Nikon Coolpix P5000

Manual Control Options
The Nikon Coolpix P5000 has manual and priority modes and some manual controls can be changed with the control dial and multi-selector. Read on for more details on the P5000’s manual controls.

Focus
Auto Focus (6.75)
The Nikon Coolpix P5000 is marketed as a performance digital camera for serious photographers, so its auto focus system should be snappy. But the camera lacks in this area. It took a long time to focus and process just about everything, so shutter lag was an issue.

The specs indicate that the lens can focus from 1.6 inches in the macro mode and 1 foot normally. The camera has Auto, Manual, and Center auto focus area modes. The manual mode has 99 focus areas around the frame and the multi-selector can move the point of focus around.

The P5000 has an orange auto focus assist lamp that can be turned on and off in the setup menu. There is also a Best Shot Selector (BSS) in the recording menu that snaps a string of photos and selects only the sharpest focused one to save.

There is a Face Priority Auto Focus mode, but it is positioned as its own scene mode on this camera. It didn’t work very well at all. It takes a few seconds for the camera to recognize a face and still doesn’t get it right all the time.

Users can choose between single and full-time auto focus control. The full-time control makes odd clicking noises while shooting still images but performs much quieter and more effectively in the movie mode.

Overall, the camera’s auto focus isn’t very quick and thus not impressive. It does offer a Face Priority AF setting, though it is slow and outdated. This is another disappointing feature on the Nikon Coolpix P5000.

Manual Focus (0.0)
Manual focus is not available on the Nikon Coolpix P5000. This is a little strange for a camera targeted to enthusiasts, but manual focus modes found on compact digital cameras never have an interface desirable enough for these consumers anyway.

ISO (7.75)
In the recording menu, users can scroll between a wide range of ISO sensitivity settings: 64, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 2000 and 3200 settings can be found, with the top ISO setting operating only when the image size is set to 5 megapixels. When the camera first debuted at the Photo Marketing Association Show in March 2007, it did not have an ISO 2000 setting. By production time it was added though, and it functions at full resolution.

The automatic ISO mode has a somewhat wide range of 64-800, which doesn’t cover all the bases of the manual settings but is still more than the average camera’s automatic ISO range of 80-400. The High Sensitivity and Anti-Shake scene modes both use an ISO 1600 setting to reduce blur in still images.

White Balance (7.0)
There are only seven white balance options in the recording menu. They can be scrolled through there or set to the Function button so they can be changed with the control dial. Auto, Preset (custom), Daylight, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Cloudy, and Flash can be found. This list isn’t very extensive at all; some cameras have three fluorescent preset modes and a shade mode. However, the inclusion of a custom setting is key since it can adjust to any lighting situation.

Exposure (7.5)
The P5000’s shutter speeds and apertures can be changed. Like other digital cameras, there is also an exposure compensation scale of +/- 2 in steps of 1/3. This gives the Nikon P5000 a total exposure range of -1 to +17.5 EV according to Nikon. A live histogram can be viewed while shooting and in the playback mode, so the exposure can be monitored even in harsh lighting. In the playback mode, users can activate Nikon’s D-Lighting to automatically brighten underexposed images.

Metering (7.0)
The Coolpix P5000 has a 256-zone metering system with evaluative, center-weighted, and spot modes. These are typical, but the camera also has a spot auto focus mode that syncs with a selected auto focus point rather than sticking to the center like the standard spot metering mode. The metering modes are found in the recording menu.

Shutter Speed (7.0)
The Nikon Coolpix P5000 has shutter speeds ranging from 8-1/2000th of a second that can be changed in the manual and shutter priority modes. This seems a little short for adventurous photographers who want to creative with long exposures.

Aperture (6.0)
The most aperture choices are available when the 3.5x optical zoom lens is zoomed out: f/2.7, 3.3, 3.4, 3.8, 4.3, 4.8, 5.4, 6.1, 6.8, and 7.6. The maximum aperture is quite large and lets in a lot of light. The light wanes in the telephoto end of the zoom range though: f/5.3, 5.8, 6.5, and 7.3. Users can select a specific aperture in the manual and aperture priority modes.