Putting an electronic viewfinder into the P7800 elevates Nikon’s top-of-the-line P Series Coolpix to a different level than many of its competitors. By Paul Burrows
It seems contradictory that quite a number of the enthusiast-level compact cameras – including Nikon’s own Coolpix A – don’t have built-in viewfinders. You’d think it was self evident that cameras designed for a more discerning audience should have the feature that most distinguishes them from the pointand-shooters (and the smart phones). The facility for fitting an accessory EVF at least provides the option albeit with the compromise of an additional outlay, but it’s hard to fathom the thinking behind a supposedly high-end camera with nothing, nil, zip, nada.
It would appear this message has been received at Nikon because after the P7700 appeared sans viewfinder – following the P7600 which had an optical one – it’s been superseded fairly smartly by the P7800 which has the finder re-instated, but now in electronic form. In its defence, at least the P7700’s monitor screen was adjustable for viewing angle which is one way of improving things in some lighting conditions, but the P7800 has both this and an EVF which is really what’s needed to take on the category leaders like Fujifilm’s X20. In fact, boiled down, the P7800 is essentially a P7700 with an EVF which is perhaps the clearest evidence there is that Nikon has taken heed of user feedback and made amends. Consequently, the P7800 shoots to the top of the class because its predecessor’s feature set was pretty impressive and the addition of the EVF makes it seriously tasty.
We still aren’t talking about anything particularly innovative in the finder department – such as the X20’s optical finder with its ‘Digital Trans Panel’ read-outs – but being electronic, the P7800’s 0.5 cm LCD panel provides 100 percent scene coverage and the ability to preview settings. It’s quite small – especially by D-SLR standards – and when all the available components are activated such as the real-time histogram and ‘artificial horizon’ level display, it’s pretty cluttered, but the resolution is good as is the colour and contrast. Unlike on some cameras, the EVF and monitor displays can’t be configured independently of each other.
There’s an eyepiece strength adjustment, but switching between the EVF and the monitor screen needs to be performed manually if you want to have both immediately accessible. However, the P7800 will switch automatically to the EVF if the monitor screen is folded away in the closed position.
In practical terms, this means the monitor has to be manually switched on in order to change most settings – it’s just too awkward to try doing it through the viewfinder – and, inevitably, there will be occasions when you put the P7800 up to your eye and wonder why you can’t see anything. Over time, of course, you do get used to having to punch the monitor button to switch displays… assuming you want to keep the external display open.
GETTING TO GRIPS
In the hand, the P7800 feels impressively weighty thanks to its magnesium alloy bodyshell which is exceptionally well screwed together. There’s a reasonablysized handgrip and a control layout which centres around a main mode dial and a pair of input wheels which, as on its D-SLRs, Nikon calls ‘Command Dials’. A second dial on the top deck is for setting the exposure compensation and Nikon has given it fairly aggressive detents so it’s more difficult to accidentally move.
The rear panel is mostly taken up with the 7.62 cm monitor screen which has both tilt and swing adjustments so it can be stowed with the faceplate inwards for protection. The rear control layout borrows another item from Nikon’s D-SLRs, namely the ‘Multi-Controller’ navigator/selector which has both rotation and pressing actions. Additionally, there’s a small selection of function buttons – all the usual suspects in terms of menus and replay – but the P7800 departs from the Nikon D-SLR design formula by having a ‘Quick Menu’. This has its own button for activation and provides access to five of the key capture-related settings – image quality/size, ISO, white balance, auto bracketing mode and the ‘Picture Control’ presets. There’s also the option of configuring a ‘My Menu’ page with regularly used functions so the main menu can essentially be by-passed when shooting and everything that needs to be done on-the-fly is done via the ‘Quick Menu’ or the Multi-Controller (for things such as the AF and flash modes).
Two buttons – one on the top panel and one on the front – can be assigned duties from two separate sets of functions, but which include among them white balance, ISO, metering modes, the ‘Picture Control’ presets and some display elements such as the ‘Virtual Horizon’ and the framing grids. Operationally, then, the P7800 works very much like one of Nikon’s D-SLRs rather than a compact camera, although not as closely as the Coolpix A.
ZOOMING UP
Of course, the built-in zoom lens is pure compact camera, and is operated via a rocker ring around the shutter release. The focal range of 6.0-42.8mm is equivalent to 28-200mm, and the maximum aperture range is a pretty impressive f2.0-4.0. As with any arrangement where the aperture diaphragm also serves as the leaf shutter, the minimum aperture is only f8.0 so there’s a built-in neutral density (ND) filter which reduces the exposure by three stops.
The optical construction comprises 13 elements, including two made from extra-low dispersion glass and, despite the fairly compact dimensions, Nikon manages to get an optical image stabiliser in there as well. This comes in particularly usefully at the longer focal lengths, enabling hand-held shooting at slower shutter speeds. The VR system automatically detects when the camera is being panned and switches off correction in that direction. Also handy is a ‘Zoom Memory’ function which can be set to automatically drive the lens to the 35mm-equivalent focal lengths of 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 105mm, 135mm and 200mm.
Unlike with quite a number of the rival models, Nikon doesn’t make you buy a separate adapter for attaching filters… 40.5 mm diameter types screw straight on to the front of the lens (it’s a filter size shared with some 1 Nikkor lenses). Nikon’s own accessories include a metal lens hood which fits in the same way and then accepts 58 mm diameter screwthread filters.
The AF system is based on contrast detection measurements with the choice of manual or automatic point selection (99 and nine respectively) plus centre (normal or wide), face priority, tracking and ‘target finding’ modes. This last mode works in the same way as face detection autofocusing except it detects any sort of subject, assuming there’s sufficient differentiation from the background. The right quadrant of the multi-selector accesses the area modes while the lower one switches from normal AF operation to the macro modes, an infinity lock and manual operation. Manual focusing is performed by either using the up/down quadrants of the multiselector for coarse control or by turning the control ring for finer adjustment. Assistance is provided by a distance scale and a magnified centre portion of the image plus there’s the option of first using autofocusing and then fine-tuning manually. The manual focusing range is 30 cm to infinity (at 28mm), but in the macro AF mode, the minimum subject distance is just two centimetres. If you’re only shooting close-ups, there’s the choice of a ‘close range only’ AF mode which avoids wasting time by locking the system into a reduced distance range. Despite not being a fancy hybrid system of some sort, the P7800’s autofocusing is still pretty snappy and switching between the various modes – as well as focusing manually – is among the most convenient you’ll find in the compact camera world.
WORKING THE LIGHT
Exposure control is based on a multi-zone metering system employing 224 segments and with the option of centre-weighted average or spot measurements (the latter linked to the active AF point). The standard choice of ‘PASM’ exposure control modes is supported by program shift, an AE lock, up to +/-3.0 EV of compensation (as noted earlier, applied by convention dial) and auto bracketing which can be applied over three or five frames with an adjustment of up to +/-1.0 per frame. Additionally, the method of bracketing adjustment can be set to adjust the aperture, shutter speed or the ISO.
There’s a choice of 18 scene modes (including one for making in-camera panoramas) with the option of automatic selection for, primarily, portraits, landscapes, night scenes, night portraits, close-ups and backlit situations. The shutter speed range is 1-1/4000 second, but the slow speed range extends to a full 60 seconds when the camera is in manual mode and the ISO is set between 80 and 400. The shutter itself is a combination of sensorbased and physical leaf type via the seven-bladed diaphragm which is confusingly described as being “mechanical”, but of course is actually electronically controlled.
The P7800 has both a built-in flash and a hotshoe. The former is fairly small, but has i-TTL auto output control via monitoring preflashes with the choice of manual control down to 1/128 of full power. Alternatively, flash exposure compensation is available over a range of +/-2.0 EV. Nikon also provides a ‘Commander’ mode for the remote triggering – with wireless TTL exposure control – of a compatible off-camera accessory flash unit.
The white balance control choices are also extensive starting with the option of two auto correction modes – normal and warm. The latter maintains the warm tones when shooting under incandescent lighting, eliminating the need to actually switch to this specific preset.
However, for manual control, there are seven presets (three for different types of fluoro lighting), provision for making and storing three custom measurements, auto bracketing, fine-tuning and colour temperature selection over a range of 2500 to 10,000 degrees Kelvin. As with the AEB, the white balance bracketing can be over either three or five frames.
PIXELS & PROCESSING
At the heart of the P7800 is a 9.5 cm CMOS sensor – the imaging area is actually 5.7x7.6 mm – with a total pixel count of 12.76 million. The sensitivity range is equivalent to ISO 80 to 3200 with a one-stop push to ISO 6400. The effective pixel count of 12.2 million gives a maximum image size of 3000x4000 pixels and JPEGs in this aspect ratio can be recorded at three smaller sizes with either ‘Fine’ or ‘Normal’ compression. There’s also a single image size each in the 3:2, 16:9 and 1:1 aspect ratios.
Boosting its ‘big camera’ credentials, the P7800 captures RAW files at 14-bits per RGB channel in the proprietary NRW format. RAW+JPEG capture is also possible with the choice of a large JPEG with either compression level.
As on the Coolpix A and Nikon’s D-SLRs, there is also an in-camera RAW-to-JPEG conversion function which is located in the Playback Menu (more about the rest of the editing functions shortly). There is a total of seven processing parameters which cover most of those available for JPEG capture, including ‘Picture Control’ presets, ‘Active D-Lighting’ correction for contrast and lens distortion correction plus white balance and exposure compensation.
The ‘Picture Control’ presets work in the same way as they do on Nikon’s D-SLRs in terms of providing manually adjustable parameters with a ‘Quick Adjust’ override. However, there’s a smaller choice – namely Standard, Neutral, Vivid and Monochrome – and the adjustment for colour hue and brightness have been dropped, leaving the choice of contrast, sharpness and saturation. Additionally, only two customised ‘Picture Control’ presets can be captured and stored. The Monochrome preset has the usual choice of B&W contrast filters plus adjustable toning in either sepia or blue (cyanotype) with a choice of seven levels of density.
Anyone who regularly uses a Nikon D-SLR is going to find it a little disconcerting not to access the ‘Picture Control’ presets via the main shooting menu especially as the other key JPEG processing functions are still all here – ‘Active D-Lighting’ (ADL), noise reduction and ‘Distortion Control’. The ADL processing is the same as on Nikon’s D-SLRs and uses a combination of exposure adjustment and tone curve tweaking to help expand the dynamic range. On the P7800 there’s a choice of Low, Normal and High settings.
The camera’s noise reduction processing is distilled down to a filter setting, also with Low, Normal and High positions while the distortion correction can be set to On or Off. An multishot HDR capture function is accessed via the ‘Backlighting’ scene mode and offers three levels of exposure adjustment. Both a non-HDR and an HDR composite image are subsequently saved.
TAKING EFFECT
The P7800 also has a set of ten ‘Special Effects’ which are accessed via the main mode dial and so work as ‘stand alone’ modes in terms of exposure control and white balance. It’s a fairly eclectic collection which includes, among other things, Painting, Defocus During Exposure, Cross Process, Nostalgic Sepia and Selective Colour. A number of the effects are adjustable such as Creative Monochrome which allows for variations in both contrast and grain. The ‘Special Effects’ are applied at capture, unlike the various filter effects that are available as editing functions in the Playback Menu and which include the more common options of Selective Colour, Cross Screen, Fish-Eye and Miniature. A couple of effects are available in both menus so you have the choice about how to apply them, but obviously the latter allows for an original file to be retained. The dynamic range expansion processing can also be applied post-capture – as plain old ‘D Lighting’ – and there’s a ‘Quick Retouch’ option which tweaks the contrast and saturation in one hit.
Beyond the ‘Retouch Menu’ – which is pretty extensive – the replay options include zooming, four choices of thumbnail pages, a thumbnail calendar display and a slide show function that’s adjustable for the display time only (a bit unusual as Nikon cameras usually offer quite a lot of choice here). The image review/playback options comprise an image with or without basic capture info and thumbnail accompanied by a brightness histogram, a highlight alert and a more extensive set of basic capture data.
The histogram is accompanied by a ‘Tone Level Information’ indicator which allows a cursor to be moved to one of 11 positions along the brightness scale and the corresponding tones in the image are then indicated by these areas flashing. You can’t actually make any adjustments based on this information, but it’s interesting nonetheless.
As noted earlier, the live screen can be configured with a variety of components, including a real-time histogram, a ‘Virtual Horizon’ singleaxis level display and a 3x3 framing grid. If desired, the level display can be switched to a simple bar-type indicator which isn’t nearly as impressive looking as the fancy circular one, but less intrusive.
MAKING MOVIES
Video clips are recorded in the QuickTime or MOV format using MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 compression and with the choice of Full HD (1080p) and HD (720p) resolutions at 25 fps (in the PAL standard). There’s the choice of High and Normal quality settings for Full HD.
The P7800 has built-in stereo microphones and, unlike the Coolpix A, also has a stereo audio input (tucked away in its own little compartment). The audio recording sensitivity for the external mic is manually adjustable with High, Medium and Low settings, and there’s a wind cut filter.
The video functionality includes continuous autofocusing, the availability of aperture-priority auto and manual exposure modes, the four ‘Picture Control’ presets, a selection of the ‘Special Effects’ (reduced to seven) and the built-in ND filter. Image stabilisation is available. There’s also a choice of slow/fast movie settings – 640x480 pixels at 100 fps (i.e. ¼ speed), 1280x720 pixels at 50 fps (1/2 speed), and 1920x1080 pixels at 25 fps (2.0x speed). Movie clip lengths are governed by the limitations of a 4.0 GB file size or 29 minutes of elapsed time, whichever comes first.
There isn’t a dedicated button for video start/stop, but overall the P7800 boasts a useful set of video recording capabilities, especially given the zoom’s long focal range.
SPEED AND PERFORMANCE
The specifications quote a maximum continuous shooting speed of 8.0 fps which is pretty impressive, but you need to read the fine print because this is only achievable with the JPEG compression set to normal and, even then, the burst length is limited to six frames (so it’s actually all over in under a second).
The specs don’t indicate whether the P7800 supports UHS-I speed SDHC and SDXC memory cards, but for our speed trails we loaded up our reference Lexar Professional 600x 64 GB SDXC UHS-I device anyway. With the image quality set to JPEG/large/fine, the P7800 fired off a sequence of six frames in 1.506 seconds, representing a shooting speed of just under 4.0 fps. Switching to JPEG/large/normal capture, a burst of six shots was recorded in 0.765 seconds, giving a shooting speed of 7.8 fps. The buffer empties pretty quickly with the UHS-I speed card even with RAW capture so the faster devices are worth the investment.
Once you venture into the world of digital cameras with very small sensors, the litmus test is always the image quality and the P7800 does a pretty good job in terms of detailing, definition, contrast and colour reproduction at the lower ISO settings. Not surprisingly, noise becomes an issue beyond ISO 800, although it’s still pretty well controlled at ISO 1600 and not excessive at ISO 3200, although both saturation and definition are diminished. Consequently, the ISO 6400 setting is really only useable with small-sized images, but then the zoom’s f2.0-4.0 speed and the optical image stabiliser mean it may never be necessary to push the sensitivity this far.
The optics are fairly well corrected in terms of both distortion and chromatic aberrations, but barrel-type bending is quite noticeable at the wide-angle if there are any straight lines in the image. Nikon is obviously aware of this because the in-camera distortion correction does a pretty good job of eliminating it. Some colour fringing is evident at the edges of the frame in high contrast areas, but it’s not excessive and only really apparent at high enlargement sizes.
Lens sharpness is good, including centre-to-corner uniformity even at the wider apertures. As noted earlier, the AF is fast and reliable, while the multi-zone metering handles most situations with ease.
THE VERDICT
By any measure Nikon has done a good job with the P7800. While it’s not substantially changed over the P7700, the inclusion of the electronic viewfinder makes a big difference in terms of the P7800’s appeal to enthusiast-level shooters… as does the improved external monitor screen.
Fujifilm’s excellent X20 sets the benchmark in this category, but Nikon gets pretty close given the P7800’s longer and faster zoom and the full scene coverage provided by the EVF. And, as far as EVFs go, this isn’t a bad one. The ergonomics are excellent, making for comfortable and efficient operation while the extensive feature set gives the P7800 impressive capabilities across the board.
All this is backed up by a better-than-expected imaging performance, especially between ISO 80 and 400, so the P7800 is easily in contention as an alternative to a CSC in the role of a D-SLR back-up. In fact, the P7800 is a lot more traditional in its control layout than Nikon’s own V2 and certainly any of the J Series models.
In what is now a pretty hotly-contested category, the Coolpix P7800 stands out as an accomplished all-rounder with a hard-to-beat combination of features, flexibility and performance.
VITAL STATISTICS
Type: Enthusiast-level, fixed lens digital compact camera.
Lens: Nikkor 6.0-42.8mm f2.0-4.0 (equivalent to 28-200mm). Built-in ND filter (-3.0 EV).
Focusing Type & Range: Contrast detection with single-shot or continuous operation using up to 99 focusing points. 50 cm to infinity; macro focusing down to 2.0 cm. Face detection, auto or manual point selection, centre area (normal or wide), subject tracking and target finding modes. Low light assist via built-in illuminator. Manual focusing assist via a distance scale and magnified image for assistance.
Shutter Type & Speeds: Electronicallycontrolled leaf combined with sensor-based exposure start, 60-1/2000 second. The aperture range is f2.0 to f8.0.
Metering: Multi-zone (224 segments), centreweighted average and spot. AF can be coupled to the metering.
Exposure Control: Program (with shift), shutter-priority auto, aperture-priority auto and manual plus 18 scene/subject modes (with auto selection). Up to +/-3.0 EV compensation in 1/3 EV increments, AE lock and auto exposure bracketing.
Sensitivity: ISO 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600 and 3200 (extendable to ISO 6400).
Sensor: 9.5 mm CMOS (5.7x7.6 mm), 12.76 million pixels (12.2 MP effective).
Image Size: 4:3 aspect ratio – 4000x3000, 3264x2448, 2272x1704 and 1600x1200 pixels. 3:2 aspect ratio = 3984x2656 pixels, 16:9 aspect ratio = 3968x2232 pixels, 1:1 aspect ratio = 3000x3000 pixels. JPEG capture at one of two compression levels. RAW capture at 14-bits per RGB data. RAW+JPEG with Fine or Normal compression.
Video Recording: MOV (QuickTime) format (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 compression) at 1920x1080 pixels, 25 fps progressive (PAL) and 16:9 aspect ratio. High and Normal quality settings. At 1280x720 pixels, 25 fps progressive and 16:9 aspect ratio. Stereo microphones built-in with wind noise filter. Maximum clip length with Full HD shooting is 29 minutes. Plus 1280x720 pixels at 2x speed (for slow motion) or 1920x1080 pixels at 0.5x speed (for fast motion).
Continuous Shooting: Up to 8.0 fps for a burst of six JPEG/large/normal frames or six RAW files. Medium speed shooting at 4.0 fps and low speed shooting at 1.0 fps. ‘Multi-Shot 16’ mode captures 16 frames at 30 fps (displayed as a single image).
Formats: JPEG, NRW (RAW), MOV. PictBridge and DPOF compatible.
Flash: Built-in with TTL auto (using preflashes), red-eye reduction, fill-in, slow speed sync, rear curtain sync and commander (for wireless TTL set-ups) modes. Manual control down to 1/128. Flash range = 50 cm to 10.0 metres (at ISO Auto). Up to +/-2.0 EV flash compensation. External flash units sync via a hotshoe.
White Balance: TTL measurement via image sensor. Auto Normal, Auto Warm, seven presets, three custom preset and manual colour temperature setting (2500 to 10,000 degrees Kelvin). Fine-tuning (amber-to-blue and magenta-to-green).
Viewfinder: Electronic eyelevel type, 0.5 cm LCD display with 921,600 pixels resolution. Coverage = 100% vertical/horizontal. Magnification = 0.70x (50mm lens at infinity). Eyepiece strength adjustment provided. 7.62 cm TFT LCD monitor screen (921,600 RGBW pixels) adjustable for tilt and swing, and adjustable for brightness. Manual switching between EVF and monitor.
Storage: SD/SDHC/SDXC cards plus 86 MB internal flash memory.
Interface: USB 2.0, mini HDMI (Type C), 3.5 mm stereo audio input, accessory terminal.
Additional Features: ‘Vibration Reduction’ optical image stabilisation, four ‘Picture Control’ modes (Standard, Neutral, Vivid and Monochrome), adjustable picture parameters (contrast, sharpness and colour saturation with ‘Quick Adjust’ option), two customised ‘Picture Controls’, B&W contrast filters and toning effects (sepia or cyanotype, seven levels each), noise reduction filter (Low, Normal, High), ‘Active D-Lighting’ processing (Off, Low, Normal, High), distortion control (On, Off), HDR capture (Levels 1-3), zoom memory, ten ‘Special Effects’ (Creative Monochrome, Painting, Zoom Exposure, Defocus During Exposure, Cross Process, Soft, Nostalgic Sepia, Low Key, High Key, Selective Colour), real-time histogram, ‘Virtual Horizon’ level display, 3x3 grid pattern, manual exposure preview, replay brightness histogram with ‘Tone Level’ display (nine levels), highlight alert, adjustable image display time, auto image rotation, in-camera editing functions (Quick Retouch, D-Lighting, Skin Softening, Filter Effects – Soft, Selective Colour, Cross Screen, Fish-Eye, Miniature, Painting, Vignette; Black Border, Straighten, RAW-to-JPEG conversion), 4/9/16/72 thumbnail displays, thumbnail calendar display, zoom playback (up to 10x), slide show with variable image display time, multi-mode selftimer, audible signals, two assignable function buttons, wired and wireless remote control (optional controllers). May be fitted with the optional WU-1a Wireless Mobile Adapter and GP-1 GPS receiver.
Power: Rechargeable 1030 mAh/7.4 volts lithium-ion battery pack (EN-EL14 type).
Dimensions (WxHxD): 118.5x77.5x50.4 mm.
Weight: 399 grams (including battery and memory card).
Price: $549 (estimated street price). Two year warranty on purchases made in Australia.