Nikon Coolpix 5700

Opinion: dsff sf sf

Opinion: Have taken some 7000 shots since purchasing the camera new in Sept 2002. Other than the firmware upgrade and a ccd remap for hot pixels, nothing has ever been done to the camera. It suffers the usual complaints of the 5700, poor low light autofocus, slow startup, shutter delay and battery gluttony. I can currently buy a D300 DSLR body for the same price that I paid for the 5700 in 2002. It is compact and very versatile, so despite it's age and shortcomings, there are no plans to upgrade.

Opinion: I have this camera for four years. The only disatvantage is that room light is not enough for it to focus, other than that, in the outdoors, its just great. Those who say pictures are not clear simply don't know how to take pictures, this has nothing to do with the camera. I hope Nikon will come up with 12-15x & with image stabelizer replacement soon. It's time to change.

Opinion: I had this camera for more then a year when it got stolen from me, just a week and a half ago. I loved it. The macro was fantastic. You can see examples of my macro shots at www.pooky125.deviantart.com The pictures were clear, color accurate, and beautiful, when it felt like it. Mine, more then most others, I hear, was very particular on when it felt like taking a good photograph. It didn't like my mother much. When in Automatic mode for her, the pictures were frequently washed out and blurry. Hand the camera to me, and they were fine. I assume it's operator error, but she also had a 5700, and never had problems. Either way, it rarely acted up for me.

The automatic mode was fantastic, but the shutter lag was slow, to a frustrating level. If you have kids, this is not the camera for you! I took mostly landscape and macro/flower pictures, so I never really had to much of a problem with it.

The body is a nice, strong magnesium. Not the flimsy plastic seen on most models. I could throw it in my (very large) purse, and haul it all over the country. No matter how many times I dropped in down the stairs, on the concrete floor, whatever, it never stopped working.

The LCD screen was small, and not very clear, so it was often hard to tell if the camera was really focused until the pictures wre on th computer. I had many a picture not quite as in focus as it looked on that little replay screen.

With the addition of a lense hood, this camera got alot of compliments, not only on appearance, but on the overall results as well.

I was very happy with it.

Opinion: I own an slr, but I recently bought this camera for hiking. The results are stunning. Macro is especially good. Portraits at 8x zoom have nice background blur. 100% crop on images shows little more noise than slr due to the large 2/3 sensor. I hope that the pixel race ends someday so we can see a new crop of great 5MP cameras. Even with 6mp slr, lens resolution is more limiting than pixels...please stop adding pixels to small cameras! Large pixels produce better images. Noise reduction in modern cameras kills detail, so it's no match for low sensor noise.

Opinion: An amateur photographer going digital has to get started somewhere. It makes sense to combine your knowledge of photography with research and then make your best choice of camera. You can't shop forever! Get it and get started! My first choice was a Sony because it had something I was very familiar with - a disk drive. While owning a Sony Mavica, I did lots of research on this site, dpreview.com, and chose the Nikon 5700 mostly on photo quality. This was 4 years ago, and, sure I would love to own a newer, more advanced camera, but I am still very pleased with the photo quality of my 5700. As soon as I can afford it, I will purchase a full SLR digital, but only after a lot of research on dpreview.com. I sure like Nikon, but I know that Pentax, Sony, Minolta, and many others are very competetive and will have great products. I am very happy to have chosen my Nikon 5700 - it has been an enjoyable stage of evolution toward my next, more advanced camera. I am probably good for another year or so with my 5700.

Opinion: All time best Hidden Gem Still, 2006 lightyears later in technology and this camera had to be compared against the newer models and glad to report it holds its own at least and is still better then most tiny lens cameras in some ways I believe even today and many others even with large lens. This is a hidden gem if you can get past knowing whether you are buying a good model and accepting some other thingsl. When working the ONLY real negative is low light shots are difficult to get a great focus but possible if your very diligent.Its important to get a good model though. Even if you don't Nikon has a photo fix for free for bad ccds.REALLY check the history section in this forum under Nikon .Someone offered new camera and not sure how, but I went to meet him and here it is and it was not exactly new.Ultimately it developed problems and the guy who sold it probably thought I was the fool , little did he know what he gave up!!!!! and Nikon fixed it and I am glad cause now its a gem of a camera. I have tried many variations from great to horrible of this model. . Unless you get a model that focusses good and everything else working good I say pass unless its something Nikon will fix This is the only reason the price is so low on this, one of the truly great point and shoot cameras of all time. It might not have the very clear brightness of newer higher pixels but what it does do well it does astoundingly well considering this camera is close to five years old. One is able to get a great photo if your patient. oK FINAL OPINION HERE THE NIKON 4 YEARS LATER IS BETTER THEN H1 OFTEN, WITHOUT ANY DOUBT JUST BE PREPARED TO WORK HARDER FOR THE PHOTO. The technology lapse becomes evident when everything we take for granted now is not present in five year old digital cameras. You should get use to keeping your hand very steadyand you should be prepared for many out of focus shots and unfortunately N O I S E. but for some reason or for the same reasons if you have a good working model those problems are MINOR , , the shots that work are very intoxicating. I really wonder if this is even better then the Nikon 8700 which even Phil said was unremarkable and I thought colors were kind of dull. The hard part is pinpointing why the camera is worth getting but it is. I love nikon and they might not like me to say this, but if you can pick up a non working model that someone has not sent in, that might be the best bet in getting a fixed Nikon 5700. .
The colors from this Nikon I now think are close to the best and most accurate of any camera I ever tried. The shots take in a heck of a lot of a scene and combined with great color make it just worth the drawbacks of old chip and price paid abd slghtly slower operation
Now comparable to the H1. Hi had better closeups because of higher power of the zoom lens and better noise control. However the 5700 had a tad better color and slightly, even though it might be arguable better photo quality as in smaller dots. The details were a tad smaller and more real in the 5700 as opposed to Sony's slightly more ellaborate and magnified image in my view. Don't get me wrong, the H1 wins probably in overall comparison TO PEOPLE WHO WANT EASY PHOTO but if you like Nikon better this still can get slightly better photos at right time and THAT more then anything else is important for photo affecinados if not the most important sentence in this review. I made the review to see if a camera five years ago can rival one from today and it can . Like I mentioned the h1 has much better zoom and closeup shots tend to show that difference. The h1 has better consistency too in attaining the proper focus and getting faster shot . The h1 gets better shots indoor but I have gotten some great shots with this too, that are better then h1 and if overall photo quality is what matters I think the lens on Nikon and color make it at least the equal to the H1 if not better then all 5 megapixel consumer level cameras of all time. The bit with shutter lag has some merit favoring the H1. I was expecting much more shutter lag then I got though but the 5700 makes you go back in time when you had to keep your hands straight and or steady to attain an in focus shot. I thought the H1 was classic, but this is also a classic considering this camera was made years and years ago and one of the first megazoom that tried to be point and focus and under the price of dslr. In the end you get probably less better consistent shots with the 5700 then H1 but here again it all depends on the condition of the camera you have. Another overlooked positive, the camera takes up more of scene because of the large lens size. You can get great shots from other cameras but even though for example indoor you will get many more blurred shots here if you choose the right setting you will see your shot framed better and take in more of the scene of the shot you want. Another camera might only get a much more narrow view. This camera is truly worth the small price its going for. The smart people know this. If you want to forget what I just said, and get a good camera, or fixed camera you are going to get one of the best point and shoot consumer level cameras of all time and I sincerely mean that

Opinion: update as of 2006. sold the 5700. used it for over 5000 + photos in many conditions. camera worked fine. finally sold it and got a d-50. but in comparing the images, and although i like the d-50 slr format. the image quality of the 5700 still holds up.

UPDATE: 6/07 - In looking back over my website, and now after owning a d-100 and a D-50 The pictures of the 5700 still hold up very well. On my web page the Brazil and Peru pictures were taken with the 5700 and you cant see any difference. Should be able to pic one up cheap now.

Opinion: It is second digital camera that I got. I shoot a lot and I feel that is suitable for begening photographer. It has a lot of neccessary functions like histogram, macro, shutter priority, apperture priosity, etc. It is compatible with CF ultra II.