a metal tripod socket in the center.
TEST
Resolution (7.36)
The Nikon Coolpix P5000 boasts a 10.1-megapixel image sensor, which puts it in direct competition with the Canon G7. We’ve put both of these digital cameras through the same tests, beginning with the resolution.
We photographed an industry standard resolution chart at various focal lengths and apertures to find the absolute sharpest image possible. For the Nikon P5000, Imatest imaging software determined that its sharpest image came from a shot taken at f/6, 19mm, and with the ISO set to 64.
The image is sharp, but the edges of the frame are considerably washed out when compared to the center. To quantify the resolution, Imatest output numerical results in units of line widths per picture height (lw/ph), which is a measurement of how many alternating black and white lines could fit across a frame without blurring.
The Nikon Coolpix P5000 resolved 1793 lw/ph horizontally with 4.7 percent oversharpening. Vertically, it resolved 1670 lw/ph with 3.29 percent undersharpening. Compare this to the 10-megapixel Canon G7’s results: 1903 lw/ph horizontally with 4.8 percent oversharpening and 1695 lw/ph vertically with 13.9 percent undersharpening. The Canon clearly wins out in the resolution test, but the Nikon P5000 still does a decent job of snapping sharp pictures.
Color (7.23)
Colors tend to vary by manufacturer just as different brands of film develop into slightly different colors. We use an industry standard color chart to help us evaluate and compare the many digital cameras that come through our office. We photograph the chart in optimal lighting and run the files through Imatest software, which chooses the most accurately colored image and then renders the following chart. The program modifies the chart so we can compare the colors from the original GretagMacbeth chart (inner vertical rectangles) to the Nikon P5000’s colors (outer squares). The inner squares represent the camera’s colors corrected for luminance.
This pop art-like chart can be more easily understood with the graph below. This shows the ideal colors as squares and the Nikon Coolpix P5000’s colors as circles. There is a line connecting these shapes so users know which is which and how erroneous the color is from the length of the line.
Different ends of the spectrum are troubled. The yellows and blues seem to be the most inaccurate, so beware of taking pictures of sunflower fields and blue skies and the like. The Nikon P5000’s mean color error came out to 8.3 and the saturation was nearly perfect at 100.1 percent.
Noise – Auto ISO (1.74)
When we photographed the resolution chart, we took a shot with the automatic ISO setting just to see what the camera would do. Most digital cameras choose the lowest ISO setting because of the bright lights, but the P5000 produced the amount of noise at the manual ISO 264. This was too much noise and resulted in a poor 1.74 score.
Noise – Manual ISO (5.79)
The P5000 has manual ISO settings from 64 to 2000. We photographed the resolution chart in optimal lighting using each ISO setting and let Imatest measure the amount of noise in each image. Below is a chart showing the manual ISO settings on the horizontal axis of the chart and the percentage of the image turned to noise on the vertical axis.
In general, there is less noise in the Nikon P5000’s images than the Canon G7’s. Still, the P5000’s slope jumps sharply from 800 to 1600. When it’s absolutely necessary to shoot in dim lighting without a flash, ISO 800 is about as far as you’d want to go. In optimal lighting, the ISO 64 or 100 settings should be used.
Low Light (7.34)
We dimmed the lights and put on some romantic music for this test. We photographed the color chart at 60, 30, 15, and 5 lux to see how well the Nikon P5000 can keep subjects illuminated. At 60 lux, most people’s eyes can adjust and still be able to read comfortably. At 30 lux, you’ll be squinting. At 15 and 5 lux, you’ll put your book down and fall asleep because it’s too dark.
All of the P5000’s images remained properly illuminated but the colors suffered terribly and noise was an issue. At 30 lux, the mean color error was 13.3 compared to the camera’s 8.3 error in optimal lighting.
Noise was a problem whether the noise reduction system was turned on or off. One would think that a noise reduction system would perhaps reduce the amount of noise in an image; makes sense, right? However, after several rounds of testing and retesting, we concluded that the noise reduction system actually increases the amount of noise in long exposures and makes images look even worse! Below is a chart showing this. The average amount of noise is on the vertical axis and the shutter speed is on the horizontal axis.
To its credit, noise levels remain steady and fairly low on the Nikon P5000. But the noise reduction system sure doesn’t reduce noise.
Dynamic Range (5.12)
If you’ve ever photographed the bright sun rising over dark mountains, then you’ve seen the dynamic range of a camera. We tested the Nikon P5000 by photographing a backlit Stouffer step chart that shows a row of rectangles ranging from light to dark representing 13 exposure values. A camera with good dynamic range shows the details in the mountains and sky, whereas many compact digital cameras would show a blown-out sunrise and a completely black mountain. We photographed the dynamic range chart at various manual ISO settings because the dynamic range typically falls as the ISO increases. The chart below shows the exposure values captured on the vertical axis and the ISO settings on the horizontal axis.
The Nikon Coolpix P5000 performs very well at its ISO 64 and 100 settings when compared to other compact digital cameras. The dynamic range falls off very quickly after ISO 100 though, so avoid anything above ISO 100 when details are important. The P5000 performed better at this test than the Canon G7 and earned a 5.12 score.
White Balance (7.35)
Auto (6.38)
In general, users should avoid using the automatic white balance setting. It was more inaccurate than the every preset other than florescent. We suspect the setting is not optimized for normal white fluorescent light, so the auto setting would be preferable under fluorescent lights. The auto setting was especially inaccurate under tungsten and flash lighting.
Preset (8.32)
The Nikon P5000’s preset white balance modes were generally more accurate and should be used when possible. The only exception to that rule is under white fluorescent light, when the auto setting performed better.
Speed/Timing
Startup to First Shot (7.0)
The Nikon Coolpix P5000 took an entire 3 seconds to start up and take its first shot. The Canon G7 took 1.9 seconds in the same test and many other compacts are even speedier than this. The P5000 aims to be a high-end compact digital camera, so its slow startup time is quite disappointing.
Shot-to-Shot (8.7)
Also disappointing is the burst mode, which isn’t much faster than the single drive. The continuous burst mode only allows 6 shots to be taken at a time. The first 5 shots are 1.3 seconds apart and the sixth shot follows 1.7 seconds later. The camera then took 4.5 seconds to process all the images. In the continuous flash mode, the P5000 snaps 3 shots at the same rate of 1.3 seconds apart and then takes another 2 seconds to process.
Shutter-to-shot (9.0)
When users manually focus or have already auto focused by pushing the shutter release halfway down, the shutter lag is hardly measurable. If snapping candid pictures and the camera isn’t already focused, it takes the camera an average of a half-second to focus and take the picture. This is very slow especially for a “high-end” camera.
Processing (6.0)
It takes a whopping 2 seconds to process one shot. The Nikon P5000 certainly won’t be known for its speed.
Video (2.89)
Bright Indoor Light - 3000 lux (3.78)
In bright lighting, the movie mode produced horribly inaccurate colors. Surprisingly, the yellows that were so inaccurate while shooting still pictures were the most accurate colors in the movie mode. Just about every other color was wandering around the spectrum. The mean color error was an outrageous 30.6 and the saturation jumped to a whopping 143 percent. The video had an average of 0.535 percent noise in it.
Low Light - 30 lux (3.72)
While the bright lights caused the video to oversaturate, dim lights caused it to undersaturate. The colors appear toward the center, indicating undersaturation. Indeed, saturation was only 57.37 percent. The mean color error dropped to 18.3, which is still bad but not as awful as the bright light’s 30.6. The average amount of noise in the movie jumped to 2.4 percent.
Resolution (1.10)
Just as with the still images, Imatest output resolution results in terms of line widths per picture height (lw/ph) for the video. The Nikon P5000’s top video resolution of 640 x 480 pixels was tested by shooting an industry standard video test chart. Some of the video was dark and the information was lost in Imatest so the results are probably better than what shows here. But according to the program, the P5000 resolves 228 lw/ph horizontally with 27.8 percent undersharpening and 290 lw/ph vertically with 17.1 percent undersharpening. This is pretty typical of compact digital cameras’ movie modes.
Outdoor Motion
We took a breather from the studio environment and headed outside for a few videos. The Nikon Coolpix P5000’s video isn’t as bad as some point-and-shoot digital cameras, but it’s not that great either. We recorded cars and people going by and noticed a few things. The overall image was soft and hazy. The exposure was in constant flux when capturing moving cars, as was the focus – obviously distracting. When cars, people, and other moving objects left the frame, there was some stuttering too.
