Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 12 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 4.5Mb.

The Nikon Coolpix P7800's image quality is excellent for a compact camera with a relatively small image sensor. The Nikon Coolpix P7800 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 3200 and finally the unusable 6400 setting.

The Nikon Coolpix P7800 handled chromatic aberrations excellently with limited purple fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations. The 12 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 P7800'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. The Active D-Lighting and Backlighting modes extract more detail from the shadow and highlight areas, while the various Picture Controls and Special Effects allow you to customise the look of your images in-camera.

Noise

The Nikon Coolpix P7800 has 8 sensitivity settings ranging from ISO 80 to ISO 6400 at full resolution.

JPEG	RAW
ISO 80 (100% Crop)	ISO 80 (100% Crop)
ISO 100 (100% Crop)	ISO 100 (100% Crop)
ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)
ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)
ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)
ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)
ISO 3200 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)
ISO 6400 (100% Crop)	ISO 6400 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The Nikon Coolpix P7800'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 two JPEG quality settings available and also support for the RAW format

Fine (4.32Mb) (100% Crop)	Normal (2.49Mb) (100% Crop)
RAW (25.8Mb) (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The Nikon Coolpix P7800 shows little purple fringing, with very limited effects in areas of high contrast as shown in the example below.

Chromatic Aberrations (100% Crop)

Macro

The Nikon Coolpix P7800 allows you to get as close as 2cms to your subject, in this case a Compact Flash card.

Macro	Macro (100% Crop)

Flash

The flash settings on the Nikon Coolpix P7800 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-angle 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.

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

Night

The Nikon Coolpix P7800'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 80.

Night	Night (100% Crop)

Vibration Reduction

The Nikon Coolpix P7800 has an vibration reduction mechanism, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, we 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.

Shutter Speed / Focal Length	Anti Shake Off (100% Crop)	Anti Shake On (100% Crop)
1/5th sec / 28mm
1/2 sec / 200mm

Active D-Lighting

Active D-Lighting improves the detail in both the highlight and shadow areas. There are three strengths available - Low, Normal and High - the effects of which can be seen below.

Off	Low
Normal	High

Backlighting

The Backlighting scene mode captures multiple frames at different exposures and and combines them into one image with greater dynamic range.

Off	Level 1
Level 2	Level 3

Picture Controls

The Nikon Coolpix P7800 has four preset Picture Controls and a Custom option, which allow you to tweak the look and feel of your images.

Standard	Neutral
Vivid	Monochrome

Special Effects

The Effects shooting mode offers a variety of 10 creative options, including a mechanically controlled Zoom exposure, Defocus during exposure and Cross processing.

Off	Creative Monochrome
Painting	Zoom Exposure
Defocus During Exposure	Cross Process
Soft	Nostalgic Sepia
High Key	Low Key
Selective Color (Red)

Panoramas

The Nikon Coolpix P7800 can capture panoramic images by simply "sweeping" the camera, with two widths on offer, Standard (180 degrees) and Wide (360 degrees).

Standard

Wide

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Nikon Coolpix P7800 camera, which were all taken using the 12 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 P7800 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 Nikon Coolpix P7800

Front of the Nikon Coolpix P7800 / Turned On

Front of the Nikon Coolpix P7800 / Flash Raised

Side of the Nikon Coolpix P7800

Side of the Nikon Coolpix P7800

Side of the Nikon Coolpix P7800

Side of the Nikon Coolpix P7800

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix P7800

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix P7800

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix P7800 / Image Displayed

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix P7800 / Turned On

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix P7800 / Shooting Menu

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix P7800 / Set Up Menu

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix P7800 / Special Effects Menu

Tilting LCD Screen

Tilting LCD Screen

Tilting LCD Screen

Top of the Nikon Coolpix P7800

Bottom of the Nikon Coolpix P7800

Side of the Nikon Coolpix P7800

Side of the Nikon Coolpix P7800

Front of the Nikon Coolpix P7800

Front of the Nikon Coolpix P7800

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The Nikon Coolpix P7800 is a very minor update of the previous P7700 model, principally adding a useful electronic viewfinder, which thankfully has enough resolution and scene coverage to make its inclusion worthwhile, although we would have liked an eye-sensor too. Other than a slight reconfiguration of the control layout to accommodate the EVF and a new 25fps video mode, the P7800 is virtually indistinguishable from the camera that it replaces. Unfortunately this includes the sluggish performance when shooting RAW files - if you use a really fast card, you almost won't notice, but be prepared for a long wait while the RAW image is written to a cheaper, slower card.

The P7800's control layout and handling are very similar to the P7700, offering a winning combination of dials and wheels, with the two Function buttons and the front and rear command dials in particular boosting the P7800's intuitiveness. There are so many ways of customising the camera to your own way of working that make the P7800 a photographer's dream from a handling point of view, and the replacement of the Function dial with a button on the rear doesn't detract from the overall handling experience.

The P7800 has an excellent LCD screen that's hinged on the side, making it much more versatile for image composition than either a fixed screen or a top-mounted screen. Other key features include the versatile 28-200mm zoom with fast f/2 aperture, 1080p movies at 30 or 25fps with stereo sound plus a port for an external mic, a built-in neutral density filter, zoom step feature, virtual horizon and GPS support via an optional accessory.

As with its predecessor, the P7800 offers excellent image quality, thanks largely to the adoption of a 1/1.7-inch CMOS 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 and certainly on a par with most of the P7800's main rivals.

In summary the 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...

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

Main Rivals

Listed below are some of the rivals of the Nikon Coolpix P7800.

Specifications

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