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The big
brother to the CP5000 Wide Angle Coolpix is the new Coolpix 5700.
Its 8:1 zoom covers a 35mm to 280mm focal length range on a 35mm
camera. Its 8.8 x 6.6 mm image chip Does this camera seem like you've seen it somewhere before? Like a Minolta Dimage or the Fuji S602 that came out a while back? Sort of, but under the hood, this camera has its own special character that reflects the long experience of Nikon design. Some folks are eager to slam Nikon, as if buyers were only buying a "name" and not a design philosophy embodied in an instrument. Nikon DOES trade on its name for products like the small 2500, 2000 and recently announced 4300. Those cameras are a sub-set of the ones I think of as MAJOR products like the CP5700 and CP4500. Nikon makes its reputation with the top of the line cameras, just as Ferarri makes headlines at places like Sebring and Le Manns with machines that are far and away ahead of their street 'rods. No doubt about it, this camera represents the current thinking Nikon is pouring at the "Prosumer" market, a clever corruption of Professional and Consumer, but one that nods to each. I've never met someone who introduced themselves to me as a prosumer, but I'm tempted to tell people that when they ask what I do. The Big Picture Yes, you can shoot big pictures with this camera. Prints flowing out of my Epson 2200 (2100 in Europe, for some reason or other) at 13" x 19" (330 x 483 mm) tend to look like prints from a fine 35mm scan more than they appear to be from a digital compact camera. An 8 x 10 will fool all the people all the time, giving new meaning to Lincoln's old admonition, "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time." Well, now you can "...fool all the people all the time..." And the reason is, "...because you have enough pixels" which is somthing Mr. Lincoln had not considered.
It's not surprising that large-chip, long-zoom cameras tend to look like this, just look at all the cameras that don't swivel. The body plan is usually similar. But the C5700's folding 8:1 zoom lens keeps the package small enough to tote conveniently. The 5700's name is something of a head-scratch. Howcome it isn't the 5800? Isn't that an 8:1 zoom? Where does that 7 come from? I just can't figure it out, can you? The huge zoom range is deliciously long and pretty much answers the questions that the CP5000 brought up. Wide zoom on the 5700 slips a few millimeters to 35mm from the general trend of 38mm widest settings on many brands. Just 25% longer than the 28mm on the CP5000. When you pick it up, the message to your hands is that this camera seems quite solid. Controls are spread out across its surfaces in ways that don't appear in the predicessor CP5000 and the flip out external monitor is notably smaller than the one on the 5000, but curiously, it seems just as detailed. Most of the body is cast magnesium but the flip out screen and back panel are plastic. No worries. It's as solid as can be. EVF ervescent But the big news is in the internal viewing screen. It's an EVF, not optical, and it makes the CP5700 into an electronic SLR. A very handy button next to the viewfinder window alternates the video feed from EVF to exterior monitor.
Sigh. Of course. I just forgot to punch the internal/external button... No mode exists to let the camera awaken in "Whatever you used last" mode. The best strategy is to have it awaken in Monitor mode and simply close the monitor when you wish to use the EVF. It switches to the internal screen instantly when the external monitor is closed. End of "issue." Who RAW? Okay, that's not the biggest news. But you will have to be a real digital photography afficianado to appreciate Nikon's RAW (.NEF) mode. Nikon Electronic File format is new with the 5700. It's a RAW mode that can lead to superlative images. It eats up less memory space than the TIFF mode (Transferable Image File Format) that used to be Nikon's best image quality mode, but like all RAW modes, it has greater bit depth and keeps a map of the image chip's sensors in lieu of holding on to a processed RGB file. TIFF and JPEG images are still supported, so the new format is a nice new addition. And for top-quality work, this is the mode that puts the "Pro" in "Prosumer". Raw Deal Raw, in the 5700, saves data in 12-bits. Eight bits gives you 256 tones to work with and twelve gives you 4096 tones to wrestle around. Per pixel, whether it be red, green or blue. Since the sensor doesn't get a color temperature adjustment filter to tell it how to respond to different types of light (say, incandescent and daylight) the way film camera would to adjust a given emulsion to other lighting, it does it all by manipulating the data in the camera's internal supercomputer. Think I'm exaggerating? Fudging, perhaps, since the chip set is optimized for supercomputer image processing. But the computers in digital cameras, as a group, are on the bleeding edge of technology. The RAW file takes up just over half of what a TIFF file consumes, but the TIFF file keeps an 8-bit record of every pixel and every color as well. The RAW file keeps pre-processed 12-bit information on every pixel but not as RGB files. Those full color layers get generated as the RAW image is processed inside your computer with NikonView 5 (it comes in the box). Featured Features The CP5700 is pretty much a CP5000 on steroids. It's bigger in zoom range, runs a bit faster, has fabulous macro capability, pops its flash up on an as-needed basis, clusters the controls a bit differently and contains the full range of Nikon image-handling special controls that have set their cameras apart from the crowd of other digital cameras. Think of the 5700 as the tele camera where the 5000 is the wide camera. Things to appreciate:
The Selector Dial and Multi-Selector button swiftly zip you among the many menu choices. It will take an afternoon's practice to get the map of controls into your neural pathways, but once you appreciate the control layout at a visceral level, the camera is logical in its layout. Working with it on a tripod in the dark becomes an exercise in remembering where the buttons were, but after ten minutes of fumbling, your fingers will start slapping each other while shouting, "NO! The ISO button is over here, you idiot index..." Well, mine were. Nothing like making mistakes to teach your fingers where the mistakes are NOT. None of the legacy converter optics work on this camera. Not a one. No fisheye is possible. This is Big Zoom, not convert-a-cam. That said, the TC-E15ED and WC-E80 converters are up to Nikon's usuall exemplary standard. The TC bumps the image closer by 50% and the WC shrinks the camera's previous wide view down to 80% adding a band of wider view that increases the view by 25%. A lot of people have trouble with this math. But think, now, if the original scene shrinks to 80% of the width it was, and new info fills out to the edges of the frame to the original size, 100% point, that new info is 20% above the previous coverage or 20/80ths, or 25% new stuff. In terms of area covered, it sees just over 56% MORE than the camera without it. Or, in other words, it now covers what the CP5000 covers without a converter. Almost exactly. Both zoom unrestrictedly. At the full tele zoom position while using the WC-E80, you will notice softness, but for most of the range, the image hangs together quite well. Certainlybetter than other third-party converter optics. And HEAVY? The WC-E80 is a huge chunk of glass. It weighs more than the camera! The TC-E15ED is a featherweight in comparison. Home In On The Range So let's do the math. With both of these converter lenses, your coverage is from (in 35mm camera equivalent terms) 28mm at the widest to 420mm at the longest. YEE CATS! That's a full 15:1 range! And when you think of having a 5-megapixel system of cameras in your kit, the 19mm wide coverage of the CP5000 extends your range to over 22:1. Question Marks A few carry-overs from the 5000 are still confusing to me. The Multi-16 mode has been improved greatly over the version that is (still) inside the CP5000. Perhaps this indicates that there is hope for the CP5K's feature via a firmware upgrade? "Clear Image" mode, part of the choices in the NR menu item, still isn't clear. It's a tad better than it was in the CP5K, but not as clear as a straight SXGA image by itself. Could we have the design team rethink this one, again? Image Images from the 5700 seem to have all the earmarks of current Nikon compact camera setup. Great colorimetry, good shadow detail, crisp contrast and about the same per-pixel detail of the CP5000. The glass seems more capable, less barrel distorted and lower in chromatic aberration overall. Focus Pokus In operation, the focus on the 5700 seems less sure of itself than other cameras. Until you stabilize the camera. On a tripod, I could shoot reliably in sub-1-footcandle lighting without a problem. I think that hand-holding the camera won't give enough stability for the autofocus to latch onto its target in low light. Drawbacks Same old rap: Nikon never made a video camera, therefore never had the Video Camera Designer Experience inside its design department. They never quite picked up on how VERY important it is to be able to perform a manual white balance with the press of a single button. With virtually ALL the Coolpix cameras they require you to press MENU > (scroll with Joy button) > Command dial click click click click click... > MENU (to close it). In other words, you had to access the Menu button, the Command Dial and the Joy Button in the exact right sequence to make it happen. My little video camera has a WB button on its face. A momentary switch to be pressed only when changing the white balance. Something done every few minutes in a dynamic situation. Nikon, wake up. We need these small digital cameras to behave quickly in ever changing light. Fix the manual white balance idea.
It's Nikon's answer to all those folks who wanted a super zoom lens in the CP5000. The lens delivers, and some features have improved over the 5000. Multi-Shot 16 is now rich with clarity and very fast. It has the full range of image manipulations Nikon's are known for with BSS, NR, Contrast +/-, Brightness +/-, Saturation +/-, Speedlight +/- and even factory White Balance setting +/- adjustments. The three-positin User setups continues to be a major complexity-resolving feature. You set up three different behavior "personalities" for the User Settings. The night light on the data LCD is nice, but I would have preferred the available darkness focusing abilities of the 2500 or a focus light Bottom line: Nikon Coolpix 5700: B + to A - -iNova, July 29, 2002 (Updated over time) *US school grading system uses A as its top score although some teachers give A+ and the extremely rare A++ grades for exceptionally outstanding work. Don't just take my word for it! Read the reviews and previews from the digital camera testers: Digital Photography Preview of the Coolpix 5700 Steve's Digicams Review of the Coolpix 5700 <NEW! Imaging Resource Preview of the Coolpix 5700 Digital Photography Now Preview of the CP 5700
Reprinting except for newsworthy mention and brief quotes are by permission only. |
gives
near-35mm film performance, and for such a large optical range,
its size and weight is very small, very tidy, with a huge amount
of digital camera in a compact space.
Body Plan
You
can set the camera to awaken in either mode to your preference.
That can snag you. Let's say you were just shooting with the
external monitor and went into Play mode to review a shot. No
problem there, but when you switch back to camera mode, the external
montior will go dark if your preference is to wake up in EVF
mode.
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