Nikon Coolpix 8800

Opinion: I gave this camera 4's all around. The features and image quality are great, especially the white balance and metering, but the camera is still painfully slow compared to some of the other ones that I've had experience with (Sony's F828, Canon Pro1).

Opinion: The zoom-button is a bit like "cheap-camera". To use the ring (like on the canon pro1) would be better, or manuell use by hand on the objective would be the best way to solve this problem.

Opinion: Used intensively for the past 10 days.

The 350 mm zoom range is outstanding although the zoom mushes a bit settling down.

The VR (vibration reduction) works very well indeed although it was not quite as good as shooting on a tripod with the self timer. I did a detailed test at 350 mm in morning shadow light of image sharpness from tripod down to handheld: SEE: http://naples.net/~nfn12807/composite-flattened.jpg. The effect of VR on the handheld images is VERY noticeable!

The EVF is outstanding. It's bright and clear and easy to see. It does intensify - slowly - in dark conditions. The full menu display in it was also very good in bright Florida sunlight that renders the large LCD very hard to read. The EVF also is fast and refresh was not noticeable when panning around. Very good.

Image quality is quite good as long as one stays at iso 50 or 100. Noise starts to show up prominently in dark areas at ISO 200. This noise issue is similar to what's been reported on the other 8 Megapixel small chip cameras.

I liked the 5 shot buffer. Just keep on shooting and it keeps only the last 5. Great for wildlfe when you are wating for that $%%^ bird to move <g>. It's not as fast as the high speed continuous mode but at least the EVF does not blank out with the 5 shot buffer mode.

I also used the new nikon 800 flash with it and it worked "without a hitch" That's a brilliant (literally) combination!

Shutter lag is quite noticeable especially at long zoom, from a full press - subjectively a second or so. However subsequent shots at the same range are quite a bit faster. On the other hand when you press the shutter half way and hold, when you actually take the shot it is VERY fast at that point. Feels like no delay at all (of course there is some but it's not any kind of annoyance). It sure would be nice to have a remote shutter release to capitalize on this speed at half press. (See problems below).

All in all this camera is far and away the most "powerful" in it's $1000 price group of 8 Megapixel small chip (read non-DSLR) cameras. That 35-350 mm image stabilized zoom is in a class by itself. Way to go Nikon!