canon G5 or nikon5700 for studio and travel stock??

[jack_lyric]

walked into large nyc shop the other day with the nikon 5700 in

mind..told salesman i need it for studio portraiture and travel&stock

images...he pushed me strongly to the g5 saying can't hand hold the

5700 at 280mm, can't use for studio B&W portraits, etc. obviously i

know the rule of 1 over focal length as far as hand holding, in this

case would be 1/250, applies for film...so, is he right for some digi

reason???and can i use 5700 for b&w portraits? and , you with

experience with same, which is better/easier to use for these

purposes?

quick response please as i am on the road again in 7 days and must

learn how to use whichever i buy.

[rejamesuk]

I dont know about the G5 but the CP5700 is a great camera.

 

handheld at 280mm is fine, the blokes probably never used it outside the confines of the shop = lower light levels.

 

As for studio B/W i'm sure you know, it's best to shoot colour anyway and convert in photoshop. this gives you FAR more control. if you were desparate to shoot b/w you can just remove saturation via the menu. not my prefered choice.

 

i love the 5700, the features available are amazing. EVERYTHING is overrideable if desired.

 

enjoy, wichever you buy.

 

oh and by the way, the image library Alamy.com take my images after interpolation (they allow it) at 48mb+ and rarely (once) refuse due to quality.

[hkbmac]

I'm not sure if either of those cameras will give your images you'll be able to sell as stock. The max file size is going to be too small with a 5mp consumer camera. Out of the two of them, I would suggest the G5 for the following reasons. 1) Has a normal viewfinder, not a small grainy lcd to view your compositions through. (I'm not talking about the display, I'm talking about the viewfinder) 2) Straight out of the camera, I feel the Canon gives better looking images.

 

the viewfinder on the CP is really laggy in my opinion, and using it for portraiture is going to be hit or miss at best.

[oliver_s.]

You can find reviews that tell you how the specs translate into real word data: e.g. <a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong5/">this one wrt the Canon G5</a> and <a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikoncp5700/">this one wrt the Nikon 5700</a>. As to how the former one is in practice, you can read <a href="http://www.photo.net/equipment/canon/g5/">Jeff Spirer's review</a> for Photo.net. Personally, I found several of the Nikon 5700's actions too slow, e.g. how long it takes for focussing; the faster lens of the G5 makes the camera considerably faster in this respect. Also, I found the buttons and functions of the G5 more self-explaining, i.e. you can survive without the manual :-)<p>One caveat is wrt strobe use. Not that the G5 has no PC connection--that's solved with an adapter in the hot shoe for a few bucks. But Canon specifies that sync voltage must not exceed 6 V (ISO 10330 specifies 24 V). Most studio units have considerably higher voltage at their connections, i.e. <u>you must not connect them directly to your camera in any way.</u> (For some sync voltage numbers, click <a href="http://www.botzilla.com/photo/strobeVolts.html">here</a>.) You can solve this problem via a Wein Safe Sync.<br>Another flash problem is that Canons don't like units where the centre contact of the hot shoe isn't the positive one. You can read about this and a few other problems <a href="http://www.botzilla.com/photo/G1strobe.html">here</a>. Still, I consider the G5 a very, very good camera.<p>Wrt the old handholding rule, you should use the 35mm euqivalent focal lengths for calculating. Anyway, this 'rule' is just a guideline as every photographer has a different limit. (Coffee consumption also plays a role. I, for instance, can't handhold any speed safely before the first cup of espresso in the morning.)

[gib]

Nikon 5700 is a good camera. I find the display good and actually like using the EVF, unlike a lot of people. I have shot BW portraits straight in the camera and liked them, but most people recommend shooting colour and converting.

 

I hand hold at 280mm regularly, most often with the lcd twisted to face up and the camera held against my formerly flat gut. Like a waist level finder on a TLR.

 

I dont know the G5, know the G2, one advantage of it, faster min. aperture and an ISO setting of 50 (5700 min ISO is 100), although I am not sure how that really translates out.

 

Good luck with your choice.

[rejamesuk]

5700 - EVF is fantastic. you wont need instructions once you work out the dial. Quality rocks.

 

CAN be slow focusing, but easily remidied by pre focusing. it's not THAT slow anyway.

[steve_hovland]

Consider the Fuji S7000, which has built-in interpolation to 12 mp.

 

I know people who really like this feature as implemented in the S2.

[kelvin_lau1]

I can tell you about my experience with the 5700 (I haven't used the Canon ones yet). I purchased mine originally with the intention of using it for some studio flash photography. Unfortunately it has several problems which prevent it from being successful. There is no PC-sync socket. If you use an x-sync hotshoe adapter (or any hotshoe flash for that matter) the hotshoe won't work unless you activate the popup on-camera flash. You might be able to use the popup flash as a slave activator, but you would have to dial in a lot of negative exposure compensation (greater than 4 stops under - and I don't think that's possible) if you don't want it to affect the image.

 

I also found the shutter lag time to be excessive and precise manual focusing to be next-to-impossible due to the low resolution of the viewfinder. This could be a problem for your travel & stock images. The manual aperture adjustment range is also narrow compared to film cameras - a problem if your lights are powerful and you need f/11 or smaller. There is no filter thread on the lens, but I wouldn't doubt that Cokin may have made an adapter for it.

 

I ended up selling the 5700 after 2 months of use, went back to traditional film for another year and a half, then finally bit the bullet & purchased a Finepix S2 SLR. This is a great camera with great versatility & user friendliness. I don't doubt that others such as the Canon 10D would be just as good.

 

It sounds to me that your requirements would be better met with a lower end 6 megapixel digital SLR in combination with traditional black-and-white film (which will always have a wider dynamic range than digital - in fact, up to 9 stops). The digital SLR will have enough versatility to handle both the studio and the field, due to the more advanced flash options & quick operation. You will need 50-100% more cash compared to the 5700/G5, but you definitely get what you pay for.

 

In conclusion, I think both the 5700 and the G5 are not really up to the task of frequent studio & stock image uses. You will save a lot of time & frustration by taking the plunge & getting a digital SLR.