18 out of 18 people found this review helpful.
Great Camera Except for... Updated 11/19/00!
Date of Review: Sep 8, 2000
Updated 11/19/00: This was my very first opinion and my ratings reflected it. : ) So I decided to revise it so that the review can be more helpful to others.
I've used this camera heavily for over a month now. My first digital camera was the Toshiba PDR-M4. I was really disappointed that the Toshiba seemed to underexpose every one of my pictures. I decided then to buy a Nikon because it's name practically says "quality".
The Nikon Coolpix 800 did not disappoint me with it's great outdoor pictures. Unlike the Toshiba where I had to use an image editor for almost every single photo, with the Nikon almost all the photos are ready to print. The exception to great photos are the ones taken with it's weak flash.
The 800's weak flash has to be the one and greatest flaws in the camera. The flash is pretty much useless over 8 feet. I found that manually boosting the iso to 200 or 400 helps significantly. However, this results in a degradation in picture quality. ISO 200 seems acceptable for 4 x 6 printing and even ISO 400 could be considered acceptable. I have never tried to print ISO 200 photos greater than 4x6 so you never know!
The camera comes with a 2X optical zoom. Don't be fooled by cameras advertising digital zoom. Digital zoom is absolutely useless. Digital zoom is essentially the same as taking a picture and then using a photo editor to crop and enlarge. As many of you know, this results in a loss of picture quality. The Nikon 800 is equipped with a digital zoom also, 3X I believe, but I never use it because I figure that I can always just use a photo editor to crop later on.
The camera uses CompactFlash memory cards as it's storage device. In my experience Smartmedia cards seem to be less expensive. However, Smartmedia cards are not as sturdy as CompactFlash Cards. One of the biggest flaws of the Smartmedia cards is that it's contact point (the point where the Smartmedia card makes contact with the sensors of the camera) is exposed. I used to own a camera that used Smartmedia cards and I observed that the contact point seemed to show wear after just 4 months of extensive use. It wasn't too serious of a wear, but I was able to see scratches forming already. I really doubt normal use will produce wear that will make the Smartmedia card inoperable, but what if you accidentally scratch it with a sharp object? This is all really hypothethical, but the point is that the CompactFlash seems much more durable.
The camera comes with a great white balancing system. The white balancing system is essentially the part of the camera that "recognizes" true whites in a picture and sets them as that. This is a really important part of a camera because it essentially sets the whole tone of the colors that the camera produces. Fortunately, the camera does a great job most of the time. There are some situations that are so complex that it tricks the camera. Fortunately, it is easy to catch in the lcd and be corrected by the many manual white balancing controls on the camera.
This camera lacks shutter priority and aperature priority. Though this feature will probably be never used by a beginning photographer, more experienced photographers will definitely want it so that they can achieve the "exact" photo they want. The lack of this feature is not exactly a "flaw" because this camera was never intended for advanced users. Advanced users should look into the Nikon 950, Nikon 990, or Sony S-70. They are great cameras that are loaded with manual features. Of course these cameras cost a lot more than the economical Coolpix 800.
If you are considering buying this camera just remember it's limitations. Don't forget that in daylight it takes great pictures! It's picture quality is comparable to the Coolpix 950, which is highly rated. There is not one camera out there that is perfect so you will have to pick and choose depending on what you want and are willing to give up. Despite the weak flash I still think that the Coolpix 800 is a great camera and a steal with the $75 Rebate! ( 11/19/00. I just got the rebate 5 days ago. It took about 3 months. Yeesh.. Well at least I finally got it.)
