Fuji S5200 vs Nikon 5700?

I am interested in pros & cons of the Fuji S5200 vs Nikon 5700. Any

and all comments are appreciated.

This is a purchase for my son's birthday. He is still using a Nikon F

for 20 yrs and is thinking of digital. I have offered to get him an

entry level camera that will still be useful as a quickie camera if he

decides to go to something more expensive.

I am a 35mm devotee and shoot Nikon F100. However, a year ago I

bought the Nikon 5700 for quick shots and find it quite decent--albeit

it has a frustratingly slow recovery time between shots. Which is why

I LOVE the F100.

Thank you

Brian

I shoot with a 5700 and a FZ30 from Panasonic. I respect the 5700's lens but as you say it is rather slow in turnaround. The FZ30 is mildly so too, but after the near instantanious of the FZ20 I realise it is the larger file size being stored, 8Mp instead of 5Mp.

The principle reason why I wouldn't buy the 5200 is simply becuase in these days of Image Stabilisation it is simply not on to have a x10 zoom without it. Kodak brought out a similar spec'd camera last year. Panasonic for instance incorporate OIS in their LX-1 with just x4 zoom.

Although it doesn't have manual focus my choice for a present would be the FZ5 ...I gave my son my FZ20 as an excuse to upgrade :-) ... but your son/you will find that AF is pretty good and with focus lock and spot focusing can be quickly made to do what we do with manual focusing once you get into the swing of it.

The FZ5 is a compact camera like the 5700 as opposed to the larger SLR sized FZ20/30s, though none fit in the pocket, you need the LX-1 to do that :-)

The 5700 is I guess a five or six year old design so it must have been a fabulous camera when it came out. But today it is slow and tedious having to work through buttons to simply take a series of close-ups with self-timer for steadiness on a tripod.

Latest thing I have read about the FZ30 is that it's Leica lens is better than the basic kit lens of entry DSLRs. The only drawback to the Panasonic range is their inability to focus close* with their x12 zooms, but a CU lens sorts that out. I often use the 5700 for CU work becuase it is so much easier and I like the swing and tilt LCD when it is on a tripod. *except at wide-angle when of course you do not have a tight framing. It was quite a shock when I worked out the FZs don't focus like the 5700s.