CP 5000 owners: Are you happy with your purchase?

[coal akida]

This question is not for people who don't own a Coolpix 5000, not
for people who have never used a Coolpix 5000, and not for people
who like to stand on the sidelines and criticize everything there
is about the Coolpix 5000.

This question is for people who have owned a Coolpix for at least
several days now, and have used it, and have seen in person what it
can do.

Are you generally pleased with the camera (taking into account that
no camera is perfect)? Would you recommend that people buy this
camera instead of its closest competitors?

Your answers will help me decide whether to trade up from my
Coolpix 990 or not. Thanks.

ok, on the 6 day before xmax my true love gave to me

1 sony dsc f707 5 megapixel camera
1 minolta digimage7 5 megapixel camera
1 olympus E-10
1 Nikon cool pic 885 3 megapixel

THE SONY was great, nice features, quiet,dream machine, that was hard to take places easily because of its long snout, but their was a bigger problem building. Holding the camera was akward because of the zoom which is its best feature you have to hold it with your palm up cupped and after about a half hour of manual focus the wrist started to really be affected with twisting and zooming, imangine a year of that and you have some major carpiil tunnel type thing happening, in the box it went for the return list.

The MINOLTA looks like it was put togother my the junk yard dogs, using scrap metal laying arround, sorry minolta but if that is not bad enough the sounds coming from that camera made my face cringe and wondering what the hell is going on inside thier, i never got a picture off and packed that back in as fast as I could, mad that i even read the manual that night.

The Olympus - I started to feel like a pro with this thing arrround my neck, beautiful camera, great feel, rubber coated lenz sweet touch, rugged body nice, acrobatic monitor, i started thinking this is the one great for high speed shots , great button configuration, just one problem the speed that the camera was designed for was a huge and I mean huge sacrafice for the small size picture , which means the great high speed pics you take of action before it really happens could not print on a stamp, let alone a post card, with great hesitation i put this back in the box,

The Nikon, which now seemed microscopic in size, cute- corlorful body made for a woman i imangined, excellent features, geat pictures, nice looking box it comes in well, great advertisiing slogans, the more i played with this the more i liked it, it was great for stealth shots , no one new i had a camera in my jacket pocket, niceee. noticed the nikon picture quality compared to the sony i had printed out on super B 13*19 SIZE which is taking the picture quality to the envelope, the nikon printing a better picture than the sony, this is with no editing. to bad that Nikon was not powerfull enough for my real world and job. With great sadness , they all went back , my girlfriend heart broken and I witthout a present.

ON xmas day my girlfriend gave to me a NIKON COOLPIC 5000, and she said what ever you do dont leave the cap on ,because the guy at the store said, the camera will brake and have to go back to nikon, Okkkkkkkk i

said, lit up the battery for 2 hours, read the box looking for the highlights on this puppy, plain box, bad advertising, read 92 pages of the manual, took 26 pictures straight from the box, haphazardly not caring if it worked or not really, i was for the most part cameraeeed out. I noticed how easy it was to hold with the monitor out gave it more width and less shake when taking the camera,, from a seating position. I should mention i installed no software on any of the camera, none of it is nessacary, all 26 pictues of everthing near and far came out, with excellent results and full size they were huge clear, and fast, I deleted all the pics and got back to shooting more serously, using the 3 shot burst at the ceiling fan using the fastest shutter speed and caught the fan in a sruperior frame shot with no blur amazing speed for a digital, wondered why they did not mark that on the box, what else can this cam do, its solid, built rugged some acrobats on the monitor, everthing has its place, well thought out, all the gadgest and gizmos of the best, and than some that best picture shot, tremendous

who cares im going back to huge picture speed shot , than im going to print out on super b, and if this works i got myself a DIGITAL CAMERA..

To all those that took the time to read this a very MERRY XMAS and to all a good night. Oh your wondering about the print, it was excellent no missed pixels, professionial quallity and to top it off the firmware was 1.6 and the nikon logo stood proudly as the King of the consumer pro as far as I was concered, and when your the best at what you do, you dont need no advertising, because the slogan is . BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME.

Yes, i am going to install the software
No, i am not going to read anymore of the manual
Yes i am going to set up my user 1-2-3
Yes i am going to buy the ac charger which dose not come with it,

yes i will get the case, and no i will not test the lenz cap on just to see if it works you can visit my website at http://www.combatexpert.com and no the picture on the site were taken off of the frames of video I shoot.

i sure as hell hope this help more than just a few people

and have a HAPPY NEW YEAR.--COAL-X-MAN

 

[Naveed Afridi]

Actually I returned the 707. Most pictures came out with a blue cast. This was a camera that was supposedly fixed by Sony.

Also in low light, in manual mode the camera screen would go dark and was hard to compose. SO I returned it.
Other than that, the Sony took great pictures straight out of the box.

I have used a 995 and before that a Sony 707.
The 5000 can make good pictures.

You own a 707? How do the 5000 and the 707 compare?

 

[Naveed Afridi]

............ in other words a "kicka$$" camera!!

 

[Scott66322]

Nope... I'm longing for my 990. Something about this little
camera is just not quite right. In particular, I'm finding that
too many of my indoor pics are under-exposed. This really never
happened with the 990 and is just driving me nuts with the 5000.
Also, I really miss the ability to mount filters on the camera.

I'm a big Nikon fan (I had a 950, a 990, a 995, and still own a
D1X) so I really want to like this camera. Unfortunately, I think
it will take a couple of firmware upgrades (I can only hope) before
I can really pass the praise.

Mark

If you own a D1X, then why on earth are you buying or considering buying a cp5000? I have a Canon D30, and I am by no means considering buying a G1 or a G2.

What is the point of taking pictures with any camera, other than the best that you have? I can understand owning a variety of lenses for your camera to take the pictures that you want under particular circumstances, I just can't understand the philosophy of owning a bunch of cameras with which to take pictures?

 

[Warren Flarity]

had a 990 for 18months and loved it
sold it to buy a cp5000

I can overlook its flaws because I believe they will be corrected through firmirmware or controled with work arounds and are minor compared to what this baby can do.
There is a learning curve even over experience with the 990.

aside from great photo quality I fell inlove with the 19mm WA lens - great photo quality with just a tad distortion. compared with the 8mm on the 990. I got both extention tubes= they are well made and give the camera a more SLR feel - you can hang on to the lens tube to shoot.

overall the cp5000 and I will grow on each other

I shoot mostly panoramas - the 19mm lens shooting multi rows and stiched to spherical, 360x180 sure beats out the ipix ball on quality and distortion.

 

[bill pitcher]

Hi Scooter,

I'm not going to argue the merits of any particular camera - but here's a reason to own a lesser camera. I live in the Canadian Rockies and often go for day hikes. One day last August, we decided to hike up to the Hoodoos in Yoho. It was hot and I didn't feel like lugging alone a bag full of Nikon 35mm equipment, so it all stayed in the trunk. Got to the top and everything was just perfect - except, no camera. The next morning I bought my first digital camera, a little point-and-shoot - a 2mp Olympus D-510z. It's not much of a camera, but it takes much better photos than any camera left in the trunk.

Bill
http://www.goldenbcphotography.com

Nope... I'm longing for my 990. Something about this little
camera is just not quite right. In particular, I'm finding that
too many of my indoor pics are under-exposed. This really never
happened with the 990 and is just driving me nuts with the 5000.
Also, I really miss the ability to mount filters on the camera.

I'm a big Nikon fan (I had a 950, a 990, a 995, and still own a
D1X) so I really want to like this camera. Unfortunately, I think
it will take a couple of firmware upgrades (I can only hope) before
I can really pass the praise.

Mark

If you own a D1X, then why on earth are you buying or considering
buying a cp5000? I have a Canon D30, and I am by no means
considering buying a G1 or a G2.

What is the point of taking pictures with any camera, other than
the best that you have? I can understand owning a variety of lenses
for your camera to take the pictures that you want under particular
circumstances, I just can't understand the philosophy of owning a
bunch of cameras with which to take pictures?

 

[Peter Rackham]

Folks,

As what seems like the majority of people on these forums (fora?), I have mixed feelings about this camera. I have only used NIKON cameras. (950, 990) and wanted the CP5000 to blow the competition out of the water. I wish I didn't have to use flash at all, but I do and am getting (here's that word again) "inconsistent" results. Some people seem to get verexposures and others underexposures. I fall under the latter camp. I use the SB28 flash and find that I have to use the internal and external combo to get decent results. Can it be the camera if I DO get good results at times? There are so many variables in taking flash shots of Christmas family gatherings in very dimly lit surroundings. I want to be fair and I want this camera to work for me. I am willing to accept that I am the weak link in the chain, but I wonder why I am not getting the more consistent flash results that I did with the CP990 (which I still own)... I'm not exactly a NIKON digital camera novice. Is it possible that this camera (or a certain percentage of them) are having trouble with flash implementation? Hmmm...

--Peter rackham http://www.geocities.com/peter_rackham

 

[Franki]

Peter,
Take a look at http://homepage.mac.com/fmazza
Just random snapshots. What do you think?

Folks,

As what seems like the majority of people on these forums (fora?),
I have mixed feelings about this camera. I have only used NIKON
cameras. (950, 990) and wanted the CP5000 to blow the competition
out of the water. I wish I didn't have to use flash at all, but I
do and am getting (here's that word again) "inconsistent" results.
Some people seem to get verexposures and others underexposures. I
fall under the latter camp. I use the SB28 flash and find that I
have to use the internal and external combo to get decent results.
Can it be the camera if I DO get good results at times? There are
so many variables in taking flash shots of Christmas family
gatherings in very dimly lit surroundings. I want to be fair and I
want this camera to work for me. I am willing to accept that I am
the weak link in the chain, but I wonder why I am not getting the
more consistent flash results that I did with the CP990 (which I
still own)... I'm not exactly a NIKON digital camera novice. Is it
possible that this camera (or a certain percentage of them) are
having trouble with flash implementation? Hmmm...

--
Peter rackham

http://www.geocities.com/peter_rackham

--Franco

 

[Peter Rackham]

Franki,

I have already seen your site and was impressed. I only clicked on one file to see it enlarged, though, because I have a dial-up connection only. They hardly look like flash shots at all -- very smooth, uniform fill. Did you use bounce flash? Did you just use the camera's internal flash?

Also, I noticed that your subjects were fairly close to the camera. I don't have trouble with relatively close shots. Have you tried flash shots from greater distances?

Folks,

As what seems like the majority of people on these forums (fora?),
I have mixed feelings about this camera. I have only used NIKON
cameras. (950, 990) and wanted the CP5000 to blow the competition
out of the water. I wish I didn't have to use flash at all, but I
do and am getting (here's that word again) "inconsistent" results.
Some people seem to get verexposures and others underexposures. I
fall under the latter camp. I use the SB28 flash and find that I
have to use the internal and external combo to get decent results.
Can it be the camera if I DO get good results at times? There are
so many variables in taking flash shots of Christmas family
gatherings in very dimly lit surroundings. I want to be fair and I
want this camera to work for me. I am willing to accept that I am
the weak link in the chain, but I wonder why I am not getting the
more consistent flash results that I did with the CP990 (which I
still own)... I'm not exactly a NIKON digital camera novice. Is it
possible that this camera (or a certain percentage of them) are
having trouble with flash implementation? Hmmm...

--
Peter rackham

http://www.geocities.com/peter_rackham

--
Franco

--Peter rackham http://www.geocities.com/peter_rackham

 

[Kui]

Mark Wieser wrote:

Mark, if you're not happy , return it and get canon and see. You can try, it's a free world and no one can force you to buy it.

Kui

 

[Scott66322]

Hi Bill, Your D-510z takes better pictures than your 35mm Nikon SLR?

I'm not going to argue the merits of any particular camera - but
here's a reason to own a lesser camera. I live in the Canadian
Rockies and often go for day hikes. One day last August, we
decided to hike up to the Hoodoos in Yoho. It was hot and I didn't
feel like lugging alone a bag full of Nikon 35mm equipment, so it
all stayed in the trunk. Got to the top and everything was just
perfect - except, no camera. The next morning I bought my first
digital camera, a little point-and-shoot - a 2mp Olympus D-510z.
It's not much of a camera, but it takes much better photos than any
camera left in the trunk.

Bill
http://www.goldenbcphotography.com

Nope... I'm longing for my 990. Something about this little
camera is just not quite right. In particular, I'm finding that
too many of my indoor pics are under-exposed. This really never
happened with the 990 and is just driving me nuts with the 5000.
Also, I really miss the ability to mount filters on the camera.

I'm a big Nikon fan (I had a 950, a 990, a 995, and still own a
D1X) so I really want to like this camera. Unfortunately, I think
it will take a couple of firmware upgrades (I can only hope) before
I can really pass the praise.

Mark

If you own a D1X, then why on earth are you buying or considering
buying a cp5000? I have a Canon D30, and I am by no means
considering buying a G1 or a G2.

What is the point of taking pictures with any camera, other than
the best that you have? I can understand owning a variety of lenses
for your camera to take the pictures that you want under particular
circumstances, I just can't understand the philosophy of owning a
bunch of cameras with which to take pictures?

 

[George Kent]

This question is not for people who don't own a Coolpix 5000, not
for people who have never used a Coolpix 5000, and not for people
who like to stand on the sidelines and criticize everything there
is about the Coolpix 5000.

This question is for people who have owned a Coolpix for at least
several days now, and have used it, and have seen in person what it
can do.

Are you generally pleased with the camera (taking into account that
no camera is perfect)? Would you recommend that people buy this
camera instead of its closest competitors?

Your answers will help me decide whether to trade up from my
Coolpix 990 or not. Thanks.

 

[Music Hands]

Dear whflari,

What photo stitching software do you use . . . or like?

I need to start doing this, esp with panoramas and large scanned images (11x17 and larger).

Stew M

had a 990 for 18months and loved it
sold it to buy a cp5000
I can overlook its flaws because I believe they will be corrected
through firmirmware or controled with work arounds and are minor
compared to what this baby can do.
There is a learning curve even over experience with the 990.
aside from great photo quality I fell inlove with the 19mm WA lens

• great photo quality with just a tad distortion. compared with the

8mm on the 990. I got both extention tubes= they are well made and
give the camera a more SLR feel - you can hang on to the lens tube
to shoot.

overall the cp5000 and I will grow on each other
I shoot mostly panoramas - the 19mm lens shooting multi rows and
stiched to spherical, 360x180 sure beats out the ipix ball on
quality and distortion.

--Stew

 

[bill pitcher]

Hi Bill, Your D-510z takes better pictures than your 35mm Nikon SLR?

-----------------------------------------

Only when I leave the Nikon in the trunk . That was my point - one reason to own a lesser camera in addition to a D1x or D30, is the convenience of having a camera with you at all times. Here's a photo I took with my D510 on a Sunday afternoon walk - much better than not getting anything at all:
http://www.goldenbcphotography.com/0_most_recent/emerald_lake.htm

I'll take all my equipment with me when I go out specifically to take pictures. The rest of the time I'll attach a small camera to my belt. The cp5000 would be a good companion camera to the D1x and I'd like to own both.

Bill
http://www.goldenbcphotography.com

 

[dang]

Steve,

I did what you are planing to do. I sold my 990 to a friend and bought the Coolpix 5000. I had a hard time to acquire the 5000 at first. Just got the Coolpix 5000 a week ago and already took over 200 pics and output 6 prints to my Epson Photo 1280.

The 2 primary reasons made me jump to the 5000 from the 990 are higher resolution and built-in hot shoe. Am I pleased with what I expected? YES. Am I happy with the Coolpix 5000? NO. Read on, you’ll see more of YES and NO

I mostly shot still life (product shots) in studio and do a lot 13x19 prints. I did not buy this CP500 exclusive for studio works. I primarily use the D1 in the studio. I got the CP5000 as a second cam for studio and also my everyday PS that let me carry around. I do need high res cam with excellent sync flash in a compact size. This Coolpix 5000 has the features I need and it is small enough for me to carry it around. It gives impressive image quality. But I think it still has flaws and needs lot of improvements.

Here are my complaints about this camera:.

Scramble button layout. Nikon put all the buttons in one spot to make it easy to navigate with one hand. They made a mistake because this is not appropriate for the size of the CP5000. If you have big hands/fingers, you'll be uncomfortable accessing the buttons.

Inconistency built-in flash results with indoor pictures. Underexposed most of the time with the built-in flash. I always got great results with my SB-26 attached. (all used P mode I haven't tested with ther modes)

Writing speed to CF card is slow. At HIGH/UNCOMPRESSED setting, it took somewhere between 15 to 20 seconds to record an image. This is too slow for me.

The 5 area AF is not that great as on Nikon 35mm SLR film camera.

Now let look at some good features on the CP5000 : High resolution CCD, great for printing pictures. Long battery life with the included rechargeable battery. Rotating screen. Light weight. Built-in hot shoe.

Will it worth for you to upgrade to the CP5000 from the CP990? I can not tell. It depends on how you use your camera. Don’t expect everything to be better. I am quite happy with the image quality. Prints on A3 Ilford Classic Pear Paper with Epson Photo1280 look impressive , comparable to conventional photos and the quality is better than pic taken with CP990.

Have you considered other camera? I am a big fan of Nikon for over 15 years. But lately, I am disappointed with Nikon, especially in digital gears. For P&S digital cam, I think Nikon is a bit behind than their competitors; Canon and Olympus. I have access to the Canon G2 , Olympus E-10 and had a chances to play around with them. They’re great solid cameras.

This question is not for people who don't own a Coolpix 5000, not
for people who have never used a Coolpix 5000, and not for people
who like to stand on the sidelines and criticize everything there
is about the Coolpix 5000.

This question is for people who have owned a Coolpix for at least
several days now, and have used it, and have seen in person what it
can do.

Are you generally pleased with the camera (taking into account that
no camera is perfect)? Would you recommend that people buy this
camera instead of its closest competitors?

Your answers will help me decide whether to trade up from my
Coolpix 990 or not. Thanks.

 

[B Wong]

I had the original 900 that I hadn't used for a while, but I've been using my N70 and N90 SLR. I finally waited for the CP5000 and I'm pleased with it so far.

I like the macro ability as well as the focusing ability in low light. My cousin has a G2 and his shot were predominately out of focus and mine were perfect.

I have found that the internal flash is really weak so I opted for the 50DX. I like the 50DX because it is a lot lighter than my SB-25 I use on my N70/N90.

The CP5000 doesn't support the zoom functions on the 50DX but I've found that for indoor shots, using the diffuser which sets it to 14mm, my images have not been washed out and the lighting is more even.

Hopefully the UR-E5 will attach and allow filters to be applied without any quality loss (noticeable that is) as well as cropping.

Overall, the CP5000 with the 50DX is a great setup for me.

I've also found that the Lexar 8x media is pretty fast in this camera compared to the Kingston High Speed (even though tests by Phil show otherwise), but if you are using the 50DX flash, the cycle time on the flash (4-5 seconds) is longer than the write time for the Kingston. I don't do much hi-speed/continuous action pictures so it doesn't bother me a bit.

Good luck in your decision and I hope this helped.

 

[John Chan]

Hi COAL-X-MAN:

Thank you for your writing. I owned 7 digital cameras (medicocre) all in

the range of about $600 to $1000 a piece because I always bought them when they were state-of-the-art at the time. Risking living in a dog house if my wife found out, I secretly ordered the Coolpix 5000.

While I was waiting for it to show up, my son pointed me to this forum and he also told me that the Coolpix 5000 had design problems.

After reading a few forum messages, I immediately checked my order. It was too late, my credit card was charged. A package tracking number already showed up in my email.

Reading through serveral negative comments or opinions on the CP5000, my heart sank to the floor. People complained so many things about it and it seemed the only good feature it had was it would not explode spontaneously.

Your writing about the camera really uplifting. Thank you!

I had looked at all the cameras you mentioned and I agreed to every point you made about those camera.

While I know Sony is a big company and has many neat products, it seemed nobody mentioned about their proprietary Memory Sticks using for their digital cameras. They are expensive and exclusively made and Sony just force it down the consumers' throat. Sony has a tendency of arrogance toward its existing customers. To give an example, I owned a Sony PDA 610C (beautiful little machine), when I upgraded my computer to Windows XP, the PDA no longer able to sync its data with the the PC. I found a message on its tech support FAQ that Sony's PDA will not support XP. What!? Are they not going to do something about it? Lately they posted a note and said Sony now planned to provide a software patch for "some" models of Sony's PDAs in December. Today I stilled cannot connect my Sony Clie 610C to my PC.

I found no one in the forum mentioned about shutter speed of these digital cameras. I was never able to capture the "moment" with a digital camera. I found "What You See Later is What You Got". I hope some one can enlighten me on that subject.

I was kind of intrigued by seeing so many people try to compare the digital cameras with professional SLRs. Think about the history, how long has the SLR in the making and compared that to the brief moment that digital cameras in existance. They are still truely expensive toys. I don't think we have seen the last digital camera yet.

When you said you can capture the ceiling fan with you CP5000, I wonder if you taped one of the blade with different color and set the fan on in a very slow speed. Every time when the blade is at 12 o'clock position (I guess lying on the floor, looking up), and snap a picture (set it to manual focus, to be fair). Repeat that for 10 or 20 times. See if the colored fan blade located on a simular location (consistance) and where it is location (shutter delay).

I really dying for a high speed (low shutter delay) digital camera. I hope CP5000 is at least ahead (may not be perfect) of the crowd.

Have a Happy New Year!

Regards,
John

ok, on the 6 day before xmax my true love gave to me

1 sony dsc f707 5 megapixel camera
1 minolta digimage7 5 megapixel camera
1 olympus E-10
1 Nikon cool pic 885 3 megapixel

THE SONY was great, nice features, quiet,dream machine, ..., in the box it went for the return list.

The MINOLTA looks like it was put togother my the junk yard dogs,
using scrap metal laying arround, ...

The Olympus - ..., with great hesitation i put this back in the box,

The Nikon, .... With great
sadness , they all went back , my girlfriend heart broken and I
witthout a present.

ON xmas day my girlfriend gave to me a NIKON COOLPIC 5000,..., it was
excellent no missed pixels, professionial quallity and to top it
off the firmware was 1.6 and the nikon logo stood proudly as the
King of the consumer pro as far as I was concered,...

i sure as hell hope this help more than just a few people

and have a HAPPY NEW YEAR.
--
COAL-X-MAN

 

[StevenN]

... The Coolpix seems like a very capable camera -- I handled one at the recent Pro Photo Expo in N.Y. -- but there are two things that I really bother me:

1. I like to keep a UV filter on my lens all the time to protect it. It seems you can't do this with a CP5000 (unless you want to keep an adaptor on).

2. I can't use my slave strobes because the internal flash always fires. Did Nikon do this to force everyone to go out and buy their flash extension cords?

I've used Nikons all my life (starting with an Nikon S rangefinder as a kid), and I really don't want to switch brands. But I think I'll hold onto my CP990 a little while longer and see what Nikon offers next.

Thank you all for your responses.

--StevenN

This question is not for people who don't own a Coolpix 5000, not
for people who have never used a Coolpix 5000, and not for people
who like to stand on the sidelines and criticize everything there
is about the Coolpix 5000.

This question is for people who have owned a Coolpix for at least
several days now, and have used it, and have seen in person what it
can do.

Are you generally pleased with the camera (taking into account that
no camera is perfect)? Would you recommend that people buy this
camera instead of its closest competitors?

Your answers will help me decide whether to trade up from my
Coolpix 990 or not. Thanks.

 

[Pennypincher]

When you say 19mm you mean add on lens right?Im thinking 5000 is 26mm.Would you say the 5000 is something an amatuer should stay away from? Dan

had a 990 for 18months and loved it
sold it to buy a cp5000
I can overlook its flaws because I believe they will be corrected
through firmirmware or controled with work arounds and are minor
compared to what this baby can do.
There is a learning curve even over experience with the 990.
aside from great photo quality I fell inlove with the 19mm WA lens

• great photo quality with just a tad distortion. compared with the

8mm on the 990. I got both extention tubes= they are well made and
give the camera a more SLR feel - you can hang on to the lens tube
to shoot.

overall the cp5000 and I will grow on each other
I shoot mostly panoramas - the 19mm lens shooting multi rows and
stiched to spherical, 360x180 sure beats out the ipix ball on
quality and distortion.

 

[Pennypincher]

If you had to chose between the g-2 and the cp-5000 which would you choose now that youv had both...if you werent shooting product shots.Which has better resolution and clarity?Some say the G-2 pix are as good as 5000 pix if you shoot in G-2 Raw mode.Dan

I did what you are planing to do. I sold my 990 to a friend and
bought the Coolpix 5000. I had a hard time to acquire the 5000 at
first. Just got the Coolpix 5000 a week ago and already took over
200 pics and output 6 prints to my Epson Photo 1280.

The 2 primary reasons made me jump to the 5000 from the 990 are
higher resolution and built-in hot shoe. Am I pleased with what I
expected? YES. Am I happy with the Coolpix 5000? NO. Read on,
you’ll see more of YES and NO

I mostly shot still life (product shots) in studio and do a lot
13x19 prints. I did not buy this CP500 exclusive for studio works.
I primarily use the D1 in the studio. I got the CP5000 as a second
cam for studio and also my everyday PS that let me carry around. I
do need high res cam with excellent sync flash in a compact size.
This Coolpix 5000 has the features I need and it is small enough
for me to carry it around. It gives impressive image quality. But I
think it still has flaws and needs lot of improvements.

Here are my complaints about this camera:.

Scramble button layout. Nikon put all the buttons in one spot to
make it easy to navigate with one hand. They made a mistake because
this is not appropriate for the size of the CP5000. If you have big
hands/fingers, you'll be uncomfortable accessing the buttons.

Inconistency built-in flash results with indoor pictures.
Underexposed most of the time with the built-in flash. I always got
great results with my SB-26 attached. (all used P mode I haven't
tested with ther modes)

Writing speed to CF card is slow. At HIGH/UNCOMPRESSED setting, it
took somewhere between 15 to 20 seconds to record an image. This is
too slow for me.

The 5 area AF is not that great as on Nikon 35mm SLR film camera.

Now let look at some good features on the CP5000 : High resolution
CCD, great for printing pictures. Long battery life with the
included rechargeable battery. Rotating screen. Light weight.
Built-in hot shoe.

Will it worth for you to upgrade to the CP5000 from the CP990? I
can not tell. It depends on how you use your camera. Don’t expect
everything to be better. I am quite happy with the image quality.
Prints on A3 Ilford Classic Pear Paper with Epson Photo1280 look
impressive , comparable to conventional photos and the quality is
better than pic taken with CP990.

Have you considered other camera? I am a big fan of Nikon for over
15 years. But lately, I am disappointed with Nikon, especially in
digital gears. For P&S digital cam, I think Nikon is a bit behind
than their competitors; Canon and Olympus. I have access to the
Canon G2 , Olympus E-10 and had a chances to play around with them.
They’re great solid cameras.

This question is not for people who don't own a Coolpix 5000, not
for people who have never used a Coolpix 5000, and not for people
who like to stand on the sidelines and criticize everything there
is about the Coolpix 5000.

This question is for people who have owned a Coolpix for at least
several days now, and have used it, and have seen in person what it
can do.

Are you generally pleased with the camera (taking into account that
no camera is perfect)? Would you recommend that people buy this
camera instead of its closest competitors?

Your answers will help me decide whether to trade up from my
Coolpix 990 or not. Thanks.