Nikon CoolPix 5000 - is this really a digital camera? I can't believe it!
Written: Jan 15 '02
Product Rating:
Pros: no shutter lag, fast autofocus, 5 megapixels, tons of features
Cons: expensive for the average consumer, only 3x zoom, no other major weaknesses
The Bottom Line: I still can't believe this is a digital camera... if you have the money, this is the creme de la creme of prosumer digital camera by far!
yusakugo's Full Review: Nikon D5000 Body Only Digital Camera
The latest and likely their greatest digital camera to date, Nikon released the CoolPix 5000 late last year. I decided to take the plunge into the digital camera world and desired high quality photos that I could view and store at my leisure. In December 2001, I dediced to use my American Express Blue card to purchase three different cameras. A Canon Powershot S110 (Digital Elph), a Nikon CoolPix 995, and lastly... the most expensive camera on my list was the CoolPix 5000. Needless to say, the CoolPix 995 was returned and somehow my girlfriend has the PowerShot S110. I'm left with the CoolPix 5000 in my hands... but if I was upset about it, you couldn't tell :)
After more than a month of use... if I had just one description for this camera... It's
AWESOME!
The capabilities of this camera far exceeded my expectations. Before I get into this review, you should know that I'm not very savvy with photography... either film or digital. This review is not going to be as technical or detail orientated as my usual reviews.
The advent of the 5000... 5 megapixel goodness
The Specifications from the Nikon website are as follows:
Effective pixels 5.0 million
CCD 2/3-in. type (5.24 million total pixels)
Lens 3x Zoom-Nikkor; f=7.1-21.4mm (equivalent to 28-85mm in 35mm [135] format); f/2.8-4.8 with macro; 9 elements in 7 groups
Storage media CompactFlash™ (CF) Card Type I/II, 512MB/1GB Microdrive™ Card
Shooting modes Automatic mode (default); Custom mode (#1-#3); combinations of mode settings can be memorized
Capture modes 1) Single, 2) Continuous H (3 fps; up to 3 frames), 3) Continuous L (1.5 fps), 4) High-speed Continuous (SXGA, XGA, VGA-size images; 3 fps), 5) Ultra High-speed Continuous (QVGA-size images; 30 fps; number of frames selectable, up to 100 frames), 6) Multi-Shot 16 (3 fps; 16 frames), 7) Movie with audio (QVGA-size images; 15 fps; up to 60 sec.)
Power requirements One Rechargeable Li-ion Battery EN-EL1, one six-volt 2CR5/DL245 lithium battery, six 1.5V LR6 (AA-size alkaline) batteries* with Battery Pack MB-E5000, AC Adapter
Dimensions (W x H x D) 101.5 x 81.5 x 67.5mm or 4.0 x 3.2 x 2.7 in.
Weight Approx. 360g or 12.6 oz. without battery and CompactFlash™ Card
You must be all saying that these specifications are nice and all but they don't mean much to me... so what? Well, the short of it is that the CoolPix 5000 is not a riduculous large camera (only 50% thicker but 20% smaller lengthwise over the CoolPix 995 camera) that gives you 5 megapixels with a movie mode and other high end camera features. The magnesium alloy body provides a tough camera with rather nice styling and well placed controls. The camera feels very comfortable in my hands and was easy enough to use as a point and shoot camera! The swivel LCD screen is an extremely nice touch that I fell in love with (especially after seeing one on a Canon PowerShot G2 that a friend of mine has). However, you'll note that the LCD is quite a bit larger than those found on other digital camera... you'll be thankful of that, especially with a 5 megapixel camera. The details show up remarkably well on the LCD screen. You also have a hotshoe for accessories and a more powerful flash unit than that built into the camera already. On top of that, you can add several accessories to the lens for wide angle shooting, telephoto, fisheye, and several other options if you desire it. Almost all buttons are within the reach of one hand... you can just about operate the camera with one hand.
Performance
When I first used this camera, I said... "Is this really a digital camera?". If you used any digital camera before, you'll note a lag in the time between pressing the button for a photo and the shutter finally going off. You DON'T have that problem with the Nikon CoolPix 5000! That really leaves an impression after I had 30 second to 1 minute lags on the CoolPix 995 and PowerShot S110. I could take a shot of anything I wanted when I wanted. Action shots posed no problems for this digital camera like they did with the PowerShot S110, CoolPix 995, and my friend's Canon G2. The camera reacted when I pressed the shutter release... rewarding me with many nice action shots.
When printing 3x6 samples, I didn't notice that many differences from the PowerShot S110, CoolPix 995, PowerShot G2, and the CoolPix 5000 on similarly backgrounded shots. The CoolPix 5000 had the sharpest pictures of the bunch but not by much. However, as you printed larger samples, differences became much more apparent. After 4x6, you couldn't go much further with the PowerShot S110. 5x7 seemed to me the limit with the CoolPix 995. 8x10 photos were still very good with the G2 but the CoolPix 5000 was still noticably sharper than the G2 shots and color reproduction seemed comparable between the two. Details were much better preserved in the CoolPix 5000 shots every way you looked at it. Not too surprising with a 5 megapixel camera. Nikon rates the that on High image quality with the full image size (2560x1920!), you could fit only two such images on a 32 MB Compact Flash card! Ouch! But the quality is well worth it. With a 256 MB card, you can only store 16 shots at full size and resolution... time to spring for the IBM microdrive! I can take photos of the patients with odd presentation of disease without fear of poor images (with the patient's permission of course).
The digital photos looked as good as and in some cases better than the shots from my Olympus Stylus Zoom 80 and Fuji Endevor 3500ix APS camera. Both of these are medium priced point and shoot cameras... not SLR cameras.
I guess some people might be upset that the zoom is only 3x optical and 4x digital. This can be remedied by the optional lens attachments but I didn't need them so I can't say much about it. 3x zoom is good enough for my use.
Battery life is decent although I bought a second battery just in case. I used it for 60+ noncontinuous minutes although I haven't yet drained the battery. I doubt that you can get the full 100 minutes that Nikon stated. 60-65 minutes caused the low power indicator to light up. Again this is with noncontinuous use. The third party battery from DigiPower fared about the same in the 5000.
Another nice touch is the speaker on the camera, allowing for playback of your short movies. It's a nice feature to have although 60 seconds of movie time is rather short. I would have liked a longer record time but let's face it, this isn't a camcorder.
The built in flash was definitely good for 10-15 feet and decent in the 20 feet zone. Details were still clear and colors weren't darkened or muddy at distance. Past 20 feet, images seemed darker in hue in nighttime shots... but this may also be my inexperience with ISO settings as well. Details are well preserved in almost all the photos at night.
For someone like me, who doesn't fully understand all the camera settings for photography, I am very likely not to have used the camera to its full potential... I am probably just scratching the surface. I will say that the camera present so many options that I'm unsure the menu interface is a bit poor or that I lack good knowledge in the options provided on the menu. The menu system is somewhat confusing to me overall and I have difficulty finding more than just the basic camera functions for the most part.
Overall Conclusions
This is a rather expensive camera for the majority of non-professional photographers. However, the 5 megapixels, color reproduction, and lack of shutter lag place this camera on the top of my list. I can easily use this camera in various situations that I couldn't use other digital cameras for. Taking a picture of Shamu jumping out of the water at San Diego. Taking a photo of my friend's cat in mid-jump to his lap. My dog shaking out the water from her bath with all the glorious details. I spend under $800 for the CoolPix 5000... after a Microsoft $100 Holiday rebate and an American Express Blue card pricematch as well as ebates.com providing a few more dollars off. This camera is well worth your money. I would guess that professional photographers would also be very interested in this camera as well.
However, I also realize that the price range is very high for most consumers. If you want to get a low cost digital camera and have little desire for prints over 4x6, you likely will be happy with a 2 or 3 megapixel camera. Prices are much more tolerable in this megapixel range. The PowerShot S110 is especially nice. However, only the CoolPix 5000 has the feature of NO shutter lag! This one feature make the CoolPix 5000 so much more usable than every other digital camera out there and even many film based camera as well.
Nikon has a definite winner on their hands... can the competition catch up anytime soon?
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