I have >30 years of photography experience mainly with 35mm Pentax SLR's but got into digital in 2003 when I was loaned a 4mp Sony DSC-S85 P&S with Carl Zeiss optics. In 2005 I bought a refurbished Nikon Coolpix 5400, in 2006 I added A used 8700 and sold them recently to upgrade to 8800 & D40 Dslr. I missed the wider angle of the 5400 so I added a used Olympus C8080 as a replacement. This review is based on a comparison of the 8800 with the other digitals I have owned.
Thanks to the excellent advise in DP Review and those contributions in its forums (or is it fora?) I had been made well aware of the pros and cons of the 8800. I won a used on on ebay for £200 (UK) in July 07 which turned up in as new condition and I've been absolutely delighted.
I thought the 5400 was wonderful when I first bought it in 2005 but now I've seen the comparisons with the slightly larger sensors of the 8700 8800 and C8080 I stopped using it.
The button heavy operation of my previous 8700 was my main reason for off-loading it, but it had a big advantage in its lightness of weight.
I take mainly outdoor photos and have no issue with the slower operation compared with a Dslr. I like most of all
its image quality, ergonomic layout, VR and flip/twist LCD.
Compared to my D40 the 8800 has better metering (D40 matrix metering over exposes easily) and the D40's lens gives much more purple fringing than the 8800.
Compared to my Olympus C8080 the 8800 can give harsher greens and slower startup but benefits from a much longer lens reach with VR and a fully articulated LCD.
Of my 3 cameras if I could keep only 1 it would have to be the 8800.
A useful tip is to buy a converter to allow use of SD memory cards. A 4GB SD card can now be bought for £10 and gives approx 1000 jpegs at Extra quality.
The time lapse function is a good feature rarely provided now. I have set the AF to use only the centre brackets and this speeds up operation.
Problems:
Battery life is a bit limited.
RAW takes too long between shots (but jpeg's are almost always spot on)
Thanks to the excellent advise in DP Review and those contributions in its forums (or is it fora?) I had been made well aware of the pros and cons of the 8800. I won a used on on ebay for £200 (UK) in July 07 which turned up in as new condition and I've been absolutely delighted.
I thought the 5400 was wonderful when I first bought it in 2005 but now I've seen the comparisons with the slightly larger sensors of the 8700 8800 and C8080 I stopped using it.
The button heavy operation of my previous 8700 was my main reason for off-loading it, but it had a big advantage in its lightness of weight.
I take mainly outdoor photos and have no issue with the slower operation compared with a Dslr. I like most of all
its image quality, ergonomic layout, VR and flip/twist LCD.
Compared to my D40 the 8800 has better metering (D40 matrix metering over exposes easily) and the D40's lens gives much more purple fringing than the 8800.
Compared to my Olympus C8080 the 8800 can give harsher greens and slower startup but benefits from a much longer lens reach with VR and a fully articulated LCD.
Of my 3 cameras if I could keep only 1 it would have to be the 8800.
A useful tip is to buy a converter to allow use of SD memory cards. A 4GB SD card can now be bought for £10 and gives approx 1000 jpegs at Extra quality.
The time lapse function is a good feature rarely provided now. I have set the AF to use only the centre brackets and this speeds up operation.
Problems:
Battery life is a bit limited.
RAW takes too long between shots (but jpeg's are almost always spot on)