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Digital Camera
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Web Site Design for
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Firmware Update 1.7 just released September 30 |
| In addition to this CoolPix 5000 review, which is
appearing in the June 2002 issue of Shutterbug Magazine, my wife and I
spent eleven days shooting the
national parks in the Southwest exclusively with the CoolPix 5000. |
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Introduction/Overview
In December 2001, Nikon released their first prosumer 5 megapixel digital
camera, the CoolPix 5000. Long awaited for, since the original
press release was first issued in September, it was the successor to the
immensely popular CoolPix line that included the CoolPix 950, 990 and 995.
Nikon has always had a loyal following of users because early in the
company’s history they had made the decision to not alienate their users
by making their camera bodies backward compatible and useable with the
extremely large number of lenses still in use out there. In keeping with
that policy, most of the accessories from the previous CoolPix line (with
a few exceptions) can be used with the new CoolPix 5000. Last year, we
wrote about the extensive amount of accessories and resources for the
CoolPix 990 that solved problems and made that camera more of a working
photographer’s tool. This year we’ve been creating
resources for the CoolPix 5000 that will
make it a welcome addition to any professional’s camera bag. |
First impressions
Taking the camera out of the
box immediately made us think this has to be a toy. With its slightly
smaller feel in our hands than the CoolPix 990 had, it almost comes across
as a shirt pocket camera. The camera takes the same EN-EL1 (or 2CR5
lithium) battery that the CoolPix 995 does and charging takes about two
hours. That was the longest two hours we’ve spent with <out> the camera,
eager to get out and start shooting. During that time, we familiarized
ourselves with the important features by skimming through the manual. The
LCD finder swivels, and is viewable from any position, even in sunlight,
where it’s much more useable than the viewfinders on the previous CoolPix
models. There is a hot shoe on the camera, a first in the CoolPix line.
The camera ships with a 32-megabyte CompactFlash card that is much too
limiting. Lexar was kind enough to lend us a 512 megabyte 12x card
to use in working with the camera, which made it easier to spend the day
shooting without having to change cards. Due to the small size of the
camera, some of the controls came across as being too close together. A
few examples: The photocell that controls the flash is easily blocked and
can cause underexposure. When holding the camera properly, your right
thumb naturally falls on the zoom rocker affecting composition. The
picture quality button labeled “Size”, which enables you to cycle through
the three Jpeg and Tif settings, is located right next to the macro button
and easily pushed without realizing it, that is until you have to wait up
to 30 seconds before taking the next picture. We’d like to see a firmware
update to use two presses of the button within a certain time limit or
maybe a rotation of the command wheel as a safety lock. The last thing you
want to happen when shooting is to find out that those important pictures
were saved at a much lower resolution than you originally had set the
camera on. |
Nikon Lenses
What has probably given Nikon the most criticism has also turned out to be
its best and most used feature, the lens. At a short zoom ratio of 3:1,
the 28mm to 85mm (35mm equivalent, which I’ll be referring to it for the
remainder of the article) zoom has a relatively slow F-2.8 to F-4.8
aperture range. But the benefit of the 28mm lens immediately becomes
apparent when shooting. For years photographers have been asking for wider
lenses on high end point ands shoot and digital cameras. This is where the
CoolPix 5000 shines. And in addition to its 28mm built in lens, Nikon has
given us a 19mm accessory lens, the WC-E68. Possibly even sharper
with the 19mm than the built in 28mm lens alone, I’ve been able to take
some extraordinarily detailed pictures that show excellent sharpness,
contrast and flare control even when shooting into a sunset lit snow
scene. This lens has been referred to as the interior photographer’s dream
lens. In addition to the new 19mm lens, Nikon designed an adapter so that
the two telephotos (The TC-E2 and the TC-E3ED) and the
fisheye (FC-E8) from the previous CoolPix models could be used. For both
the telephotos, the lenses have almost no leeway in zooming and should be
considered fixed focal length lenses. In fact, according to the manual, if
you set the menu for the TC-E3ED, the camera will automatically be
set to 1.2x digital zoom because there is a very slight vignetting when
first placed on the camera. Therefore that would make the TC-E2
into a 170mm lens and the TC-E3ED into a 255mm lens or 306mm taking
into account the 1.2x factor. |
Nikon Accessories and Adapters
The accessories that we consider the most important are the UR-E5
which is necessary to use the 19mm lens (WC-E68) and adapt the
threads on the body that surround the built in lens to a standard size of
46mm. It’s also necessary for any filters to be used on the camera. You
also might consider purchasing a 46mm to 52mm step up adapter to use all
your old 52mm Nikon filters. The other is the UR-E6, which adapts
the threads on the body to 28mm for the two telephotos and fisheye to be
used. Both of these adapters are barrel like in shape and surround the
internal lens as it zooms. Additionally there is the lens hood HN-E5000
that is similarly shaped but slightly flared at the end so it doesn’t
vignette at the widest zoom setting. The other accessory we recommend
wasn’t available at the time of the review submission. The MB-E5000,
the 6 AA battery pack that attaches to the camera as a grip. Nikon has
heeded the complaints of the users that preferred the (rechargeable) AA’s
which are less expensive and easier to obtain when traveling. |
Flash
Our first few flash pictures with the CoolPix 5000 were inconsistent, with
some severely underexposed. It seems that in striving to produce a small
but full-featured camera, there are some illogically placed controls and
sensors. The photocell that controls the flash has been placed next to the
grip so that if you’re poised with your finger on the release, there’s a
good chance of blocking the sensor, which then closes down the flash
prematurely. To Nikon’s credit, they include an explanation sheet inside
the box that is titled in large bold letters “Please Read Before Taking
Your First Photograph”. Since we’re not big on internal flash, we tended
to ignore it until the problem presented itself. Once we realized what was
happening, the flash worked perfectly and we got some well-exposed family
pictures. The position of the photocell also takes into consideration that
you might be using the 19mm WC-E68 wide-angle lens on the camera and as
such, doesn’t block the sensor. This is where you really want to use the
new SB-50 flash, a perfect match in size for the CoolPix 5000.
Among some of its features is a wide-angle diffuser that gives even
coverage with the 19mm lens. In using the SB-50, the internal flash should
be set for Auto and the SB-50 should be set for TTL so the on camera
photocell will control the output of the SB-50 for perfect exposure. An
example of this is the photo of the editor,
George Schaub, on the "Editors Notes" page. This picture was taken in his office
with the SB-50 and wide-angle diffuser on the CoolPix 5000 and bounced the
flash into the ceiling. |
Off Camera Flash
Listed separately because it brings the CoolPix 5000 into the studio and
gives it potential as a real professional tool. We’ve been shooting with a
CoolPix 990 in a studio situation for the past year and have looked
forward to using the CoolPix 5000 in the same type of situation. We
regularly use two SB-24’s bounced into umbrellas for our CoolPix
studio. Since there is no synch socket on the CoolPix 5000 you have to use
either the SC-17 to connect a Nikon flash or the AS-15 to
connect a standard synch cord. We set up the two strobes, connecting one
to the CoolPix 5000 through the SC-17 cord into the hot shoe and
connecting the other with the SC-19 cord. The way that the camera
is designed, the internal flash is supposed to be disabled by attaching a
flash to the hot shoe. We had found that to work perfectly when using the
SB-50 on camera. But using the SB-24 through the SC-17
cord, the internal flash would still go off, affecting the exposure.
Currently this is under discussion at Nikon and they are bound to come up
with a fix. Our recommendation is a firmware update to separate the hot
shoe and the internal flash in the menu, just like the synch socket and
the internal flash are separated in the menu of my CoolPix 990. |
After Market Accessories
As with the CoolPix 950/990/995, there are a few accessories that we feel
are necessary to make better pictures with the CoolPix 5000. We recommend
the
Xtend-a-View LCD viewfinder with it’s 2x magnifier. Though the LCD is
far better than previous CoolPix models, using the Xtend-a-View enables
you to hold and shoot with the CoolPix 5000 like a 35mm single lens
reflex. We always use the LCD when composing our pictures. It swivels,
reverses and locks back into position beneath the viewfinder. But since
it’s difficult to hold your eye up against the viewfinder (you have to
balance the camera on your nose) when holding the camera, the LCD becomes
more practical. That’s not the main reason we use the LCD almost
exclusively. It’s because it’s the only way to view the scene through the
lens and see what the camera is seeing. Here’s where a magnified LCD
finder like the Xtend-a-View really comes in handy. You can rest your eye
on the Xtend-a-View, just like looking through an SLR.
Like most professional photographers, we prefer to use an Arca Swiss
quick release system and have custom plates on all our camera bodies and
long lenses. We were really impressed when
Kirk Photo came out
with quick release plates for the CoolPix 990, 995, and now they have one
for the CoolPix 5000. These plates only add about ¼ inch of height to the
cameras but make it much more conducive to use the camera on a tripod,
especially if you’re like us and have Arca Swiss type camera mounts on all
your tripods. They also sell adapters for all kinds of tripod heads if
you’re just starting out and don’t want to purchase a large ball head. We
should also mention that all their camera plates also have 1/4x20 female
threads for a standard tripod head so you’re not limited to using the
quick release feature.
The EN-EL1 rechargeable battery is not known to have a long life and
the alternative lithium battery can cost about $12.00. Therefore we were
very pleased to find that the Maha PowerBank from
Thomas Distributing now has a 7.2-Volt model DPB-140LI for cameras
like the CoolPix 5000. |
Summary
You might have noticed in reading our review that we haven’t gone into
those excruciating details about the camera that involve setting up lens
test charts or requiring a full compliment of tools. That’s not where we
feel a real evaluation of a camera can come from. Besides, isn’t it the
photographer that takes the picture, not the camera? For us, this was
about whether or not the camera could become an extension of our vision.
Were we able to take the camera out into an unknown lighting situation and
come back with pictures that made my wife and I say “wow!” To that end we
say YES. We’ve been able to come up with some outstanding artistic images.
We had set up a portfolio of CoolPix 990
images on our web site and have now added a
portfolio of CoolPix 5000 images,
some of which will be published with this article. We welcome you to come
back to the web site and judge for yourself. The CoolPix 5000 isn’t a
point and shoot, and don’t expect to get great pictures out of the box.
What it does for you is enable you to learn about photography, about
light. You can get great pictures with it if you think about how the
camera is seeing the light. Isn’t that what photography is all about, the
Light? We would compare the CoolPix 5000 to picking up a Leica for the
first time after using an SLR for years. It brings you back to the basics
of photography and teaches you to think all over again. And the resulting
pictures can be very rewarding. |
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Links to CoolPix 5000 images and
reviews |
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Nikon's web page about the CoolPix 5000 |
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Digital Camera
Resources |
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