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

Good color, high resolution, and strong detail. Slightly high contrast, but good midtone detail.

• Exposure compensation: +0.7 EV required, about average.
• Contrast/Tone: Slightly high, some highlight detail lost, even with a slightly dark overall exposure.
• White Balance: Auto looks most natural, Manual is slightly reddish, Daylight somewhat yellow.
• Color accuracy: Good overall, blues are a bit bright, but hue is about right. Reds are a hint magenta, but overall color is good.
• Skin tones: Slightly reddish, but still pretty good.
• Resolution/sharpness: Good, strong detail, though slightly soft from noise reduction.
• Shadow detail: Moderate, with moderately low noise.

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.3 EV, see files CP56OUTMP0.HTM through CP56OUTMP4.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Higher resolution and detail, with slightly high contrast.

• Exposure compensation: +0.3 EV, about average.
• Exposure/Tone: Pretty good, though contrast is slightly high, with dark shadows.
• Detail: Stronger detail and higher resolution, though details again slightly soft.
• Distortion: Good, 3x zoom lens avoids distortion close-in like this.

To view the entire exposure series from -0.3 to +1.0 EV, see files CP56FACP0.HTM through CP56FACP3.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Normal Flash +1.0 EV

Slow-Sync Flash +0.7 EV

A bright flash in the normal setting, though with a large boost in exposure. Slow-Sync mode also produces bright results, but with a stronger color cast.

• Exposure: Good with a +1.0 EV boost, but very dark at the default exposure. Slow Sync mode results in more even coverage at +0.7 EV.
• Flash balance with room lighting?: Good in the normal flash mode, though Slow-Sync setting results in a stronger warm cast.
• Color: Very good overall. Slightly red skin tones, but good color in the flowers.

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.7 EV in the normal flash mode, see files CP56INFP0.HTM through CP56INFP5.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

To view the exposure series from zero to +1.0 EV in the Slow-Sync flash mode, see files CP56INFSP0.HTM through CP56INFSP3.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Auto White Balance

Incandescent White Balance

Manual White Balance

Good color with the Manual white balance setting, about average exposure compensation required.

• Exposure: +1.0 EV adjustment required, about average.
• White Balance: Manual setting best (though cool), Auto is reddish and Incandescent warm. The result with auto white balance is on the edge of what most users would consider acceptable, a bit too red in my opinion.
• Color: Skin tones are a little pink, and blue flowers purplish. Red flowers slightly pink as well, but other colors good. (Not bad, given the tough light source.) Party scene mode results in strong warm cast and slightly dark exposure.

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.3 EV, see files CP56INMP0.HTM through CP56INMP4.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Good color, with high resolution and strong detail. Strong blurring in the corners though.

• Sharpness/Detail: Strong detail, good definition.
• Sharpness in Corners: Strong blurring in the corners.
• Color: Manual white balance best bet. Auto setting reddish, and Daylight setting slightly yellow.
• Detail lost to anti-noise processing?: A small amount, in the shadowed brick patterns.

High resolution and strong detail, with only a slightly limited dynamic range. Once again, soft corners.

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: Very good, strong detail in the tree branches and foliage.
• Sharpness in Corners: Strong blurring in the corners, but only extending a very small distance into the frame.
• Color: Good to very good.
• Dynamic Range: Better than average, slight loss of detail in the bright highlights, but fairly good shadow detail.
• Detail lost to anti-noise processing?: Little or none in this particular shot.
  
  

Resolution Series:

Color Effects Series:

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

Lens Zoom Range

A typical 3x zoom range.

The Coolpix 5600's focal length range of 35-105mm 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 warm color, but still good results. High resolution and strong detail.

• White Balance: Daylight best overall. Manual setting too cool and magenta, and Auto too warm.
• Color: Skin tones good, though on the red side. Blue robe and background a little purplish, but overall color still pretty good.
• 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. Good flash performance.

• Minimum Macro Area: 1.14 x 0.86 inches (29 x 22 millimeters), very small.
• Softness in corners?: Some, but less than average. (Most cameras get rather soft corners in macro mode.)
• Flash performance in macro mode?: Very good, flash throttles down well.
  

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Good hue accuracy, but bright colors are very highly saturated.

• White balance: Manual setting best overall, though a hint red. Auto setting reddish, Daylight setting yellow.
• Color Accuracy: Despite the slight reddish tint, good. Large red, blue, and green blocks are quite oversaturated though. Colors that started out less saturated were treated pretty accurately though. (Hence, the 5600's tendency to produce very bright, saturated colors, but still maintain reasonable-looking skin tones.)
• Shadow detail and noise: Moderate detail in the briquettes, with moderate noise.

Color Effects Series:

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

Low-Light Tests

Slightly limited low-light performance, but the camera should handle most average city night scenes. Low-light autofocus performance is quite limited though, barely adequate for city night scenes.

• Exposure limit: 1/2 foot-candle. (About 1/2 as bright as typical city street lighting at night.)
• Autofocus Limit: About 0.7 foot-candle, barely below the ~1 foot-candle level that's common in city night scenes.
• White Balance: Warm with the Auto setting.
• Noise Levels: On the high side, particularly at lower light levels.
• Detail loss to anti-noise processing?: Some noticeable at one foot-candle.
• General Notes: The Nikon Coolpix 5600 is a marginal low-light performer. It's lack of manual ISO adjustment and manual exposure control, combined with a relatively short maximum shutter time means that it should be able to handle typical city night scenes, but nothing much darker. Its low-light autofocus capability is also quite limited, good only to about 0.7 foot-candle under best-case conditions. Since typical city night scenes are about 1 foot-candle, the Nikon 5600 should be able to handle them OK, but won't be able to go much darker.
  
  

(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
ISO 200	1/1 sec f2.9	1.69 sec f2.9	2 sec f2.9	2 sec f2.9	2 sec f2.9

Flash Range Test

Fairly bright and consistent to about 11 feet, with only slight decreases in intensity to 14 feet (though camera cheats by boosting the ISO). Noise from boosted ISO means that useful range is only about 9 feet though.

• Flash range at telephoto lens setting: 11 feet.
• Caveats and limitations: The 5600 "cheats" a bit by boosting its ISO for flash shots over eight feet. (A very common technique among compact consumer digital cameras.) At 14 feet, ISO is 200, the resulting images are very noisy, and much fine detail is lost. Useful range is probably ~9 feet.

8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft	12 ft	13 ft	14 ft
1/60 sec f4.9 ISO 129	1/60 sec f4.9 ISO 140	1/60 sec f4.9 ISO 179	1/60 sec f4.9 ISO 200	1/60 sec f4.9 ISO 200	1/60 sec f4.9 ISO 200	1/60 sec f4.9 ISO 200

ISO-12233 (WG-18) Resolution Test

Good resolution, 1,250 lines of "strong detail." Higher than average barrel distortion at wide angle, no distortion at telephoto. High chromatic aberration, particularly at telephoto, some blurring in the corners.

• Resolution: 1,250 lines both vertically and horizontally.
• Artifacts begin at: ~800 lines.
• Extinction point: ~1,500 lines.
  
  
• Barrel/Pincushion distortion: 1.0 percent barrel at wide angle, none at telephoto.
• Chromatic Aberration: Fairly high, several pixels of coloration on either side of the target lines.
• Corner Sharpness: Some at wide angle, very little at telephoto.

Resolution Series, medium focal length

Wide Angle	"Fine" JPEG	"Normal" JPEG
2,592 x 1,944	CP56RES2592F	CP56RES2592N
2,048 x 1,536	CP56RES2048	-
1,024 x 768	CP56RES1024	-
640 x 480	CP56RES0640	-

 

Resolution Test, Zoom Series

2,592 x 1,944 (Fine, Wide Angle)	CP56RESW
2,592 x 1,944 (Fine, Telephoto)	CP56REST