Nikon 8700 Questions

[Pooky125]

I'm looking into getting one these cameras, but before, I go and spend the 1000 dollars to purchase one, I would love it if anyone could give me some feedback about them. Anything anyone has to say about it, would be highly appreciated. Good, bad, ugly. I test one out today, and loved it, but if theres something I'm missing, I want to know about it.
Thanks all.
Lisa

[JCW3]

Over all the 8700 is a great camera. Nikon continued its sucess with the 5700 and designed its big brother around it. Actually the 8700 fixed alot of the small issues with older models.

You will find the over all layout to be similar to a SLR, just more compact. As far as controls go, you will have ALOT, actually more than some DSLR's even have.

The one quirk I have with the 5700/8700 is the moveing lens. Many cameras have retracting lenses, but they stay stationary while using. Nikon designed this lens to move in and out as you zoom. Its really not a issue for stand alone camera use, but when you want to add on extra lenses, it just makes it a little more complicated.

But if you would like to add a few filters or lenses, there are many adapters on the market that will solve the issue.

Nikons battery life is nothing to brag about. But you can easily change to batteries, or buy the extended handle which about triples the battery life.

I find the 8700 to have one of the best macro ranges for a camera with that large of a zoom range. But then again, thats what Nikons have been known to do best.

The lens is not the fastest at full zoom. What I mean is its got a open f-stop of 4.2 at full zoom. So sometimes in low light/max zoom conditions, its a little harder to hold than some of the other cameras which have faster lenses. But this all depends on your shooting needs. And the fix for that is a tripod or bumping the ISO rating.

One thing that I find with the 5700/8700 lens is the distortion. YOu will find the barrel distortion to be a little more than some other lenses. This can be fixed with software, but it is a issue.

The 8700 is a little noisy at ISO 100, but still very usable, but you will definatly start to notice it from 200 up. But most 8mp are none for that, so its not as big of a deal.