Nikon Coolpix 8700 Review: 4. Body & Design: Digital Photography Review

Connections

All of the Coolpix 8700's connectors are behind a single rubber door on the left side (from the rear) of the camera. Behind this rubber door you will find (top to bottom): DC-IN connector (for use with optional AC adapter), A/V out jack and USB connector.

Lens

The lens used on the 8700 is the same eight times optical zoom lens we saw on the 5700, which may come as a surprise to some considering the increased resolution requirement from this new sensor. Clearly Nikon are confident enough in the performance of the lens to use it here.

Lenses compared

Camera	Labeled as	Zoom range (35 mm equiv.)	Max aperture (wide - tele)	Zoom type
Nikon Coolpix 8700	Nikkor ED	35 - 280 mm	F2.8 - F4.2	Motor, lever
Minolta DiMAGE A2	GT Lens	28 - 200 mm	F2.8 - F3.5	Mechanical, ring
Canon PowerShot Pro1	Ultrasonic L-series	28 - 200 mm	F2.4 - F3.5	Motor, ring
Olympus C-8080 WZ	ED High Resolution	28 - 140 mm	F2.4 - F3.5	Motor, lever
Sony DSC-F828	Carl Zeiss T*	28 - 200 mm	F2.0 - F2.8	Mechanical, ring

Tripod Mount / Camera Base

On the bottom of the Coolpix 8700 you'll find a metal tripod mount along with a hard rubber 'foot'. Unfortunately the tripod mount is not in line with the lens, this won't help those intending to shoot panoramas.

Secondly the lens itself has nothing to hold itself horizontal to the ground. This means that if you rest the camera on a flat surface the lens is pointing downwards by about 2 degrees.

Pop-up Flash

The 8700 has a electronically released pop-up flash unit. In Auto flash mode the flash will pop-up on its own when required, it will also pop-up in low light situations when the AF assist lamp is needed, the new AF assist lamp is located below the flash on the right side (the dot on the left side is the flash sensor).

Flash Hot-shoe

The Coolpix 8700's flash hotshoe is of the ISO 518 standard type and supports Nikon's Speedlights including SB-series 800, 30, 28, 28DX, 26, 25, and 22s. Note that the 8700 does not support power zoom (it will not zoom the flash), nor does it support the AF-assist lamp or red-eye reduction systems built into some of these flash units.

AF Assist Lamp

At long last a Nikon Coolpix prosumer digital camera with an AF assist lamp. The 8700's visible light orange AF assist lamp is located below the flash unit, obviously because of its location the flash must be up to use the assist lamp. So while we're happy to see Nikon fitting an assist lamp it's a pity we have to have the flash up to use it. According to the 8700 user manual this lamp has an approximate range of 1.2 m (3.9 ft).

Box contents

Box contents may vary by region:

• Nikon Coolpix 8700 digital camera
• Compact Flash Card & case
• Nikon EN-EL1 Lithium-Ion battery & cap
• Nikon MH-53 battery charger & power cable
• Video cable (RCA jack)
• USB cable
• Lens cap & string
• Shoulder strap
• User manual
• CD-ROM's (Nikon View etc.)

Nikon Accessories


Battery Pack EN-EL1	Battery pack / grip MB-E5700	Car battery charger MH-53C

AC Adapter EH-53	Step-down lens adapter UR-E8	Step-down lens adapter UR-E12

Fisheye converter FC-E9 (0.2x) *	Wide-angle converter WC-E80 (0.8x) **	Telephoto converter TC-E15ED (1.5x) **

Remote Cord MC-EU1	Lens hood HR-E5700	Lens hood HN-CP11

Nikon Filter Set ***	Speedlights 800, 80DX, 50DX, 30, 28, 28DX, 26, 25, 24, 22s	Sync cables SC-28, SC-29