Which is better? C5050 or Coolpix 5000?

[DazedAndConfuzed]

I have narrowed my camera search to the Olympus C-5050 and Nikon Coolpix 5000. It would be used for land and possibly UW purpose. The question is which one of these two is the better camera. I know the C-5050 has the faster lens and cheaper factory housing. What other areas would the coolpix have an advantage (besides the brand.) Also, are there UW housings for the Coolpix that even approaches the price of the Olympus factory housing?

 

[Dee]

Lwang once bubbled...
I have narrowed my camera search to the Olympus C-5050 and Nikon Coolpix 5000. It would be used for land and possibly UW purpose. The question is which one of these two is the better camera. I know the C-5050 has the faster lens and cheaper factory housing. What other areas would the coolpix have an advantage (besides the brand.) Also, are there UW housings for the Coolpix that even approaches the price of the Olympus factory housing?

I don't know enough details about either camera to have an opinion as to which is best. That may be subjective anyway. But I'm pretty sure you won't find a housing for the CP5000 anywhere near the Oly PT-015 prices.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Since I am not definite that I will use the camera for UW purpose, I don't want the housing to be the deal breaker.

I already have a UW SLR housing. And I don't think I will shell out the $500+ for a digital camera ready strobe.

I am wondering about operation and feature wise, not necessarily S/N ratio of CCD or lens performance.

As far as what I know, the coolpix has the rotating viewfinder vs the up 90 deg/down 30 deg of the c5050. Plus, the C5050 has a ton of little buttons that when less apt photographers is using it, they might press one of those tiny buttons and unknowingly change some setting.

 

[ReyeR]

I like both cameras in terms of features and performance - I think they're both neck to neck. The 'deal maker' for me was the affordable Olympus PT015 housing.

As far as the menus / buttons go I haven't had an extensive play with the Nikon so I can't comment on it specifically. Having said that from dpreview.com's detail review the CP5000 looks like it has as many (if not more) tiny buttons on it. I think with prosumer cameras of the CP5000 and C5050 class, because it's packed with features, they will have a more 'advanced' menu system and settings. I love the C5050s menu, jog dial and buttons - they make it easy to navigate through the umpteen camera settings. I don't have a problem with the many buttons as they make it very convenient to change settings. Most of them you have to hold down and turn the jog dial which makes it difficult to change a setting accidently. My only quibble is setting the aperture in M mode - they shifted it from the arrow buttons (for whatever reason) to pressing and holding down a button on the top left of the camera and turning the jog dial at the same time (as mentioned above) - works great topside but a bit awkward underwater with a housing and strobe hanging off the end of it.

Yes topside, the CP5000s view finder can be rotated odd angles and that's a nice feature. I don't know why Olympus didn't do the same and go all the way but honestly I don't find the rigid angles a limiting factor.

The CP5000 seems to have a larger armoury of supporting topside lenses.

One comment that's a bit worrying about the CP5000 :

The Coolpix 5000's low light focusing abilities really should be a major embarrassment to Nikon. This is their flagship five megapixel digital camera and it can't even focus (on our test chart) at wide angle in medium room light. Worst still is the fact that the camera has no AF assist lamp and has a very slow maximum aperture at full telephoto (thus hindering AF performance even more at telephoto).

It's possible that some of this (apart from the AF assist lamp) could be fixed but a firmware upgrade.

It's hard to recommend one over the other - it depends on your shooting style and preferences. They're both excellent companies (though I tend to lean towards Olympus). I guess the ideal way would be to try and get hold of both and have a play.

 

[The Pirate]

Check out this site. http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/c5050/index.html There is some very good info about the 5050 here that could help you make your decision. Good luck.

 

[The Pirate]

Here's another site that has a lot of info about the 5050. http://www.molon.de/5050.html#NewsComments