Same issue - black screen with a slight hint of snow - its kind of funny I finally found how to use the time stamp and now i have time stamped black photos

can't take pictures after about 50 pix. I hate Nikon now for selling me this expensive "disposable digital camera"!!!

I have had the S5 for around 18 months and was quite happy with it until last week when I charged it up and since then it hasnt worked at all it just wont turn on having taken it to a photo specialist who said it must be the camera and not the battery I feel really let down, but whilst trying to trouble shoot I have found sooo many people with the exact same problem surely Nikon have some responsibility to explain this problem. Dont think I will buy Nikon again.

The pictures that I take inside always come out dark! I was taking pictures in our church sanctuary at a special event and they all turned out so dark you could hardly see the people in the pictures! I tried adjusting the settings and nothing worked! Even in our fellowship hall where there was lots of light coming in the windows the pictures came out dark. If I took a picture of a person up close you could see them fine but the background would be very dark. Another thing is you have to hold the camera extremely still to take a picture or it is blurred! I would not recommend this camera to anyone! I am so disappointed with it!

i have a problem with black screen and lcd monitor.i read that can be a solution from Paul Ng, but i dont know what hatmeans. please if u knowsomething that can help write to this email. thank you everyone

I followed the reivew from Paul Ng regarding striking the camera on the coolpix S5 part, now the screen works great, Thank you Paul Ng for the help, hopefully I can get some more pictures before purchasing a new one.

THANK YOU

Simply said...turned the camera on and got a black screen. I went on the internet to troubleshoot the problem and found that there are soooooooooooo many customers w/the same problem. Also, I found out that Nikon wants $180 to repair it. Terrible..DON'T BUY NIKON EVER!!!!!

I currently send back my defeat Nikon that the screen are black and so is the pictures turns out black too. I contacted the Nikon technical service, and was told to send it back to estimate the damage. I was able to get it fix without a cost even though my 1 year factory warranty has been expired. I urge you (whomever have the same problem) just send it back. The customer service is great from Nikon. I got to speak to a person and they can speak ENGLISH... which most of the company now in a day don't. I should have my camera back within a week or so. I will let you all know how it turns out.

I previously owned a Nikon that was very easy to use, so an upgraded one was purchased. It is very hard to use. I agree with all comments regarding the blurred photo. This is a big program. Two months ago I was taking pictures of my neice new baby while in the hospital and I got the black screen of death and have tried everything to recover to no avail. I just gave up until now since I need to take some pictures and decided to look online to find out what to do and to my surprise, this is a common problem. I'm disappointed that Nikon is not stepping up and fixing these cameras or just sending the customers a new one. I only brought this one because I liked my previous one. I will definately do more research next time. I would not recommend Nikon to anyone because of their poor customer satisfaction and inability to stand behind their products. Don't just glow in the good reviews but when their are repeated bad reviews then check it out and make necessary corrections. Don't make the consumer pay for your mistake. To those of us who this happens to, we can pay $181 to get it fixed and hope your camera is return or just go purchase another camera. I would chose the latter, why give Nikon any more money for a known defective product, that would be insane.

I would rate this at a zero stars if I could. I had this for under a month and went out to take some photos. I took two pictures then got a black screen. Tried to figure out what happened and went ahead and took more pictures guessing at what I was photographing. Came home and downloaded all black photos and videos. After searching on the web I found out this is a common problem.

DO NOT BUY THIS CAMERA! Save your money and put it towards another brand even! Nikon has broke my heart.

I have had the NIKON COOLPIX S5 for about a year now ..

60% of the pictures came out blurred.
Transfers took forever and the pictures had spots on them .

If this was not enough ..
I turned on my camera a few months ago and the screen came out blank/black. It was as if the lens had detached from the rest of the camera. It seemed to me like it was an easily fixable problem.
But Nikon wants that 181$ dollars. Almost just as much as the f****** camera.
DONT BUY IT. DONT EVER BUY A NIKON.

I also purchased this camera and I am now experiencing the black screen of death - I like the camera but I paid $195 for it and I do not think I will be mailing $181 to have it fixed. :(

I rec'd the Nikon S5 camera for Christmas and used in on Christmas day, it worked fine. I turned it on one week later on New Year's Eve and the screen was blank; the camera only took blank photos. I called Nikon shortly afterwards and was told to send it to their service address along with an explanation of the problem, that it should take 7-10 business days to repair. I was then mailed a confirmation that they had rec'd the camera on 1/12/07 and I have been tracking the status online ever since. Today, 1/29/07, the status changed from "in shop" to "parts hold". I spoke with a representative who told me basically there was nothing he could do. He also said I should have taken it back to the original dealer, which I would have done if the first Nikon rep had recommended it! Too late now. They have had my camera for 17 days and still no word on when I will have it back. Although I was told to call back in 5 days (not very promising). This is a huge disappointment on a camera I owned for 1 week, in my opinion they should have replaced it with a new camera. When I mentioned this to the rep i was met with nothing but sarcasm...

I am Dr. Pairoj Ruktanonchai I just own the Nijon digital camera colorpix S5 , I had it for several months now and I use for several occations and am please with it i use to own Nikon SR series the big one then I use Cannon digital careras all along for 4-5 years I am also like them , I just want to try the Nikon because my friend recomend it ,so I would like to try it and I am very satisfy with it
truely yours
Pairoj Ruktanonchai, MD FAAp

I don't know about quality picture when printed

i bought it 6 months bak,initially i was veryimpressed by the design...but later the big problem ...u need to b very still if u wan a quality picture..if the object or the camera is slightly shaken(slightly means u need to hold even ur breath)then the pic r blurred..on average..only 2 out of 5 pic r qoulity pic...id rather use a sony than this camera...i wud suggest u not to go for this camera ...n still if u want u can buy it frm me..not every body can use this camera,bt only the 1 who no how to use it....the pic r damn bluurred....may b the new s9 which they say is shake free shud b correctin it...but all in all ...A BAD BAD CAMERA...don go for it guys...

I got my coolpix s5 August 5, 2006 and thought it was great. Then at the first opportunity I took it out for some shots at the park. The screen went blank once. I turned it off/on and it was fine. I then took it to Las Vegas on vacation for a week. It worked fine. On October 20, 2006 the screen went blank again, this time it did not come back. My wife took it back to Wal Mart and was promptly told that it was a Nikon issue now. Tried Nikon and was told to send it in and for $181 they would look at it. Well folks I only paid $235 for the thing to begin with! I would NOT recommend this thing to ANYBODY!

Very convenient size, just put it in your pocket and take off. I like the lens cover feature for protection. Point and shoot or fuss with the controls for max. results. The movie picture feature is great for S5's size and picture quality for this small digital camera. Over all satisfaction, very good. If I wanted a perfect picture of professional quality I'd spend more$$$ but for the money,size,ease-of-use I can highly recommend it. And I can always have it with me for those unexpected picture taking moment's. Lots of fun and good quality at a reasonable price. Nikon again lives up to its reputation. I've had Nikons for many,many years. You get what you pay for. ddd

I'd opted for the S5 over a Canon IXY 700 due to the smaller size and the easy-to-navigate jog dial menu. Having used it for a few weeks, I'm not overly impressed. It's a nice camera, don't get me wrong. However, since I've owned 3 Sony Cybershots previously, I've got them to compare it against. And in the time that I've had it, I haven't found anything that awed me, really.

The big screen is very nice and every single person that sees my camera oogles at the screen real estate. Personally, it doesn't make so much difference to me. I'd rather have battery life than a huge screen. And one more w/ the screen is that to change the display info, one has to fiddle around in the menu to change that (whereas it was a single button operation on my previous Sony P-8). Not a deal-killer, but something to take into consideration if you're wanting to check out grayscale often.

The heart of my dissatisfaction with this camera is what I consider to be a design flaw. Using the red-eye reduction in a low-light situation results in spots in my pictures. At first, I thought it was a problem w/ the camera and got a replacement unit. The replacement does the same thing. Turning off the red-eye reduction seems to eliminate the problem.

Seeing as the majority of the spots appear on the right side of the photos, my conjecture is that the flash is too close to the lens. I never had this situation with any of my previous Cybershots. However, they all had lenses that protrude from the body. Therefore, I feel it's an issue with the recessed lens + the close proximity of the flash to the lens.

Contact with Nikon has not yielded me very much satisfaction. Apparently they feel that the dust in the air that is being captured is normal for this sort of model. To me, that is an unacceptable cop-out as it renders the red-eye reduction function useless. Perhaps Nikon would submit to photoshopping every single one of my photos that emerges with this problem. Needless to say, I'm not impressed with Nikon's response to the issue.

Looking at other reviews, I found a review on the Sony T9 that speaks of the same exact issue. Looking at the picture, the flash to lens placement is the exact same. This backs up my theory of design flaw.

Perhaps I'm wrong, but a better explanation has not been given to me by Nikon, the reseller that I bought from or anyone else that's heard of the problem.

This is a nice camera, but due to what I feel is unacceptable performance, I would not recommend it (or any similarly built) models to anyone. I will most likely go back to my initial choice and try a Canon IXY 700. At least the lens extends from the body, so that should hopefully eliminate this issue if I'm correct in what causes it.

GREAT camera, except............ no optical viewfinder. I narrowed my choices down to this camera and the Canon Powershot SD550 Digital ELPH. I bought the Nikon and it worked great...indoors. I went to the beach at lunchtime (yeah I can do that) to test it out in bright sunlight and could barely see anything in the LCD, even after adjusting brightness. I returned it and got the Canon, that has an optical viewfinder, and I am very happy with it. Too bad because the Nikon is a great camera. If the Nikon had an optical viewfinder, I would have kept it. The rotary control is also very cool.