Merely months after cranking out the
P5000, Nikon apparently felt the need to up the ante rather hastily with the
Coolpix P5100. Unfortunately, it seems that this unit is yet another shining example of why stuffing a 12-megapixel sensor into a compact camera isn't exactly the greatest of ideas. Granted, the image quality here was noticeably better than that produced by the
Fujifilm FinePix F50fd, but performance was sorely lacking when using any ISO greater than 400. Despite that shortcoming, reviewers were quite enthralled by the on board controls and overall ergonomics, and it was also noted that most shots could be brought "under control" with a bit of tinkering. Overall, the crew went ahead and awarded the shooter four out of five stars, suggesting that its reasonable pricetag was much to thank. If you've been eying this one from a distance, you owe it to yourself to check out the full review before pulling the trigger or just blowing it off.
posted October 31st 2007 4:05AM
I was going to buy the 5000, but I think I'll get this one for the holidays. Aside from the ISO issue, it looks well put together. It has most of the right features for what I need, and at the right price. A good reliable camera for vacations. The wife has the high end Nikon. I can't afford any of those fancy cameras (Leica).
Don't worry about ISO issues. No PHd (push here dummy) camera with such tiny postage-stamp-sized sensors has decent high ISO performance. As long as you don't blow the photo up more than 5x7 there shouldn't be much of a problem.
If ISO does concern you, get a Nikon D40X or Canon Digital Rebel. They're relatively small and a much better value in terms of noise performance. You've got to spend $4,500 to $5,000 to get significantly better ISO performance than those two cameras.
I have a p5000, along with most of the available accessories.
I'm extremely happy with my kit... from the cheap and easy to use bounce flash, to the excellent WA adapter, this is a photographers P&S.
Cool. Glad to see some feedback on the 5000. I was going to get that one until I saw the 5100 for (about) the same price. These higher end P&S's seem to be doing well.
@Eric. Thanks for that input. I usually don't push so I'm not too worried. The wife has her D70x if it was a critical shot. We'll be going to a lot of dark places in the UK next March so we are playing with ISO as an option where flashes aren't allowed.
Compact cameras used to have half-decent high-ISO performance, when they were still around 6 megapixels. Now they're terrible. If you have an older model in that range, keep it, because today's compact cameras have awful low-light performance, as makers have deliberately gone for the "megapixel marketing" angle.