Nikon Coolpix P5100: Nine Primes in One

In a world where I’m pining after a rangefinder, my Nikon Coolpix P5100 gets better and better as I learn how to use it.

Today is the annual Halloween Parade at my daughter’s school, and this year they’re going to march down the sidewalk outside the school. I’m torn between shooting with the Nikon D90+Voigtländer Ultron 40mm, or the Nikon P5100. My concern is that the P5100 won’t be fast enough. Or, that I won’t have as much control.

So, I did a quick test, and under cloudy conditions with the AF (“infinity”) focus mode, the shutter lag is only about a second. Since the camera does not indicate the focal length in numbers, and I prefer to use the viewfinder with the LCD off, I shoot some test images to see just what the focal lengths are. Each quick flip of the zoom lever advances an apparently repeatable step, so I take a shot for each step, pull the card, and read the EXIF data. These are the results, starting from the short end:

Nikon Coolpix P5100	35mm equivalent	available f-stop range
7.5mm	35mm	f/2.7-7.6
8.5mm	40mm	f/2.9-7.1
10.1mm	47mm	f/3.1-7.7
12.9mm	60mm	f/3.5-7.7
15.7mm	74mm	f/3.9-7.6
18.6mm	87mm	f/4.3-7.5
21.5mm	101mm	f/4.7-7.3
24.5mm	115mm	f/5.1-7.9
26.3mm	123mm	f/5.3-7.3

It’s like having nine primes in one! Zoom all the way in, and three or four clicks out and I’ve got my (approximate) 90mm and 75mm portrait lengths. Zoom all the way out, and two clicks in, and I’m shooting normal at an almost ideal 47mm. Now, I feel as though I have some control.

I can use aperture priority with f/5.4 (closest to the very versatile f/5.6) in every zoom range, and for maximum depth of field, f/7.6. At a “normal” focal length, I’m around f/3, and at portrait, I’m around f/4. All these numbers are not far off from the NIKKOR 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom. For some strange reason, the aperture does not remain constant, but varies slightly. I can deal with that though.

Shooting with the viewfinder takes a little courage, but becomes comfortable very quickly. The camera knows to turn on the LCD each time you change something; the aperture, exposure compensation, auto-focus mode, flash preferences, self-timer, etc. As soon as you push the shutter release halfway, it turns off. You can turn the LCD off in the P, A, S, and M modes, but in all other modes it stays on. This is fine, and seems pretty logical. The P, A, S and M modes are for serious shooting, and the other modes for casual shooting.