Nikon Coolpix P5000 Anyone?

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ScubaSteve

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Does anybody out there have a Nikon Coolpix P5000? Even better if you have set yourself up with the Ikelite housing and strobe system. I just bought the camera and was planning on purchasing the Ikelite equipment tomorrow but need to play a bit more to see if it is a good camera.

Any feedback and comments would be great.
 
I have dived one 4 times and am quite happy with its performance. DPReview trashed its focusing time, but I have found it to be much quicker than other cameras I've dived (SP350, A640, and G7 included).

The Ikelite housing with TTL Conversion circuitry is fairly compact, and the exposures are bang on..

The only drawback I see is the lack of raw, but that seems to be par for the course these days.
 

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HMan:
Another altenative to consider is the new Fantasea FP5000 housing which is selling for between $210 to $245 at many Retail site.

Sorry, but with no strobe port, I don't even consider it an option. Why rely on optical sync with a camera that sports a hot-shoe?
 
I have been diving with the Coolpix 5000 for a couple of years now. I have found that it works very well. It does have some drawbacks, like not having RAW mode and the shutter speed (delay) is slow. I have an Ikelite housing and a D-50 strobe that have behaved flawlessly, after a brief problem with a strobe cable wire break. I always feel like the setup is much more capable than I am. Good Luck.
 
I just got the P5000 and the Fantasea housing. I am very impressed by the Fantasea housing, very well built, 4 buckles and a 1 year fload insurance...Why would go the Ikelite route which is more than twice the price?
The P5000 is very nice with full manual features which is great. The lag is a downside, but unless you go DSLR, all compact cameras that I know off have a lag... Not a big deal as far as I am concern. I used it fot the first time last Saturday in very bad conditions (poor vis) and the pictures came out surprisingly well.

Here is a sample, keep in mind this was my first time ever with and underwater camera and I had no previous experience with the P5000.

DSCN0020.jpg

DSCN0011_2.jpg

DSCN0024.jpg
 
Ryan:
I have dived one 4 times and am quite happy with its performance. DPReview trashed its focusing time, but I have found it to be much quicker than other cameras I've dived (SP350, A640, and G7 included).

The Ikelite housing with TTL Conversion circuitry is fairly compact, and the exposures are bang on..

The only drawback I see is the lack of raw, but that seems to be par for the course these days.

I'm interested in what you're saying about shutter lag times, since it's the one thing that has me hesitant to purchase the P5000 (I want to believe you!). I was looking at timing tests between the Nikon and the G7 ...

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikonp5000/page4.asp

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong7/page5.asp

... and they seem to disagree with your observations. OK, it's not an SLR, and there's going to be some delay, but some sites just slam Nikon for this issue on the P5000 and others say, not that big a deal. In your work, you must have had your hands on enough different units, and you're really OK with the Nikon??
 
The fact of the matter is… Nikon just isn’t there with there yet with their compact line. I wanted to love this camera… I really did. This camera is just too slow. Don’t get me wrong; the P5000 is a step in the right direction… I hope they continue to develop their P-series line.
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My customers are liking this camera and Fantasea's new FP5000 housing. it is very popular for it's small size and features. Optical sync isn't that big a deal, as many higher end strobes work with it as well.

I think the one thing that all users are saying is that you have to adjust away from the "out-of-the-box" settings, they have all the auto features on and the camera is slow with them. Going to single point focusing and choosing "close up" or macro greatly speeds up the response.

The lens quality is superb, rivaling much more expensive cameras and VR is a great feature for UW use.

Jack
 

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