Nikon Coolpix 8700 review

The Coolpix 8700 is the latest update to Nikon's semi-professional range of SLR cameras without interchangeable lenses.

The 8700 has an impressive range of features, including an 8 megapixel CCD and 8x optical zoom, but with full-blown digital SLRs falling below the £1000 barrier (see our SLR Labs) the 8700 will have to perform very well indeed to justify its £900 price tag.

It can produce 3264 x 2448 pixel images, which are certainly large enough for a decent A3 print. This top resolution will create a 20MB Tiff file, so several cards will be needed if you're to take more than just a few shots. Jpegs average at a considerably more manageable 4MB apiece.

The integrated media slot takes CompactFlash cards and Microdrives, which remain our media of choice, but we were very disappointed to see that Nikon doesn't include any writeable media in the box at all. Even a 32MB card to get us started would have been welcome, if rather inadequate, and considering the price of the device this kind of skimping comes across as particularly stingy.

There are twelve automatic scene modes, which include the more regular portrait and landscape settings as well as a copy mode for photographing documents, and a very useful Panorama setting for producing impressive 360 pictures. For easy alignment the Panorama function displays the edge of the previous shot superimposed over either the current display on the viewfinder or LCD screen. This makes impressive wide-angle shots very simple, and in our tests it performed well. There was slight misalignment where our final shot wrapped around to meet the first one, but with a little practice that could probably have been sorted out easily enough.

Semi-Automatic and manual mode will keep the more confident photographer happy, with shutter speeds ranging from bulb to 1/4000th of a second. The maximum aperture is f2.8 at the wide end of the lens but the minimum tops out at only f8, so depth of field will be restricted. Oddly, with the lens zoomed to its maximum 8x the aperture drops to f7.4. While this isn't much of a problem for general photography you'd certainly be put off buying the 8700 if you want to use it for still-life work.

If landscapes are more your thing, though, the composition tool will be a life-saver. Invoking it overlays the screen with a grid of parallel horizontal and vertical lines, and two that bisect the display from corner to corner. This takes the guesswork out of lining up the horizon and other elements in the image.

The built in flashgun is powerful enough for indoor shots and a hot shoe is provided for fitting an external unit if you need more power. Beside this is located an AF assist beam, which helps the camera focus in low light situations. This is a worthwhile addition, but we were nonetheless slightly disappointed by the focusing mechanism itself, which is both noisy and slow.

The 8700 is powered by a lithium rechargeable battery that should last approximately 200 shots, but it also accepts a 2CR5 battery, which can be found in most shops if the rechargeable dies on location.

Handling is very good and even though the body is small the camera feels comfortable and well balanced. Moving between the thumb dial and the zoom rocker feels very natural and your finger falls easily to the shutter release. The viewfinder is electronic and although the LCD screen can be a little lazy when tracking fast moving subjects it's certainly one of the best we've seen.

The LCD monitor on the rear of the body is flexible, rotating and turning back on itself, so you can snap it closed on the back of the camera body where it mimics the static screens of lower-end consumer models. Being able to rotate the screen makes for easy framing in difficult situations; if you don't want to lie on the ground to capture that moody low-angle shot the screen can be adjusted to suit. On top of that it's clear and bright.