Dan R commented courteously ...

> My Migration (actually switch) to Digital. I am seriously
> looking at the Nikon 5700. That's my MAX budget, well a
> little more.. but for these few extra bucks it seems the
> benefit is great. 
> 
> My Question/Opinion request: What other cameras in the
> price range should I consider and compare to the Nikon
> 5700? 

Hi, Dan.

After a lot of research, I bought a 5700 in late July. I've 
been quite happy with it for outdoor shooting.

But, in at least my case, I'm having real problems with the 
built-in Speedlight and a Vivitar external flash. Not sure 
what the problem is, I'm still working through Nikon's Tech 
Support.

As to the 5700, I did not want an 8 mega pixel camera, just 
don't need it. I did want a sharp, noise-free camera and the 
5700 performs reasonably well for me (of course, everything 
can be better!).

I bought two no-name batteries and 3 no-name 256MB CF cards 
for it. The battery life is reasonable unless I'm using the 
Speedlight. That chews up a battery pretty fast.

I shoot 100% in 1600 x 1200 with "fine" JPEG, which results 
in file sizes around 750-900KB. I do that because "normal" 
has too many JPEG artifacts for my taste - my hobby is car 
picture collecting and I don't want any artifacts if I can 
possibly help it.

Anyway, in non-flash mode, I get around 150-200 pictures on 
a battery charge. I'm not sure if that is typical or not, 
but friends who have competing digitals say that I'm 
probably OK.

-- 
Jerry Rivers