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Nikon Coolpix cameras can't focus in low light!

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I will admit I am rookie ot this forum but not a rookie to the kooks out there who spreasd slurs as if they know what they are talking about. The image was saved as web image,vey low bytes to put on pbase. I have never uploaded a photo before and just joined pbase yesterday. I am not sure what size to send. Since it was saved as a web image PSE2, I am sure the data was deleted, but I am not an expert in that either. All I know is I took the photo at night to try low light focus, The background is a fence in a corner of my backyard. It was on macro. The flash exposed the picture. Even in darkness there is still light outside. Would you like me to upload the original in TIFF so you can see the data? I have no reason to lie and those that do on this forum are only lying to themselves. I did no processing on the web image and the same will be for the TIFF. If you notice the stamen and pistol, I think. That is the lightest part of the photo. If you know how big a trumpet vine flower is you will know that it is not cropped and enlarged. No levels, no sharpening, no color adjustment, etc. Just the TIFF image out of the camera saved as web image to upload. As time goes on I will learn the rules to keep the kooks at bay.
Rapick said:
flashfenton said:
This photo was taken in darkness; no lights around. I could not
see the flower through the camera (CP5700). I took a few shots to
make sure it was centered. Low light works for me. Auto AF was
off. Excuse the quality. I saved in PS Elements as a web photo.
Very low resolution. Notice the spider!

http://www.pbase.com/flashfenton
Click to expand...
Well, technical test are credible when enough details are given to
make them "reproducible". Unfortunately, this is not the case of
yours, since even the EXIF data went lost in the postprocessing. So
I feel free to provide a possible procedures for making this
miracle:
We know that after unsuccessfully hunting for focus, the AF motor
will stop at a "rest" position that is about 1.5 m focus distance.
So you put the subject at that distance, and can rely on about 10
cm of DOF. Of course the flower image will be small... but after
cropping and resizing in PS, and with some USM, it will look like a
true Macro.
Or there was a different reason for uploading a full size image
after savig for web?
Hope you won't take an offence if I trust Phil's Review more:

Low Light Autofocus
Coolpix 5700
Full Wide @ f/2.8: 1.8 EV
Full Tele @ f/4.2: 3.0 EV
...
"The Coolpix 5700 exhibited below average low light focusing
ability, especially at any point from half zoom to telephoto. At
full telephoto the auto focus took almost five seconds and only
locked 50% of the time (at the light level noted above)"

--
Rapick
Old Glory Ninetynine-five
PBase supporter
http://www.pbase.com/rapick
Click to expand...
--
Seeing is only limited by your mind.
 
Mykl Devlin said:
Uncle Frank's Hypothesis: "Nikon cameras can always achieve focus."
Click to expand...
If that's what you get out of the lead post, it's clear that we're seperated by a common language, Mykl.

--
Warm regards, Uncle Frank,
Dilettante Appassionato, FCAS Charter Member,
Hummingbird Hunter, DPR/NTF Supporter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
 
Uncle Frank said:
Uncle Frank said:
I'm not trying to be offensive here...
Click to expand...
Really? With a title like, "Uncle Frank, your post seems
disingenuous..."

dis·in·gen·u·ous (dĭs'ĭn-jĕn'yū-əs) adj.
Not straightforward or candid; insincere or calculating

I guess you figured calling me calculating and insincere would be
the start to a great relationship.
--
Warm regards, Uncle Frank,
Dilettante Appassionato, FCAS Charter Member,
Hummingbird Hunter, DPR/NTF Supporter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
Click to expand...
--
FCAS Member, CP5000
Leonardo
 
True..... I summarised it down too far....

how about "Nikon cameras can achieve focus at least as well as any other digital camera can".... but it can't be that because that is a cross platform question which we would discuss in the open forum.

You however avoided the first part, which was an opportunity for you to explain how your first post was NOT designed to be contentious.

Mykl
Uncle Frank said:
Mykl Devlin said:
Uncle Frank's Hypothesis: "Nikon cameras can always achieve focus."
Click to expand...
If that's what you get out of the lead post, it's clear that we're
seperated by a common language, Mykl.

--
Warm regards, Uncle Frank,
Dilettante Appassionato, FCAS Charter Member,
Hummingbird Hunter, DPR/NTF Supporter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
Click to expand...
--
http://www.pbase.com/mykld
 
Uncle Frank said:
It's an Urban Legend, folks. There have been so erronious posts
about Nikon's "Achilles' Heel" that it's gained credibility. The
truth is...

1. virtually all of the current generation of digicams from the
leading manufacturers use the indentical method for autofocus,
which is based on contrast detection.

2. if you check the forums for Canon, Sony, etc., you'll find just
as many newcomers complaining about "low light focus" problems as
you do on the Nikon Talk Forum. They face the very same low
contrast focus issues.

3. AF assist lamps are only useful over short distances - about 6
to 8 feet, and they annoy the heck out of human subjects.

The best way to overcome the "problem" is to understand how AF
systems work:

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/autofocus3.htm

All Coolpix cameras have 3 of autofocus area modes. The default
(auto AF) is the worst of the 3. Read about the other 2 modes in
your owners manual, and try them out.

The 5700 has the biggest challenge in auto-focus because of its 8X
zoom range. Here's a few shots that provide anecdotal evidence
that there is no low light problem.

I used a flash for this shot, taken in a nearly pitch black bar,
but the camera had to focus first.



Taken outdooors on Haloween night. It was so dark that I couldn't
see the subject through the viewfinder, but my Coolpix was able to
achieve focus.



Sunset at the beach. The exif data shows it required 1/5th second
at f/4.4, which is pretty dark. Since the scene was contrasty,
getting focus lock was a snap.



Feel free to ask questions, or respond to this post with examples
of your own low-light pictures. And don't buy into the Urban
Legend.

--
Warm regards,
Uncle Frank, FCAS Charter Member,
Hummingbird Hunter, DPR/NTF Supporter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
Click to expand...
Like a well loved and comfortable car... You absolutely love it and because you do you overlook a few lil kinks and learn how to deal with them. The ultimate result it gives you a lot of pleasure....
 
Sorry, mate, but you came to this party about 4 days late, and all that's left is empty beer cans. I'm sorry you took umbrage at the tone of my post, but perhaps you're misjudging it as badly as you did the content. It's a dead issue now, so take it as you like.

--
Warm regards, Uncle Frank,
Dilettante Appassionato, FCAS Charter Member,
Hummingbird Hunter, DPR/NTF Supporter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
 
Been at this party all along Frank.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=7206574

Been at this party 6 months ago when and watched your antics at each of the parties...

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=5490872

Was here at the party in March

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=4527502

And I loved the three or four parties we had in January......
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=4247657

The issue is not dead. There are those who think the low light performance is acceptable and those who do not. And there are those that revive the issue with "non-contentious" posts that challenge people who have ever had trouble with the focus on a 5700 to admit that they are complete newbies undeserving of such a camera.

Always held the same position. The 5700 is an awesome camera. It is unfortunately let down by its ability to autofocus in low light, and then the ease (or lack thereof) with which it can be manually focussed if the auto does not work.

Mykl
Uncle Frank said:
Sorry, mate, but you came to this party about 4 days late, and all
that's left is empty beer cans. I'm sorry you took umbrage at the
tone of my post, but perhaps you're misjudging it as badly as you
did the content. It's a dead issue now, so take it as you like.

--
Warm regards, Uncle Frank,
Dilettante Appassionato, FCAS Charter Member,
Hummingbird Hunter, DPR/NTF Supporter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
Click to expand...
 
Mykl Devlin said:
Been at this party all along Frank.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=7206574
Click to expand...
Yup. Sorry I missed your post.
Mykl Devlin said:
Been at this party 6 months ago when and watched your antics at
each of the parties...
Click to expand...
What "antics", Mykl? My only comments in this one were about the excellent lens of the Sony 717.
Mykl Devlin said:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=5490872
Click to expand...
I made no comment at all on this thread.
Mykl Devlin said:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=4527502
Click to expand...
And no comment on this one either.
Mykl Devlin said:
And I loved the three or four parties we had in January......
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=4247657
Click to expand...
Try and get your facts straight, man.

--
Warm regards, Uncle Frank,
Dilettante Appassionato, FCAS Charter Member,
Hummingbird Hunter, DPR/NTF Supporter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
 
My point was simply this.....
(because I put it fairly clumsily before...)

The argument has been going on since the 5700 first came out. It has been revived every time someone new stumbles into the group and asks about it, and every time someone displays a photo to show that focus can be achieved...

You will notice people back then who had exactly the same opinion there as they do now.

And as for the "antics" I was just going with the party metaphor.... work with me here!! :)
And you were right... there were better antics in
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=6006038

In this episode we see our hero start exactly the same type of discussion (manual instead of auto) in exactly the same way.

I must not understand the word contentious

Mykl
Uncle Frank said:
Mykl Devlin said:
Been at this party all along Frank.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=7206574
Click to expand...
Yup. Sorry I missed your post.
Uncle Frank said:
Been at this party 6 months ago when and watched your antics at
each of the parties...
Click to expand...
What "antics", Mykl? My only comments in this one were about the
excellent lens of the Sony 717.
Uncle Frank said:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=5490872
Click to expand...
I made no comment at all on this thread.
Uncle Frank said:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=4527502
Click to expand...
And no comment on this one either.
Uncle Frank said:
And I loved the three or four parties we had in January......
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=4247657
Click to expand...
Try and get your facts straight, man.

--
Warm regards, Uncle Frank,
Dilettante Appassionato, FCAS Charter Member,
Hummingbird Hunter, DPR/NTF Supporter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
Click to expand...
--
http://www.pbase.com/mykld
 
flashfenton said:
I will admit I am rookie ot this forum but not a rookie to the
kooks out there who spreasd slurs as if they know what they are
talking about. The image was saved as web image,vey low bytes to
put on pbase. I have never uploaded a photo before and just joined
pbase yesterday. I am not sure what size to send. Since it was
saved as a web image PSE2, I am sure the data was deleted, but I am
not an expert in that either. All I know is I took the photo at
night to try low light focus, The background is a fence in a
corner of my backyard. It was on macro. The flash exposed the
picture. Even in darkness there is still light outside. Would you
like me to upload the original in TIFF so you can see the data? I
have no reason to lie and those that do on this forum are only
lying to themselves. I did no processing on the web image and the
same will be for the TIFF. If you notice the stamen and pistol, I
think. That is the lightest part of the photo. If you know how
big a trumpet vine flower is you will know that it is not cropped
and enlarged. No levels, no sharpening, no color adjustment, etc.
Just the TIFF image out of the camera saved as web image to upload.
As time goes on I will learn the rules to keep the kooks at bay.
Click to expand...
I trust you! You got that jewel of a camera (I'd like to get it, too!), and wanted to test its low light capability. You felt very satisfied by the good result, and were eager to share your sincere enthusiasm here! Very well done. But your post would have been easily understood as aimed to provide "evidence" in support of one position... and you may expect that any "weakness" of your "evidence" is used to destroy it! This is the rule of "scientific" debates (I know well since it has been my work during several years).

Well, when I posted my first "macro" here (around one year ago) I was proud of it... someone asked if it was coming out from a click-and-throw camera.

So, please forgive Mr Copperfield's tricks and keep up making good pics and posting here!

How to save in PBase for the WEB: allthough PSE (and other versions of PS) has the "save for the WEB" option, I prefer not to use it, as it actually deletes all the EXIF data. In order to save disk space and make the image easily viewable on a monitor, I prefer first resize (to 800x600 or 640x480 - adequate to normal screen resolution) and then use the "Save AS" option, specifying "JPG" and moving the "Image Quality" cursor to somewhere between 6 and 8. This will produce a 100-200 Kb file, not too slow to download by any type of internet connection.
Good luck!

--
Rapick
Old Glory Ninetynine-five
PBase supporter
http://www.pbase.com/rapick
 
Mykl Devlin said:
And as for the "antics" I was just going with the party metaphor....
work with me here!! :)
Click to expand...
I don't think I will, Mykl. I've run out of patience with you putting words in my mouth and then flaming me for them.
Mykl Devlin said:
I must not understand the word contentious
Click to expand...
Just look into any mirror, mate. I'm really sorry to have run into you and Lee on this thread. It won't happen again.

--
Warm regards, Uncle Frank,
Dilettante Appassionato, FCAS Charter Member,
Hummingbird Hunter, DPR/NTF Supporter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
 
That's what the military calls it when an innocent bystander gets wasted, Flash. They were shooting at me. This is usually a friendly forum, but there's a few perpetually disgruntled people, and you were unlucky enough to stumble into their firing zone.
flashfenton said:
As time goes on I will learn the rules to keep the kooks at bay.
Click to expand...
I'm a long time participant here, and haven't figured out how to do that yet. If you do, please let me know. The good news is that there's only a few of them, so write down their names, and try to avoid getting into conversations with them.

--
Warm regards, Uncle Frank,
Dilettante Appassionato, FCAS Charter Member,
Hummingbird Hunter, DPR/NTF Supporter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
 
Uncle Frank said:
That's what the military calls it when an innocent bystander gets
wasted, Flash. They were shooting at me. This is usually a
friendly forum, but there's a few perpetually disgruntled people,
and you were unlucky enough to stumble into their firing zone.
Click to expand...
I can't see how "perpetually disgrunted" can apply to me. I'm an enthusiast Coolpix owner. And my signature motto is there to confirm. Is it an heresy to say that, based on Phil's reviews tests, there is space for Nikon to make Coolpixes' AF performances better in low contrast situations?
Uncle Frank said:
Uncle Frank said:
As time goes on I will learn the rules to keep the kooks at bay.
Click to expand...
I'm a long time participant here, and haven't figured out how to do
that yet. If you do, please let me know. The good news is that
there's only a few of them, so write down their names, and try to
avoid getting into conversations with them.
Click to expand...
Sincerely, I hope this will not be the case with me. I have always appreciated your posts, and your kind comments to mine, as a valuable source of learning for me.
Uncle Frank said:
--
Warm regards, Uncle Frank,
Dilettante Appassionato, FCAS Charter Member,
Hummingbird Hunter, DPR/NTF Supporter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
Click to expand...
PS - I'm sorry if David Copperfield's performace can have been seen ingenerous vs our new friend. BTW: isn't it a good workaround when shooting in complete darkness? The idea came from a thread on this topic one year ago - You were there, if my memory is good.
Warm Regards.
--
Rapick
Old Glory Ninetynine-five
PBase supporter
http://www.pbase.com/rapick
 
Clivegriff said:
Firstly, a description of my photographic abilities:

They mirror my golf game. Sometimes (but all too rarely) I can hit
a shot that Tiger Woods would be proud of; be it a 300 yard drive
straight down the middle or an 80 yard pitch to within a few inches
of the pin. However, far too often I hit shots that a rank beginner
would be ashamed of; a wild drive that hooks into the next fairway
or a putt that starts two feet from the hole and finishes four feet
past it.

Secondly, my opinion of the CP 5700:

I waited a long time for it and I love it. It has more versatility
than I have yet begun to discover. I absolutely love having that
much zoom in so small a package. The image quality is superb and
the camera is capable of producing results that are second to none.

But...there's always a "but", isn't there?

It cannot be denied that there are weakness in the autofocus
sysyem. There have been at least three threads started THIS WEEK in
which posters have demonstrated that the AF locked in places other
than where they intended.

When the AF mode is set to OFF and the manual tells you that the
camera will focus in the middle of the frame, then one is entitled
to expect it to do just that. If I aim at my subject's eyes,
achieve a solid green light and find out later that the AF has
decided to use some wallpaper behind the subject because the
contrast was greater there, I'm entitled to be peeved (to put it
mildly).

I couldn't care less if this situation is better or worse with a
Sony or a Minolta or a Canon. I'm not trying to take pictures with
one of those and (having made a purchase) their capabilities are of
no interest to me. What is of interest to me is that I lost a good
photo opportunity despite doing everything right (or so I thought).

The manual focus/wide-angle/f4.5 workaround, which puts everything
in flash range in focus, although it works, is of little use to me
because I like to get close in pictures without getting close to
the subject. In other words I want to use the very zoom
capabilities that tempted me to get the camera in the first place.

--
Coolpix Five thousand seven hundred

Pbase supporter
http://www.pbase.com/clivegriffin
Click to expand...
Well Said!!

Sadly, For me, the CoolPix just couldn't cut it. As you say, the concern should be with the camera you are holding. It's a shame that so many Nikon owners in this forum are so biased - if there was no issue with these cameras focusing poorly in low light, there would not be so many complaints. In the end, it was this bias that convinced me to try a different brand of camera, which I did. I have now taken over a thousand pictures with the new camera and surprise surprise - EVERY single low light shot is focused on the SUBJECT! Not a single picture with a blurred subject and focused background!!! It would appear that in fact NOT all digital cameras are equally handicapped in low light shooting. Could Nikon simply have missed the mark with the latest line of CoolPix cameras?? Truth be known, I did prefer the image quality of my Nikon, but superior image quality is useless if the camera cannot consistently focus on the subject.
 
Bill Palumbo said:
It's a shame that so many Nikon owners in this forum are so biased
Click to expand...
It's only a shame if you're a camera salesman for some other brand, Bill. This thread wasn't intended to sell Nikon cameras, just to help those who already own them to use them better. Why do you care what kind of camera I choose to own?
Bill Palumbo said:
if there was no issue with these cameras focusing poorly in low light,
there would not be so many complaints... I have now taken over a
thousand pictures with the new camera and surprise surprise -
EVERY single low light shot is focused on the SUBJECT!
Click to expand...
That's terrific, and I'm glad youre happy with your new gun. But if you're telling me the G5 is without warts of its own, I'd have to strongly disagree.

--
Warm regards, Uncle Frank,
Dilettante Appassionato, FCAS Charter Member,
Hummingbird Hunter, DPR/NTF Supporter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
 
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