Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 18 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 6Mb.

The Nikon Coolpix P520's image quality is very good for a compact camera with a small image sensor. The Nikon Coolpix P520's dealt well with noise, which becomes obvious at ISO 800 along with some colour loss. The noise, colour desaturation and loss of detail gets progressively worse as you go from ISO 800 to ISO 3200 and finally the unusable 6400 setting. The Nikon Coolpix P520 handled chromatic aberrations excellently with limited purple fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations. The 18 megapixel images were a little soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpen setting and either require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you should increase the in-camera sharpening level.

The Nikon Coolpix P520's maximum shutter speed is 8 seconds, which is fairly good news for night photography enthusiasts. Macro performance is excellent, allowing you to focus as close as 1cm away from the subject. Vibration reduction is a compulsory feature on a camera like this and one that that works very well when hand-holding the P520 in low-light conditions or using the telephoto end of the amazing zoom range. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and good overall exposure. The backlighting feature increases detail in both the shadows and highlights, although at the expense of some additional noise and loss of fine detail, while the Picture Controls, Special Effects during shooting and Filter Effects during playback offer a lot of creative control over your images.

Noise

The Nikon Coolpix P520 has 8 sensitivity settings ranging from ISO 80 to ISO 6400 at full resolution.

ISO 80 (100% Crop)	ISO 100 (100% Crop)
ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)
ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)
ISO 3200 (100% Crop)	ISO 6400 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The Nikon Coolpix P520's 42x zoom lens provides an astonishing focal range of 24-1000mm in 35mm terms, as demonstrated below.

24mm	1000mm

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops - the right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images from the Nikon Coolpix P520 are slightly soft at the default sharpening setting and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can alternatively change the in-camera sharpening level to suit your tastes.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

File Quality

At full resolution, there are two JPEG quality settings availableon the Nikon Coolpix P520 - Fine and Normal.

Fine (6.42Mb) (100% Crop)	Normal (3.91Mb) (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

Given the range of the zoom lens, the Nikon Coolpix P520 shows remarkably little purple fringing, with limited effects in areas of high contrast as shown in the examples below.

Chromatic Aberrations 1 (100% Crop)	Chromatic Aberrations 2 (100% Crop)

Macro

The Nikon Coolpix P520 allows you to get as close as 1cm to your subject, in this case a Compact Flash card.

Macro	Macro (100% Crop)

Flash

The flash settings on the Nikon Coolpix P520 are Auto, Auto with Red-eye reduction, Fill Flash, Manual (Full, 1/2, 1/4 1/8, 1/16, 1/32 and 1/64), Slow Sync, Rear-curtain Sync and Flash Off. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m. Some vignetting and barrel distortion is apparent at the 24mm wide-angle setting, irrespective of whether you use the flash or not.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (24mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (24mm)
Flash Off - Telephoto (1000mm)	Flash On - Telephoto (1000mm)

And here are a couple of portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Fill Flash or the Auto with Red-eye reduction options caused any amount of red-eye.

Flash On	Flash On (100% Crop)
Red Eye Reduction	Red Eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The Nikon Coolpix P520's maximum shutter speed is 8 seconds in the Manual mode, which is fairly good news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 8 seconds at ISO 80.

Night	Night (100% Crop)

Vibration Reduction

The Nikon Coolpix P520 has a vibration reduction mechanism, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the lens set to the same focal length and ISO speed. The first shot was taken with vibration reduction turned off, the second with it turned on. As you can see, with vibration reduction turned on, the images are definitely sharper than with vibration reduction turned off. Here is a 100% crop of the images to show the results.

Shutter Speed / Focal Length	Anti Shake Off (100% Crop)	Anti Shake On (100% Crop)
1/10th sec / 24mm
1/4th sec / 1000mm

Active D-Lighting

D-lighting is Nikon's dynamic range optimisation tool that attempts to squeeze the full dynamic range of the sensor into JPEGs. The available settings are Off, Low, Medium, and High. The following examples demonstrate the differences between the various settings.

Off	Low
Normal	High

Backlighting

The Nikon Coolpix P520's Backlighting mode captures three consecutive shots at varying exposures and combines them into a single photo with a broader range of tones. Three different HDR settings are available for selection.

Off	HDR 1
HDR 2	HDR 3

Picture Controls

The Nikon Coolpix P520 has four different Picture Controls, which can be individually tweaked (sharpening, contrast and saturation) to suit your taste.

Standard	Neutral
Vivid	Monochrome

Special Effects

You can apply nine different special effects as you shoot with the Nikon Coolpix P520, with a live preview on the LCD screen showing exactly what the final image will look like.

Soft	Nostalgic Sepia
High-contrast Monochrome	High Key
Low Key	Selective Color
High ISO Monochrome	Silhouette
Cross Process

Filter Effects

You can apply seven different filter effects in-camera to photos that you have already taken with the Nikon Coolpix P520.

Soft	Selective Color
Cross Screen	Fisheye
Miniature Effect	Painting
Vignette

Easy Panorama

The Nikon Coolpix P520's Easy Panorama mode allows you to take vertical or horizontal panorama photos simply by moving the camera in the direction of the on-screen guides. Multiple shots are then combined into a single panorama photo. The angle of view can be selected from 180° (normal) and 360° (wide).

Easy Panorama - 180°

Easy Panorama - 360°

 

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Nikon Coolpix P520 camera, which were all taken using the 18.1 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample Movies & Video

As of February 2025, we are no longer providing full size sample images or videos for download.

Please contact us if you have any feedback on our new policy.

Product Images

Front of the Nikon Coolpix P520

Front of the Nikon Coolpix P520 / Turned On

Front of the Nikon Coolpix P520 / Pop-up Flash

Side of the Nikon Coolpix P520

Side of the Nikon Coolpix P520

Side of the Nikon Coolpix P520

Side of the Nikon Coolpix P520

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix P520

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix P520

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix P520 / Image Displayed

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix P520 / Turned On

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix P520 / Shooting Menu

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix P520 / Function Menu

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix P520 / Tilting LCD Screen

Front of the Nikon Coolpix P520 / Tilting LCD Screen

Top of the Nikon Coolpix P520

Bottom of the Nikon Coolpix P520

Side of the Nikon Coolpix P520

Side of the Nikon Coolpix P520

Front of the Nikon Coolpix P520

Front of the Nikon Coolpix P520

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The Nikon Coolpix P520 is a very modest update of last year's P510 model, principally adding a more flexible LCD screen and slightly more megapixels, thankfully with no deterioation in image quality. This doesn't really feel like enough of a step forward though, especially as most of our criticisms of the P510 haven't been addressed, namely a lack of direct access to the ISO speed and other key settings, a missing second control wheel, no RAW format support, a low-resolution electronic viewfinder and the inability to attach an external flashgun, all features that several rivals offer or improve on.

The Nikon Coolpix P520 offers the same incredible telephoto zoom setting of 1000mm as its predecessor. Remarkably it's still possible to hand-hold the camera in good light and achieve sharp pictures thanks to the excellent vibration reduction system, although you really need to use a tripod or other support for consistent results. This is especially important given the poor quality of the EVF and the rather inexplicable requirement to close the LCD screen before you can actually use it. The move to an 18 megapixel sensor hasn't spoiled the image quality, on the contrary, it's slightly better than on the P510, but the P520 still struggles to keep up with fast-moving subjects and lacks support for the RAW file format.

While the P520 continues to offer a very well rounded package, with SLR-like handling, manual exposure and focus, an eye-level viewfinder, a flexible and high-resolution LCD screen, built-in GPS and optional wi-fi, full HD movies with stereo sound, full-time AF and optical zoom, we can't help but feel a strong sense of deja vu. The new Nikon Coolpix P520 doesn't offer enough improvements and new features to tempt would-be upgraders from the previous generation or to compete with the best super-zooms on the market, so while it remains a solid choice, there are better cameras competing for your attention and money.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4
Features	4.5
Ease-of-use	4
Image quality	4
Value for money	4

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Nikon Coolpix P520 from around the web.

Specifications

Your Comments