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| The LCD monitor and bright electronic viewfinder provide two fine ways to compose images. |
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| A grab shot on the way home from a hike. Tweaked levels in Photoshop, otherwise straight out of the camera. Photo by Mike Stensvold |
8 megapixels for under $1000
It's got a terrific electronic viewfinder, an 8X 35–280mm Zoom-Nikkor ED lens, a ton of features (yet weighs just over a pound), and true 8-megapixel (3264x2448-pixel) resolution. "It" is Nikon's new top-of-the-line consumer digicam, the Coolpix 8700, and it's got a lot going for it.
Focusing
The 8700 offers both single-shot and continuous autofocusing, plus manual focusing, all selected via the LCD monitor menus. In single-shot AF, the camera focuses when you press the shutter button halfway, and locks focus once achieved; you can make the exposure at any time, whether or not the camera has focused on a subject. In continuous AF, the camera focuses continuously until you press the shutter button halfway, at which point focus locks. Again, you can take the picture whether or not focus has been achieved. In manual-focus mode, you focus by pressing the focusing-mode button and rotating the command dial until the image appears sharp in the finder (or on the LCD monitor). The electronic viewfinder image is excellent, and it's easy to see when focus is sharp—actually, easier than on the LCD monitor. A focusing scale appears in the finder and on the LCD monitor when manual focusing is in use, indicating the relative focusing distance set. Repeatedly pressing the focusing-mode button toggles through autofocus, infinity focus (handy for cloud shots, which give the AF system trouble), macro mode, and self-timer, which combines autofocusing from 1.2 inches to infinity with a 10- or 3-second release delay. Normal autofocusing range is 20 inches to infinity; in macro and manual-focusing modes, the camera will focus down to 1.2 inches from the front of the lens.
Five AF areas are available: center, and one above, one below and one to each side. In auto exposure mode, the camera uses the central area to autofocus. In shooting modes C.1 and C.2 (and some scene modes), the camera will select the AF area containing the closest subject. You can, via the LCD monitor menus, activate manual control of the AF areas, then select the desired area via the multi-selector arrows.
Exposure
There are four metering options, accessed via the LCD monitor menus: 256-segment Matrix, center-weighted, spot and spot AF. We found the default Matrix metering capable of handling most exposure situations, and did most of our shooting using it. Spot reads the central 3% of the image area, indicated by a square in the center of the monitor. Spot AF links the spot metering to the active focusing area.
Exposure modes include shiftable program AE, shutter- and aperture-priority AE, and metered manual. These are accessed by pressing the func button and rotating the command dial until C.1 or C.2 appears on the LCD panel (and in the electronic viewfinder), then pressing the mode button and rotating the command dial until the desired mode letter appears on the panel: P, S, A or M. In these modes, you can set the ISO to 50, 100, 200 or 400 by pressing the iso button and rotating the command dial until the desired setting is displayed.
For the less-experienced user, the 8700 also provides a full auto mode and 12 "scene" modes, which automatically adjust focus, flash, contrast, sensitivity and white balance for common shooting situations, such as portraits, landscapes, sunsets, indoor parties, beach scenes, night landscapes, fireworks, close-ups and more. The scene modes are accessed by pressing the func button and rotating the command dial until the scene-mode icon (usually the portrait icon) appears, then pressing the menu button to display the scene-mode menu, and using the multi-selector buttons to highlight the icon for the desired mode, then pressing the quick button to activate that mode.
You can set +/-2 stops of exposure compensation, in 0.3-stop increments, in any mode but manual and fireworks, by pressing the exposure-compensation button and rotating the command dial until the desired amount of compensation is displayed. You can use the LCD monitor menus to access automatic exposure bracketing (3 or 5 shots, in 0.3–1.0-stop increments).
More Features
The 8700's light and durable magnesium body incorporates an 8X 35–280mm f/2.8–4.2 Zoom-Nikkor ED lens that provides focal-length flexibility to handle most shooting situations. If you need more range, Nikon offers affordable optional accessory screw-on adapters: The FC-E9 Fisheye Converter 0.2X (which widens the 35mm setting to 7mm), the WC-E80 Wide-Angle Converter 0.8X (which turns the 35mm setting into 28mm), and the TC-E15D Telephoto Converter 1.5X (which extends to 280mm setting to 420mm). Seven to 420mm is a heck of a focal-length range for a consumer digicam. We should point out that you don't just screw the adapter on and shoot—you do have to go into the LCD monitor menus to set to camera for using the adapter. But that's not a big deal when you need those focal lengths. The smallest lens aperture is f/8 at all focal lengths.
Shutter speeds range from 2 seconds to 1/4000 in auto and program AE modes, from 8 seconds to 1/4000 in shutter- and aperture-priority AE and manual modes, from 1/30 to 1/8000 in Ultra HS mode, and as long as 10 minutes in Bulb/Time mode.
There are a host of advance modes, accessed via the "Continuous" LCD monitor menu. These include single-shot, continuous high (up to five frames at 2.5 fps, in 8-megapixel Fine JPEG mode), continuous low (up to 12 frames at 1.2 fps in 8-megapixel Fine mode), Multi-shot 16 (16 consecutive 816x612-pixel frames at 1.5 fps, which are then arranged into a four-row single image of 3264x2448 pixels), Ultra HS (up to 100 pictures at up to 30 fps at 640x480-pixel resolution), 5-shot buffer (camera shoots at 1 fps, but only the last five images are saved to memory card), time-lapse (camera shoots images at intervals of 30 seconds or 1, 5, 10, 30 or 60 minutes), and Movie (more on that in a bit).
Flash
The 8700 has a built-in Speedlight that covers all the built-in lens's focal lengths, with a range of 20 inches to 13.5 feet at the wide setting and 20 inches to 8.8 feet at the tele setting. Flash modes include auto (flash automatically pops up and fires when needed), flash cancel (flash won't fire, handy where flash is prohibited or you want to record the ambient light), auto with red-eye reduction, anytime flash (flash fires for every shot regardless of light level), and slow sync (auto flash with slow shutter speeds to record detail in dark backgrounds). You can (via the LCD monitor menus) set +/-2 stops of flash exposure compensation, in 0.3-stop increments. A hot-shoe atop the viewfinder accepts dedicated Nikon Speedlight flash units. When a hot-shoe Speedlight is attached, the camera can be set to fire only the built-in flash, only the hot-shoe flash, or both.
Digital Features
Of course, the 8700's biggest digital feature is 8-megapixel resolution, courtesy of a new high-definition CCD image sensor—3264x2448 pixels, enough to reproduce an image 10.9x8.2 inches in a magazine at 300 dpi, or to make a good 20x30-inch inkjet print. Those 8-megapixel images can be recorded in RAW NEF (Nikon Electronic Format), uncompressed TIFF, and three levels of JPEG compression, for file sizes of 12 MB (RAW), 23 MB (TIFF), and 4 MB, 2 MB or 1 MB (JPEG). The camera also provides recording in three JPEG compression levels at 5 megapixels (2592x1944 pixels), 3 megapixels (2048x1536), 2 megapixels (1600x1200), one megapixel (1280x960), PC (1024x768, ideal for display on computer monitors), TV (640x480, for e-mailing or display on small monitors) and 3:2 (3264x2176, crops the top and bottom to provide a 3:2 35mm-film aspect ratio).
Note that the 8-megapixel TIFF file size is nearly twice that of the 8-megapixel RAW file—a good reason right there to shoot in RAW format when optimal image quality is needed. We did most of our shooting at the highest-quality JPEG setting ("Fine," a 4 MB file size), and found the image quality excellent. But the uncompressed TIFF and RAW files are even better. RAW format images are not processed in-camera; they require processing via special software—in this case, Nikon's Nikon View 6, which is provided with the camera. RAW adds another step (you can't open RAW images in most image-editing programs, although the latest version of Photoshop includes RAW-image capability), but it also provides maximum control over the image, as you can after-the-fact adjust pretty much everything you could adjust in-camera while shooting, including white balance. Incidentally, you can quickly create a high-quality TIFF copy of a RAW image in-camera, by pressing the quick button while displaying the image in playback mode. You can add 20-second voice memos to any full-frame image during full-frame playback mode, but the voice memo will not be copied when you make a quick TIFF copy of a RAW image as just described.
The 8700's 238,000-pixel color electronic viewfinder produces a very clear image—the best we've seen from an electronic viewfinder—and has a sliding switch to its left that sets dioptric correction from –4 to +1. There's also a 1.8-inch color LCD monitor, used for making camera settings via menus, and for preview/playback of images. The monitor folds face against the camera back when not in use, providing good protection of the monitor face, and can be rotated through a 270° arc when opened to use position.
Other digital features include white balance (automatic, several presets, custom, and white-balance bracketing), contrast and saturation control (auto and manual, plus black-and-white), image sharpening, and BSS (Best Shot Selection), which takes up to 10 shots, then compares them and saves the sharpest one to the memory card.
Movie capabilities include TV Movie (640 pixels, 30 frames per second up to 35 seconds), Small Movie (320 pixels, 15 fps up to 180 seconds), Time-Lapse Movie (up to 1050 640-pixel frames at selected interval, combined into 35-second silent movie) and Sepia Movie (5 frames per second, 320x240 pixels, up to 180 seconds). Movies are recorded in QuickTime format, and all but time-lapse with sound via the built-in microphone.
Images—still and movie—can be stored on Type I or II CompactFlash cards or Microdrives. A 256 MB card holds about 20 RAW images, 10 TIFF images, 64 Fine 8-megapixel JPEG images, on up to 2612 TV (640x480) images.
In Use
This is a small camera—4.45x4.13x3.07 inches and 16.9 ounces—and we worried about trying to hand-hold that 280mm focal length at the camera's default ISO 50 setting. But images shot hand-held at that focal length in good light were very sharp. Nikon offers the accessory MB-E5700 Battery Pack, which holds six AA batteries and provides a larger gripping surface, but it's not essential as a hand-holding aid. The 8700 comes with a rechargeable Nikon EN-EL1 lithium-ion battery and charger (with which we shot as many as 308 8-megapixel Fine images without the low-battery indicator activating), and can also be operated on a standard 2CR5 lithium battery. An optional AC adapter is available.
The Matrix meter handled most situations very well, and we rarely used the other metering modes. That, coupled with the ability to preview the shot in the electronic viewfinder or on the LCD monitor, plus exposure compensation, should make poorly exposed images a non-issue.
We particularly enjoyed the clear electronic viewfinder images (generally using that instead of the LCD monitor to frame images and check exposures and focus), the rotating LCD monitor (which came in very handy for ground-level shots), and the 8X zoom range (which handled just about all our shooting needs). We'd like the autofocusing to be a little quicker in dim light, and to be able to switch back and forth between single-shot AF and continuous AF without going through the monitor menus. But all in all, we much enjoyed shooting with the Coolpix 8700, and especially liked those wonderfully crisp 8-megapixel images.
MSRP for the Coolpix 8700 is $999.95. For more info, go to www.nikoncoolpix.com.
Camera: Nikon Coolpix 8700
Category: 8-megapixel digicam
AF Performance ***
Metering Performance *****
Feature Set ****
Ease of Use ****
Ergonomics ****
Value ****
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