Nikon COOLPIX 5700 Digital Camera

A camera is an instrument, the user sees the photo, the user composes the photo and the user hits the shutter release.

Great for point & shoots.

A proper camera has a whole host of user functions that can be arranged to suit any application.

True.

A brilliant camera can be picked up by any photographer (a qualified user) and can be set up to suit their intended application.

Not the 5700.

If you like eating out, you will love this camera, it has more menus than a las vegas theme bar.

If you like taking photos buy something else.

This camera is the biggest pain to use, there are very few intuitive marks on the outside to indicate what the cam is doing.

I have used just about every still, film or digital or video cam you could name, the only one which I've failed to
master has been the 5700. It has almost every control you could want, but by the time you find it your shot will be in a different time zone.

The image quality, once the camera is running is, as you would expect from Nikon, first class. I've no doubt that the lens on hear is one of the best on any integrated digital camera.

The resolution (5mp) is now average compared to recent offernings from the likes of Sony, though still plenty for cracking 12x8's.

This camera has loads of manual and custom settings, and maybe this is part of the problem with the interface.

Competitors cameras like the Fuji s7000, Minolta A1 and Sony 828 (the most directly comparable) are laid out more like an SLR, the Minolta in particular offers a similar level of control but manages to remain easy to use.

Nikon finally seemed to see sense with their SLRs (the F100 & 80 are a joy to use compared with older AF nikons) but for some reason seem to want to still confuddle their digital users.

Folk will buy this for the name. This is a misnomer.
I don't doubt the quality, I just have real problems with what i regard as a seriously seriuously flawed interface.