poor mans camera
 

well, womans anyway.
I'd like to get into a bit of experimenting and one of the things I have been playing with is HDR, not tone mapped to within an inch of reality but just enhanced. I have a perfectly nice snapshot camera, Lumix TZ4, but the AEB is only 3 shots at max 1 stop apart, obviously its not a "real mans" camera but I manage to get quite a lot out of it.(bought the TZ4 because of the smaller screen,I break things)
Question is I have seen a couple of Nikon Coolpix 5700 about for a price I am willing to pay, its an 8 year old camera but the specs look reasonable still, does anyone know if these have more AEB capability and any other good points about this camera?
thanks in advance

This is called Best Shot Selector (BSS) in Nikon lingo. Yes, the 5700 should have it. The 5700 has a huge 2/3 size sensor for today's standard, about 8MP/CM2. So the dynamic range is pretty high.

How about putting your current camera on a tripod and setting it on manual? You could do a test with exposures two (or more) stops apart.

Here is a little more details on how the BSS works:

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2002_...nikon5700.html

The models prior to Coolpix 8400/8800 including 5700 can use most of the Nikon Speedlights before introduction of i-TTL. So experimenting with multi-flash photography is very low cost with these cameras and can be a lot of fun.

If you want a wider lens, the Coolpix 5000 has almost identical feature set and differ only in the lens.

Thanks for the advice, the reason I was looking at this particular one was that they are selling at a reasonable price for an "experimenting camera", even for a 7 year old camera its spec is still "good" enough, I downloaded the manual and it seems to do what I want, its the only one on this list I can afford:( http://hdr-photography.com/aeb.html, Gotta say, the RAW capture is a huge bonus as well,I will give the 5000 a look as well.

I have tried doing it manually but the TZ4 is so compact that it moves if you so much as breathe near it on a tripod and its macro I'd like to play with,

Yes, the 5000 is not on that list but I am pretty sure it has BSS too. 8400, 8700, 8800 also use 2/3 size sensors but pixel density are about 14MP/CM2 simply because they are 8MP. The 5400 uses a smaller sensor and in the 14MP/CM2 range.

So I would say 5000 and 5700 are the best choices for low cost but HDR depending on the lens you want. Here is a comparative chart for Nikon camera sensors.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f2...sensorspec.jpg

The 3.3MP 880 has great dynamic range too but may be it doesn't have BSS.

I checked this function on a Nikon Coolpix 5000. BSS is an automatic function and only gives you the best shot the camera decided. Just hold down the shutter and the camera takes up to 10 shots and record the best one it selects.

There is a Bracketing (BKT) function. This can be set for 5 shots or 3 shots in increment of +/-0.3, 0.7, 1.0 stops. Every time you press the shutter, takes a shot and it goes to the next increment. The camera records all the shots with different exposures. You can set white balance bracketing as well. The Coolpix 8800 works the same way. My 5700 is not at home but I expect it to work the same way.

Pretty neat, thanks for posting this question as I never used it before.

:Dwatching several on auction at the moment 5700, 8700 and 8800, will post some shots as soon as I get one:D