Review: Nikon CoolPix 5700 Digital Camera
Don Bradbury takes a look at the current status of this popular digicam.
| Product | CoolPix 5700 Digital Camera |
|---|---|
| Company | Nikon |
| Web | www.nikon.co.uk |
| Price | £350 |
| We like | |
| We don't like | |
| Rating | 8.5/10 |
| Requirements |
When the Nikon Coolpix 5700 prosumer digital camera first came out a couple of years ago, we liked what we saw in principle. It wasn't perfect, but in the hands of the dedicated, who were willing to put some effort in, it showed itself capable of first class results and justified it's asking price of £800 typical street price. Our rating at the time of 8.5/10 in the main reflected some awkwardness in operation and therefore slightly tinged enthusiasm.
But now you can get your hands on a 5700 for a mere £350 - from Jessops, and no doubt others who are willing to price-match. The model is still current in the Nikon range. According to a local retailer, it's still being produced and selling well, and Nikon say the model will be in the range "for the foreseeable future" and "is still very current".
However, things have moved on in the past two years; digicam prices have dropped generally, spec for spec, and advances have been made that have improved performance or facility. So why should you consider buying a two year old model, the attractive price notwithstanding? Well, whatever you may think personally, price does matter to many buyers. For these, if they could acquire a two year old model with an appropriate performance and bargain price, that would do just fine. They'd swallow their 'must have the latest' pride and smile while pocketing the savings.
The Nikon Coolpix 5700 now falls into this category. Advances have not been made that would make the model redundant, and prices have not dropped sufficiently for us to ignore the attractive High Street price. So let's see what we think of the camera now, adding to our previous thoughts.
The CCD resolution
Five megapixels is not, by current standards, jaw-dropping. However, it is sufficient for high quality A4 prints to be taken without pixelation intruding unduly. Five megapixels means reasonably short processing times, too, both in the camera and while tweaking images on the computer. In comparison with higher rated CCDs, it also conserves image storage capacity, both in the camera's flash memory and on the PC's hard drive.
Further, many will have noted from reviews the proclivity of some current eight megapixel and other higher rated CCDs to introduce colour fringing to the total tally of image degradation. All in all, five megapixels will be considered about right for many user's needs, especially with the types of CCD frequently employed at the time of writing. Going for a higher megapixel rating may just be counter-productive for image quality, not to mention substantially more expensive.
The Lens
An eight times optical zoom, albeit of redoubtable Nikon make and incorporating ED glass elements, is not the widest zoom range you can buy of decent quality these days, but 8.9-71.2mm (35-280mm equivalent on 35mm) and a maximum aperture of F2.8-4.2 remains among the better options in terms of lens design compromises for the typical keen digital photographer. At it's zoom extremes it will not give as wide an acceptance angle nor as narrow an angle as some will aspire to, but such may have to endure distortions and other compromises that most keen photographers will not be willing to settle for.
As for focusing speed, it's still true that in dim light the 5700 is rather slow to find focus. Annoying at times that may be, but at such light levels as those at which this presents a problem you're going to get flat images in any event unless you resort to flash.
The lens barrel, unfortunately, is not threaded. That means fitting filters is a potential problem. However, there are companies that have stepped in to fill this gap and offer an adapter for filters. Come on Nikon; we surely deserve a filter thread for at least a lens-protecting UV filter.
The EVF
An electronic viewfinder may not be to everyone's taste, but this one is more than adequate for it's duty. Complimented by an excellent swivel LCD, the EVF has the advantage of displaying all the information you need while working with the camera at the eye.
More grainy and less well magnified in comparison with the better optical viewfinders, the 5700's diopter-adjusted EVF you learn to live with rather than love - though there are those who claim to love this EVF.
Controls
The 5700 offers most of the photographic control you could need, though some of the options are not available directly from buttons on the body. The three customizable presets, which are available on the body, is the way Nikon gets around this. These are not particularly easy to access, however. Nikon could surely have figured out something better than having to depress the Func button while turning the closely adjacent control wheel. It is just about possible to do this with one hand while the camera is at the eye, but it's clumsy.
But use the presets you will. Fully automatic mode copes with many conditions admirably, but most users will want to flick into spot metering - as opposed to 256 point matrix mode - rather frequently. That will probably be your first port of call in the menus for preset number one.
Image Sharpening
Another reason for frequently using one of the preset modes is that in the default auto-everything mode, image sharpening cannot be moved from 'auto'. That is, the camera's software will decide by how much the image will be sharpened, and that depends on the particular type of image being processed onto the memory card.
Well, selectively processing images in the camera may sound good because it is, in part, what you'd do via image processing software on your PC. But while most digital photographers like to carry out any image sharpening under software control themselves, that's largely because they will almost always use the 'Unsharp Mask' option rather than the inferior overall sharpening that integral software is prone to give - Nikon don't say, in the 5700 manual, what type of image sharpening is involved in the auto mode. 'Unsharp Mask' finds natural image edges to increase the contrast and improve apparent image sharpness, rather than overall image, pixel to pixel contrast, which can often deliver unacceptable results.
Fortunately, the 5700's preset condition survives a restart, so with preset number one holding your favourite shooting mode, that's what you get when you switch on the camera again. But if you make regular use of all the presets as well as the auto settings, you still have to endure the somewhat awkward switch-over method; Nikon should really have tackled this facet of the design rather better.
The current image sharpening setting is shown in the viewfinder (at settings other than auto) but remembering the iconic representation for each is daunting at first. They contribute to quite an array of feats of memorization involved with this camera. One setting, for example, corresponds to actual softening of the image, and, since there's no going back, that's almost always best done on the PC, not the camera!
A Tip
There's a good tip for 5700 users floating about on the web. It involves avoiding damage by accidental activation of the power switch while the camera is stowed away with a physical restriction on lens movement. The zoom motor can burn out if this happens, so it's best to not just switch the power off for stowing, but get into the habit of throwing the mode selector switch over to playback mode rather than leaving it in shooting mode. That prevents the lens attempting to extend if the power switch is pushed across by mistake. Save a potentially expensive repair that way!
Overall Design
Having previously made our 'least favourite' point about this camera - the method of changing presets - it has to be said that overall facilities are excellent on this model, and well up with current standards. They compliment a superb lens, good general handling, a sound overall specification, and images that will satisfy the majority of dedicated digital photographers who don't mind putting in a little effort in order to achieve excellence.
But the crunch has to be on the price. £350 will generally buy you a decent digicam these days, but not of the quality of the Nikon Coolpix 5700. The camera has it's downsides; what model doesn't? But it has to be a snip at this price.
Final Thoughts
Of course, for £700 (£600 street price) you could opt for the new Nikon 8800. With an eight megapixel CCD, a 10x optical zoom lens, and a vibration reduction lens element to effectively give you a couple of stops worth of light gathering power without camera shake, this may, some will think, be a better buy.
We haven't handled the 8800 ourselves yet, but reports of colour fringing, noise at high ISO settings, chromatic aberration, and some barrel distortion may be off-putting. We'd have to take a look ourselves to check these points. Meanwhile, the 5700 is a tempting buy, and we repeat our rating of 8.5/10 for it.
