Its sleek design enables you to carry it anywhere in pretty much any bag. I am a teenager, therfore, I dont carry many bags with me...I just stick it in my pocket! Its that small. I LOVE IT!! The images come out crystal clear. Highly recommended if your shoping for a high-quality digital camera for a low price...c'mon, 5 MPIX's for $250? That's pretty good.

I bought this camera a week ago.
This is my first digital camera that i have bought, but i have used lots others in the past.
This camera is outstanding. Extremely easy to use, great-great-great picture quality. It can fulfil the expectations of many starter amateur photographers and can nearly satisfy a professional one. Vivid colours....great.
The recharging of the flash is a lit bit slow.I think that this is this only negative element.
With a 512MB SD memory card you have up to 365 photos of 5mp....what else can an amateur ask?

Its the absolute "value for money" digit cam....maybe the best in its category!

This camera is great for picture quality but there are some big negatives. The biggest problem is the slow flash recharge--6 seconds! By then, if you're taking pictures of kids, they're long gone. Also, you have to wait for the LCD to be ready to take the next picture. You can turn the LCD off to save battery, but you have to go through 3 or 4 menu steps to do it, so it's not practical to switch off between using the LCD and not using it. Finally, on some the fixed focus modes (landscape), which cuts down on shutter lag since the camera is not hunting for the autofocus, you can't use a flash. Bottom line is that this is NOT a good camera if you take indoor pictures of anyone in motion.

I am a camera buff and have used many cameras. I would say that this is by far the best camera its size. It is probably a matter of personal tastes, but I think this camera takes much better pictures than the Canon A95.

White balance is wonderful, as with most Nikons.

here are the things that rock:

1. Compact and cute, fits in my jeans pocket
2. Uses just two AA batteries and is light weight( weighs less than the A95)
3. Has a lot of programming modes to handle almost all your day to day shooting needs
4. Crisp and clear images
5. Warns you that the image is going to be blurred before you shoot and also tells you if an image did turn out blurred so you dont have to waste memory saving it
6. EXCELLENT Macro mode, look at the sample image I have posted
7. Silent focusing
8. Super fast USB file transfers
9. Excellent value for money

What could improve:

1. The command dial feels flimsy
2. The battery compartment door feels very flimsy and if you are not careful, you will break it in no time

But in all, the very best value for your money.

I tested the Coolpix 5600 to replace my Coolpix 2100, looking forward to the new features, such as a larger view screen, enhanced battery life, and some new photo features that allow you to choose black and white, or other color scales to enhance a photograph. Nikon quality is very high, and these cameras are very durable, though the hard plastic shells do tend to scratch a little with abuse. One positive change made to this camera was moving the photo dial from the top to the back side and minaturizing the dial. This is nice, since the top dial tended to move when the camera was taken out of a pocket or placed in a bag, which put the camera in a different shooting mode. One negative change was the loss of flexibily in battery choice. In the 2100, one could use the durable CR-V3 or any type of AA. This camera only accepts AA (Li, NiMH or alkaline) batteries, and this is negative because the refresh rate on the flash for this camera is relatively slow (3-7 seconds), independent of battery type (alkaline, NiMH or Energizer Li AA battery), even when the specific battery mode (alkaline, NiMH or Li) was chosen in the camera. The 2100 was a battery hog with a slow refresh rate for NiMH or alkaline batteries, but was an absolute champ with the disposable CR-V3 Li battery. Note that the 5600 does have a much better battery life using any AA battery compared to the 2100.
Bottom line: A solid performer, durable pocket camera, uses any AA battery with reasonable battery lifetime, but flash refresh is relatively slow. Great for outside use, but for "quick" flash photography, consider spending the extra cash for a Li-rechargable battery camera, such as the Nikon 5900 or the Canon SD200 or SD300.

Replaced my Konica/Minolta X50 with this camera. Pictures are WAY BETTER quality. No contest. Other advantages: 1) uses normal AA batteries (which are easier to replace when traveling abroad), 2) lense sticks out (which prevents guest users from putting their fingers on the lense), 3) easier to hold than the flat Konica/Minolta X50, especially in one hand. Worth every penny!

Bought it with the Viking 128 SD card offer for $235. The only other I was considering was the Canon A95. But the Nikon offer was good, and the pics are great! For a beginner like me, the Nikon is SO easy to work with, from changing the different scene modes to uploading pics(I use Picasa and not Nikon's software).
Video quality is good, not excellent, but who cares?

What a great camera. I used to have a Kodak Easyshare DX3900 and compared to that this camera is lightyears ahead. Now in all fairness I bought the Kodak camera three years ago and in that time frame the new Kodaks might be just as good.

But with the Coolpix I get so many "cool" (no pun intended) features, I'm still blown away by how small the camera is, how many assist modes it has, excellent picutre quality, the sport mode captures multiple images with every shutter release plus it has a high quality the movie recording feature that is limited only by the availalable storage space!

Plus it cost around little over $200. I'm baffled by how is it possible to pack this much functionality and quality for so little money. I'm very pleased.

I did a lot of research before buying this camera, I was upgrading my curent HP Photosmart camera and wanted something with more options. I bought it today and got it home excited to take some pictures of my 10 month old. Well...every setting you have it on in the house shows the "blurry" caution. To take a picture you have to find the perfect touch on the button, if you don't hit it the right way it only focuses the picture rather than taking the picture. By the time you press the button again to take a picture your target (or mine being a 10 month old crawler) has already moved. This camera is definately not a point and camera. Also, it takes a long time for the flash to reset and the image to download and you can't take another picture until it is loaded. It is going back today.

This camera is great. My previous camera was an Olympus Camedia C3020Z. While it took great pictures, it was more complex to operate in that it required me to actually open the manual.

I just took the Nikon out of the box and started using it. It's so incredibly simple and self-explanatory. Very easy to use and get to know. The pics are great. Just took some action shots of my horse running around being silly and they came out great.

It's really small too. The flash delay (after taking a pic) is slightly annoying because the LCD goes black for a few seconds, but it's really just annoying, not a huge hindrance.

The camera just plugs right into my PC with the USB and downloads the pics without any extra software. I use Picasa2 (the free photo program from Google) and it just works wonderfully.

I'm completely happy with this purchase. Amazon was having a free 128MB SD memory card deal with the purchase of the camera too. Without a card it's good for about 4 or 5 pics at best quality pics. The movie mode is relatively decent, it's got sound and all.

I just love this camera.

After years of using film cameras, I finally decided to break down and buy a digital camera. I did a little online research, and people seemed to say good things about the Nikon Coolpix series, so I decided to buy one.

Well, to test it out, I spent a week taking pictures, and I had some friends take pictures with it too. By the end of the week, I had nearly 500 pictures, and about 2/3rds of them were blurry! There was one instance where I tried taking a picture of a flower (a nice, non-moving target), and I took 12 pictures of it using different setitngs and trying different distances, and every single one of them came out blurry. I had a friend I was with try too, just to make sure it wasn't something I was doing wrong, and she couldn't get any pictures to come out clear either.

In addition to this, there is also the slow flash recharge time. It seemed like by the time the picture was done being recorded and the flash had recharged, 10 seconds had gone by. This might not sound like a long time, but if you are trying to take multiple shots of something, it becomes quite frustrating. And if you don't use the flash, pictures are more likely to turn out dark and blurry, even if you are outside on a bright, sunny day. The action mode is about worthless because of this. Sure, it lets you take pictures quickly, but not a single one of the pictures I took using the action mode came out clear.

I tried to give this camera a fair shot...I kept it for a week even though I could tell by the first day I wasn't thrilled with it. But finally I had to take it back. (I got a Sony Cybershot instead, and I am a LOT happier with it.)

I bought this camera after doing a lot of research. It is a very good camera for the price and the megapixels it has. It takes very nice pictures but they sometimes turn out blurry, so it takes a little practice with the camera first. Would recommend this camera to others.

I purchased the Nikon 5600 Coolpix after doing a lot of Internet research and so far I am pretty unhappy with my purchase. The batteries do seem to have a decent lifespan, but once they start to wear out, you might as well forget about getting any good shots. The flash recharge can be anywhere from 4 seconds to 12 seconds, depending on the battery charge left. Regular old AAs seem to last the longest.
Using the red-eye reduction, my pictures come out blurry everytime (unless maybe you want to carry around a tripod everywhere you go), and you can't turn the red-eye reduction off when you are using the special "scene" mode. I've reverted to just using the camera in manual mode. I read the manual front to back and don't remember seeing anything about the in-camera-red-eye-reduction feature the Nikon review talks about above, nor do I remember seeing anything about the D-lighting feature, so I guess I'll have to go back and re-read it. This is something else that can be said. I missed a lot of shots at events like wedding receptions and graduation ceremonies where the subject was more than 5 feet from me. The flash goes off, but the pictures are so dark I have to touch them up in Photoshop just to see the subject of the photo. I'm thinking about going back to my trusty old 35 MM film camera when I want to take important shots. Don't get me wrong, I've gotten some good pictures from this camera when I have completely charged batteries and the subject of my picture is pretty close to me. Other than that, I would keep shopping around before you decide, or make sure you like the camera before the 30-day return period is up.
If you are looking

I've been taking photos for the past 20 years. And I've been using a Minolta DiMage 5 Digital SLR for past few years. I'm no dummy when it comes to digital photography. So this review is not coming from someone who simply "doesn't know how to operate the camera". I picked this camera up so I'd have a point-and-shoot camera to use alongside my Minolta SLR. My Minolta works fine, but it's not always practical for many family-type situations. I tested the Nikon Coolpix 5600 out over the course of 2 days and after 133 photos, I've decided that it's not worth the money I paid for it. About 80% of the photos I took were blurry! Many were underexposed. Here are the obligatory pros and cons:

Pros:
+ Small size
+ Light weight
+ Low price
+ Ease of use
+ Uses SD Cards (an established medium)
+ Uses AA batteries (very long battery life)

Cons:
- Most of your photos will be blurry
- Exposure is often incorrect
- It takes 7 seconds after you've taken a shot with a flash for it to allow you to take another shot.
- LCD is almost completely unusable outside (it's nearly totally washed out in the sunlight, seriously, it's bad).
- Doesn't allow you to set both image size and quality. It just lumps the two together into one setting. I wanted to take 1024x768 high quality photos, but I was forced to use normal quality. The only high quality setting was with the maximum image size.

I just purchased this camera a few days ago, as my first venture into the digital world of photography. I've used Nikon 35mm cameras for 24 years. I have always found Nikon quality first rate. The Coolpix 5600 is no exception. An extremely simple camera to use, with great features for the price. I haven't experienced blurred images as some reviewers have noted. In fact if my pictures were any sharper, I'd cut my self on them. This is a great camera to carry with you any time. I can't wait to purchase a Nikon Digital SLR. NO MORE FILM FOR ME!

I'm no expert on digital cameras, but I did a fair amount of research before I bought this one (the only one I've ever owned). It's worked wonderfully, relatively inexpensive, easy to use, small, all types of settings to take and store the picture you want, and the video feature is great for short clips (Quicktime format). My only complaint is that the battery life is shorter than I would have expected. I haven't timed it exactly, but you can only take about half an hour worth of pictures (leaving the camera on for most of the time), upload them to your computer, then take another half hour. I bought a AA charger so I have a second set ready to go when it runs out. Certainly doable, but if this is really important to you, I'd try to find a better setup. I'd also recommend buying a case. Other than that, it's wonderful!

The Nikon turned out to be a good all around camera. It takes great pictures and is very easy to use, though I've been a long time Coolpix user. The wife loves it for is size and how light it is. The only flaw is the recharge time on the flash, it is kind of annoying as others have stated, but that is the trade off for only having 2 AA batteries. I've been using with Enigizer 2500 mAh rechargable batteries which allow me to take lots of pictures on a single set of batteries and would highly recommend them. The short version, a good camera with one flaw.

This camera is so amazin, perfect size, perfect pictures and very good price. The only thing bad in this camera is that only has 3x of optical zoom.
This camera is a very good choice fro who want a very nice camera for a good price.

It's been not quite a week, and I've already taken 300+ pictures (which is not as pathetic as it sounds, Chicago is really photogenic). I've really liked the scene settings, and shooting one view in different settings to compare the differences in color.
My question, as being new to Nikon: any tips on how to get not-blurry pictures while on a moving boat? I got some great shots walking along the lakefront, but all my shots from the boat in the harbor are blurred. They still look cool, but I'd like cleaner pictures next time I sail. Thanks!

Although I have used digital cameras at work, this is the first digital I have purchased for personal use. Yeah, this is a pretty cool camera. It looks smart, its functions are intuitive and easy to use, and the picture quality, for the most part, is excellent. I especially like the optical viewfinder; Nikon went to the extra effort to have the zoom show through the viewfinder as well as the LCD screen. Some of the cameras we look at only had the LCD screen which tend to wash out on bright days. Maybe I have missed something, but for the life of me I cannot figure out why people use the LCD screen in the first place, they back up. . .move the camera around trying to frame the shot, they take about 15-20 seconds to take a picture as compared to the easy point and shoot film cameras of old. Hey wake up! These are digital cameras. Just point and shoot. You can edit and reframe the picture on your computer. Oh, well, I got that pet peeve out of my system. Now back to the camera. Like other reviewers, I did find that pictures taken with the automatic flash tend to be blurry; but other than that, this is a pretty cool camera.

I bought this camera for my wife as a simple "point and shoot" camera. We are expecting our first child, and she wants plenty of photos, but really can't figure out my camera (a Nikon N80). This camera fits the bill. It is very simple to use, and produces excellent images. For the techno weenies like myself, it is very limited, but for the person who wants a simple tool to make high quality images, this is a good choice. One complaint that I have is it's use indoors. The flash is a little under powered, and there is (to me, anyway) a long recycle time after flash pictures. This issue apparently is improved in Nikon's more expensive Coolpix camers, but for the money, I would recommend this camera.

I am the mom of two young boys (2 and 5 years) and take a lot of casual photos. Soccer games, silliness around the house, etc. I have been using the Kodak EasyShare digital camera, and have no complaints other than the size (it's on the larger size, and not convenient for just carrying around in my purse). My Kodak is about 4 years old and has performed really well, but I was in the market for something with more megapixels and small enough to take everywhere. My in-laws had visited a few weeks and I admired my mother-in-law's Nikon Coolpix 5900. They very kindly purchased the 5600 for me for my birthday earlier this week. I asked them to take it back.

The camera has lots of neat features, as several other reviewers stated and it is small and user-friendly. However, it took TWELVE SECONDS to recharge the flash between pictures. Which pretty much means that if I'm taking pictures at my son's soccer game and I get a picture of him lining up to take a shot at the goal, I can forget any pictures of him actually making that goal. Twelve seconds is way too long for me.

Other than the recycle time, this is a neat little camera. If time between shots is not an issue for you, than I would recommend it. Otherwise, look at the 5900 or 7900 models. They are a little more expensive, but absolutely worth it.

My in-laws were very gracious and took the camera back and exchanged it for the 5900, which is a faster camera.

I was attracted to the Nikon Coolpix 5600 by its price, extensive preset shooting modes, and compact size. It was put to the test on a one week vacation trip. The shooting modes were great - museum, sunset, night landscape, etc. And the size was handy. But there were two shortfalls. In one week, I went through two sets of batteries, taking a total of only 200 pictures. The second problem was the long time required to recharge before taking the next shot. It was a little annoying in daylight and painfully slow if I used the flash. Despite these two issues, it is an all around good camera.

Well, I bought this camera on account of its price, which was very nice, the tiny dimensions (The two Ni-MH alkaline batteries weight more than the camera itself. If you take the batteries off, it seems it is a toy camera). I used it during a week I spent in New York, and I have to congratulate Nikon for its nice camera. It has a great long lasting battery, because I took 900 photos, what means an average of 150 photos per day, and I had to charge it every night.

The special functions for some situations (like fireworks, photos inside museums, panoramic photos) are awesome too, and I was very surprised.

But, of course, the camera has its bad points. The Best Shot Selector (BSS) is not that nice, and I suggest you to take pictures without it. Other tip is not use the Museum function - if you are taking photos in a dark place in the museum and without a tripod or such that thing your pictures will become awful, it seems that you are taking photos in an earthquake. If you are in these conditions, it'd better if you use the normal photo function, but without the flash. The photos will be a lot better, and if they are not nice at least the ask you to erase it =)!

I suggest you to buy with no remorse. I would buy it a million times.

This is kind of a crappy little camera. It has a lot of MP, sure, but more than I really need. The flash refresh rate is slower than you can imagine - it's a pain even just for casual picture-taking. I read about this in the reviews but thought it would be alright, so let me warn you: it really is very, very slow. The zoom is pathetic, and the close-up function is just not as versatile as I wanted. It takes a nice picture but just doesn't perform as well as I would like. It will be a real problem when I travel again and want close-up pictures while sightseeing. If you travel at all, I wouldn't recommend this camera. Get something with a slightly lower MP count, a better zoom, and a faster refresh rate. Since it was a Christmas present, I'm not sure I will be able to exchange it for something else, but I'm going to try.

I'm a noob to digital cameras and I love it. It's so easy to use.

I'll make this short and sweet for you. This camera has a lot of features and settings, but the flash recharge time takes about 5-10 seconds. To put it another way, right after you take a picture, the camera shuts down (screen goes black) for up to 10 seconds! This makes the camera useless when you are trying to catch sports action or silliness. You are going to get one good picture (if the horrible shutter lag doesn't make you miss it) and thats it. If you are looking for a camera to take pictures of your kids or other candid shots, this is not the camera for you.

I went with the Canon SD450 instead, it's ready to take another picture in less than 1 second. I am VERY happy with it.

I've had this camera for about 4-5 months now and I have only recently found the cool things in it. Now I feel ready to write a review. This is my first digital camera so I don't have much to compare against other than cameras that my friends own.

PROS
1. small. compact. easy to carry around.
2. zoom is pretty good.
3. video quality pretty good also.
4. simple to figure out.

CONS
1. it's very slow to recover after taking a flash picture (VERY ANNOYING)and slow to take a picture to begin with. you press the button and wait forever.
2. eats up batteries as if it were just a snack.
3. ** EXTREMELY SENSITIVE TO MOVEMENT. (if you don't have the steadiest hand in the world, stay away)

The con's kind of overtake the pro's. Now i see so many other better cameras out there and for a cheaper price than i paid for it. The most annoying thing is it's sensitivity. I literally have to retake pictures 2-3 times in order for it to not be blurry and seriously concentrate on even the slightest movement of my hand.

I purchased this camera & the battery charger & 2 sets of rechargable batteries & a memory card a few months ago. I have had no problems. It takes great pictures & with the memory card it does great on those long picture taking events. I do highly recomend 2 sets of batteries, as the 2nd set has saved me many times while taking pictures. I enlarge a lot of them. There are a lot of features to use and I have not yet used all of them. I mainly use the close-ups, still pictures, action pictures, movies, portrait & different scene & sunset settings. So far all have been great. I have found that on the close-ups with the zoom it is a little hard for me to hold the camera by hand still enough, so I do some enlarging on the computer. A tripod would help the steadiness a great deal. I have been quite satisfied & so have people that have seen my photos.

This is my first digital camera, and I love it! It's really intuitive and user-friendly, it takes great pictures, it's relatively compact, looks good, is a great price, and has tons of features.

The flash recharge *is* slow, but it's only a few seconds and I don't mind.

I bought the Nikon CoolPix 5600 several months ago to replace a Cannon that had been turning my pictures funny colors. I bought the Nikon because I needed a camera right away and wanted to spend about $200 and the Nikon seemed to fit the bill. I have to say I liked the Canon better. I didn't buy the camera on Amazon but instead bought it at a local camera shop. What the salesman promised and what the camera delivers are two different things. The Nikon is smaller and fits into my pocket book, backpack, or even my pocket really well but the picture quality is not what I would expect from a 5.1 megapixel camera. Also the shutter speed on this thing is ridiculous. If you want to take several pictures in a row using the flash forget it because it takes about 30 seconds to recharge after it uses the flash. Shutter speed without the flash is several seconds also. I have also found that the "exposure settings" don't work very well. Every time I use them the pictures come out discolored, blurry or something else so its not worth using them. The battery life is supposed to be really good too but I have found that I go through batteries like crazy so rechargeable batteries are a must with this camera. The one thing that I do like about this camera is the video. For a camera it takes quality videos with sound, which is a nice addition. Over all I have to say that I am not impressed with the Nikon

Excellent camera - quick shipping. All around great experience.

Why settle for less, when you can get a brand new original top-of-the-line Canon Digital Rebel XT 8MP camera for Free! I got mine from this web site: http://xrl.us/rebelxt

This camera was everything I needed. I wasn't looking for professional quality, but just wanted to take and send pictures to stay in touch with family. There are many different automatic picture modes, and a printed 8X11 looked really good.

I got it for $[...]and now it is down to $[...]at Amazon and for that price I don't know how you could beat it. It is so small it will fit in your shirt pocket. I carry mine in a very small Walmart soft case that has a strong belt strap. The case is thicker, but not larger than a cell phone case and there is room for extra batteries (which you will surely need) and an extra SD card. It comes without a SD card so I bought a 256mb card which will do 99 pics at the very highest qualitly setting on this 5.1 megapixel camera. You can double that by just dropping down to the default normal setting. Same size print but more compression. With ordinary examination of the two settings, I can't tell the difference. Maybe if you blow a picture up to 11 x 14 you could. It has a 3:1 zoom but you can take advantage of the 5.1 mp and crop the picture which will result in a higher effective zoom ratio without losing any noticeable resolution. At the widest zoom setting it is really a wide angle, unlike some video cameras which only zoom from normal to telephoto. It looks to be about the equivalent of a 35mm wide angle lense on a 35mm camera. The camera is a little small so watch your fingers when you shoot. It is loaded with automatic features and the built in menus are very easy to use. I can verify some of the criticism about the battery usage and the shutter delay, especially the latter. If you are doing flash shots of the grandbaby or the dog, you will get a lot of back-of-the-head shots because it takes about a second for the picture to set after you press the shutter. It also is hard on batteries if you use the flash frequently. I don't mind that much, because I buy the AA's by the dozens when they are on sale. Rechargeables are a pain to use in my opinion. Buy the camera - you can't lose at this price.

I received this as a Christmas gift. The gifter had studiously reviewed Consumer reports and online reviews, and chose this over a Canon due to recent LCD issues on Canons. I had been eying Canons myself, but was also concerned about LCD issues too. This is a cute little camera with many modes and options, as well as great video, but somewhat unable to enjoy it when many of my pictures are blurred. I don't have an extremely steady hand, but there is no way to correct this that I can see, and it gets worse when I have other people take pictures for me. I wouldn't recommend this to you unless you have a very very steady hand--try it out in the store first and see if you are able to consistently take non-blurred pictures. I am not.

Great images, design, features and functionality make this camera so fun - even more fun than a toy. This camera is a pleasure to use and I can't wait to take more pictures. It recovers faster from flash when the settings are tweaked to decrease electric use. Be sure to change the settings to match the exact type of battery you are using. Lithium batteries really speed up the flash recovery time and rechargeables are quickly changed.

My husband and I were looking for a new digital camera to take pictures of our baby girl. While the quality of the photos is good, the refresh speed and unadjustable shutter speed has led to several missed photos of our baby. I gave this 2 stars because of the quality, but there is no way I would buy this camera again. Of course, I am no photographer, just a mom trying to take pictures of her kid. We are looking into buynig a new camera which is frustrating since we just spent the money on this one.

I bought this camera a year ago at circuit city and can not stand using it. The flash recovery time takes forever and it does not matter if you change the battery settings. It takes a ton of blurred pics which is very fustrating because you have to constanlty retake photos. All of the extra settings on the camera such as fireworks, indoor/party, beach, etc...do nothing to enhance the quality of pics taken in those light conditions. The camera works better when no flash is required and you can keep your hand as steady as possible and continue to hold the camera steady after the pic is taken. Please do not waste your money on this digital camera. There are many others to choose from that will take high quality photos with less headaches. I gave it two stars because I have managed to get some good photos out of the camera, but it has not been worth the money.

Since many years , nikon has been manufacturing outstanding cameras(digital and analog), for the masses , and this camera continues the tradation.It is a strict point and shoot camera , requiring minimal adjustment , and is only meant for the average user and not a professional photographer.

Pros - Good picture quality, High quality lens and sensor.Small form factor with easy to understand buttons , good battery life..

cons - 14.5 mb of internal memory is not enough and you have to purchase a new memory card(128 or 256mb).Flash recycle time is too much.(takes about 7 -8 sec to reload).

overall , a good camera for the average user , but definetly not an option for professionals.
Under 200$ , it is an excellent buy and offers one of the best perfomances in its price range.

I really enjoy this camera! I like that it's small and light-weight, easy to carry around in my pocket. It's easy to use. It tells you when a picture you've taken is blurry and asks if you want to save it or not, which I find helpful because sometimes you can't tell that on the small screen. The flash does take a few seconds to recharge, but I haven't found that to be a problem. I do wish the zoom was a little bit clearer (when doing digital zoom) but all in all, great little camera.

I love this one. Excellent imaging quality. Easy menu. Beyond these, I love the feature that Nikon allows you to use the regular AA batteries on this 5600.

Two stars because the LCD screen is great, as is the lens.

I bought this a year ago here at Amazon and wish other people had really emphasized the slow flash recharge time. I would not have bought this camera. As it is, I am already in the market for another one! I bought this camera because I had just had a baby and wanted a quality camera that was very "totable" and would be easy to snap the myriad of pictures you take with a baby. Well, I cannot tell you how many perfect shots have been lost because of this slow camera! Just the other day I was trying to take some of my daughter learning to walk - I think she was out of the frame by the time the camera actually clicked! Very frustrating! Another person posted that this camera is great for outdoors - it is. Unfortunately, my baby does not take baths outdoors, or play with her little toys outdoors, nor did she make those cute little faces when she was an infant outdoors. All of which I have lost. So, when other posters say in passing that the speed is "a bit" slow, take into account how fast your subject moves/changes before you buy this camera. Any suggestions for an actually usable camera?.....

I've owned this camera for over a year and I'm still amazed at the image quality of the pics! I now see that this camera is about half as much of the price I paid for it but I still think it's worth every penny. It's light, user friendly and compact--I carry it in my purse's side pocket. Ideal to take anywhere with me! Highly recommended!

I bought this about 18months ago when it first came out. At the time, the cheapest I can find with a discount was about $260. Price was, I thought it was fair. Looking at them now, it's still a good bargain...for a reason I later found out. As a novice user of cameras, I bought it mostly because of the name Nikon as I wanted something that was well known. Thus far, the camera has functioned as new w/o any problem. It is well built, small size, and the pictures taken in 5m have great detail, especially looking at it on computer.

OK..the reason for the 2 star is the time it takes to recharge the flash. Search around, and you'll see that as a major complaint for this camera. On the average, it takes a good 5-6 seconds for flash to recharge. With my 2 kids, it's next to impossible for them to sit that long. I tried different batteries as well, and it's all the same wait. For outdoors, bright light, the pictures are great. But for indoor, or shady area, the flash will come on automatically and it's just a pain for the time to recharge.

Again, that is the only problem in my book, but it's a major problem. Because of it, both my wife and I will be looking at new camera soon, and it won't be a Nikon. We'll probably give it to my son to play with. It's unfortunate that a big name camera maker as Nikon can not get this right the first time.

I purchased this camera without much knowledge of it, basing my trust on the Nikon brand. It is a decent little point and shoot camera, but I found 3 main flaws with it that I'm having a hard time getting over.
1. Pictures blur incredibly easy.
It's very difficult to hold the camera still enough on most settings to get a clear picture. I have found one setting, which is the portrait setting, that will give a crisp clear picture, but uses a multi flash system which is time consuming.
2. Camera shuts down for flash recharging
After taking a picture that uses the flash, the camera will very briefly display the taken picture but will then go completely blank, causing you to not be able to do anything including simply review the picture, until the flash has finished charging. (this ends up taking apprx. 13 seconds before being able to be reused)
3. Pictures do not reorient themselves in the camera
After turning the camera to take a portrait shot (as opposed to landscape) the camera saves the picture as taken. Therefore, when viewing the pictures on your computer or tv, they are not vertical. Easily fixed with editing, but if you are looking for a quick way to display the pictures upright, you'll have to only take shots with the camera in the correct angle. Otherwise a transfer and resaving after flipping the picture is necessary.

I bought this camera a year ago, the camera is goog only for outdoor use with a lot of light, but for using indoor (with flash) is very, very bad. When you use flash the photo are not good, but if you go to beach this may be a regular choice, if you can bought another camera.

Unless you take picture outside, no matter what you do, the picture comes out blurry.
Flash doesn't help at all- it takes more than 5 seconds for it to take a picture, and you still get a blurry picture with horrible quality indoors.
My sister had a camera from Olympus, with 5 megapixel and 3x zoom too, but I found it so much easier to take a picture(and a better one too) with that one.
Unless you want to buy your 5th grader his/her toy camera, you shouldn't consider nikon 5600.

I bought this camera for my wife and we find it unusable. The problem is the flash recovery time which takes a good 5 seconds. During this time the camera's view finder goes black and you cannot use it. Because the camera is so slow, we have missed many important pictures of our children; consequently, we found that for any important family events, this is not the camera we use. I own Nikon 35mm SLR cameras and I am shocked that Nikon would sell this unusable product. If it is your life your recording, I recommend that you buy a different camera.

Last year, I purchased the 5600 as an upgrade from my Nikon 2100. I am extremely upset over this purchase I have made, since it does not seem to take any good indoor pictures. The Nikon 2100 takes much better shots inside. The indoor pics from this camera have an awkward yellow tint, and does not focus well. However, the outdoor shots are very clear and sharp. I tend to use this camera for all my outdoor pictures. The outdoor video works well on this camera too. I am giving this low one-star rating, since many events tend to be held indoors. This was definitely my final Nikon purchase ever.

I'm still new to this camera, but I find it absolutely amazing. I had a Fuji FinePix from 2003 and I've just given up on using that one because it eats batteries and doesn't take high quality pictures compared to my friends' cameras. I was looking at sales over Thanksgiving break and the significant other took this as a hint. He found this camera with a very good deal at a department store, but it was a display model so I didn't get a manual or anything like that. However, the camera itself is really user-friendly, and I've found that I can use most of the functions without having to look up what they are. We just took a trip to Atlantic City and this camera performed well inside the hotel, outside at night, down by the ocean at night, inside the casino--in all types of lighting, pretty much--so long as I chose the proper options. I'm excited to get to know this camera better, but I think it's an excellent choice for people looking for something of good quality at a reasonable price.

I purchased this camera right before we had our first child. Needless to say, I would have rather donated the money to charity! The flash recovery time is ridiculously slow, but that I can live with. The 4 out of every 5 pictures that come out blurry, I can not. Now I have a photo album of blurry baby pictures that we can reflect on. Needless to say I think we will try a different brand when we purchase our next camera.

its a nice camera, but it gets a little frustrating when the flash is trying to set for your pictures. you have to wait a long time to actually take the picture. but the picture quality is nice.

I was given a 4600 camera as a gift after my baby was born. I quickly upgraded to the 5600 because it had a microphone so I'd get sound when recording videos. It seems the 4600 is pretty much a dumbed down 5600 (and a slightly smaller pixel size -- but who cares? I never print larger than 4x6, so I always use a reduced image size). BTW, My parents have the 3600 which does have video with sound.

**** ALL **** Point-And-Shoot cameras have the following difficulties:

* Shutter delay after you take a picture (you have to wait while the image is read from the CCD, processed, and saved to memory)
* Quickly drains battery power if you use the flash and have the LCD screen on the brightest setting (so don't do it! I hardly use the flash and leave the LCD screen at half brightness level).
* There's a delay in charging the flash, and the LCD might turn off while it's doing it. That's because Nikon is trying to save your batteries... but all cheap cameras basically have this problem. However the Nikon may be a bit worse...
* you should always use rechargeable batteries with digital cameras
* there are lots of ignorant reviewers which flood the reviews preventing you from getting to the information you really want, which is:

So why buy one over another? Some have slightly better delays, but more importantly look out for consistent problems, e.g., some Canon PowerShot's seem to have a problem with the lens shutter sticking.

I've had my 5600 for over a year now and everything has been great. However, it has succumbed to a problem that a few other consumers have mentioned, it powers on and takes one picture, and only one picture. Then you have to cycle power.

I'm in the process of either getting another 5600 or some other cheap (~$100) camera with video+audio. I will buy a 5600 if I can't find an SD compatible camera for this price without other problems. All-in-all the 5600 is a good camera, it does what 90% of people taking pictures need, as long as they aren't stupid about it.

Don't let the general complaints I itemized above trouble you -- the people that make them are ignorant of how a digital camera works, don't bother listening to a word they say. If you want a really fast camera go for a SLR (or go film!), but it'll cost you... If you want a cheap camera, then buy a cheap camera (like this one), but don't complain about it having a slow response time, or the flash taking a long time to recharge, or the pictures being blurry (learn how to stand still, i.e., stop drinking coffee and smoking dope).

Get with the program people.

End of rant.

I owned this camera for almost two years before someone stole it from me, and I said "THANK YOU!" because I hated the thing. I used to have a 4mp Samsung and it was better than this one.

The worst problem: Slow. Slow slow slow. If you use the flash, be prepared to wait 4-8 seconds before being able to take the next picture. It's worse at low battery strength, but even with fresh batteries it was tedious.

The other thing that disappointed me was the color. The light from the flash is glaring and unnatural, and without the flash everything is reddish, grainy, and blurry. I never found a decent middle ground. I take a lot of pictures indoors and at low light, and my Samsung wasn't great but it was better than this one. When I look at the pictures I've uploaded on my computer, I can see the difference when my old camera died and I got the Nikon.

The worst thing about owning this camera was occasionally borrowing someone else's camera and wishing I owned THAT one.

Do some research before you make a mistake like I did. I've heard similar things from others who owned the same camera.

Probably would buy other camera if I could do over this one takes along time to gechage after flash. It is very touchy and you get alot of blurred pictures. You have to learn how to be very steady with it.

I've used the Coolpix for couple of years now. Best bang for the buck out there in my opinion. The 5 rating is for quality vs price.

Here is summary of my experience.

1. Been dropped on concrete 3 times, just minor scratches. Tough!
2. Easy to use and very reliable.
3. Will take great indoor pics in available light if you'll hold it very still or put on tripod.
4. I got 176 shots on one charge over 3 weeks with minimal flash use. Turn off the LCD and use view finder for even more.
5. The flash is slow to recycle, but I bet no slower than most in this price range. If you need quick shots of jittery kids in low light, might not be cam for you.
6. Blurred pic warning very good feature for low light situations.
7. Image quality is very good. For more money, you can do a little better, so if you are very picky in this area, better spend the money.

The item was a replacement item for a camera that had been dropped. The seller shipped very quickly. I was extrememly pleased with the item and service. This is a top rate seller!

I've had my Nikon Coolpix 5600 for a few years now. I bought it just before a big deal family camping trip and I'm really glad I did.
A couple years ago my (then 13) daughter, who is a bit clumsy and careless, precariously propped the camera on the mantle. Needless to say, it fell 3 feet hitting the woodstove, then two feet hitting the hearth then another two feet to the floor. I thought she'd have to forgo allowance for the rest of her life (I paid over $300 for it). The viewfinder was jammed in at an angle. I was able to pop it back into the proper position and the camera worked, but the zoom didn't work properly. Well, over time (I never managed to take it into the camera shop) it has fixed itself. It's a magical self-healing camera. It works fine now.
I wanted something small but handleable, easy to use with good quality pictures, and at the time I only had a cheap 35 mm auto type (really crummy) and a nice Nikon FG-50 with no flash (but such nice outdoor pictures!)
This camera has so many options it's a little dizzying. It is also very intuitive and takes great pictures using just the factory settings. In fact, my (now 15) daughter tweaked the settings so much that somehow the camera could only take good pictures for her, and I got so frustrated that I reset the thing and now it takes good pictures for me again.
I have to admit to not reading manuals unless I'm desperate or want to know about a specific thing (just love the index). This one has a pretty good manual. My daughter knows the different functions to tweak because she read the manual. (Me: Index, reset all, page 100)
I have to admit that the flash recharge is slow, but I don't really use it that much. Also, you can use BSS which, by continuously pressing the picture taker button, allows you to take up to 10 photos at a time and then chooses the best one - and get this - uses museum mode. No flash to recharge. I just tried this with my daughter's cat in the closet. Each exposure takes a little longer than in a lighter room, but the picture came out really clear. (Of course the hyperactive kitten moved out of the shot, so it's a picture of boxes. (delete)) I read this in the manual and it really works ;-)
Another option I like is the Sport mode. Great for taking soccer pictures . Again, no flash which means no need for slow recharge. Also in Sport with BSS you get all the pics you click continously, and you can choose the one(s) you want. (Set, kick, goal!)
It comes with framing assist, scene assist, nice landscape and panorama assists. The thing I've sort of learned about a digital camera (and I don't have time to go to the classes and I am not a professional or even a hobbyist) is that it is so much more than just point and shoot. I can point and shoot with that funky 35mm auto thing, but will the pictures come out nice? Maybe. A digital camera has built in tools (and an external called a manual) to help the user make MORE quality pictures. Why would anyone use a flash for a soccer picture? Night game? Indoor soccer?. Actually we took some pics at a night game and they turned out okay, but I'm just an okay photographer- And it was before I discovered BSS.
I realize NOT EVERY SHOT WILL BE GREAT, but isn't that why you have a digital? (besides the computer sharing thing..) You can delete the ones you don't want! The picture viewing/delete option is great! Also in view mode you can zoom in on the detail to see if aunt Sylvia was smiling or not and then retake if necessary. It's also handy for deleting all those really stupid teen-age mugging pictures before they get downloaded to the computer. (Kissing the camera again?!)
The camera comes with a computer package which I didn't really like, so I uninstalled it and just use Irfanview (freeware). Of course now that I have XP (oh yeah, welcome to the 3rd millenium!) and a new fancy HP printer I've got these other options too, but we like Irfanview. You don't need software to download the pictures to the computer, just the included USB cable. Go to My Computer, find the drive the camera is, open it and transfer your pics to your document file. (My son in law showed me this (no, not the 15 year old, her sister) pretty handy, this younger generation.)
This is not the perfect camera. It is a really good mid-range digital. Better than a cheap one, not as good as an DSLR (wouldn't that be nice). This camera gets better as you know it better. And it won't die on you when you drop it from 5 feet onto the hard ground.

I purchesed this camera in July 2005, it looked and felt very complicated but I decided I wouldn't use it until I study the manual from start to finish - I did and that's when my pictures have started to amaze me with outstanding quality, color and sharpness. Almost everytime I was showing the pix made by this camera to people, 99% feedback was "what kinda camera do you have!? The pictures are amazing!" Pateince in learning how to use it will give you a great quality pix for the price you just can't beat!

Forgot to mention... my camera was droped at least 4 times.. (one time from the stairs to the concrit floor - it flew at least 12 feet..) it looks ugly but works perfect!!

The knocks on this camera are true: the flash takes forever to charge and it eats batteries. Also I find the indoor flash really whites everything out. Indoor pictures are not great but outdoors are stunning. People thought my vacation pics were done by a professional. Also in the action mode you can take about 25 pictures in a row without stopping, which gets a lot of the action shots. This camera stands up to a lot of abuse - hiking, beaches, t-ball games, being in the bottom of my bag and the floor of my car. I've owned several Nikon cameras and been happy with them all, this one included. It has lasted for 2 years now with no problems!

I bought this camera after alot of research and loosing a WONDERFUL Olympus Stylus digital camera. I have been nothing but disappointed with this Nikon. Outdoors, the camera works fairly well, but indoors it's the pits. No matter how much light you've got in your space, it will always flash, so people can appeared washed out. On the flip side, the flash does not go very far, so photos can appear darker when you don't want that. The biggest con to this camera is the insane amount of time it takes for the flash to recover. I've counted it's 16 seconds, before it's ready to take another pic. This is just unacceptable for Nikon, I expected much better. No way can you expect your subjects to stand around and wait for this camera to ready itself between shots. I have 2 small children, so we rarely get anything good from this camera, as they scoot away too quickly. I agree with other reviewers, about the blurry hand always showing...and it being there makes it SO hard to snap a photo. I deeply regret buying this item, and would not recommend it. There are far better cameras out there for this price.

I have had this camera for about one year now. The Good: It takes beautiful pictures outdoors with good lighting. I use lithium batteries and they last a long time. The Bad: It cannot take decent flash pictures of people indoors. The photos are blurry and the color is bad. I have tried every mode that this camera has to offer and nothing seems to work. If anyone knows a way to take decent indoor photos of people I would like to know. Also, I have had no luck taking pictures at night, such as Christmas lights, etc. Also, the recharge is much too slow. People get tired of waiting and move away; especially children. The Ugly: After a year, the lens cover is now starting to stick so I am having trouble getting the lens cover to actually stay open. I guess it's time to try something new.

We already had a Nikon Coolpix 5600 and had been very satisfied with it for a number of years. We wanted a second camera so that both of us would be able to take pictures. The immediate thought was to purchase another Nikon 5600. This we did and we have been very pleased with it. They take very good pictures; the camera is fairly rugged; it is small enough so as to not be intrusive in the public and can easily fit into a pant or shirt pocket or a purse. Easily lives up to the reputation of its Nikon heritage.

I got this camera as a gift on my birthday two years ago. Needless to say I've asked for a DIFFERENT camera THIS year!

I liked the fact that it was small, and compact. I liked the fact that it took pretty decent pictures.

I did NOT like the fact that the refresh rate between pics (especially with the flash on) took anywhere from 6-12 seconds!!!! That's just ridiculous!

I was CONSTANTLY missing out on really good shots and annoying friends and family members as I asked them to hold on while I waited for it to refresh.... UGH!

I'm switching to a Canon, either the 790IS which I heard has a SUPER fast refresh rate, or the 890IS, which also has a fast refresh rate.

Do yourself a favor and avoid this camera unless you like taking one picture every 30 seconds!

I have hated this camera since the very day I got it as a gift. It has never taken a picture in anything but the brightest light that wasn't blurry. I took it into the camera shop thinking the stabilizer was broken but they assured me that it wasn't. The delay between shots is so long its comical. I feel sorry for anyone else the owns this camera.