4. Specifications, Modes And Menus

With a resolution of 8 million pixels, the Nikon Coolpix lets you enlarge to A3 and more. We shall see further on that its good noise control increases the "poster-production" options. But resolution is not the whole story and photo quality is not strictly dependent on it. The main asset of the Coolpix 8700 is its zoom range compared with its rivals: 35-280mm in 24x36, when the others have 28-200 or even 28-140mm (Olympus C-8080 ). Of course, the advantage of big 2/3" sensors is that they give a more extensive wide angle, so you may wonder why they started at 35mm. However, those who want maximum zoom will not wonder and will go straight for the Nikon, the only camera in this category with this focal length. Be careful when you use it though - such a light and compact camera is likely to be a bit shaky at 280mm and the images will be blurred if there is not enough light. Apart from that, and this is not new, autofocus tends to slip when the focal length increases too much. As we said, there's no such thing as a perfect camera and users will choose according to their needs.

As for modes and menus, it has the usual P, A, S and M, all easy to use. The macro mode lets you in really close up. This is an important function which improves the camera's versatility and the only other with a satisfactory one is the Konica Minolta A2. Scene programs are not forgotten, with a wide range of preset modes to make our lives easier, though as we said, their access path is so complicated that the user unfortunately might be put off before getting to such convenient and efficient options.

You can refer to the specifications for more details, but we can tell you that the Coolpix 8700 has all the features you'd expect from a camera in this category: automatic bracketing, manual focus (unnecessary, because there are 5 preset positions), sensitivity scale and an external flash shoe (no direct synchro socket, another drawback for pros).