Nikon Coolpix 5400

Opinion: When I first got this camera way back when, it was amazing. But now I can't stand the darned thing and I only use it as a long-term setup time lapse camera. Takes nice pictures though, if you have the patience to wait for it to take them.

Opinion: What can I say, had this camera for 3 years took 100s of photos, never let me down, fantastic!!!!

Opinion: As many reviewers before I have to say I love this little camera. Therefore I judge it rather with heart then reason :) For me the "pros" counterbalance the "cons". It's been naturaly compared to Canon G series and aparently Nikon didn't like it so they gave up the whole idea, sort of, or well this is how it looks.
pros: the 5400 in favorable lighting conditions is capable of shooting perfect pictures and pariculary excels at macro. Plants, critters... perfect! The skin tones are on the nice side of "natural" and even dusk/dawn and night pictures stay correct. AWB most of times is OK and manual WB is even better. Camera lays very comfortably in hand. After 5 years IT STILL WORKS :) But...
cons: don't even think of shooting people indoor (at least without loads of extra light)! It will not focus, not get the right WB, nothing. A huge Nikon flash didn't help here due to lack of AF Assist. "Manual focus" thingy is un-user-friendly, unreliable and infuriating. Little screen is... like the first laptop LCD. The "analog visor" is a joke. The battery last less then it takes the camera to focus indoor (just joking). The battery door opens when you slide your hand under the camera, oops!, had to secure it with some tape.

Well, I still love it :)

Opinion: my first attempt in digital in 2003. Had a lot of fun with it. Still works perfectly after 27k pictures. Now occasionaly use it for macro (closest range 1cm ) and tilted screen possibilities. Biggest drawback: slow.

Opinion: I own this model and love it. Had used it for 2 years and just bought a 2nd as backup in Aug, '08 even though more advanced models have arrived. The 5400 has my favorite balance of size, manual settings, flip out and rotate LCD display, and reliably produces great photos. A very good value, and a quality camera, as you'd expect from Nikon. Only complaint is the slowness shot to shot, time spent waiting on saving to memory, etc.

Opinion: Not very good camera in low light; shaky and blurry , no matter what I do to the settings. Granted, I'm a beginner, but I've had my more experienced friends try to take pictures w/ this camera and it just wasn't effective. I am looking to get a new camera as this is now 4+ years old.

Opinion: This camera gives really sharp and nice picture.

Note: I rate value for money a 3.0 because I bought this camera in late 2003 which costed me $1300 CAD.

The 28mm wide angle nice.

Opinion: I bought this camera on eBay to supplement my e5700 so I can share batteries , cards and wide angle add-on lens(es).

Both cameras served my photo needs well within the limits of their design (read the manuals and then read them again and oh yes get the helpful cheat sheets for both cameras)

Opinion: I've had my Nikon for over 3 years and it did a good job for most of that time.

I'm an old SLR user and found the manual settings annoying but still managed plenty of good results. I had issues with focusing at times though and have often had to sharpen photos in editing. The auto and scene mode settings can give about as good results as manual anyway.

The camera is easy to get used to and the functions are fairly intuitive. Within a week i had most of the extensive features memorised.

The build quality is excellent and the ability of the LCD screen to rotate every direction is excellent and very useful.

Battery life is good. I shot mostly 2mp with handfuls of 5mp as well, usually in normal and I got hours out of it. That was always using the LCD too.

Overall i think it was a good camera but over the years it has slowly worn down (as you'd expect with rough use). First to go was the flash, after maybe 2 years. Then a strap holder fell out and just recently I get "lens error occurred" it the camera doesn't work at all.

I decided to get a cheapo Fuji s5700 and have just got it out of the box and am discouraged about the lack of weight and substance. One thing I really like about the coolpix 5400 is that it feels like a "real" camera.