Compared to the Minolta DiMAGE 7i

The Minolta DiMAGE 7i was announced almost two months before the Coolpix 5700, although is definitely targetted into the same portion of the market, big zoom 5 megapixel prosumer. Here we'll be doing a direct head to head comparison with the 7i in our controlled studio scene test.

Camera settings were:

• Nikon Coolpix 5700: Tone: Normal, Sharpening: Normal, Saturation: 0, NR Off, Manual WB
  
• Minolta DiMAGE 7i: Saturation: 0, Contrast: 0, Color mode: Natural, Sharpness: Normal,
  Manual WB

Studio scene comparison

This is our standard studio scene comparison shot taken from the same tripod position. Lighting: 2 x 800W studio lights with dichroic daylight filters bounced off a white ceiling reflector. Crops magnified 200%.

Nikon Coolpix 5700	Minolta DiMAGE 7i
ISO 100, F5.4, 1/3.6 sec	ISO 100, F5.6, 1/4 sec
1,594 KB JPEG	1,973 KB JPEG

There's a lot to talk about here. From a pure resolution point of view the 5700 is certainly able to resolve finer details. Colour balance is different, the 5700 has gone for a more vivid look, the D7i better preserves colour detail with less saturation. That said both cameras provide control over colour saturation output. Noise levels in medium tones are also notably different, the D7i exhibitting noticeably more noise than the 5700. The D7i has visible speckled luminance on the majority of mid tones, naturally less so with a higher signal (lighter areas of the image).

The 5700's demosaic algorithm appears to be more sophisticated than the D7i providing a more film like look to detail than the D7i. The D7i manages to preserve highlight detail better than the 5700 which clipped highlights on the edge of the silver spoons. Note also the 5700's 'colour stepping' along the tip of the yellow crayon, this is almost identical to what we saw in the 4500 review.