coolpix 8400

is coolpix 8400 a very good camera?

can this digital camera be consider of having lot of manual control?

All I can tell you is that the 8400 is one of the digital cameras that has a small sensor with

way too many megapixels on it. I have a 5400, which is very similar, only with 5 megapixels

instead of 8, and I have all kinds of problems with noise, CA, and blown highlights. I have

read in many places that these problems only get worse with the extra megapixels.

 

I don't know if one can still be found anywhere, but as recently as a few months ago you

could get a 5400, which I think is very similar, for $300 with rebates. Good luck.

<DD>I bought an 8400 to carry around places where i wouldn't want to carry my other cameras.<BR>

<DD>It's small, doesn't attract a lot of attention. I can use my SB800's & SB600's on it in a jam. <BR>

Its got a wide-angle lens!<BR>

I know a lot of people don't like the video feature, but I think its great..!<BR>

Unfortunately, the fotos do have that "jammed too many pixels into a small sensor" look. It is hard to describe.<BR>

I get a lot of blue fotos like the white balance is off. <BR>

Overall, I would recommend this camera for what it is: a nice point and shoot.<BR>

Jimi

Lots of water have passed under the bridge since the Nikon 8400 came out. You might conside the recently introduced Canon Powershot A620, if you can work with a small sensor.

 

http://dcresource.com/reviews/canon/powershot_a620-review/index.shtml

 

http://reviews.cnet.com/Canon_PowerShot_A620/4505-6501_7-31475447-2.html?tag=top

I bought one and returned it. It was a bit too slow for me after using a DSLR. I wanted to

replace my heavy DSLR as a walk about camera. On the plus side, it can zoom up to

24mm making it one of the widest P&S.

What are you using it for? If it is action photography, forget about it. If it is landscapes, then I think it's great. I have been using it for the last year and I love it (you can see my portfolio for examples). If you use it at ISO 50, the images are virtually noise-free. I have taken 1 minute exposures inside a cave and there is no noise. The lens is superb at ~f6, giving you a great depth-of-field. The photos from 8400 beat drum-scanned velvia in every respect (IMO).

Sadly Nikon do not seem to be up with the play with regard to fast turnaround between shots like others, notably Panasonic FZ and LX series cameras in my experience, but of course the lenses are superb.

 

The 5n00 and 8n00 cameras are not good for any action work if you expect to simply look and press the trigger ... but if you know what is likely to happen and anticipate and pre-focus you will find them as fast to take the shot as any .... but you cannot simply press the trigger down like a film camera does.

 

I would rate the 8400 as a very good camera but there are others better in some respects. No camera will do everything and it depends a lot on what you intend to do with it as to if you will be happy with it.

i just would like something else than the sony dsc w15 i just bought(my first

digital camera)

something bigger that you can at least grab correctly in your hands and with

more controls

im pretty disapointed with the dsc w15 manual controls, like for the flash it has

: flash - flash and flash +, i get almost the same result.

Momo, your portfolio certainly proves that one can get very nice results with the 8400.

ok so i get that the 8400 its not a camera for capturing action, why is that? are

dslr the only ones in the digital field that capture action professionaly?

As I see it only the specialised Canon nnn designed for the press boys can take 'snap' shots. [ not snapshots :-) ]

 

However for predicatable action the ball is in the photog's court to pre-set the camera, principally focus which is the thing which takes the most time, so they can press the trigger at the 'critical moment' .. pretty much as is done with film. The other 'pot-luck' solution is to use continuos shooting mode and hope the camera gets you a good shot ....for the inexperienced who do not know how to judge their re-action time probably a real boon.

 

The 8400 has this feature in a limited way. So even for action I'm sure it is a great camera if used properly :-) When I miss a shot I blame myself not the camera :-)

Why not action? Because the autofocus and the shutter lag are too slow. When I take pictures of my son on a swing, it takes 10 shots to get a good one. This is acceptable for such a situation, but if you are trying to capture events that occur only once, you will probably miss them. Also, you can only shoot once every second or so (in JPEG fine), which is not very fast.