Product Reviews

The successor to Nikon's popular Coolpix 5000, the 5400 arrives in a market that's moved on considerably since its forerunner was released. Back then, a 5-megapixel CCD immediately placed a camera into prosumer territory and gave it a price tag pushing £1,000 including VAT. That level of resolution is now more common, being matched by the likes of the Canon PowerShot G5 (see p78) as well as cheaper compact models.

At first glance, the 5400 looks almost identical to its predecessor, but there are differences. The lens retains its wide-angle 28mm-equivalent minimum focal length, but it's now a 4x optical zoom, giving a maximum 116mm equivalent telephoto, and the CCD is a new 1/1.8in device. Height has been reduced by around 10mm and width increased by about the same amount.

A major usability difference is the lack of a numerical LCD status panel: you're now restricted to using the monitor for every shot. It's difficult to see this as anything other than a backwards step, although it's partially compensated for by the addition of a dedicated mode-selector dial. Less explicable is the absence of a RAW image-recording mode. The Coolpix 5000 gained this via a firmware update after release. According to Nikon, the 5400 will also get it eventually, but failing to include the option off the bat will disappoint purists.

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5400 won't win any prizes for aesthetic design, but with its large handgrip the Coolpix is comfortable to use. However, the lower height compared to the 5000 means it's lost the contoured thumb grip at the rear - another negative move. One of the 5000's design flaws was the position of the flash sensor, which being positioned next to the grip tended to get covered by your index finger. Thankfully, this has been repositioned between the flash and the viewfinder.

Out in the field, photography results show that this is still very much a Nikon. You have the characteristic natural, evenly balanced colours, which sometimes verge on the subdued, and the slightly soft output at standard settings. The softness is down to a lack of in-camera processing rather than lens issues, and images sharpen up superbly in Photoshop.

The 5000 tended to suffer more than most from chromatic aberration, which manifests itself as purple fringes along high-contrast edges, but the 5400 is far better in this regard. However, an area that still hasn't been sorted out is the occasional inability of Nikon models to focus in low-light situations. There's no AF assist lamp, as featured on the PowerShot G5, or the superb laser matrix offered by Sony's F7xx series. Several of our indoor flash shots in low light were completely out of focus, because the camera just couldn't get a grip on the situation. Outdoors, though, results were excellent, with superb exposure metering and low noise.

With Canon having just announced the 6-megapixel EOS-300D SLR and Sony the 8-megapixel prosumer DSC-F828, and with the likes of the Canon IXUS 400 (see opposite) snapping at its heels from the consumer compact end of the market, the Coolpix has been born into a tough world. Low-light issues aside, it's a fine camera in its own right, but it's just a little too old school for us to recommend snapping it up without hesitation.