Life is grand

And so, in conclusion, the P5000 is a product that - like so many we look at - has an achilles heel that we feel is important enough to reduce its rating, because it has a serious effect on the overall usability of an otherwise excellent camera.

- DPReview of the Nikon Coolpix P5000.

The Nikon Coolpix P5000 sounds like exactly what I have been looking for. I have a Canon EOS 20D which is fantastic but hardly portable. For a long while now I’ve been wanting a pocketable camera that produces good results, has manual controls and is fast to use. The P5000 ticks every one of those boxes except the fast to use one.

Apparently it can take up to two seconds to focus.

I don’t sit still that long, never mind my future kids.

I cannot justify it. Every situation that involves the words “pocketable”, “chance”, “unplanned” etc. require a reasonable focus speed. Party photos, kid photos, out-the-window-of-a-car photos, birthday and Christmas photos, Sunday walk photos. You don’t want to be yelling to your girlfriend “Don’t move for 2 seconds hun, it’s focusing!” You pay models good money to stand still for photographs, you don’t get your kids or wife to stand still.

DPReview does their best to justify it and say it is usable when doing landscape photography. But folks, you’d have your DSLR when you are doing your landscape photos. Not a pocket camera.

Argh! I am frustrated. Nikon, P5001 please with fast focus. Leave everything else alone.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 17th, 2007 at 4:53 pm and is filed under Photography, Post, camera, focus, nikon coolpix p5000. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.