Comparison and review of Nikon 5400

Comparison: I compared five 5M cameras before settling on the Nikon 5400. Film wise I've dabbled with photography for quite a while, starting with an Olympus XA1, and I've had a Canon EOS 1000F SLR for 12 years. I bought an Olympus D-540L some time ago, which is 0.75M camera. It's taken some nice pics but as you're probably aware these won't print out at more than 3" x 2"! Since film photography is expensive and frustrating if you don't have your own development equipment, digital photography is the way to go.

My opinion is you need a 4-5M camera to replace a 35mm camera. Full manual override is a must as well.

The cameras I looked at:

* Canon G5
* Sony V1
* Olympus C5050
* Nikon 5700
* Nikon 5400

A good way to compare features is to go to http://www.dpreview.com/, the "Buying guide" menu and choose "Side-by-side". A lot of the features are similar and it's pretty close these days between the manufacturers. Visual quality of the cameras is improving at a marked rate and it's difficult to choose between them here. The cameras do have certain features that have pros and cons and this is where you draw your final conclusion. Here is my summary of the 5 cameras listed above:

* Canon G5 - When you hold this in the shop next to the 5400 and V1 it feels like a brick. It is large and bulky, but all the features are easily accessible and it doesn't feel fiddly. Personally I think this has the worst artifacts out of all the cameras listed above. Colour balance and tone are great but if you look at the resolution test (on comparion) you'll see that diagonals are aliased and there are slight green fringes to black edges.
Conclusion: I decided against this camera because of its size and artifacts.

* Sony V1 - This is the most compact of the above cameras and for has the massive plus of a Carl Zeiss lens. I used to have an Olympus XA1, which was a compact point and click 35mm camera, which also had a Carl Zeiss lens. I think it took some of the best pictures I've ever taken. Looking at the results on this site, this camera takes excellent pictures and Sony seem to have sorted out the colour balancing on this model. It is nice and compact and has an automatic lens cover which is a nice feature. It's size is both a plus and a minus though. If you have large hands I don't think you'll like this camera, it is not easy to hold. It has some interesting features, like you can take pictures in complete darkness using it's infra-red mode. It will also focus perfectly in the dark. Compared to the other cameras is is quite cheap, but then you have to use more expensive Sony memory cards and you have to buy Sony attachements, e.g. external flash. This is the only camera which doesn't have moveable screen - and you'll wish you did have one once you've had a camera that has this feature.
Conclusion: I decided against this camera because it was so awkward to hold in the shop and the menus seemed a bit fiddly to select option settings. Also it doesn't have a moveable viewing screen and you must buy Sony accessories.

* Olympus C5050 - This camera is the oldest of the ones above I believe. I've been quite impressed with my old Olympus 540L. Despite it's low resolution and age I think it take pretty good pictures. I think Olympus are a little underrated personally as Sony, Nikon and Canon seem to get all the attention. This camera is supposed to be very good in low light, and I like twilight photography so I did consider this camera. It feels good in your hand taking photos and the image quality is excellent, just look at the comparions.
Conclusion: I decided against this model as it's been out quite a while and I think the imaging software has moved on since then. It moves at a very rapid pace! The reviews point out some arifacts and I'd rather not have those (despite getting at Recommended rating).

* Nikon 5700 - This camera gets good reviews, it feels nice to hold, it has good functionality and takes excellent photos. It has an 8x optical zoom, which is fantastic, but because of this the camera feels more like an SLR as it larger than the others. This camera is more expensive than the others but has all their features and the zoom.
Conclusion: If you want a camera with big zoom, I'd look at some of the cheaper Olympus models. There's an old maxim in photography, if you want to zoom in on a subject move closer to it! If you get a big zoom and you don't have good light you're just going to get camera shake. You even start to notice it on some of the 3x and 4x zoom models. This is a great camera, but just not quite what I was looking for.

* Nikon 5400 - I think this has the same body as the 5700 but with a 28-116mm equivalent lens. When I had my Canon EOS 1000F, it came with a 35-80mm lens. I soon changed this for a 28-70mm lens because more often than not you use wide angle than zoom. When you do need zoom 3 or 4 times is plenty. You rarely need 8x or 10x optical zoom and when you do you can sacrifice a little quality and do it digitally. So as you can probably tell this sold the camera to me! Other than that, the camera feel great to hold, has a good rubber grip, and you can practically operate it with one hand. The fold out screen is excellent and allows you to lift it up high, or down on the ground and still see what you are taking.
Conclusion: Wide angle lens with 4x zoom, good to hold and excellent images. I will say this camera is a little slow to process you photos once taken and isn't great at focussing in (really) bad light.

Summary:

Well, I hope this information has been useful to you. This is the kind of review I was looking for when trying to decide what to purchase. If you are budding photo enthusiast and you take a lot of photos and like to experiment with your camera I would avoid the Sony as it's very fiddly - just try it in a shop. It also has no fold out screen, which also means it could get scratched as it has a soft plastic cover. I take it this is the main difference why this camera is cheaper. All the other cameras are much nicer to handle although the 5700 is larger. I like to go out on my bike and take photos and the 5700 won't fit in a (large jacket/waterproof) pocket whereas the others will. The Olympus C5050 and Canon G5 probably take the worst photos of the 5 due to noise and aliasing in the images. The Nikons are more expensive but feel like good solid camera and have all the features you'll ever need. The Nikon cameras are the most expensive, but you can get good comparative deals if you shop around. You'll read in a number of reviews that the 5400 low light focus is a little sketchy - although it has to be pretty low light. The thing that sells it is the wide angle. Go out and takes some panorama shots with it, or interiors and you'll be sold.

My impressions of using the Nikon 5400:

I'm very happy with the pictures from my 5400, granted it's a BIG leap up from the Olympus model I had before. I'm having great fun with time lapse photography, and shutter priority, metering is excellent on this camera. I've had it a couple of weeks now and taken 1000 pictures and I still feel I'm only scratching the surface of all the features. Definitely get a 256Mb card if you get one of these cameras, don't frustrate yourself with anything less.

Copying 256Mb onto a PC takes about 5-10 mins over USB. I think you can get flash readers which might be faster than this. It's still not a long time though considering the amount of data. My 540L would take 20 mins to do 16Mb over the serial link!

You can pretty much work the 5400 with one hand. The dials are excellent and I wouldn't buy a camera that doesn't have dial mode selector after having my Canon EOS 1000F. I found the rear mounted cursor buttons too low. The rear controls should be further up the camera to be more comfortable with the buttons in an arc around the cursor, following the sweep of your thumb. The rubber grip is good though and it's comfortable to take lots of photos.

The fold out screen is a big plus, although a little small. I take it you have to compromise in order to have better battery life. If you are using the camera a lot in one day it'll be lucky to see the day out so you should invest in a second battery. These take 2 hours to fully charge with the charger provided.

Software that comes with the camera is pretty good. The Nikon view camera software is fully featured and scaleable (will work comfortably whatever the power of your PC). You can do just about anything to a photo with the Photoshop Elements package that it comes with. That's real fun and why digital photography is definitely the future. I have an HP5550 photo printer which gives great results as well (note: get a printer which prints full page as the 5550 has a white border!). For best results you should go to a professional printers where they'll have 20 grand professional printer - you get better results.

Enjoy,
Nick