Nikon Coolpix 8400: A Wide Angle Solution

Final Words

All in all, the Nikon Coolpix 8400 has quite a bit to offer. The camera has a solid, well-constructed body in a conveniently portable size. As the widest angle digicam currently on the market, it can shoot images at 24 - 85 mm with an 8 megapixel resolution. The 8400 has all the recording modes that we expect from modern advanced digicams including full Auto, Programmed-Auto, Shutter-priority, Aperture-priority, Manual, Scene, and Movie.

During our review, we discovered that the 8400 puts in an impressive resolution performance. In addition, the Auto WB system performs better than most digicams that we've tested thus far. In daylight, the Auto WB system is extremely accurate. In our general image quality samples, the 8400 appears to be immune to purple fringing. Also, when we compared a raw TIFF image to a JPEG/Extra image, we were hard-pressed to see any substantial differences. This is significant because the downfall of many digicams is their over-compression of JPEG files, resulting in unsightly artifacts. Other good points about the camera were its decent battery performance and very effective built-in red-eye reduction. In addition, we were fairly impressed with the 8400's shutter lag times.

However, we also discovered some negative points during our testing. The camera took a longer-than-average 4.3 seconds (best case) to power up and take its first shot. Also, we were surprised at the generally slow cycle times of this camera. The fastest cycle time was 2.5 seconds between JPEG/Extra frames. When the flash was enabled, this time slowed to 8.5 seconds. Of course, in RAW and TIFF modes, these times were significantly slower. Clearly, this camera was not designed with speed as a top priority. Although it was not a major problem, we did notice the appearance of very mild jaggies on some of our sample images. Also, in some of our samples, we found that there was some blurring near the edges/corners. With the bundled PictureProject software, we discovered that the application would crash whenever we tried to export from a RAW file. In movie mode, we also noticed an audio lag when VR (vibration reduction) was disabled.

Despite the shortcomings of the Coolpix 8400, we are impressed with its overall performance. All of our sample images taken with the camera were evenly exposed with high detail and accurate color reproduction. For someone looking for a high-quality wide angle solution to meet their photography needs, the 8400 will most likely fill the position so long as speed is not the largest factor.

Pros	Cons
- Great resolution performance - Very wide angle lens - Decent Auto WB (very good in the sun) - Good shutter lag times No purple fringing - "Extra" setting offers low compression JPEG - Decent battery life Unlimited movie duration at 320x240 - Excellent in-camera red-eye reduction	- Slightly below average startup time - Slow Shot to Shot w/Flash time - Generally unimpressive cycle times - Slight jaggies visible in some images - Blurring at edges/corners - Audio lag in movie mode with VR disabled - Movies limited to 60 sec at 640x480 Could not convert RAW files with software

Thanks again to Newegg.com for loaning us the Nikon Coolpix 8400 for review.