Nikon S8000 Digital Camera – Black 3 inch LCD
Posted by Notcot on May 24, 2010 in Photography |
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It’s just amazing what can be crammed into a tiny camera these days. 14 megapixels, 720p video, stereo sound recording, 10 x optical zoom. Just amazing. But is any of it any good?
Well my first few days with this lovely little machine from Nikon are quite promising.
My normal shooting apparatus is a Nikon D300 DSLR, so the S8000 is going to be my everyday stand-by, handy for when I can’t/don’t want to carry the big beast with me, useful for events and the odd evening out, or just to be prepared for an interesting and unexpected shot. I’m not expecting it to match the full majesty of the D300 – that would be unreasonable in the extreme.
Most important of all, what is the picture quality like? So far: not bad at all. 14 megapixel on this camera compared to 11 or so on the D300, but of course there is no direct comparison: smaller chip, poorer glass, less advanced exposure system, less accurate auto-focus, blah blah. So no, the images aren’t a patch on the DSLR. Low ISO ratings are okay, but there is some noticeable noise quite low down in the ISO range – which is probably unavoidable. For this reason, I’d be pretty loathe to leave the S8000 in auto-ISO mode – you could end up with something horrible at a high ISO. Colours are good, sharpness is not bad at all, but I think you do see the deficiencies of trying to cram so many pixels onto such a small chip.
Exposure looks fine, the little built in flash seems quite acceptable, and focussing seems quick and efficient. I haven’t tried all the funky little modes, and probably never will to be honest.
Video: really surprisingly good. Don’t expect dazzling HD; you get some lack of sharpness, some image movement, but overall it’s actually amazingly good from such a tiny little machine. I can definitely see myself making use of this in any number of situations.
Handling and build: seems solid, or as solid as such a tiny, lightweight little electronic wonder can be. The big rear screen seems a little exposed, but is presumably made of tough stuff. Note there is no viewfinder of any sort – I have yet to see how good the screen is in strong sunlight, which is often a problem. Controls are small, but my large fingers can cope admirably. Menus are clear and logical, and i have yet to resort to the manual(although I am used to the concepts, which helps). Cable connections are a little fiddly, and the USB on the base is a little oddly positioned – but works.
Overall, this seems like a great little camera, stuffed with features but with some Nikon quality behind it. I doubt if the compromises would be any less on any other machine of a similar type, and I think I’ll be happy with the S8000 as my number two machine.
Rating: 4 / 5
As I expected, prompt delivery and excellent service from Amazon.co.uk. Item arrived in a bigger package secured by brown paper inside the next day by express delivery, no complains here.
The camera works smoothly, very good photos in the light. However in the darker ambience its pixeled and not as sharp, you can still get on top of this by adjusting the settings (too many settings)
Overall doesn’t need a professional photographer, just some common sense and knowing your way around the menu.
One downside, which is not related to amazon. This camera comes with a one year standard warranty from Nikon, a new offer of 2 years warranty is currently out for cameras purchased before 2007. This is managed by an external company, when i tried to register for the 2 years warranty it was told that this particular model is not on their list as yet as it is a new product and asked me to call in 2 weeks, putting in mind that you have a 30 days window for registering the product for the extended warranty that doesn’t leave me much time.
HD movie recording is superb and after playing directly from the camera I was even happier. It comes equipped with a mini HDMI socket, but not a cable. AV cable is included
So if you are going to buy consider 1- A big SDHC card preferably class 6 not less than 8GB ( 16 GB will give you either 1 hour of full HD or around 4000 14MP photos) 2- A mini HDMI cable 3- A case that fits (camera dimensions can be found in the ad)
I would definitely recommend it)
Rating: 5 / 5
I ordered this camera for my birthday and it came in 1 day!
Firstly, the screen is huge and great. I love the little pop up flash aswell.
The zoom is amazing and sharp.
It is also very thin and light.
I would completely recommend it to everyone. there is not even 1 bad thing with it.
love it!
buy it!
Rating: 5 / 5
I bought this camera as a birthday present for my wife along with a ByteStor 16GB SDHC Class 6 Memory Card which has excellent reviews. The camera has serious problems. After HD recordings it constantly freezes for nearly a minute, and it mostly shuts down itself after the recording. I had to remove the battery to get it working again several times, because none of the buttons were responding. Yesterday we were out for a walk and we were recording videos and taking some pictures, after nearly 30 minutes of video (A few short clips) and less than 20 images it said that the memory was full and didn’t allow me to take another picture or video and I was shocked. When I came home, I put the SD card into my laptop saw that only 1.6 GB of the memory card was used and all the remaining space was still there! The file system for the memory card was FAT32, so theres no problem with that, since my computer was seeing it as a 16 GB disk.
I checked online and there’s no firmware update released for the product yet, so I am returning the item.
Rating: 2 / 5
I must say the zoom and video quality are very good, and it’s easy to use. LCD screen is sharp.
I was surprised to see that the colour of the camera was more like “champagne” than silver.
Some minor points if you are upgrading from an older camera :
-HD video files are massive,so you’ll need a high spec PC to play it properly
-14Mp photo files are 3Mb in size ! get a bigger hard drive.
but I find the following a bit of a let down :
- slow focus, so you’re likely to miss the moment especially taking photos of kids
- pop-up flash ! Always end up holding it down as it’s how I normally hold my canon ixus
The deal breaker was that I got a faulty camera because it shut down randomly, so had to be returned.
Rating: 3 / 5