Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 10 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 4Mb.

The Nikon Coolpix P7000's image quality is excellent for a compact camera with a small image sensor. The Nikon Coolpix P7000's dealt very well with noise, which doesn't really become obvious until ISO 800. The noise, colour desaturation and loss of detail gets progressively worse as you go from ISO 800 to ISO 1600 and finally 3200 and the unusable 6400 setting.

The Nikon Coolpix P7000 handled chromatic aberrations excellently with limited purple fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations. The 10.1 megapixel images were a little soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpen setting and either require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you should increase the in-camera sharpening level.

The Nikon Coolpix P7000's maximum shutter speed is 60 seconds, which is excellent news for night photography enthusiasts, and the quality of the after-dark images is very good. Macro performance is one of the stand-out highlights, allowing you to focus as close as 2cms away from the subject, although there is a lot of lens distortion and shadowing at such a close distance.

Vibration reduction is a very useful feature that works very well when hand-holding the camera in low-light conditions or using the telephoto end of the zoom range. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and good overall exposure.

Noise

The Nikon Coolpix P7000 has 7 sensitivity settings ranging from ISO 100 to ISO 6400 at full resolution.

ISO 100 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)
ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)
ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)
ISO 6400 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The Nikon Coolpix P7000's 7.1x zoom lens provides a focal length of 28-200mm in 35mm terms, as demonstrated below.

28mm	200mm

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops - the right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are slightly soft at the default sharpening setting and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can alternatively change the in-camera sharpening level to suit your tastes.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

File Quality

At full resolution, there are three JPEG quality settings available including Normal, Fine and Basic.

Fine (4.19Mb) (100% Crop)	Normal (2.13Mb) (100% Crop)
Basic (1.07Mb) (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The Nikon Coolpix P7000 shows little purple fringing, with very limited effects in areas of high contrast as shown in the example below.

Example 1 (100% Crop)

Macro

The Nikon Coolpix P7000 allows you to get as close as 2cms to your subject, in this case a Compact Flash card.

Macro Shot	100% Crop

Flash

The flash settings on the Nikon Coolpix P7000 are Auto, Auto with Red-eye reduction, Fill Flash, Manual (Full, 1/2, 1/4 1/8, 1/16, 1/32 and 1/64), Slow Sync, Rear-curtain Sync and Flash Off. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m. Some vignetting and barrel distortion is apparent at the 28mm wide-anlge setting, irrespective of whether you use the flash or not.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (28mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (28mm)
Flash Off - Telephoto (200mm)	Flash On - Telephoto (200mm)

And here are a couple of portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Fill Flash or the Auto with Red-eye reduction options caused any amount of red-eye, althought thw white balance is noticeably different.

Flash On	Flash On (100% Crop)
Red Eye Reduction	Red Eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The Nikon Coolpix P7000's maximum shutter speed is 60 seconds in the Manual mode, which is excellent news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 15 seconds at ISO 100.

Night Shot	Night Shot (100% Crop)

Vibration Reduction

The Nikon Coolpix P7000 has an vibration reduction mechanism, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the lens set to the same focal length and ISO speed. The first shot was taken with vibration reduction turned off, the second with it turned on. As you can see, with vibration reduction turned on, the images are definitely sharper than with vibration reduction turned off. This feature really does seem to make a difference and could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot or missing the opportunity altogether. Here is a 100% crop of the images to show the results.

Shutter Speed / Focal Length	Anti Shake Off (100% Crop)	Anti Shake On (100% Crop)
1/8 sec / 28mm
1/2 sec / 200mm

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Nikon Coolpix P7000 camera, which were all taken using the 10 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample RAW Images

The Nikon Coolpix P7000 enables users to capture RAW and JPEG format files. We've provided some Nikon RAW (NRW) samples for you to download (thumbnail images shown below are not 100% representative).

Sample Movie & Video

Product Images

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera / Turned On

Isometric View

Isometric View

Rear of the Camera

Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed

Rear of the Camera / Turned On

Rear of the Camera / Playback Menu

Rear of the Camera / Shooting Menu

Rear of the Camera /ISO Menu

Top of the Camera

Bottom of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The Nikon Coolpix P7000 is something of a flawed gem. While we love the handling, with its wealth of clever external controls, and the excellent image quality, the painfully slow RAW processing speeds are a real let-down for a camera that purports to offer a DSLR-experience.

Put the P7000 side-by-side with the new Canon PowerShot G12 and you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference, signalling Nikon's intent to finally get serious with its Coolpix range and take on the long-established leader in the prosumer compact camera market. Nikon's design team have taken advantage of the P7000's larger footprint to implement a winning combination of dials and wheels that make using this camera a breeze for the more experienced user that it's clearly targeted at. Add in the numerous ways of customising the camera to your own way of working, and it's clear that the P7000 is a real photographer's dream, at least from a handling point of view.

This truism continues with the P7000's excellent image quality, thanks largely to the adoption of a sensible 10 megapixel sensor that's physically larger than the one inside most compact cameras. There's no unwanted noise at ISO 100-400, with a little appearing at 800 and 1600 still being perfectly usable, which is a great performance from a 1/1.7-inch sensor and certainly on a par with the P7000's main rivals.

The P7000's feature list also ticks all the right boxes, with an excellent LCD screen, a 28-200mm zoom that's more versatile than the G12's, 720p movies with stereo sound plus a port for an external mic, and even a true optical viewfinder for the purist. Nikon have also added some clever touches such as the neutral density filter, zoom step feature, virtual horizon and tonal range histogram which all add to the P7000's eminent suitability as a pocket camera for pro shooters.

Unfortunately the same can't be said about the RAW performance, arguably an essential part of most serious photographer's workflow. Firstly, Nikon have changed the RAW format again, with the new NRW+ currently only supported by Nikon's own software. Secondly, the burst shooting speed is a rather lackluster 1fps for a maximum of 5 frames. Thirdly and most crucially, the P7000 takes 5 seconds to process a single RAW file and 15 seconds to process a burst of 5 frames, during which the camera locks-up entirely. This is simply too slow on a camera that is trying to be a DSLR in compact form, especially when the P7000's main rivals don't suffer from the same problem.

Unlike the previous P6000 model, price can't save the day for the P7000 either, with the RRP of £489.99 / €580.00 / $499.95 putting it into direct competition with both the Canon PowerShot G12, Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5, several entry-level DSLRs and the new wave of Compact System Cameras from Panasonic, Sony, Olympus et al. We're still very impressed by the new Coolpix P7000, which represents the best-ever pro-level Nikon compact - we're just ultimately put off by that why-am-I-waiting RAW mode...

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4.5
Features	4.5
Ease-of-use	4.5
Image quality	4.5
Value for money	3.5

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Nikon Coolpix P7000 from around the web.

Specifications

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