I got one as a present for my birthday, but to my surprise the quality is not what I expected it to be... The plastic's already cracked in two places and the LCD display has a lot of dead pixels. And as it has been bought in Austria I can't return it. Otherwise, the photo quality is good, but the software program is too complicated and often crashes. drug rehab facility

For the time it was made The feature set and customizability were fantastic, and haveing three available user presets was and is a godsend (something many prosumer cameras to this day still don't have!). And the 8x Zoom also was a huge plus (keep in mind this camera came out long before the current crop of 10 & 12x "SuperZooms). Also wonderful is the tilt and swivel LCD, something that I wish every camera had. But to me the biggest strength of all is the quality of the pictures it takes.. I have since had a Panasonic FZ-20 and a Cannon S2-IS and looking back through the thousands of photo's I have taken with all three the Nikon still took the best pictures, hands down.

There are several weaknesses this camera has that anyone using one has to consider. First- This is not a pick it up and it does everything for you camera, It is a complex tool capable of some great shots, but you have to take the time to play with it and learn it (more so than the competition), Second- Being one to like shooting in low / natural light situations I often found the AF system lacking with lots of hunting and retry's to get a good lock (often settling for focusing on the nearest high contrast object to the focal distance I was shooting at), and Third- There have been more than a few people who have had their lens Lock up completely while zooming and have had to had their camera sent off for repair (this happened to me once, but luckily a slight tap on the back of camera with the heel of my hand freed it. NOTE: because of this I bought a third party set of lens barrels for the add on lenses and left the shorter one on my camera at all times since the lens moves in and out during all zooming, this protected the lens from any little bumps that might cause a lock up and helped to prevent any dust/grit from getting into the lens area ... a very worthy investment for anyone owning this camera.

Had One and Loved it! This little camera renewed my love affair with photography!

Customer Service

Never Needed

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic FZ-20 (5mp, 12x Optical Zoom with IS) and Cannon S2is (5mp 12x Optical Zoom with IS). Just ordered a Nikon D50 DSLR ;)

Good built in white balance, good auto focus when the light is good, the swing out monitor, easy to change out battery, easy access to memory card, good quality zoom lens.

slow image capture in RAW but the quality is excelent, many small buttons and I have big hands, batteries drain too fast and lose their charge when not in use.

The 5700 is my only digital camera. I get great image quality in RAW format and recomend that setting for taking pictures. Jepg works great too but I like to play with my images in Photoshop CS2 and you have more latitude when working in RAW. The camera has trouble auto focusing in low light so beware if that's your thing.

The swing out monitor is a great feature, you don't have to keep the camera at eye level when shooting. I've also had excelent results using it on a tripod. I've used it with good results for everything from art photos to family birthdays. Make sure you get a large memory card 500+ MB, RAW files are large. If you use jpeg the files are much smaller. The batteries discharge pretty fast if you use the flash or RAW so I keep 3 extra charged ones with me when out shooting.

Customer Service

Have used Customer Service on-liine only and it was ok but not great. Haven't needed to have the camers serviced so far.

Zoom range ISO 100 Shooting modes - Program, Apeture, Shutter, Manual Capableof shooting in JPEG, Tiff, & RAW Hot shoe for external flash Great auto white balance Small and lightweight

Slow to zoom - as are all compacts Shutter lag - not as bad as a lot of compacts Slow to write - but I'm not aware of any advanced compact that has write accellerate

This is an incredibly capable little camera. It is compact and lightwieght, so it is great for those who don't want to pack a SLR with a bag full of lenses. I like the zoom range (35mm to 280mm - 35mm equivalent) as it is very versatile and covers the majority of my needs. I like that it has ISO 100, which is where I leave it 99% of the time. The colors and details are very nice, and the auto white balance is fantastic. I love the shooting modes, (Program, Apeture Priority, Shutter Priority and Manual) as it allows me the flexiblity to shoot like I do with my SLR. Having flash options such as balanced fill flash and a hot shoe for an external flash is great. Being able to shoot in JPEG, Tiff and RAW is awesome! All in all, this is a great camera for the price, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone looking for an advanced compact digital camera.

Customer Service

Not needed

Similar Products Used:

Coolpix 800 Coolpix 3500 Various Kodak Easyshares

-metering system -image quality -optics -built like a tank (it's a Nikon!) -vast amount of (although a bit pricy) accesoires -EVF better than I thought

-RAW writing a bit slow (but the jpeg's are just as good) -Focusing issues at low light -Shutter lag - this is no sports action camera! (but for my purposes ok) -doesn't support AF illumination (would be very helpful in low light) of my flashes -battery life could be better -would wish for a threaded cable release

For my biological fieldwork, I was looking for a sturdy compact camera with a wide zoom range and good close up capabilities. After some research I decided for the CP5700. It has great optics, a sturdy body, close up is terrific (comes close to Nikkor 105/2.8), and the zoomrange from 35-280 is exactly what I was looking for. After 3 months and 1200 pics, I am happy with that little gem like a pig in the mud. As it was my first digicam I was a bit scared about the dynamic range (In the jungle there may be light situations with 9 stops difference), but with a bit practice you get it fixed. If you expose for the highlights it still catches a lot of details in the shadow. The little built in flash is great for fill (just take the hood off). Lens flare is not known - if you use the optional hood. You get very sharp, contrasty pictures with a very good color rendition. At first, I was bit intimidated by all the buttons and menus, but after an hour plying with the camera, while having the manual on my lap, I got it fixed. It works like an SLR, and the ergonomics are typically for Nikon. If you have used any Nikon before, you will have no problems handling this camera. It fits into my ham fists as in my wife's smaller hands. It won't replace my film SLR's (yet?), but it is a very nice camera to take everywhere. You really have a 50 pound camera bag in one compact housing (which is a big plus at temperatures of 90+ and humidity of 90+ in the jungle). To the mentioned weaknesses I must say that I knew about them before, so they don't bother me much. But if you need a fast camera, don't buy this one, rather opt for a D70.

Customer Service

Dropped my F50 once and cracked the housing. Sent it in for repair and within 2 weeks I received a refurbished body without any comment under warranty. Don't know about Nikon US though.

Similar Products Used:

My first digital, but had some outings with a Canon 10D (didn't like that camera from the ergonomics, and the pix were too smooth) Nikon F50, F90x, FM2N, Mamyia ZE (shame they don't build them anymore)

Very sharp lens which produce good quality pictures. Various manually operated features allow user a wide selection of usages. Solid build wit hgood handgrip. Capabities close to high-end SLR

Focusing speed is terribly slow especially for long range shooting or under dim light. Not multi card compatible. Pricing a bit high

Nikno 5700 has its deficiencies but it also bears its good features close to a SLR. It is reasonably light in weight with a good handgrip design. Good lens, lot of manual operations but terribly slow in focusing. Pricing is a bit high too.

Customer Service

No experience yet

Similar Products Used:

F100, F50,Canon Ixus 300,Olympus OM1n

Image quality, User settings and SLR-like control.Compact control. Get the batery pack, i love it. Enables vertical shooting, uses AA batteries, adds bulk to a "bit too small for me" camera

Auto focus, in low light is appaling- Why oh why Nikon didnt include manual focus on a camere this price is beyond me..... Con on guys an auto focus disable switch and a manual focus ring....Pleeeeeeeeeze Quirky view finder takes a little getting use to. Slow write speed with Raw images.

Outstanding image quality from this little camera. I have used the 5700 for several product brochures and more than met my needs. Any one cosidering buying this camera, rember although you get TTL viewing via the cameras electronic viewfinder, it is not an SLR... treat it like one and you will be disapointed.. Taken for what it is..... an outstanding digital compact. this is by far the best on the market.

Customer Service

Havent needed to use Nikon Dirt Cheap Cameras .......OUTSTANDING !!! Anyone in oz dont look anyware else.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon F5,FM. Canon EOS 1 Canon A200

None

Only ASA 100 is useable above this setting and you get very bad gain at 200 at 400-800 the gain becomes a joke. The auto focus will only work on a non moving object with on reflective bits with a high contast in good but not to bright light. The built in flash is a joke it is only really useable in subdude light at about 10-15 feet at about 85-105 35mm film zoom range. There is no AF illuminator so the cameras AF is ever worst in dim light. Plus there is no lens tread for attachments. Also no PC sinc for studio flash.

This camera is Nikons worst mistake yet! You only have to use this camera for a couple of hours to realise that it has several serious flaws. Having brought this camera just for family and holiday use I was very disapointed to find it is not up to the job. The fact that Nikon market this toy as a semi-professional product is a sick joke.

Customer Service

Very funny!!! I call Nikon 3 times to say that I had noticed problems with this camera and the 3 different people I talked to all tried to make me think that it was I who was not using the camera correctly! I did not tell then I was a profesional. I got very annoyed with this and lucky now though my professional dealings with Nikon I now one of the tech guys very well so at a Nikon training day I asked him about the camera. His answer amazed me he said he was ashamed of Nikon for releasing this camera with so many disign faults and that Nikon UK are constantly getting conplaints from costumers about this camera.The second amazing thing was that he helped me sell it secondhand to a costumer at the show telling her what a wounderful camera it was.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon F4 F5 F90 F3hp Plus medium format kits in studio.

Noise & color characteristics of CCD above average for camera in this price range. LCD swivel feature is cool

No filter thread or adapter available Longest manual mode exposure 8 sec "B" mode is useless, even with remote Poor AF focusing Focus not sharp across field in macro mode Awkward, slow, imprecise manual focusing Awkard, slow aperture control Fixed relationship of viewfinder to lens not cool Camera user interface, and button & knob size/type/layout/location, are all poorly conceived, which makes achieving creative control over the picture taking process un-necessarily aggravating and slow

Abysmally clutzy menu structure, user interface, and button layout. No filter threads on the lens, and no add-on filter adapter available from Nikon, which is out-of-this-world ridiculous considering how trivial it would've been to put threads on the lens, or at the very least to sell a filter adapter (like they do for their "lower end" digicams). AF focusing problems. MF by means of the button & wheel arrangement is slow, and imprecise. Aperture control in manual mode is a again awkward and time consuming. Nikon makes a point about this camera being able to go to 5 minutes exposure in "bulb" mode (which is one reason I bought the camera because I do a lot of night photography)... well... yes it can, but "bulb" mode with the camera as supplied is useless because you have to stand there and hold the button yourself (no cable release thread). With Nikon's electronic remote, bulb mode is only 99% useless. The near $100 Nikon electronic remote for Nikon's digital cameras has no long-exposure feature, which means again, if you want a long bulb exposure, you have to sit there and hold the stupid button... a "T" mode was apparently beyond the abilities of Nikon's design folks... In close up macro mode focus off-center is terrible. Battery life is very short... active shooting I was lucky to get 1.5 hours. Nikon die-hard with a fat wallets who are mostly into snap shooting will certainly love this camera, but if you want to do portraiture, landscape, macro, or creative photography, or if you just want to be able to get a quick shot of something while maintaining a reasonable degree of creative control over aperture and zoom/framing as you could do with your old SLR, forget it. Somewhere along the way Nikon's designers forgot that all this technology is supposed to make things easier, not harder. I have since returned this camera to the store I purchase it from and traded it for a Sony 717 (plus $200 cash back for the difference in price), and have not regretted the decision for a single nanosecond.

Similar Products Used:

Sony DSC-F717

8x optical zoom compact size good for point and click multi angle twist/flip viewscreen

shutter lag slow autofocus overall response time sluggish weak battery life unthreaded lens

This camera takes great pictures but there is more to a camera than its pictures. (I was disappointed after 5 weeks of almost daily shooting and a base price of 1700.00 Canadian). It seems great for point and click but lacks what an accomplished photographer needs. There is no threading on the main lens so you can't use filters directly and this is a shortcoming with no uv to protect that expensive glass. For other filters Photoshop, Paintshop etc, can do alot of what Cokin did for the SLR world. Add a few more dollars to the cost IF you want really ajdust play with your images. With a teleconverter there was a problem with vignetting when pulling all the way back from full zoom. In RAW mode (which I use exclusively) the camera takes "about" 60 seconds to copy the image to a 1 gig card. Unacceptable. In cold weather battery life is very short. Others have reported and I found the same slow response about 2-3 second delay after clicking the shutter. Camera needs a larger memory buffer. (I took it back and dealer gave a second camera with no better results.) The lens size makes playing with depth of field "fun" as everything is in focus unless you move alot. Trained in 35mm slr and 16mm photography and I thought I had seen some wild systems but the 5700 in camera menu beats em all. The menu makes finding let alone using all the 5700 features (and there are many) "a puzzle". A few top level functions not accessible at the lower levels without navigating back up. Main viewfinder so small as to be awkward for my liking.

Customer Service

average

Similar Products Used:

Pentax-various Nikon F80 Nikon F5 Nikon D1x