KC Ross
Well-known member
I bought the 5400 at a local CC with the intention of trying it out, probably not liking it, returning it and ordering a G5 or G3 online. Well, after 5 days and about 300 pictures I really got attached to this little camera.
Check out the deal at Circuit City.com - online price of $724.99, plus they give you a $75 CC gift card. That's getting down to Brooklyn mail order house price. You can pay online and pick up the camera at a local store. When I took it back in and asked for the best price guarantee match, I ended up getting it for $607.49 before tax.
I too initially had focus problems no matter what the focus settings. I went into Wolf Camera and talked to a Nikonite there who suggested going into the menu and "reset all." I tried it, and sure enough the focus improved tremendously. The settings are now AF Area Mode: Auto; AutoFocus Mode: Single AF and Focus Confirmation: Manual Focus. The manual focus option does stink - I need a distance display!.
The file write times vary greatly depending on what card is in it. Older Canon cards do not work well.
As written before, the small LCD is bright and can be clearly seen even in mid-July Florida noontime sun. I don't miss having a LCD status screen like on the 5000 since the viewscreen is so usable.
The cameras all-metal build quality far surpasses the Sony V1 and Canon G cameras. It feels like a miniature DSLR. The accessory lenses and mounts feel of equally high quality.
Picture quality is great - near perfect white balance, great long exposures (haven't gone past 30 seconds yet) with no noise, and good detail. Maybe not as sharp as the G5, but you'll have to print larger than 16 x 20 to know. I have no problem with soft corners even at full wide angle.
I've taken a time exposure movie and look forward to doing more with that, though I wish it could be set to take a picture more frequently than every 30 seconds. At a playback rate of 30 frames per second a 12 hour day would be a 48 second movie.
Once I get some pictures uploaded to Pbase I'll post them here.
BTW - camera was made in Japan and firmware is version 1.3.
Check out the deal at Circuit City.com - online price of $724.99, plus they give you a $75 CC gift card. That's getting down to Brooklyn mail order house price. You can pay online and pick up the camera at a local store. When I took it back in and asked for the best price guarantee match, I ended up getting it for $607.49 before tax.
I too initially had focus problems no matter what the focus settings. I went into Wolf Camera and talked to a Nikonite there who suggested going into the menu and "reset all." I tried it, and sure enough the focus improved tremendously. The settings are now AF Area Mode: Auto; AutoFocus Mode: Single AF and Focus Confirmation: Manual Focus. The manual focus option does stink - I need a distance display!.
The file write times vary greatly depending on what card is in it. Older Canon cards do not work well.
As written before, the small LCD is bright and can be clearly seen even in mid-July Florida noontime sun. I don't miss having a LCD status screen like on the 5000 since the viewscreen is so usable.
The cameras all-metal build quality far surpasses the Sony V1 and Canon G cameras. It feels like a miniature DSLR. The accessory lenses and mounts feel of equally high quality.
Picture quality is great - near perfect white balance, great long exposures (haven't gone past 30 seconds yet) with no noise, and good detail. Maybe not as sharp as the G5, but you'll have to print larger than 16 x 20 to know. I have no problem with soft corners even at full wide angle.
I've taken a time exposure movie and look forward to doing more with that, though I wish it could be set to take a picture more frequently than every 30 seconds. At a playback rate of 30 frames per second a 12 hour day would be a 48 second movie.
Once I get some pictures uploaded to Pbase I'll post them here.
BTW - camera was made in Japan and firmware is version 1.3.
