FINALLY NIKON HAVE CAUGHT UP!

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Simon Everett
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I saw the new coolpix 7000 today..at last Nikon have come up with an answer to the G10/11/12 series.

I use a pro spec compact for som eof my work - where it is impractical to use a DSLR and I am not going to hump a big bag of stuff about, and some places where the compact is just far better. Like on my sea kayak out in rough water for instance.:thumbs: I got a G10 and it is a great camera, I have had some lovely shots from it.

I also use it for som eof my fishing features, if I am doing a specfic feature shoot then I take the D3 kit. If I am travelling far from the car , wading, fishing off the kayak etc...I use the G10. It covers most of the angles. This kind of thing:
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I had to buy a G10 because Nikon hadn't got anything that came even close to comparable. They had the quality of results, but the lens coverage was, shall we say, "limited". The G10 with its 28mm - 140mm lens covered a lot of the angles! It was reasonably wide, so got good scenics, had enough reach to do kayak to kayak shots.

The new Coolpix 7000 has just brought Nikon into the game. It has a 28mm - 200mm lens, D2X chip inside, shoots RAW, the same as SLR so you can combine the two in the same processing batch etc. It is built on a metal shell, so is nice and chunky...funnil;y enough, putting the two alongside each other, the G11/12 is the same size as the new Nikon..if anything the Nikon is a tad slimmer, but a tad heavier. Big screen....it is a Nikon version of the G10 with a better chip, higher ISO USEABILITY (G10 might have 1600 on the dial but it won't go above 200 without everything going to slurry).

Just at the time when I was thinking about upgrading the G10 too......similar sort of price, at around £480. No waterproof housing though......but I still have the G10 and its housing should I need it.

I am going to get one on loan to try but I can't see why it wouldn't produce brilliant results. No idea where everything lives on it, or how the menus and things work. I didn't play to that extent.

On the other hand. Will I actually get any more work by buying it? NOPE. Be good to have everything going through the same processing though.
 
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I'll be interested to see how you get on. I've been waiting for Nikon to produce something comparable the the Canon 'G' models.

Kev.
 
Love the pics, the great thing with the camera is it having an optical viewfinder, i know it only covers 80% but i hate looking at rear screens to compose.
 
Supposed to take an age processing the RAW files in camera, read two reviews and they both say the same thing
 
Does that depend on the card in use? I ask because the D2X didn't...that downloaded very quickly. The Coolpix is using similar data management. Maybe some people expect things to be instantaneous nowadays.....I'll know more when I have tried it. "Takes and age" can be relative too. For the kind of stuff I am doing I doubt it woukd interfere. Buffer capacity? I never even thought to ask!:bonk:
 
Both reviews I read stated something like 5 seconds to process the shot in RAW.

I'm no speed freak, but that does seem like a fairly long delay and would put me off somewhat
 
I must say when I heard of the latest Coolpix, I was hopeful that Nikon had got it right.
Hearing about the length of time to process has left me underwhelmed and I'm not even going to bother looking at one.

What's more annoying is that Nikon have a problem with processing raw files- switch a D300 to 14 bit and the frame rate drops to around 2.5fps. Do the same with a 50D and the frame rate is unaffected.

No doubt Nikon will say that the situations where people use the 7000 don't require fast processing of raw files- all that means is 'we don't know how to solve it'.

It pains me to say it but they should headhunt a Canon engineer and show them how to write some code- ignore their noise algorithms though of course:lol:
 
I have a G11 and I have no problems using ISO 800 out the camera and wont mind bumping up to ISO 1600 if I am going to tidy it up in PP. ISO 3200 is pretty much useless though. I believe the Nikon uses the same 10MP Sony sensor as the Canon G11 / G12, so it should take really good images.

I usually use the camera in programme mode, and will set the ISO and any picture style. Adjusting the aperture isn't worth the hassle on a small sensor, and IQ is good enough to set the correct shutter speed.

In good light these cameras will easily match Canon 350D / 20D and Nikon D40X
 
A review in Amateur Photographer of the G12 made a good point - have Canon gone as far as they can with this type of camera, when almost everyone else (apart from Nikon) are going down the route of the G1 / PEN / NEX.
I use an LX-3 so I don't know how the image quality and functionality compares with a G1 etc, but I'd have thought that a bigger sensor can only be a good thing in terms of noise, etc.
 
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