Just bought a Coolpix 5400 some ?'s

[gary_hamilton3]

<p>I picked up a nice little CP 5400 for $85 on CL with a nice case, charger & some cards. Seems like a well made P&S alternative. The reviews for it were good when it came out 5 yrs ago. The major shortcoming is the write speed to the card.<br>

I upgraded the firmware so I can shoot in Raw mode also. This unit has as many settings as my D50.<br>

Has anyone toyed around with this little unit? I am just starting to experiment with custom settings.<br>

Thanks for any insights.</p>

[cc_chang2]

<p>I love my 5400. Yes its only issue is the speed of operation. Its images are remarkably noise free at ISO400 and not bad at 800. I would suggest that you read the review at dpreview as they discovered quite a few trick to speed up the operation. For example if you turn off the feedback sound, the camera works a little faster. Use single AF point and do not use auto AF, the latter of which works very slowly at low light.</p>

[brianhall]

<p>Check out the "Best Shot Selector" (BSS) setting for getting sharp(er) images at slower shutter speeds- it'll take rapid-fire images for as long as you hold down the shutter release and pick the sharpest one to save- it can give results kinda like image-stabilization or VR... it also has some pretty good macro capabilities. It does have a hard time focusing in low light situations, meaning anything but bright sunlight, but try the "party" scene setting..</p>

[don_copeland]

<p>I had my 5400 converted to IR.<br>

5400 is a magic little beast; I've had 3 of them.</p>

[gary_hamilton3]

<p>So, anyone able to increase the write speed by going to a new, faster card, or it the hardware in the camera that slows you down?</p>

<p>Happy Holidays!</p>