Nikon Coolpix 5700

The Nikon Coolpix 5700 was introduced in September 2001, as a replacement for the Coolpix 5000, but is this camera right for you? Find out in my review...

WHAT’S IN THE BOX

Inside the retail box you should find the following:-
- The 5 million megapixel Nikon Coolpix 5700 camera
- 16mb CompactFlash memory card
- EN-EL1 rechargeable Li-ion battery
- Battery charger
- Neck & lens cap straps
...ability to store photo’s, but Nikon only dispatch this top of the range camera with the smallest memory. It is far too small for a camera of this resolution. Therefore, a key point to remember is to also buy a much larger CompactFlash card or Microdrive. If you don’t, you will not be able to experience the true potential of this camera.

The battery that is shipped out with the camera is estimated to last about 90 minutes in average ... more

The Nikon Coolpix 5700 was introduced in September 2001, as a replacement for the Coolpix 5000, but is this camera right for you? Find out in my review...

WHAT’S IN THE BOX

Inside the retail box you should find the following:-
- The 5 million megapixel Nikon Coolpix 5700 camera
- 16mb CompactFlash memory card
- EN-EL1 rechargeable Li-ion battery
- Battery charger
- Neck & lens cap straps
- USB & Audio/Video cable
- CD ROM software including NikonView 5
- 179 page manual

The only downside to this retail bundle is the memory card. One of the most vital accessories of any digital camera is its ability to store photo’s, but Nikon only dispatch this top of the range camera with the smallest memory. It is far too small for a camera of this resolution. Therefore, a key point to remember is to also buy a much larger CompactFlash card or Microdrive. If you don’t, you will not be able to experience the true potential of this camera.

The battery that is shipped out with the camera is estimated to last about 90 minutes in average use. However, if you decide to use a microdrive then power consumption will be much higher, reducing battery life. Using the LCD constantly will also increase power consumption. Although 90 minutes of use is reasonable, a downside of the battery supplied is that they can be expensive to buy (approx £35) and also if the battery runs out, you can’t just pop into a high-street shop and buy some replacements (e.g. pen batteries). The Coolpix 5700 is slightly spared though by the fact that you can use a non-rechargeable 2CR5 lithium battery as a backup or you could also buy a power pack (model number MB-E5700) that allows you to use 6 AA batteries (costs about £100). An AC adapter can also be purchased (costing about £30) for use indoors.

MAIN FEATURES

- 8x Nikon-Zoom lens with focal length of 35 – 280 mm
- 5.0 effective megapixels
- Magnesium alloy body
- Shutter release lag of 70msec
- Shutter speeds from 8 sec to 1/4000 sec
- Five – area multi autofocus
- Electronic Viewfinder and Vari-angle LCD
- JPEG, TIFF and RAW format pictures
- Auto pop-up speedlight
- Accessory shoe for external speedlight

APPEARANCE

The Nikon Coolpix 5700 has brilliant build quality. When I first saw this camera in photographs I thought it was mainly black plastic but the majority is actually magnesium alloy – giving a professional look to the camera.
I also got the impression that the 5700 was quite big and chunky, but to my surprise it was actually fairly small. OK, it won’t fit in my pocket, but it does feel dinky in my hands. It is easy to hold and has plenty of room for both hands.

The official dimensions of the Coolpix 5700 are 4.3” x 3.0” x 4.0” (Width, Height, Depth) and it weighs approx. 480 grams when empty.

Four silver buttons, positioned on the side of the camera, can control camera functions such as image quality, flash modes and manual focusing. Although these do save time as opposed to going through menu’s all the time, a disadvantage is that the buttons do sometimes get knocked when holding the camera.

The 5700 has a hand-grip on the right hand side which is extended from the body of the camera with a rubber coating. I personally like this design, I find it very comfortable to hold and the camera feels well balanced. However, if you are left handed you may think otherwise.

At the back of the camera you will find the flip-out LCD that can rotate in both directions to help with viewing your subject at awkward angles. The LCD is only 1.5” wide, which is small compared to other camera’s, however the quality of the display is very good unless in bright light, which is when the EVF should be used. The LCD can be folded flat against the camera back, with either the screen showing or protected.

Just above the LCD is the electronic viewfinder (EVF). An EVF shows you the same things as the LCD, including menu’s. The viewfinder is made up of 180,000 pixels so the screen is sharp, showing crisp and clear movements and your shots are 97% represented on the EVF as well as on the LCD. It has a rubber eyecup surrounding it making it very comfortable to use. There is also a diopter correction knob, which allows you to adjust the viewfinder slightly so that items appear in focus, if your eyesight is less than perfect.

MENU SYSTEM

The Nikon Coolpix 5700 comes with a comprehensive menu system. You can have up to three separate sets of settings (called “user sets” which allow you to change the default settings), or just put it in auto mode for point and shoot photography. While the menu’s are easy to navigate around, items can be well hidden and so patience is needed while you get to know the camera.

Menu 1 – (Main Menu)
- User Settings (Customise three separate user settings or choose auto)
- White Balance (Auto, preset, fine, incandescent, fluorescent, cloudy, speedlight)
- Metering (Matrix, spot, center-weighted, spot AF area)
- Continuous Menu (Single shot, Continuous High and Low, Multi Shot 16, Movie
- Best Shot Selector – chooses the sharpest image from 10 shots.
- Image Adjustment (Auto, normal, more or less contrast, lighten or darken image)
- Saturation control (Maximum, normal, moderate, minimum, black & white)
- Lens (Normal, wide adapter, telephoto)
- Exposure (AE Lock, maximum bulb duration)
- Focus (AF Area Mode, Auto-focus mode, focus confirmation)
- Image sharpening (Auto, high, normal, low, off)
- Auto Bracketing (Exposure Bracketing, White Balance Bracketing)
- Noise Reduction (on, off, clear image mode)

Menu 2 - (Setup Menu)
~Monitor Options~
- Start-up display (Monitor or viewfinder on by default)
- Review Options (Whether picture is shown on LCD after it is taken)
- Shutter Response Time (control over shutter lag)
- Brightness
- Hue
~Controls~
- Memorize (which settings are remembered when camera turned off)
- Function Button (customise what this button does)
- AE/AF Lock Button (define what this button does)
~Zoom Options~
- Digital zoom (turns the 4x digital zoom on and off)
- Fixed aperture (lock the aperture on and off)
- Zoom speed (choose high or low)
~Speedlight Options~
- Pop-up (Auto or manual)
- Variable power (alter flash power in increments of 1/3EV)
- Speedlight control (used when you have an external flash attached)
- Shot confirmation (if on, the red-eye reduction lamp fires confirming that a picture was taken)
~I nfo.txt (Option to save a text file with exposure information with your photo)
~ Video mode (NTSC or PAL)
~ USB (PTP, Mass storage)

PHOTO QUALITY & RECORDING

The most important aspect of any camera is its ability to take good quality pictures. The Nikon Coolpix 5700 is at no exception from this. Its large focal-length range lens gives the 5700 an immediate head start. The 8x zoom is a great asset to the camera, and great to use. It allows the user to have control over creativity with depth-of-field and close ups using macro.

The photographs that are produced from this camera show a great deal of sharpness, colour accuracy and, in most situations, well exposed.

Using the macro facility (which allows you to get up to 1.2 inches from your subject) shows a huge amount of detail. For example, zoom close to a piece of paper and the camera will pick up the threads of the paper!!

Some noise was evident in the photographs especially when using ISO 800 (noise is when there is pixelation on the photograph). However, at ISO 100 the noise was barely noticeable. I would highly recommend using the noise reduction feature. Turning this on produces a much cleaner image.

The automatic focussing proved to be slow occasionally, but the overall accuracy of the focus was good. The option to have continuous focussing, or a selection of focussing points, helped to outweigh the negativity of slowness.

Despite having a big lens, the 5700 starts up in approximately 3 seconds. When you press the shutter release button the camera locks focus in about 1 second, and then fully pressing the release button takes the picture instantly. When in JPEG mode the picture is saved almost instantly to your memory card. However, when taking pictures in TIFF mode the photograph will lock up the camera for about 20 seconds while it writes it to the memory card, and RAW will lock it up for about 6 seconds. As a result you cannot use TIFF and RAW for quick snaps.

Because the camera is initially supplied with a 16mb memory card, the following is how many pictures you can store on the card at the different image quality settings taken at full image size (2560 x 1920).
RAW = 1
HI (TIFF) = 1
JPEG Fine = 6
JPEG Normal = 12
JPEG Basic = 25

Once photo’s have been taken and saved on the memory card, it is possible to review the pictures on the LCD or EVF. You can zoom in onto the photograph and scroll around to see whether the photo has turned out how you would have liked. There are also features that enable you to view a lot of information about your photo. Rotating the dial on the camera while in playback mode does this. You can view a histogram which shows how well exposed the photograph is. It will also show you which areas of the photograph are overexposed by making them blink. You can see exposure details such as the shutter speed that was used to take the photo, also the focal length, aperture setting, metering settings and what mode it was taken in.

CAMERA MODES

Situated on the top of the camera is a mode button. This allows you to choose between various built-in modes, depending upon your requirements.
- Program mode (shown as a P in the display) allows the camera to automatically pick the best exposure settings.
- Shutter Priority Mode (shown as S in the display) allows you to control and select the required shutter speed. The camera will then pick an appropriate aperture. Shutter speeds range from 8 seconds to 1/4000 second.
- Aperture Priority Mode (shown as A in the display) allows you to control the aperture, while the camera picks the shutter speed. Aperture ranges from F2.8 – F8.0 in 1/3 step increments.
- Manual Mode (shown as M in the display) allows you to have complete control and select both the shutter speed and aperture. Using this mode will allow you to use the bulb mode, which will keep the shutter open for as long as the shutter release button is pressed, for up to 5 minutes. However, I would highly recommend buying a shutter release cable and a tripod for this to work properly.

MOVIE MODE

The Coolpix 5700 comes with a movie mode where you can record movies for as long as 60 seconds at a resolution of 320 x 240 including sound. Movies are saved as QuickTime format, so they can be downloaded and viewed on the computer.

It should be noted that the optical zoom (the 8x lens) is disabled during filming, but you can use the digital zoom.

PRICE
When the Nikon Coolpix 5700 was introduced back in 2001 it had a market price of £1000. Many people thought that this was a reasonable price for a top of the range prosumer camera.

I bought this camera in November 2003 and it cost me £550, so as you can see the price has significantly dropped, due to market changes.

At time of writing this review the Nikon Coolpix 5700 can be purchased for £535 including delivery from pixmania.com

I would highly recommend shopping around to get the best deal.

CONCLUSION

I decided to buy the Nikon Coolpix 5700 after two years of using the Fuji Finepix 2800, but I have not regretted the change.

Featuring a superb 8x optical zoom lens, more manual controls than you’ll ever need, a hot shoe, and Microdrive support the Coolpix 5700 is one of the nicest cameras that I have used. With excellent photo quality and superb macro ability it’s a camera that I would highly recommend.

Ok, there are some negatives, such as the buttons on the left hand side get knocked, the LCD is quite small compared to other cameras, focussing can be slow and the menu’s can get a bit confusing. But overall the 5700 is a great choice for someone needing a lot of resolution and a big lens, such as a semi-professional photographer. This camera is the next best to an SLR camera. I would not recommend it to anyone who just wants a quick point and shoot camera for family and holiday shots.
 

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