The Nikon Coolpix P5000 is one of those cameras which seems designed to impress but fails in terms of performance. The photo-quality is actually good up to ISO 200, with good color accuracy and low noise. The P5000's greatest failure comes from its speed of operation, which is well below average. Shot to shot speeds are over 3 seconds, focusing often takes at least one second and burst mode runs below 1 FPS. Given such a sluggish performance, this camera cannot be recommended for the serious photographers who would appreciate all its features. Another serious problem is that its LCD only covers 97% of the frame. This would be good for a DSLR, but modern compact digital cameras all achieve 100% coverage. Note that this may be a deal breaker for many buyers.

 

The rest of the camera's aspects are mixed. Build quality, ergonomics and flash performance are great. Battery-life and noise-levels above ISO 400 are poor. The LCD works well in low-light but is too reflective in bright light, although there is an optical viewfinder which shows roughly 80% of the frame. While ISO 400 is usable, ISO 800 and up show a considerable amount of noise. ISO 3200 is completely useless.

 

Competitively there are many better choices among compact digital cameras with full manual controls, although a flash hot-show is rare for such small cameras. Both the Canon Powershot A710 IS and the Canon Powershot A570 IS have full-manual controls but no hot-shoe but perform considerably better than the Nikon Coolpix P5000. Another excellent option is the Fuji Finepix E900 which features clean image, full manual controls - including manual focusing - but no image stabilization or hot-shoe. The Canon Powershot A640 is also an interesting choice which matches the P5000's 10 megapixels resolution. The trade-off is that the A640 performs better in terms of speed but the P5000's image quality is noticeable better. All these alternate cameras also achieve much longer battery-life using convenient AA batteries rather than the Nikon's proprietary lithium-ion.