Hello all. I have a chance to buy a new Coolpix 5400 at a great
price. Any body have experience with this camera? Thanks in
advance.
Andy Cooperman
Hi Andy.
You might want to check out Steve’s Digicams web site for a
thorough and unbiased evaluation of the Coolpix 5400, Another
good source for on cameras is Epinions. Just a word of
caution. If you are planning on buying online please check out the
seller. I had a horrible experience with an online company selling
what they advertised to be a brand new, never used Nikon 4500
digital camera. Furthermore, when I called to get more information
prior to making the order they assured me that the camera was as
advertised, brand new, never used, not gray market and that it
carried a full factory warranty. It was all lies, Their cameras
are all either used, refurbished, or gray market. Fortunately I
found this out before the order was shipped and after a lot of run
around and hassle I was finally able to cancel the order, and to
get out of having to pay their $75 cancellation fee, plus $75
restocking fee. The restocking fee was rediculous as the
camera had not been shipped. If you would like further information
about them contact me off line. Alma
Andy,
I purchased the 5400 right before Christmas and - I am in LOVE!
There is a lot to learn because this camera has so many features,
but even just the auto setting with zoom takes wonderful, clear,
sharp images.
I was a little worried because a professional photographer, on
another board, told me I would love this camera - once I got past
the learning stage. He said he almost took his back because of the
learning phase, but I spent only a few hours playng with it before I
got some great shots. I also found that for many shots I could use
just the auto mode and zoom. It wasn’t nearly as difficult as I
expected, although I still have a long way to go.
This is the only picture I’ve put on my site so far
http://www.bernardine.com/cabochons/amb45x26.htm but it is from my
first set of tests (shot #12, I think). It is plain vanilla, auto
mode with zoom, taken under incandescent lighting on the dining room
table. No touch up with photoshop except a little color balancing
because of the incandescent lights. I’ve been so busy I haven’t had
time to play with it again, until today, when I had an order to
ship. I only had time about 10 minutes to get some shots of the
piece, but ended up with a pretty descent shot of a 22" long
handmade chain and pendant taken in natural light, again on the
dining room table. No nasty hot spots on the chain or on the mirror
finish of the pendant and I don’t need to do any color balancing
since it was natural light.
This camera almost makes me want to become a photographer :>) Nancy
Nancy Bernardine
Bernardine Fine Art Jewelry
I have a Coolpix 995. (older model) I bought it for its fantastic
macro. Takes realy, realy clear pictures close up. You could shoot
into a diamond and have a picture of it the size of your computer
screen.
I recommend Nikon.
-Stanley
I have one, and love it. As with other nikon digitals, the menus are
very extensive, not always intuitive and take some time to learn. but
the lens on the 5400 is beautiful, and the macro mode very
impressive. it does not have the long telephoto of the 5700, but I
didn’t need that, and prefer an optical viewfinder to the 5700’s
electronic one. If you’d like to play with one for a bit first, let
me know. i’ll loan you mine for a few days just to see.
Peter Rowe
Andy, I just bought a coolpix 5700, and I think it’s incredible, my
only complaint is that I have fairly large hands and to me the camera
seems just a bit small, (I keek etting my had on the spedilght) I
realise that the 5700 is a modle above the 5400 but I think the only
difference is the 5400 only has a 4x zoom and the 5700 has an 8 x
zoom, also for some reason the 5400 is 5.1 Megapixel against the 5700
5.0 MP. the hardest part is setting up the different shooting guides
and options, even with my big mitts, all the controls are placed
conviently, and once I learn to use it it will be great, only thing
is you need to buy high speed flash cards for it other wise it takes
for ever to processs the image, I was going to get a Sony 717 but
figured I had several gigabytes of compact flash memory cards for my
old HP so I could save money, WRONG they will work but… I bought a
256 12 x MB compact flash on eBay for under 50 dollars they are hard
to find but well worth the extra money. the image quality is
incredible, I wonder what the new Sony 8 Megapixel does. I think
you’ll be happy with the5400 the only place I can see any difference
would be in Macro mode you are controlling it via the zoom, but all
in all I love mine, Now if we can just solve the lighting problems we
can take over the world fortunatly the cameras do come with a
good owners manual. almost good enough for dummies like me.
Kenneth Ferrell
hi there 2 months ago I bought the Nikon coolpix 5700 camera
(basically the same as 5400 but a bit more optical zoom). I am very
happy with its performance. I got it as an eBay deal; refurbished
by Nikon with only a 3 month warranty instead to the usual Nikon 12
month warranty. It cost $525.00. It is my second digital camera;
previously I had a cannon digital elf but didn’t like it for shooting
jewelery. It was a gift and given to me in Vietnam as a travel
camera and I guess it was good for that.
The coolpix are easy to operate and pretty intuitive as far a
controls go. It came bundled with a 64 meg flash card and despite
what the charts say-- I find it to be sufficiently large. If it ever
fills up I just dump it into my computer and keep shooting… takes
under four minutes. Also came with a flashcard reader which is
recommended so you don’t have to undo your camera from the tripod to
load cards. The battery is only good for about 90 minutes. I’ve
seen aftermarket gizmos that let you plug you camera into an regular
outlet for under twenty bucks. The macro capability is downright
heartwarming. I am sure no photo pro or a cyber pro either but
within the first day I could shoot an image of my hallmark {around
2mm} on the back of a fairly small pair of earrings and email someone
that had requested it. I’ve seen some aftermarket add-on macro lenses
but don’t know anything about them.
I had a clouddome from my first digital camera and the bracket took
a bit of re-configuring as this camera is so much larger but again in
under 15 minutes I was back up and running. For me the clouddome
seemed expensive at first but it is so convenient to use that it
quickly pays for its keep. The clouddome lady is an orchid regular
and has been very nice to me so I just thought I’d drop in a plug for
her.
One of the main reasons I’m writing is to tell you about this set of
video tapes (specifically for the Nikon 5400) that I also bought from
this other guy on eBay. His name is Joe Correia. Joe@joecorreia.com
{usual disclaimers}. He makes the tape series himself and that
are truly awesome. He is a great teacher, turns boring drivel into
exciting interesting stuff. He really got me enthused in three one
hour tapes. At $30 it is probably the best camera accessory that I
can think of.
I don’t have Photoshop and find the software bundled in with the
Nikon package -arcsoft-to be plenty adequate for my current needs.
As many on the board have alluded to in digital photography it seems
only half of the product is shooting the photo the other half is
crunching the data to tweak it how you want it. Good luck.
Mark Kaplan
132 Benefit Street
Providence, Rhode Island
02903-1208 USA
@mark_kaplan
Hello one and all
There are two sites I would recommend for digital photography. The
first site is a wonderful review site which not only discusses the
various pros & cons of each model; but also has reviews by
photographers/sample photos. It is http://www.dpreview.com.
From there, I would price the camera at State Street Directly Online
(www.ssdonline.com). You can call their 800# to actually speak to a
representative who will also know about the camera - - or at least
that is what happened when I called to place an order.
Cameron
NIKON MACRO ROCKS! I agree with Stanley on this one. I even have
the older 990 3 megapixal. Years later, now, the battery door won’t
stay closed without the aid of duct tape or rubber bands (to cheap
to pay the $75 fix). BUT…The nikon COOLPIX series MACRO mode is
just the bottom line best. I can take pictures of my own eyeball
that are so close and clear the blood vessels seem as if they are
popping out of your eye (no I wasn’t high). Macro’s of dollar bills
even clearly depict the fibers of the paper make up. I plan on
upgrading to the higher megapixel Nikons but first want to make sure
they have not compromised the macro capability…Any feedback on
this?
Houston
Columbus, Ohio