User comments btil June 2003

[carminephoto]

Re: 5700 mice scurrying around,
There seems to be a buzzing sound when zooming, but I personally think it's normal. If the sound is unusually loud, I would suggest contacting Nikon for their analysis,
Good luck
Rollo

 

[paulzt]

Problems with auto focus in dimmed light.
In a room with only a few lights on, the camera have lots of problems to let the autofocus work correctly.
My F601 have in the same room no problems at all.
Have anyone else this problem???

 

[dcaridade]

Indoor pictures too dark.

I just bought a Coolpix 5700 and I can't figure out how to make my indoor pictures brighter without using the flash. Can anyone give me any input on this?

Thanks in advance,

Dan

 

[lnbolch]

Use the Exposure Compensation to raise the exposure to your taste.

Inside, it is wise to shoot on aperture priorty with an f-stop as close as possible to f-2.8 (this varies with zoom).

Shoot at ISO400 or ISO800.

Notes on low light photography:

Using aperture priority, you use the widest possible aperture which lets the shutter speed float, ensuring you have the highest possible shutter speed as the light changes.

You will get a higher level of noise at ISO400 and ISO800, but you will also get pictures! I will take a picture with a bit of grain or noise any day over no usable picture at all.

If the shutter speed drops below 1/15th of a second, it will be wise to turn Noise Reduction on, or there will be brightly coloured pixels that will show up in the images. This is normal, and NR removes them.

For night time photography, off a tripod, exposures up to five minutes are practical with extremely good results using NR.

If you are shooting hand-held at low shutter speeds, BSS (Best Shot Selector) is a great help in getting sharp pictures. It shoots up to 10 shots and compares them, keeping only the sharpest one. It also helps to shoot from you lap, arm of a chair, table or whatever you can use to steady the camera when shooting with ambient light.

Stay as wide-angle as is practical. Instead of zooming, get closer. Long lenses are very difficult to focus under low light conditions, and hand holding exacerbates the problem. The camera needs something contrasty to focus on, and a shaking camera with a long lens makes focusing nearly impossible.

Auto white balance works great outside, but is pretty much useless otherwise. You will see in the manual that there are seven settings for Incandescent lights, which you get by turning the knob. A setting of +2 or +3 works well with household bulbs, while 0 works well with photofloods. If you have mixed lighting, take a manual reading off any neutral coloured object. A Kodak grey card is calibrated and reliable, but a piece of white paper will get you close as well.

I have some s&les of low light photography done with the sister camera the CP5000, with information on how they were shot and processed at http://www.larry-bolch.com/ephemeral/ http://www.larry-bolch.com/layers.htm/

The histogram is your best friend, and the greatest light meter ever invented. I use it constantly and get great, consistent exposures. There is an introduction to it http://www.larry-bolch.com/histogram/

Everything that applies to the CP5000 also applies to the CP5700. They use identical engines, with the only difference being that one is optimized for wide-angle and general photography, and the other is optimized for telephotography, but can also be used for some general photography. Both cameras work superbly in low light as you can see from the pictures. It does take some practice and skill, but with the instant replay function of the camera, you can learn quickly with the feedback it gives you.

larry! ICQ 76620504 http://www.larry-bolch.com/

 

[arthur]

I have a 5700 and got a wide Converter WC-E80. I need to take indoor shots of house rooms and all are out of focus. I tried the manual focus wheel, but no luck. Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[arthur]

I'll answer my own question. Get a tripod!! Wow, what a difference. I never thought I was that shakey. Also takes care of the dim light problem. I'm getting good interior shots now.

 

[paulzt]

Art,

I had a 5700 for almost a year now. I slamed the bloody thing almost 3 times into the ground, cursed it to hell and sold it for a 1/3 of the price. Man, what a terrible thing. I have used a SLR (6006 F601) for over 12 years, the 5700 is than really a degrade. Very slow, focus problems, to many menu options. Specially the focus. Indoor shots are 50% out of focus. You used a tripod. But when shooting family happenings not very convenient and not expected of a Nikon with this price tag.
But when every things fits in its place, the shots are really wonderfull. Good of colour, sharpness etc. Also the compact design was a argument to buy that thing.
I use now my 6006 again and looking for a DSLR. The D70 is first in order, but did not decide yet.

Paul.

 

[arthur]

Paul - I see your point. I even purchased an external speedlight and can't get it working.

Larry Bolch mentioned using a histogram for light meter. I don't see it in my 5700.

 

[lnbolch]

The histogram is on page 3 of your review screens.

To use it, shoot a test shot, and switch to review. Turn the knob until the screen shows up, turning either way will get you there.

You will see a thumbnail of the image, and any parts that are blown out or in danger of blowing out will be flashing. There is also a graph of where the lightness values are placed between zero on the left and 255 on the right.

A blown out highlight is only critical if it carries important information, which is often overlooked when the topic is discussed. Specular reflections, actual light sources and so on SHOULD be 255,255,255. If there are light sources in the image or specular reflections off glass, paint or chrome, they will be flashing and that is fine. Skin tones should rarely be flashing.

I have an introduction to the histogram and how to read it at
http://www.larry-bolch.com/histogram/

It is without doubt the best lightmeter ever invented - this from a boy who cut his teeth on a Weston Master lightmeter and Ansel Adams' Zone System.

Auto exposure is not easy to use unless you have a complete understanding of it. To blindly trust it, means a lot of terrible exposures. It seeks an average of all the light coming in the lens, with a bias of protecting highlights. If a bright light source is in the image area, it will dominate the reading, depressing all other values. It has no idea on its own what it is reading, and the photographer MUST supply the intelligence.

The CP5x00 cameras have several choices in metering to match the shooting environment. Most situations are well handled by the matrix metering which is the default. However, one should review the other types in the manual and possibly even carry a hand-held spot-meter.

The camera has the tools, but the shooter has the brains, These are very complex and sophisticated devices for image capture. They are anything but point-and-shoots.

Even for a long time pro that has shot just about ever type of film camera, they have a daunting learning curve. The reward of learning the camera thoroughly, is that great exposures can be made under the most extreme conditions. They are as awesome once learned, as they are daunting during the beginning of the learning process. Once these cameras are mastered, completely consistent and excellent results can be expected. See:
http://www.larry-bolch.com/ephemeral/
http://www.larry-bolch.com/layers.htm

larry!
ICQ 76620504
http://www.larry-bolch.com/

 

[jenb]

I just purchased a 5700 and also a sb50 flash. I am planning on using it at a wedding reception within the next two weeks and was looking for some advice on the user settings. It will be indoors and probally low lighting.