[DigiCam] Re: Thinking of a Coolpix 5700v

[ShirleyK]

On Tuesday, November 4, 2003, at 10:20  AM, Allen wrote:

> A Canon digital Rebel with lens can be had for about US$1000.

Actually, that's full list price. Many people found much better deals 
at Dell by using more than one coupon. CompUSA also had a 10% discount 
on any digital camera shortly after the Rebel hit the stores and other 
stores matched that price. So many people essentially got the lens for 
free.

The thing to realize is that if you get a camera that uses 
interchangeable lenses, you are kind of committing to that 
manufacturer. Generally, you keep the lenses and trade up on bodies. If 
the original poster's wife already has Nikon lenses, he'd be better off 
getting the 5700 for now and when Nikon finally answers the Canon 
challenge, then he could consider a Nikon body to go with her existing 
lenses. If she has no lenses that are likely to be usable in Nikon's 
future prosumer SLR, then all options are open.

Unfortunately my existing Canon lenses are much older and don't fit the 
Digital Rebel, so I'm starting over. Canon wins some lens business by 
introducing a body at this price point. But not everyone buys Canon 
lenses. There are third party options too. Nevertheless, the two lenses 
I bought along with a few other essentials (hoods, filters, bag, 
memory) cost significantly more than the camera with the kit lens. If 
you don't want to buy more lenses, there's no point in having such a 
camera.

Some other things in way of comparison:

The CMOS sensor on the Rebel is larger than that of many digital point 
and shoot cameras, so it has much less noise. There is already a book 
about the camera because it's so much like the EOS-10D. The shutter lag 
time is very fast; you can take the picture almost instantly. People 
moving from film will have to get used to the short wait before you can 
actually take the picture on consumer point and shoot digitals.

But some people who moved to the Rebel from a point and shoot miss 
looking at the LCD to compose their picture. It has no memory card, 
which is to say that it is unusable until you spend a bit more. (On the 
other hand, who needs the tiny memory card you typically get with other 
cameras. The first thing you do is buy a bigger one and put the other 
one away.) Also, there are no movie capabilities on an SLR because 
there is a mirror in the way. The 5700 adds audio I believe. I only get 
video on my 995 Coolpix. For the most part, the smaller size of the 
5700 is a bonus. But I'm finding that I have considerably less camera 
shake with the heftier Rebel. I had basically given up trying to 
handhold anything on the 995 unless I was in bright sunlight.

If this is not a surprise, it might be best to consult the person who 
is getting this fantastic gift and even have her handle the cameras. I 
would vote for not making this a surprise. It's really important that 
the photographer feel comfortable with the placement of the controls, 
size of camera, etc. Personally, I find the Rebel is much easier to 
use, but maybe I tried a little harder too.

Shirley