The eight megapixel, eight times optical zoom Coolpix 8700 was announced on January 28th, 2004, a year and eight months since the five megapixel Coolpix 5700 on which it is based. The 8700 enters the eight megapixel fray which is currently made up of another four digital cameras; the Canon PowerShot Pro1, Sony DSC-F828, Olympus C-8080 Wide Zoom and the Konica Minolta DiMAGE A2. The most noteworthy difference between the 8700 and the rest of the competition is the range of its zoom, the 8700's starts at 35 mm, the rest have 28 mm wide angle equivalents, of course this also means that the 8700 has more telephoto reach than the rest.