Digital Camera Fiend - A Camera Review

I decided to look into the new Nikon P5000 after seeing that it won a TIPA award for best compact digital camera. (TIPA is a European association of photography and imaging professionals).

It seems the acclaim for the P5000 is not universal. Reviewers from dpreview.com gave it a tepid recommendation and stated that the Canon Powershot G7 is a better camera in this field.

Among the writer’s criticisms, the P5000 has a very slow focus and slightly sluggish performance overall. Say no more! Nobody wants a sluggish digital camera. The writer also noted that anything above ISO 400 is noisy and the ISO 3200 function is “totally pointless,” and that the sound cuts out before the end of movie clips in video mode.

“The P5000 is a product that…has an achilles heel that we feel is important enough to reduce its rating,” the reviewer stated, referring to its sluggish performance. “[This] has a serious effect on the overall usability of an otherwise excellent camera.”

On the other hand, if you plan to use this camera for landscape shots, it will perform beautifully. Just stay away from fast action or point and shoot social snapping in low light.

Sounds like a dud of a camera, not an award-winner, to me. I thought TIPA’s other picks (the Nikon D40x and the Nikon 55-200mm VR lens) were brilliant. But if the reviewer from dpreview.com is right, they missed the boat on the P5000.