Coolpix 5400 - low light issue

Can someone quantify the alleged low light issue with the 5400? I've
read many concerns about the lack of an AF assist lamp and that one
"should not" buy a camera without it and that it is a limiting factor
in the rating of the 5400. However, I have not found a description in
layman's terms...i.e., you cannot do xyz in pdq situation?

Are you precluded from anything in-house after dark? Or during/after
dusk? Or if it's cloudy?

Can the AF be overcome with manual focus and/or some other technique?

I'm interested in the camera for a variety of reasons, but I guess my
concern is similar to what I found in other technologies...the review
is accurate, technically, but there's no solution given to the person
who may wish to "step up" to the camera. Or the person who wouldn't
identify or care about slight details that a pro might see compared to
his/her $8000 camera.

Thank you,
Dave

On 26 Feb 2005 16:36:26 -0800, wrote:

Can someone quantify the alleged low light issue with the 5400? I've
read many concerns about the lack of an AF assist lamp and that one
"should not" buy a camera without it and that it is a limiting factor
in the rating of the 5400. However, I have not found a description in
layman's terms...i.e., you cannot do xyz in pdq situation?

Are you precluded from anything in-house after dark? Or during/after
dusk? Or if it's cloudy?

Can the AF be overcome with manual focus and/or some other technique?

I'm interested in the camera for a variety of reasons, but I guess my
concern is similar to what I found in other technologies...the review
is accurate, technically, but there's no solution given to the person
who may wish to "step up" to the camera. Or the person who wouldn't
identify or care about slight details that a pro might see compared to
his/her $8000 camera.

Thank you,
Dave

One simple trick I've used when all else fails, use a cheap and low
powered laser pointer. On, focus, half press shutter to lock focus,
Off, then full press to shoot.

Olin McDaniel

I have a Coolpix 5400 and I have never really had a problem; I have shot in artificial light (normal family type shots in dimmed tungsten lighting) by flash and dim churches (vaulted ceilings etc.) and museums without flash. The focus has always been rock solid (operator error excluded). I have tried to use manual focus a couple of times but it is really only worth it if you are trying to fool the camera.

It is a great little camera with some really useful features. Of course others will do some things better but not many will do them better and give you a 28mm equivalent lens.

PCR


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Over all its the best point and shoot out there....I've used one for 2
years...And can be had-very cheap....Shooting Bulb will give you fair low
light pictures. Macro is very good/accessories are plentiful/fast AF/I'd
love to see an upgrade to this style. Very adaptable to telescopes.

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BOCH
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wrote in message
oups.com...
Can someone quantify the alleged low light issue with the 5400? I've
read many concerns about the lack of an AF assist lamp and that one
"should not" buy a camera without it and that it is a limiting factor
in the rating of the 5400. However, I have not found a description in
layman's terms...i.e., you cannot do xyz in pdq situation?

Are you precluded from anything in-house after dark? Or during/after
dusk? Or if it's cloudy?

Can the AF be overcome with manual focus and/or some other technique?

I'm interested in the camera for a variety of reasons, but I guess my
concern is similar to what I found in other technologies...the review
is accurate, technically, but there's no solution given to the person
who may wish to "step up" to the camera. Or the person who wouldn't
identify or care about slight details that a pro might see compared to
his/her $8000 camera.

Thank you,
Dave

PCR wrote:

I have a Coolpix 5400 and I have never really had a problem;
The focus has always been rock solid (operator error excluded).
I have tried to use manual focus a couple of times but it is
really only worth it if you are trying to fool the camera.

I've had one for a couple of months now and I'm mostly happy with it, but the low
light autofocus and manual focus are the things that really suck, IMHO. I've found
that in my living room it often has trouble focusing on things that shouldn't really
pose a problem to an AF system, though the resulting pictures are usually fairly
good. Where it really sucks is on caving trips. Without a good light shining directly
on the area I wanted to focus on it almost never locked on the right distance. I
spent a lot of time trying to focus on a companion or a flat wall at the proper
distance and recomposing, but that was still a hit or miss proposition. I realize
that's not a common use for it, but the problems for AF should be figuring out what
to focus on, not having enough light to focus at all.

The autofocus problem wouldn't bother me at all in that situation if the manual focus
didn't suck too. The screen is far too small to tell if something is on focus, and
the bar graph is mostly useless for anything other than a crude guesstimate of the
actual focus distance. If you're using manual focus because the autofocus won't work
well in low light, you're probably using a wide aperture, so the short DoF makes
focus that much more important. If you want to zoom out to the telphoto range it will
be that much worse. I'm assuming I can spend some time taking shots with reference
objects at known distances and learn what a given distance requires, but it seems
that they could provide something far better than a 5/8" bar graph, such as, say,
real numbers that correspond to a distance. It worked in the old days of
rangefinders, right?


It is a great little camera with some really useful features.

It's got lots of bells and whistles that I find useless, but it's got the important
features and is capable of good pictures. The focus issues make me think that
decisions that affect functionality are being made by engineers, MBA's or marketing
wonks who know ****all about photography.

--
Steve

The above can be construed as personal opinion in the absence of a reasonable
belief that it was intended as a statement of fact.

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