Nikon Coolpix 5700

A superb camera for the semi-professional or well-heeled enthusiast.

Price: £999.82

Manufacturer: Nikon

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Verdict

Pros:

8X optical zoom; 5Mpixel CCD; full range of manual/automatic controls; ease of use.
Cons: Fixed lens; LCD internal viewfinder; no AF illuminator or focus distance indicator.

Laurence Grayson, PC Magazine 23 Sep 2002

The first thing you'll notice about the new Coolpix 5700 is the prominent lens barrel. The second is likely to be the £850.98 (ex. VAT) price tag hanging from it.

Although this is a considerable amount to pay for a digital camera, it does come with a wide range of features and improvements that might convince you it's worth the investment.

It shares a number of specifications with its predecessor, the Coolpix 5000, including the same 2/3in. 5.24Mpixel CCD (5Mpixel effective), which gives the Coolpix 5700 a maximum capture resolution of 2,560 by 1,920 pixels.

Its key improvement is the addition of a massive 8X optical Nikkor Extra low Dispersion zoom lens with a maximum aperture of f/2.8, although it's not interchangeable.

Because optical viewfinders are almost impossible to match against a long-ratio zoom lens, Nikon has been forced to use a 180,000-pixel LCD for the internal viewfinder.

This provides an accurate indication of what you're including in your shot, but can be very difficult to use in low light. The display becomes grainy, the refresh rate drops and there's no gain control to brighten the scene, so framing your subject is tricky.

At the rear you'll find the more conventional 1.5in. external LCD viewfinder, which is articulated on a 270-degree pivoting hinge and can be adjusted to hue, saturation and brightness levels.

Thanks to a rearrangement of the controls, the rear panel is relatively uncluttered, with the most space being taken up by the cursor paddle, camera mode selector and zoom controls.

The shutter release is further forward, with a rotary on/off switch, thumb wheel and information LCD, which can be illuminated, taking up the remainder of the control panel at the top.

Holding the camera in a conventional grip places your thumb over an extra set of dedicated controls on the lens barrel.

When used in conjunction with the thumb wheel, these allow you adjust white balance, capture quality and exposure settings without having to take your eye off of your subject, although this requires a degree of familiarity with the button locations.

The specification of the Coolpix 5700 matches what you'd expect from a camera of its price. Shutter speeds range from 8 to 1/4000s, with up to five minutes in Bulb mode.

Standard focal range is between 50cm and infinity, down to 3cm in Macro mode, while ISO equivalencies of 100, 200, 400 and 800 are provided. The built-in Speedlight flash has a range of up to 4m, while a hot-shoe is provided for attaching larger Nikon Speedlights.

It can be operated in full automatic, shutter or aperture priority, or full manual modes.

Additional features include Nikon's Best Shot Selector, which uses the camera's burst mode to take a series of stills before discarding all but the sharpest to reduce the possibility of camera shake or blur.

Exposure bracketing is included and the Coolpix 5700 offers a white balance bracketing function, which takes three shots with varying colour temperatures. White balance is programmable and you can trim contrast, sharpening and saturation settings before the shot is taken.

Nikon's subtractive noise reduction filter helps reduce grain when shooting in low light, while an advanced histogram display will indicate which areas of your shot are overexposed.

To make commonly used configurations easier to recall, Nikon has included three programmable memory slots for easy recall.

Full manual focus is provided, as well as a five-zone autofocus (AF) program that lets you select the area to autofocus on, although there's no focus distance indicator and the Coolpix 5700 also lacks an autofocus illuminator. It's also a little disappointing that the AF-assist mode of Nikon Speedlights isn't supported, either.

With that said, it's hard to find anything to criticise about the images produced by this camera. Detail is sharp and colour is rich, without being over saturated. Exif 2.1 and Digital Print Order Format is supported for direct print image matching.

Type I and II CompactFlash cards can be fitted and power is provided by a rechargeable Li-ion cell, which should give you around 90 minutes' use with the LCD on.

The Coolpix 5700 isn't perfect, but it's still an extremely effective digital camera. It might be expensive, but it's half the price of Nikon's new D100 digital SLR.

Price: £850.98 (ex. VAT)

Specifications: