69%
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69%
Reviewed:
Jun 2010
User reviews
(3)
3.93
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Arguably the first compact from Nikon that qualifies for the 'travel zoom' designation, the Coolpix S8000 offers a 10x zoom lens (30-300mm equivalent) in a very slim body. Announced in February, Nikon is trumpeting the S8000 as the world's slimmest 10x zoom camera, and it certainly feels a lot more compact than most of the other models on the market, helped in no small part by the minimalist, smooth curves of the front plate.
Apart from the lens, the S8000 offers an impressive set of features, including a 3in LCD screen with a class-leading resolution of 921k dots. Unlike a DSLR, where pixel-level image quality is (arguably) fundamental to any assessment of how 'good' a camera is, the most important parameters when looking at compact cameras are the speed and accuracy of its key systems, and whether or not it is pleasant and easy to use. Going by these metrics, the S8000 is a very good compact camera, as long as you don't need to look too closely at the images (or make huge prints).
| Quick links: | Announcement | Review | Sample gallery | Forum |
| Announced: | Feb 3, 2010 |
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Average rating:
3.93
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Opinion: I traded up from my Canon SD980 because I wanted the stereo sound for HD movies, longer zoom, and I have always had Nikons. I am not sure, after only 5 days and few hundred pix, if I did the right thing. Nikon has a slower lens (3.5 vs 2.8), much less of a wide angle (30 mm equiv. versus 24 mm -- a significant difference) and a clunkier interface, particularly for changing shooting parameters in the field. Other than that I love it, and particularly love being able to set hue to zero to preview and shoot in black and white. Real black and white photography, from the moment, not on the computer. That is almost worth the price of the camera right there.
Problems: The camera has frozen up on me between shots. At full resolution recovery for the next shot is preety slow, even without flash, in normal mode. On the other hand, if you want to slice a fast moving scene, the 16 shots mode at 30 fps is a hoot. I am learning, so if I find out I am doing something dumb to hang processing, I will update this post.
Opinion: Several years ago I bought a "L" series Nikon point-n-shoot camera. The picture
quality was poor and the video clips had a constant high pitch ringing noise in the
background. Being the big fan that I am of their DSLRs, today I gave their point-n-
shoots another chance. I read about the new S8000 and decided to pick it up. In
addition to assuming the picture quality would be good, the MPEG4/H.264 video
format was a major selling point for me. I got it home and let the battery fully
charge(about 3 hours) and fired it up. I took a hand full of photos while changing
some of the settings to observe the differences and a couple of video clips on the
HD setting. I loaded it all onto my computer and began having flashbacks to that
"L" series I tried a few years ago. All the photos were extremely grainy and there
was that high pitch ringing sound again in my video clips! I couldn't believe it.
Nikon is doing an amazing job with their DSLRs. I wish they could get these
compacts up to par. I already boxed the S8000 back up and I'll be returning it in
the morning.
Problems: -Constant high pitch ringing sound in all video clips
-Poor image quality
-Camera does not perform as advertised in low light situations
Opinion: Bought this camera to compliment my DSLR (D300) and replace my Samsung NV11 which only has 5x optical zoom (38-190mm) because of it's 10x ability and its a pocket sized unit. A decent camera especially when its less than $300 & it fits in your pocket.
HD video is also very nice.
Problems: my first purchased unit had a strange sound when recording video. returned and 2nd unit is fine.
2x digital zoom for hd video is dumb. should have allowed optical zoom even if they disabled the sound to prevent recording the noise from the zoom mechanism.
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 | 22.3 megapixels 3.2" screen Full frame sensor |
