Dear Mary,
Wow, if I had to choose between the Nikon Coolpix 5700 and the Sony Mavica
FD 73, I would immediately pick the Nikon C.5700.
I am green with envy you have that choice, but then again, don't take any
notice of me because I am uncontrollably biased in favour of Nikon DC's.
Have a look what it has to offer and make up your own mind.(copied from the
Nikon Website)
Good luck and good hunting,
Bill D. Tauranga, New Zealand
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Nikon Coolpix 5700
a.. Excellent metering, great neutral color response, above average
resolution
b.. Control over internal processing algorithm parameters: contrast,
saturation, sharpness
c.. Relatively low ISO 100 noise
d.. Very clever 'Quick Response' shutter release mode
e.. Excellent build quality, full metal case
f.. Smaller body than you think, big 8x lens fully retracts into camera
g.. Good macro capability considering the lens zoom range
h.. Fast operation, good shot to shot times (especially in Quick Response
mode)
i.. Three user memories (although current firmware has a bug)
j.. Great control over 'photographic' features such as selection of AF
point
k.. Spot metering can be tied to AF point
l.. Fast wide angle auto focus, slower at telephoto
m.. Unique focus confirmation (LCD live view sharpening) option
n.. Fine-tunable white balance
o.. Detailed exposure information available in playback mode (roll the
command dial)
p.. Re-programmable FUNC button (user set / focus / flash / white balance
/ metering)
q.. Noise Reduction mode for clean long exposures
r.. Illuminated top LCD status panel
s.. New LCD is smaller but sharper and brighter with anti-reflective
coating
t.. Love it or hate it the 5700's EVF is one of the best around
u.. USB mass storage device connectivity
With its eight times optical zoom the 5700 becomes an extremely
practical 'shoot anything' camera. Image quality is excellent, with that
great matrix metering, good tonal balance and colour (accurate and vivid
without blowing out colours) plus above average resolution. Purple fringing
is down but the overall look of the image is still very 'Coolpix'. Noise
levels are good, especially when compared to other five megapixel digital
cameras (as indicate by our comparison to the Minolta DiMAGE 7i).
Just like other prosumer Coolpix digital cameras another of the 5700's
strengths is in its excellent flexibility and manual control, there's almost
nothing you can't tweak or change which means getting the camera set up to
your personal taste is fairly easy. The lens turned out to be better than
I'd expected, sharp even up to its maximum telephoto. I'm sure there will be
some users who will miss the Coolpix 5000's 28 mm wide angle (adding wide
angle to the 5700 is possible but makes it quite bulky).
Price could be an issue, especially with the six megapixel D-SLR's at
around $2000. However, consider that the 5700 has a high quality
ultra-compact 8x optical zoom lens built into the camera and you'll soon see
that you'd have to spend quite a bit more on top of the price of a D-SLR to
get that zoom range and probably a bag to carry it all in.
Highly Recommended
Overall conclusion
Here's the rating of the Nikon Coolpix 5700: (5 megapixel prosumer)
Detail: Rating (out of ten)
Construction 9
Features 9
Image quality 8.5
Lens/ CCD combination 8.5
Ease of use 8
Value for money 8