The Nikon Coolpix 5400 is the descendent of the Coolpix 5000. In the revamp, it has gained a new 1/1.8in CCD and 4x optical zoom but also loses a couple of useful features, like the LCD status panel and RAW file mode. True, there is a TIFF option, but this is a backwards move in our view.
The loss of the status display means you have to check settings on the 1.5in LCD, which isn’t so easy in bright daylight. But, like the Canon G5, the swivelling LCD mounting allows you to take self-portraits or above-the-head shots more easily.
Many will also appreciate the wide-angle 28-116mm lens. We noticed a small amount of barrel distortion at full wide, but it’s only apparent at the edges of shots. Although this was slightly evident in the macro shot, Nikon still blows the competition away, capturing a tiny area of 24 x 18mm – extreme detail is clearly visible in the photo.
Shutter speeds are joint-fastest with the Pentax at 1/4,000 second, making the 5400 ideal for action shots. At the other end of the scale, it shares a bulb mode with the Canon G5. If you’ll use this feature, it’s worth noting that the 5400 doesn’t come with a remote like the Canon.
As expected, Nikon’s familiar Best Shot Selector is present and takes a series of images and automatically chooses the sharpest of the set. This is in addition to bracketing for both exposure and, more unusually, white balance. It’s also one of the few cameras to capture movies at VGA resolution and the only one to create them from time-lapse photography – a new feature for Nikon.
Image quality is unmistakably Nikon. Overall, shots were a little undersaturated and soft, as the 5400 doesn’t butcher images with lots of post-processing. And since Photoshop Elements is bundled, you end up with more control over the final image.
In the indoor tests, the flash shot was slightly underexposed. However, without the flash, white balance was noticeably better, despite the presence of a dedicated flash white-balance mode. Compared to the Canon G5, there was also much less noise in the shadows and no chromatic aberrations.
Our biggest beef with the product was that the 5400’s metering system couldn’t cope with our outdoor portrait shot. The backlighting led to an underexposed and out-of-focus subject. The fill-in flash solved the problem, with the sacrifice of natural skin tones. General outdoor performance was fine, though, with natural colours and low noise.
As the best-featured camera on test, it’s a shame the Coolpix 5400 doesn’t have the quality to match. We advise saving $350 and opting for the better performing Sony DSC-V1.