Rating: 
Summary: The Nikon Coolpix 5000 - A great new Digital
Review: I have been a Nikon camera user for over 40 years. I also have the latest SLR camera, which of course I love. I was initially very critical of the complicated manual instructions. However, after having spent sometime playing with this camera, I find it a good addition to the Nikon family. This is an excellent camera and the adjustable LCD screen is a fantastic feature. You don't have to be a contortionist to photograph the ceiling of a building anymore.
Rating:
Summary: BACK-2-STORE, POOR HUMAN FACTORS, OTHERWISE EXCELLENT CAMERA
Review: NEGATIVES FIRST - This is an extremely capable but complicated camera for the average consumer. I will repeat - EXTREMELY COMPLICATED FOR THE AVERAGE OR INFREQUENT USER. This camera comes with a 200 page users guide. The user guide does a poor job teaching the use of the camera ( consider an aftermarket P5000 book- several have appeared on amazon ). If you takes pictures once & awhile- you will not like this camera - you will need to bone up on the use of the camera due to its complexity. IE you will need to carry the book with you to refresh your memory on some modes. Some will say, just leave it in automatic mode - well that is great - unless you inadvertently invoke one of the custom non-automatic modes - due to the dizzying array of buttons all over the camera. I have blown several important shots due to the camera getting into an unintended mode ( IE shutter or aperature priority, suppress flash etc. ). From a human factors standpoint - the design of the camera controls is confusing - you can invoke one camera mode in a variety of ways - using a combination of control buttons. IE can use a cursor control on back with the LCD menus, you can used the rotary knob + "FUNCT" or "MODE". The camera is sized for small hands - think about that when you are holding a [dollar amount] camera ! - you do not want to drop it !!!. ( that being said - would also consider a warranty on this camera -from a reputable source - in the current economic climate - they may be out of business in a year or so .. ) Easy to block flash exposure sensor with finger - have to consciously be mindful of where your fingers & camera stap are on this camera.. Lens cap is cheesy - mine broke after 5 hours of use. Cannot add a UV filter with out the fiddley adapter ( no threads on lens barrel ) - with the adapter - the camera no longer fits in your bag - so it is a challenge to protect the cameras lens. Zoom is insufficient for my needs. Tele-converter has excellent performance but has a cheesey attachment system - excellent but clumsy ( you don't want to drop that either ! ).
POSITIVES: Very good macro & 5 mega-pixel sensor . A jeweler friend of mine uses his P5000 to shoot diamond close-ups for his web based business. The NIKON gives pro-model color saturation/balance, contrast & brightness - a challenge when shooting diamonds & other brilliant light reflecting things. Battery life is better than most point & shoot cameras - if the power management feature is used. That being said - the power management feature drives you nuts - camera goes to sleep in in-opportune times !!! Have blown very important shots due to the camera going to sleep. ( This can be overridden - but then your batteries life suffers )See "impressive product with some serious shortcomings " from Robert B below for more detail. Slow to focus & significant shutter lag. Recommend the newer faster flash memory cards - to minimize lag between shots - camera has to write shots to memory - the conventional memory cards are slower. Camera can take a 1 gig superdrive if desired ( so I have been told ) - but these thing are even slower& eat batteries. Charger is very cool - blinks red until the NIKON battery is fully recharged. Like the rotating LCD screen - I have a need to be able to shoot around walls & in places that I cannot access myself - IE full arm extension with camera at unusual angles & use swiveling monitor to convey image. Cannot see monitor in bright sunlight though - you will need an aftermarket "hood" if this becomes an issue. Software & USB cable works well - use my laptop as a data archive when Im on the road & taking lots of pics.
MISC: Buy a camera bag with a soft liner inside - many camera bag materials will scratch the LCD monitor & or lens. Ive met several people with the P5000 whose antireflective coating has been worn off due to stowing the camera without the cheesy lens cap affixed - because it broke of course ! SUMMARY: My dropping [dollar amount] camera, $2[dollar amount] teleconverter + $[dollar amount] on a warranty gives testimony to my initial excitement about this camera because of its sophisticated features, NIKON brand quality and compact size. However, after using the camera - I have found the human factors design of this camera to be very/quite aggravating - so much so that I have "fallen out of love" with it - I do not enjoy using it. It is still an excellent camera - I just do not enjoy using it. For me to keep something this expensive - I need to look forward to using it. This pro-sumer camera, with it's "knocking at the door with pro models - price ", should not suffer the other digital camera shortcomings that characterize low-cost, point & shoot models - such as shutter lag etc. Further, at this price I could find a used pro model ( pro models characterized by not having shortcommings discussed ). Im returning this camera until NIKON addresses these issues. Im historically a CANON loyalist, I'm now considering the CANON G2, the latest MINILTA DIMAGEs ( fantastic value ), a used pro model, or possibly one of the newer high end OLYMPUS models w/8X zoom (because I need a hefty zoom ).
Rating:
Summary: Great picture
Review: I think this is a great camera. It is my first digital camera and I am really happy with its performance. It has only one problem (that's why I didn't give it 5 stars): in a few occasions the flash didn't work very well. I mean that the night pictures sometimes remians to dark.
In any case, 99% of the time the results is extremely good.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Camera But Should Shop The Sony Mavica CD Series Too!
Review: I am a professional radiographer and photographer (25 years now) and I used both the Sony Mavica CD400 & CD300, as well as a Nikon Coolpix for this year's field research season x-raying mummies in Peru. This means the cameras were pushed hard.....blowing sand, huge contrast ranges, high resolution radiographs needed, fast manual control of radical light conditions, etc.....essentially most of the tough conditions and imaging requirements you can imagine. Here's what I found: The Sony Mavica CD300 beat them all. It's not the most expensive or the best resolution but we all thought it did the best job. Mavica CD400: best resolution but extremely slow recording time made it impossible to work with most of the time....the CD300 often got 3-4 shots while the 400 was recording one. Mavica CD300: not the best resolution, but now that I've done some prints for publication from it's highest res setting I will not be buying any more 400s....just not a significant enough difference, plus it's not as heavy or bulky. Nikon Coolpix: not in the running by comparison with the Sonys....although it is more lightweight....we are buying mini CDs for 33 cents each in bulk at BestBuy and getting 140-180 high res images per CD.....they are so easy to format, initialize, and copy on any CD burner that I can't believe we even considered using memory stiks, or USB downloads. The best features are common to both the Sony Mavica CD300 and 400 series though.....manual control of the images, excellent close up abilities, decent wide angle (which can be enhanced with add-on lenses if necessary), and both rapid video and automatic functions with night focusing for flash, etc., etc. Finally! There is a great digital camera....but it isn't a Nikon.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent camera
Review: This camera is amazing. You have the flexibility to do practically anything. I would definitely recommend this camera to anyone who wants a full featured camera or at least one with many options. There are cheaper alternatives if you just want a point and shoot, but for a serious camera this is it.
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Summary: Update of my previous review
Review: I've got to revise this product downward. After I lost the ccd chip Nikon either gave me a new camera, or fixed the old one. I don't know which. They say the fixed it, if so why did they put those stupid colored stickers back on the body. I've decided that I can't use this camera for any kind of work because of the way it finds focus. I never know where it's going to focus in a scene. I did some simple "stand up 'em up against the wall" and the manual focus mark said I was focused on their faces. No NO, the camera focused on their chests and the faces were slightly soft. I was on a tripod shooting at 1/4 sec. I don't know if this is an adjustment problem or what. I just never know where it's going to focus. Pretty annoying. At least with my 35mm I can choose the focus point. I probably can with this camera also? Now which menu would that be on. If anything this camera is not simple or user friendly like the 900 line.
Rating:
Summary: Is It Worth The Cost?
Review: I recently ran into someone who owns one of these. The owner spent the next half hour telling me all the wonderful things this camera can do. The story ends up he is a freelance writer of some great repute and did not have to buy the camera, Nikon loaned it to him to test drive. I freely admit the pictures it takes are stunning. I sure would love to be able to add additional lenses to my camera. But I have to ask myself if the Coolpix 5000 is worth the money. For me, the answer is short and sweet, "No". My purpose in owning a digital camera is to take photos to send over the Internet. I don't care how fast your connection is, no one is going to want to download the huge files this camera generates! Yes, it is the right choice if you want to print you photos, but at what it costs, are you really going to take with you when your family goes to the local theme park and your kids love the "soak zone" or flume rides? No way, I'm not sacrificing a Kilobuck for a happy snap! If my current camera gets trashed, yes, I'll be disappointed, but I can afford to replace it. If I trashed a Coolpix 5000, I'd have a hard time replacing it. Yes, it's a great camera, but ask yourself, why did you decide to go digital? If it's for fun pix, the Coolpix 5000 may not be the ideal choice for you. If you're into digital photos for commercial use, then maybe this is the camera for you. I'm rating this Middle of the Road for its technical excellence at a very hefty price tag.
Rating:
Summary: impressive product with some serious shortcomings
Review: The Nikon Coolpix 5000 is a very impressive camera in many regards although I have found several significant shortcomings that prevent me from recomending this camera at this time given its price. Rather than list all of its many strengths I will focus on several critical weaknesses that I hope prospective buyers will find insightful. 1) images taken with the built in flash are very inconsistent with many underexposed images. Nikon suggests that this is due the operator inadvetantly blocking the flash exposure sensor and this is true, althoug it is not the only problem. If you obstruct the flash exposure sensor in any way you will get terrible results. The problem in my experience is two fold: the flash expsore sensor is very poorly located and it is easy to obstruct. This is a critical design flaw which Nikon techical support representatives will admit. More importantly, I found that even when the sensor is not blocked, the Coolpix 5000 generates very inconsistent exposures when using the built in flash.
2) the camera's autofocus is suprisingly slow, particulary under lighting conditions anything less than strong daylight. Furthermore the autofocus is not nearly as sensitive as one would expect in the year 2002 and at a price of approximately [price]. This camera occasionaly stuggles to focus accurately, particulary indoors under lighting conditions you might readily encounter at home or in a restaurant.
3) between the autfocusing time and the pre-firing image processing that takes place in digital cameras there is significant lag time between when you or your subject are ready for the image capture and when the camera is ready. I understand that this time delay is inherent in all but the most expensive digital cameras although I was hoping for better from Nikon at this price level. This delay makes this camera ill suited for candid photography and any type of action photography. You will miss as many moments as you capture.
4) in bright sunlight the comprehensive camera data displayed in the monitor is virtually unreadable. The problem is that the control panel which also displays camera data doesn't show all the data a user needs in many situations and this can be very annoying. For expample the control panel displays either the shutter speed or aperature but not both.
5) the camera does not perform matrix balance fill flash which is an important feature and one I expected given the price.
6) my Coolpix 5000 came with Nikon View4 software for uploading the images to the computer and Nikon View4 is a very poor product, although Nikon has released Nikon View5 which addresses the shortcomings of View4. I have now used Nikonview5 and it is much better than View4 although it has problems of its own. Nikon seems to think they are simply selling a camera when they are in fact selling a specialized computer for taking pictures and a computer is only as useful as its software. Don't expect much form Nikon's software at this time.
7) I bought the Coolpix 5000 because of its sophisticated featues and compact size although I found the camera to be loaded with an inane number of features and settings that only a digital camera engineer could fully apprecitate. One can ignore most of the "noise' generated by the numerous "excess" features, many of which have little or no utility value, but the "noise" does cause confusion. In summary the Coolpix 5000 is loaded with features and is a very sophisticated, well designed little camera that records fantastic images under many conditions. Nevertheless the camera has several serious shortcomings that are fairly frustrating. Additionally, for those of you new to digital photography please be aware that all of these companies (Nikon, Canon, Kodak, Fuji, Olympus, Sony, Minlota, etc. are rushing to capture market share in the broad consumer market and as a result they are delivering products with various flaws, limitations and deficiencies. There is no doubt that digital photography offers numerous advantages over traditonal film although my experience is that the industry is still in the frontier phase and as such not ready for the mass market. If you have a lot of time to learn, like to tinker with new products and are fairly competent technically you will do fine if you are willing to except a few limitations. Personally, I am going to return the camera and wait 12 to 18 months until more of the "kinks" are worked out.
Rating: 
Summary: Not recommended
Review: I have a Coolpix 995, 885, when I bought the Nikon Coolpix 5000 I found that in-door flash picture quality is very bad. Most of the picture is muddy compare to the 885 or the Minolta Dimage 7. Beside that, when I set to take 5 Megapixel picture, the processing time is very long.
Rating:
Summary: Nikon's Reputation Remains Intact!
Review: I have recently purchased a Nikon Coolpix 5000 from Amazon.
And I am totally amazed. The picture quality is GREAT! However,
if you are looking for a "Point and Shoot" camera right out of
the box--then forget about it! To really appreciate the beauty
of this camera, then "YOU MUST TAKE TIME TO READ THE MANUAL"!
The Nikon is full of "Bells and whistles", and if you skip the
manual then you will miss the feats that this camera is capable
of. So, if you are tired of the same ole point and click camera,
then purchase the NIKON COOLPIX 5000! You'll be amazed at what
it can do. One more thing...the enclosed bundled software is
worthless. I am running a Window's XP upgrade. And as soon as I
plugged in the USB cable and turned on the camera Window's XP aknowledged the camera, loaded the drivers, and snatched the pictures right from the camera. I have Image Expert 2000 photo program that came bundled with my Dell computer and it will extract the photos from the Nikon very efficiently and put them in a folder. I tried the enclosed Nikon software and was totally dissappointed. Enjoy your new Nikon.
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