Nikon COOLPIX P7800 Pro Reviews

The Nikon Coolpix P7800 is an enthusiast compact with a great control layout and 7.1x lens, but it's not the right camera for everyone.

While the P7800's predecessor, the Nikon P7700, was an impressive camera that mertied a Gold Award, unfortunately the latest version isn't up to the same standard. Although it offers a specification that impresses on paper, with the addition of an EVF a welcome one in theory, in practice the camera has more than its fair share of issues. The control set-up is over-complicated, there are serious concerns over Raw write speed and the RRP has lept by £100 for good measure. So, inspite of the attractive lens and a reasonable standard of imaeg quality you have to say that the P7800 is going to struggle in what is a competitive advanced compact market.

Nikon Coolpix P7800 is essentially the same camera as last year's P7700, with the welcome addition of an electronic viewfinder that's good enough for regular image composition. We'd have liked to see Nikon address the performance issues when shooting RAW files, though. Unless you exclusively shoot JPEGs or are prepared to pay for the fastest SD cards, you'll have to literally wait a while for the P7800, limiting its use to more sedate shooting, which is a shame given that the rest of the camera is so well though-out. Still Highly Recommended then, just make sure that you budget for some good memory cards...

Beautiful photos and sublime ergonomics, but performance is a let-down

Ignoring the fact that you can't get such a small zoom lens for a mirrorless camera, the Nikon Coolpix P7800 is roughly the same size as a mirrorless camera with a pancake lens, but is also more expensive than a number of mirrorless cameras - each one will give better high ISO performance. However, if you want as much zoom as possible, with a bright lens, then the Nikon Coolpix P7800 is still unique in offering an f/2.0 - f/4.0 7.1x optical zoom lens in a compact camera. Close the screen and it will automatically switch to the EVF, however we have our reservations about the electronic viewfinder, as it shows noticeably different colours to the screen on the back. The screen on the back has a slight green or yellow tint, while the EVF has a cooler or magenta look to it, with neither of them really giving a true representation of what the true colour is. However for most people they will simply just notice the difference between the screen and EVF - unless a firmware update is able to fix? While the Nikon Coolpix P7800 has added an electronic viewfinder, competitors such as the Canon Powershot G16, and Panasonic Lumix LF1 have added Wi-Fi, while others feature a touchscreen, such as the Olympus XZ-2, or a larger sensor, in the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 II. If you plan on shooting in raw, or raw plus JPEG, then you may need to prepare yourself for the slow shot to shot times, although thankfully photo quality and colour is very good. The Nikon Coolpix P7800 is still unique in offering a bright 7.1x optical zoom lens, and delivers bright detailed images and would make a good choice for those looking for a backup camera to their main Digital SLR, or for those that don't want the bulk of a Digital SLR, but do want the controls of one.