Nikon Coolpix 880

Opinion: This is my first digicam, and I did a lot of research before buying it (kudos to this site, DCRP, and others). So I felt pretty well educated going into the purchase.

Complaints:

A disproportionate amount of my shooting so far has been nighttime. I suppose it is OK for night shooting, but it really makes me long for a much more sensitive sensor. This is still sort of pie-in-the-sky for the amount of money I was prepared to lay out, but nevertheless, if I could shoot at ASA 800 or better, I'd be happier.

Another problem is responsiveness. I haven't had a big problem with shutter-press to shot time (although it could be a bit speedier), but I do have a problem with the wake-from-sleep time, which seems to take forever. I've missed a number of candid shots because of it. Again, I know this camera is a pretty good performer in this regard as digicams go, I just want something better.

I've had erratic results with the white balance under incandescent light. Sometimes it is pretty good, sometimes it is way off.

The 2.5x zoom doesn't give that much range. Nor would a 3x. I guess I'm really wishing for a 6x or better.

This is a niggling complaint, but I'm worried that the little flap over the USB port will wear out soon.

Likes:

Size and shape is pretty good, although I had a hard time finding a holster that would fit its squarish proportions.

Good image quality.

Lots of fun features that I have not yet fully plumbed. I'm looking forward to experimenting with the continuous-fire modes.

One especially nice feature for night shooting is the slow-synch flash. I've gotten some great shots with this.

When someone comes out with a high-res, super-compact camera with a 6x lens and fast responsiveness for under $1000 (yeah, right), I'll be first in line.

Sample pix at:
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumList?u=1296881

Opinion: Following a lot of research here in the UK I decided to buy the Coolpix
880. I had tested a number of other Digicams in store and this seemed
to offer the best value/features for the money.

Here in the UK a leading digi magazine slammed the 880 (before I bought
it) for only having two apertures at wide and two more at tele
(something like 2.8 and 7.8 at wide and 4.6 and 11.8 at tele - good
enought for most purposes, even if somwhat limited by SLR standards).
They claimed this made the camera something of a Frankensteins
monster - also referring to the fact that there were a number of
'bolted-on' extras which were poorly thought out. I would take issue
with this. Nikon (IMHO) were attempting to produce a digicam with the
features and performance of the 990, but more user friendly for the
novice; hence the inclusion of some 11 scene modes, such as landscape,
portrait, fireworks, copy, close up, beach/snow etc. These 'scenes'
automatically set the camera according to the requirements - ie
landscape = infinity focus, small aperture etc.

In addition to the scene modes, there's a fully auto mode and P, A, M
and CSM. P is another program (w/more user control), A = Aperture
Priority, M = Manual, CSM = custom (where the user can set and save all
the various settings). I won't go into detail about all of these, suffice to
say that with 'scene' / Auto the novice is catered for, while with the
other modes, the more able photographer can experiment ... modes as
selective spot metering and focusing (from 5 focus points). There's
manual focus (difficult to use quickly, but maybe good for capturing wild
animals etc.). You can buy extra lenses using the thread on the built in
lens. And there's many, many more things you can do ... download the
pdf manual from Nikon's website to check out all the features.

The best thing about the 880 is performance. It doesn't suffer from the
awful shutter lag of others (Sony DSC S70) and takes near perfect, sharp
and colourful shots, time after time. Images are easily printable up to 12"
x 8" (so far) and a 64mb cf card will give 5 uncompressed pics at 2036 x
1458 or 40 pics of compressed images (jpg, 1/4).

This camera has what I wanted. Excellent picture quality, near perfect
exposure (via matrix metering), great colour reproduction and enough
features to keep me happy for a some time to come (and easy enough
for my wife to pick up and use staight away). This is a less-manual 990 in
a different body - it also has some new features which makes it a very
good buy.

Thoughts on other digicams;

1. Sony S70 - dreadful shutter lag; up to 2-3 secs between pressing the
button and taking the shot.
2. Sony P1 - very good, just couldn't help thinking that Sony might not
have got it right yet. Also didn't feel as good as the 880.
3. Oly 3030 - another contender, great pics but not as many 'simple'
modes (important to get wife on-side when spending money)
4. Fuji 4700 - image quality not good enough, despite the claimed 4.3
mp.
5. Ricoh 7 - interesting; couldn't find one to test but may have given the
880 a close run, albeit with fewer features.

Opinion: dont buy from these people cheap[est price found so far is 619-00

Opinion: I bought a Canon Powershot G1, but after using it for a week I exchanged it for the Coolpix 880. The picture quality on the 880 is quite superb. Easy to use with the scene menu. This is really a smaller, lighter, more portable 990 (camera of the year) with fewer things to fiddle with, and in my case, fewer things to mess up!