Nikon Coolpix 5000 Firmware 1.7

Besides having resolved the low light low contrast AF problem, greatly shortening shutter lag, and providing RAW, firmware 1.7 has reduced the clipped highlight problem making EV and contrast reductions less necessary.
However, in certain cases now a +0.3 EV is needed to avoid clipped shadows, but less frequently than the -0.3 EV in firmware 1.6 (which you needed in almost every outdoor shot). And usually it is easier to pull out shadow detail than highlight detail, so the tendency of 1.7 to shift the histogram more to the left is a good thing.
Clearly, the "characteristic curve", or the way the images are processed between RAW and Jpeg has changed from 1.6 to 1.7. I am waiting for the Nikon software to evaluate the RAW images shot at the same scene. Aplogies for the ***very*** dull shots in this test. I only had a 1.6 available for a short while at this dull scene. Images have not been edited.
 
V1.6
V1.7
1.7 eliminated blown out highlights in the sky but contrast is increased a bit too aggressively. Also note that some of the highlights in the 1.6 shot were caused by the reflection of the sun in the cars.
V1.6
V1.7
Here 1.6 is better as 1.7 causes additional clipping of the shadows by unnecessarily shifting the histogram to the left (there were no clipped highlights to begin with)
V1.6
V1.6 (-0.3 EV)
V1.7
Here we would rather need a +0.3 EV compensation for 1.7 while 1.6 got it just right.
V1.6
V1.6 (-0.3 EV)
V1.7
The V1.7 histogram is much better than the V1.6 with -0.3 EV but worse than 1.6 since shadows start to be clipped. Note that the clipped highlights in the 1.7 shot are caused by the reflection of the sun on the window of the grey car which is absent in the other shots.
05-OCT-2002: Additional findings on next page.