Nikon Coolpix 5000

Opinion: I didn't use my 5000 for some years but rediscovered this nice camera again. For to day's standards it's too slow but it's still great for no hurry and take your time photography.

Opinion: I got one of these cameras in june 2006, and compared to today's standards this Nikon might look as an antique. Still, it has some valuable good points. Firts, the build quality is great, better than some D-SLR which I used. Today's cameras tend to have cheap plastic construction or thin aluminium, this one is die hard magnesium alloy. Secondly, image quality is very good, even if it is designed 4 years ago. It is much better than the new P1 or P2 from Nikon. Noise is well managed even at 400 ISO and images are perfectly usable. Finally, if you want a great classic with solid "Nikon fell" image quality at a bargain price - one could still find some of these in as new condition-, go for it. It doesn't have the speed of a modern camera, true, but it is built to last and the images are very good.

Opinion: This camera is old (now in 2005), slow, and not easy to use unless you're very familiar with the way advanced digital cameras work. On the bright side, the image quality out of this bad boy is as good as (or better than) any digital camera still on the market (as of late April 2005).

For certain subjects and lighting conditions I find myself wanting to use the Coolpix 5000 instead of my Fuji S2 or Nikon D70 DSLRs!!! This little camera is still an amazing photographic tool.

If you want/need wide angle in a compact body there is no beating this camera at the current price range. You can buy the 5000 used or factory refurbished for less than $250 in many good stores (B&H, Charlotte Camera, KEH, etc.).

It's not the perfect camera, but it's great for travel and landscapes/architecture.

Opinion: I am an architect so I shoot mainly architecture at an amateur level and project documentation. For this I need wide angle. At the time (spring 2003) there were only 2 alternatives: Minolta Dimage 7 and Coolpix 5000. dslr-s were not affordable then. The Dimage I ruled out because it lacked an optical viewfinder and the electronic one gave me a headache. However I find myself using the monitor almost exclusively. With a spare battery there is enough power.

Even 28 mm 35 mm equivalent is mostly not wide enough so I also bought the 0.68 wide converter, which gets me down to 19 mm. There is heavy barrel distortion at wide angle but that is easy to correct with Photoshop's pano tools. There is a very useful freeware program with calibrations for most lenses.

Some softness is perceptible, particularly with the wide converter. Therefore I try to stop down whenever possible. This combined with rather bad noise levels at 200 ASA or more has me constantly using a tripod or looking for support for the camera. Here the fliptilt monitor is very helpful. You can put the camera in very awkward places and still see what you are getting. For instance, I often flip it out and rotate it 180 degrees and press the camera against a wall opposite the subject or place it on the floor.

It seems I have worried too much about softness. I finally ran a test comparing the outcome with different apertures using the WC-E68. There was slight softness in the center at f8 (diffraction?) and at the edges at f2,8, but nothing much. The sweet spot is probably around 5,6 but the whole range is usable.

The camera body and the controls have a nice, solid, well-crafted feel and sits very comfortably in the hand. Every time you turn the camera on and off it performs a solemn ritual, the lens protruding and retracting so you leave it on between shots and try to protect the lens.

Considering the small size of the camera, the controls are reasonably well positioned. You mostly have to use both hands to operate buttons and dial simultaneously which is not a big problem but the dial would have been more ergonomic on the front side of the camera.

To transfer the images to a computer is a breeze (I suppose it is on most cameras): you connect the USB cable and do something else for a minute and there they are on your hard disk in a new, automatically created directory. The Nikon software is good only for that transfer operation, you can't do any serious editing with it.
With the above qualifications, I find image quality quite satisfactory and enjoy the ease and possibilities offered by digital photography.

I loaded the RAW option and used it on one shot. but still have to learn what the conversion programs are about...

The shortcomings, however, mean that I am considering buying a better camera sometime soon. After all, a lot has happened in 3-4 years. Since I have become totally dependent on the fliptilt monitor, I could not imagine myself peeping through a viewfinder any more. So that rules out all SLR-s except Olympus E-330. Reading tests, I have, however, decided to go for the Sony DSC-R1 unless something comes up before.

Actually, I wonder why high end digital camera design is so conservative. Why are they all making slr-s with basically the same configuration that was invented over 50 years ago when they were limited to optics and mechanics. Now we have electronics, digital processing and LCD. Why are we still supposed to press our eyes against a little hole in the camera body when we could have a large LCD screen which could be turned in any direction and even removed from the camera (wireless connection) so you could put the camera in any position and still follow accurately what it's seeing. The prism and mirror mechanism is expensive, prone to failure, causes vibration and pushes the lens away from the sensor which is detrimental to optical quality in wide angle. So at least we should be given the alternative of high quality cameras without it.

Opinion: I bought my first 5000 for $550 and my second for $275. The camera is now available for around $300 used.
Have enjoyed using this model. But the instruction book is very difficult to understand. It has taken me several months to feel comfortable with the complexities of this camera.
At the current prices the 5000 is very good value in my opinion.
Also purchased the wide angle, fish eye and 2X tele.
The wide angle is a wonderful add on.
Sometimes I use it for my "standard" lens.
The fish eye is good for special effects.
I do have problems with the delay after pushing the shutter.
Nikon rep says that I would need to purchase a more expensive Nikon to get better results.
The 2X tele is OK.
I am using the 512 Sandisk memory cards and like them very much.

Opinion: I have owned the 5000 for a year or more and before that a CP950.
Both produced prints that I sold. Yesterday a 40" print from the 5000.
With a little research both these cameras ended up paying for themselves.
Now I am facing the DSLR dilemma. I am trying to decide between the
unreleased 8800, 8400, or the D70.
I know whatever I choose will work and that no camera is a complete solution.

Opinion: My rating of this as an "excellent" value partly derives from the fact that I bought it used very cheaply ($300) so I couldn't resist it. I got it as a backup camera after I already owned a Nikon 5400. After reading the negative reviews here, I would not have bought it for full price.

Now that I own it, I find that many of the criticisms are are excessive (and may be due to the fact that most of the previous posters paid a lot more for their cameras).

Color straight out of the camera is not quite as natural as the 5400, but with a little bit of post-processing it can be excellent. There is a tendency for highlights to be blown out in bright sunlight, in which case it is advisable to use some exposure compensation. On the plus side, resolution of fine details is excellent, and better than on the 5400.

The large LCD is a pleasure to view. And I find that the oft-criticized menu system is not so bad at all. For changing setting such as ISO and compression, the button system on the 5000 is in fact a bit faster and more convenient than the dial on the 5400.

The lens is very sharp at all focal lengths.

Opinion: The menu system makes this camera very user unfriendly. I used one for a couple of months and changed to a Canon G2 and there is no comparison. The G2 is better in every way

Opinion: External power supply.
I used a Kodak AC adapter 7.0 DCV 1.8 A (from my DC200 1st DC)
It works properly.

I bought the CP5000 1 week ago (2nd hand at EUR500 1 year Nikon warranty included, so I say Excellent value for money)
Very nice features and high quality images.
I like very much 28-85 mm lens.
This camera can substitute my SLR 35mm Pentax and my Mamiya 645 too !!!