Nikon Coolpix 5700 Review, August 2002, Phil Askey

Preview based on a production Nikon Coolpix 5700, Firmware v1.00

The new eight times zoom, five megapixel Coolpix 5700 was announced on May 29th, 2002 as part of a trio of new Coolpix digital cameras from Nikon. The 5700 marks the next logical progression from the Coolpix 5000 and adds a big eight times optical zoom lens. This instantly raises the 5700 to the top of the prosumer digital camera pile, the nearest competition coming from Minolta's DiMAGE 7i (seven times optical zoom, five megapixel) and Sony's DSC-F707 (five times optical zoom, five megapixel).

Evolution

As you can see from the shot above the 5700 is instantly recognizable as being based on the 5000 'backend'. Indeed there is much about the 5700 which is similar to the 5000, however there are some other important differences which are detailed below.

Coolpix 5700 compared to Coolpix 5000 (differences only)

	Nikon Coolpix 5700	Nikon Coolpix 5000
Camera controls	Top, Rear, Lens barrel	Top, Rear, Below LCD
LCD monitor	1.5" 110,000 pixel, flip-out & twist	1.8" 110,000 pixel, flip-out & twist
LCD 'soft buttons'	No	Yes
Status LCD	Top of camera, illuminated	Rear of camera
Lens	35 - 280 mm equiv. (8x), F2.8 - F4.2	28 - 85 mm equiv. (3x), F2.8 - F4.8
Lens accessories	0.8x wide angle, 1.5x tele, thread adapter, hood	0.21x fisheye, 0.68x wide angle, 2.0x tele, 3.0x tele, thread adapters, hood
Macro range	3 cm (1.2 in) - Infinity	2 cm (0.8 in) - Infinity
Max shutter	1/4000 sec 1.3 stops from max aperture	1/4000 sec only at F2.8
RAW format	Yes (Nikon NEF)	No
JPEG type	EXIF 2.2 (ExifPrint)	EXIF 1.1 + Epson PIM
Continuous	Continuous H, Continuous L,Multi-Shot 16, Ultra High-Speed Continuous	Continuous H, Continuous L, High-speed Continuous, Ultra High-Speed Continuous, Multi-Shot 16
Flash	Electronic automatic pop-up	Fixed internal
Flash range	Approx. 4.0 m (13.1 ft) @ Wide	Approx. 3.0 m (9.8 ft) @ Wide
Viewfinder	180,000 pixel electronic viewfinder	Optical
Weight (inc batt.)	512 g (18.1 oz)	414 g (14.6 oz)
Dimensions	108 x 76 x 102mm (4.3 x 3.0 x 4.0 in)	102 x 82 x 68 mm (4.0 x 3.2 x 2.7 in)

If you're new to digital photography you may wish to read the Digital Photography Glossary before diving into this article (it may help you understand some of the terms used).

Conclusion / Recommendation / Ratings are based on the opinion of the author. Images which can be viewed at a larger size have a small magnifying glass icon in the bottom right corner of the image, clicking on the image will display a larger (normally 960 x 720 or smaller if cropped) image in a new window. To navigate the review simply use the next / previous page buttons, to jump to a particular section either pick the section from the drop down or select it from the navigation bar at the top. DPReview calibrate their monitors using Color Vision OptiCal at the (fairly well accepted) PC normal gamma 2.2, this means that on our monitors we can make out the difference between all of the (computer generated) grayscale blocks below. We recommend to make the most of this review you should be able to see the difference (at least) between X,Y and Z and ideally A,B and C.

This article is Copyright 2002 Phil Askey and the review in part or in whole may NOT be reproduced in any electronic or printed medium without prior permission from the author. For information on reproducing any part of this review (or any images) please contact: Phil Askey.