Nikon Coolpix 8700

Great resolution and detail, with accurate color. A bit too much contrast though.

The extreme tonal range of this image makes it a tough shot for many digicams, which is precisely why I set it up this way, and why I shoot it with no fill flash or reflector to open the shadows. The object is to hold both highlight and shadow detail without producing a "flat" picture with muddy colors, and the Coolpix 8700 handled the challenge pretty well.

The shot at right was taken with a +0.7 EV exposure compensation adjustment, produced reasonably open midtones, but lost detail in the strong highlights due to the high default contrast. I also shot with the camera's low contrast setting, but with only limited success. (See the comparison below.) I chose the Auto white balance setting as the most accurate overall, as the Daylight setting was a little cool, and the Manual setting a little warm.

Color is quite good throughout the frame, with good skin tones. The blue flowers of the bouquet are a little darker than they are in real life, but without any strong purplish tints. (This is a difficult blue for many digicams to capture, but the Coolpix 8700 did very well with it.) Colors are bright and vibrant, despite the blown highlights. Resolution is very high, and detail is strong in the flowers and on Marti's face, even in the shadows. Image noise is pretty good, lower than I'd expected, given the camera's 8 megapixel sensor.

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.0 EV, see files CP87OUTAP0.HTM through CP87OUTAP3.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

As mentioned above, I played with the 8700's contrast adjustment control somewhat, hoping for an option that would reduce the camera's somewhat high default contrast. What I found was that (in this shot, at least), the contrast control only darkened the image overall. When I adjusted the exposure back up to match the image brightness of the "normal" contrast shots, the "low contrast" images looked every bit as contrasty as the "normal" ones. The earlier 5700 model had this same problem, it's a shame that Nikon couldn't have corrected it in this model. - The combination of high default contrast and the lack of an effective contrast adjustment puts the 8700 at a disadvantage relative to other 8 megapixel models currently on the market.

Contrast Adjustment
Normal Contrast +0.7 EV exposure compensation	"Low" Contrast +1.0 EV exposure compensation
Contrast was high with the camera's default setting, under the deliberately harsh lighting of this test.	Shooting with the Low Contrast setting ultimately produced almost no difference in the contrast. It darkened the image overall, but once the exposure had been adjusted to produce the same overall brightness as the image at left, the contrast looked exactly the same.

Saturation Series:
Unlike its contrast adjustment, the Coolpix 8700's saturation control worked very well, producing a useful range of variation in the color saturation of its images. (This set of shots is a bit brighter than it would ideally be. I shot them with +0.7EV of exposure compensation, because the versions I shot with only +0.3 EV were rather dark, making it a little difficult to see the results of the saturation adjustments..)

Saturation Series
Lowest	Low	Normal	High	Highest

Excellent resolution and detail, and no distortion from the 8x lens. Once again, high contrast in response to the harsh lighting though.

This close-up shot looks similar to the wider shot above, with fairly high contrast. Despite the high contrast, midtone detail is good. The shot at right was taken with a +0.7 EV exposure compensation adjustment, a little more than I generally find necessary on this shot. Even an exposure compensation of +0.3 EV produced very dark shadows though, so I opted to go with the +0.7 EV shot for the main example. The Coolpix 8700 features an 8x zoom lens, which helps avoid distortion of Marti's features. Detail is strong and well-defined in Marti's face and hair, thanks to the 8700's high resolution and sharp lens.

To view the entire exposure series from +0.3 to +1.0 EV, see files CP87OUTFACP1.HTM through CP87OUTFACP3.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Normal Flash +0.7 EV

Slow-Sync Mode +0.3 EV

Good intensity and coverage with the built-in flash, with excellent color as well.

The Coolpix 8700's built-in flash illuminated the subject fairly well at its default exposure setting, though I obtained the best exposure with a +0.7 EV exposure compensation adjustment. Color is pretty good, with a good white value on Marti's shirt and realistic results in the flower bouquet. The highlights are a little strong here though, but I felt the version with only +0.3 EV was too dark overall. I also shot with the camera's Slow-Sync flash mode, choosing a +0.3 EV exposure compensation boost, though the default exposure setting also looked pretty good. The longer exposure time allows more ambient light into the image, which resulted in a slight warm cast from the background incandescent household lighting, but overall the onboard flash blended very well with the room lighting, and overall color was still quite good.

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.3 EV, see files CP87INFP0.HTM through CP87INFP4.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Auto White Balance

Incandescent White Balance

Manual White Balance

An unusually good job: Very slight color casts, but still really good color overall. Average exposure accuracy.

This shot is always a very tough test of a camera's white balance capability, given the strong, yellowish color cast of the household incandescent bulbs used for the lighting. The Coolpix 8700's Auto white balance produced the best overall color here, despite a slight reddish cast on the white shirt. - This is much better than most cameras manage on this shot though. The Manual setting also produced good results, albeit with a more greenish tint, and the Incandescent setting resulted in a warm cast. I chose a +1.0 EV exposure compensation adjustment for the main image. (Here's a sample image at the default exposure.) Color looks nearly accurate, even in the difficult blue flowers. (There is a slight purplish tint to them, but that's to be expected given the difficult light source.)


ISO Series:
Noise is fairly low at the Coolpix 8700's 50 ISO setting, acceptable at ISO 100, becomes noticeable at ISO 200, and is quite objectionable at ISO 400, with a very distracting grain pattern.

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Excellent color, resolution, and detail.

For this shot, I chose the Coolpix 8700's Manual white balance setting, despite a very slight cool cast overall. The Auto setting also looked good, though slightly reddish, and the Daylight setting resulted in a warmer, yellow cast. Despite the cool tone in the bricks and grass, overall color looks really good. Resolution is very high, with excellent detail. The tree limbs above the roof and shrubbery in front of the house show great detail, as does the house front itself. (Look at the shadow patterns in the bricks.) The Coolpix 8700's 8.31-megapixel CCD clearly stretches the limits of this poster as a test target, even though the poster was made from a 500MB scan of a 4x5 negative shot with a tack-sharp lens. Details are sharp practically from corner to corner.

Excellent resolution and detail, with high contrast but decent dynamic range.

This image is shot at infinity to test far-field lens performance. NOTE that this image cannot be directly compared to the other "house" shot, which is a poster, shot in the studio. The rendering of detail in the poster will be very different than in this shot, and color values (and even the presence or absence of leaves on the trees!) will vary in this subject as the seasons progress. In general though, you can evaluate detail in the bricks, shingles and window detail, and in the tree branches against the sky. Compression artifacts are most likely to show in the trim along the edge of the roof, in the bricks, or in the relatively "flat" areas in the windows.

This is my ultimate "resolution shot," given the infinite range of detail in a natural scene like this, and the Coolpix 8700 does an excellent job. The tree limbs over the roof and fine foliage in front of the house show strong detail, with fine definition in the leaf patterns. The house front details are also well-defined. The image is pretty sharp from corner to corner, with only a little softness in the corners, but noticeable amounts of chromatic aberration. In-camera sharpening does a pretty good job, with crisp details throughout the frame, but some tendency to produce halos around high-contrast edges at its default setting. The bright white paint surrounding the bay window is a bit blown out (a trouble spot for many digicams), but there's surprisingly good detail in the deep shadows near the door. Color is quite good overall, well-saturated yet accurate. (Here's a sample image at the Black and White setting, for those who may be interested.) The table below shows a standard resolution and quality series, followed by ISO, sharpness, contrast, and saturation series.

Resolution Series:

ISO Series:
As with the indoor shots above, noise is pretty low at ISO 50, becomes noticeable at ISO 200, and is pretty objectionable at ISO 400.

Sharpness Series:
As I noted above, the 8700's default sharpening is a little heavy-handed for onscreen viewing or optimal detail rendition. (Although probably nearly ideal for making 8x10 prints.) I found excellent results though, turning the in-camera sharpening off then applying very strong unsharp masking in Photoshop, with a very small radius. (200% with a radius of 0.3 pixels.) The combination of 8 megapixel sensor and sharp lens records a tremendous amount of detail!

Saturation Series:
The Coolpix 8700's saturation adjustment works very well, offering fairly subtle steps of adjustment, across a photographically useful range of color saturation. (Useful for tweaking the camera's response for normal shooting, rather than being limited to use as a special effect.)

Saturation Series
Lowest	Low	Normal	High	Highest

Contrast Series:
As I observed earlier, the 8700's contrast control is a little problematic. The high contrast setting works as expected, but the "low contrast" option only reduces overall brightness, without actually reducing contrast. (At least, as far as my eyes can tell.)

Contrast Series
Low	Normal	High

Lens Zoom Range

Excellent 8x zoom range.

I routinely shoot this series of images to show the field of view for each camera, with the lens at full wide angle, at maximum telephoto (8x, in this case), and at full telephoto with the digital zoom enabled. The Coolpix 8700's lens is equivalent to a 35-280mm zoom on a 35mm camera. That corresponds to a moderate wide angle to a pretty substantial telephoto. Following are the results at each zoom setting.

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Good color with the Daylight white balance, excellent resolution.

This shot is often a tough test for digicams, as the abundance of blue in the composition frequently tricks white balance systems into producing a warm color balance. The Coolpix 8700's Daylight white balance setting did the best job here, producing the most accurate overall color balance. (The Auto setting fell prey to the overabundance of blue, producing an image that was much too warm, while the Manual setting resulted in an image that was too cool.) The blue robe is about right, with only faint purplish tints in the deep shadows. Resolution is excellent, and detail is strong in the embroidery of the blue robe, as well as in the other small details of the composition. (The original data file for this poster was only 20MB though, so cameras like the Coolpix 8700 are definitely capable of showing more detail than the poster has in it. - Don't look at this test for any indication of resolution, only color in the skin tones.)

Standard Macro Shot

Macro with Flash

A *very* tiny macro area with good detail in the dollar bill. Flash is blocked by the lens, however.

The Coolpix 8700 performed very well in the macro category (as do most Nikon digicams), capturing a minimum area of only 0.87 x 1.16 inches (22 x 29 millimeters). Resolution is very high, showing a lot of fine detail in the printing of the dollar bill. Details are well-defined, though corner softness is strong in all four corners. The position of the 8700's flash and the long lens barrel result in a dark shadow throughout most of the frame. (Plan on using external illumination for the closest macro shots with the Coolpix 8700.)

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Great color and detail, despite a slight overexposure.

I chose the Coolpix 8700's Manual white balance setting for this shot, though the Auto option also produced good results (just slightly reddish). The Daylight setting resulted in a more pronounced warm cast. The exposure here is just a little bright, but the camera distinguishes the subtle tonal variations of the Q60 target without difficulty. Colors are nearly accurate in the large color blocks, with good saturation. (Here's a shot with the camera's Black and White option as well.) The shadow area of the charcoal briquettes shows good detail, with low noise, and the last steps of the vertical gray scales are also visible. A great job overall.


(I've commented on the capture options referenced by the tables below in the previous tests on this page, so there's not really any need for additional commentary here. The known and highly-saturated colors of the MacBeth chart and the wide dynamic range of the DaveBox's other elements make this a good target for evaluating color accuracy, noise levels, and dynamic range, though...)

ISO Series:

Sharpness Series:

Saturation Series:

Saturation Series
Lowest	Low	Normal	High	Highest

Contrast Series:

Contrast Series
Low	Normal	High

Low-Light Tests

Excellent low-light shooting capabilities, with pretty good color.

The Coolpix 8700 produced clear, bright, usable images down to the 1/16 foot-candle (0.67 lux) limit of my test, with good color across the board. (Note though, that I had to use the Bulb mode for exposure times longer than 8 seconds, which could be a handicap at the lowest light levels.) The 8700 features an optional Noise Reduction system, but I was really hard-pressed to see any change in image noise with it turned on or off. - The good news with that though, is that the 8700 produces very "clean" images on long exposures, even without a noise reduction system engaged. (Very impressive.) The 8700's EVF is also better under low light conditions than most I've tested, usable down to 1/8 foot-candle, a good 3 f-stops darker than typical city night scenes. With an autofocus assist light, the 8700 is capable of focusing in total darkness, but in practice I found that it did much better at wide angle, with at least some background illumination, and definitely worked best with subjects having sharply-defined, high-contrast detail. In the dark, at telephoto zoom settings, and with less-contrasty subjects, focus could be pretty hit-or-miss. The table below shows the best exposure I was able to obtain for each of a range of illumination levels. Images in this table (like all my sample photos) are untouched, exactly as they came from the camera.

Flash Range Test

Good intensity to the 10-foot distance at ISO 50, with slowly decreasing exposure from there. (ISO 100 would yield coverage to about 14 feet.)

In my testing, the Coolpix 8700's flash illuminated the test target all the way out to 14 feet, though with slight decreases in intensity from 10 feet on. Below is the flash range series, with distances from eight to 14 feet from the target.

8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft	12 ft	13 ft	14 ft
1/ 120 secs F3.7	1/ 120 secs F3.7	1/ 120 secs F3.8	1/ 253 secs F3.9	1/ 253 secs F4	1/ 253 secs F4	1/ 253 secs F4.1

ISO-12233 (WG-18) Resolution Test

Very high resolution, 1,600-1,650 lines of "strong detail." Average barrel distortion, though pincushion is low.

The Coolpix 8700 performed very well on the "laboratory" resolution test chart. It didn't start showing artifacts in the test patterns until resolutions as high as 1,200-1,300 lines per picture height, in both horizontal and vertical directions. I found "strong detail" out to at least 1,600 lines, although some might perhaps argue for as high as 1,700 lines along the horizontal axis. "Extinction" of the target patterns didn't occur until right at 2,000 lines, although some detail is still visible here.

Optical distortion on the Coolpix 8700 is about average at the wide-angle end, where I measured an approximate 0.7 percent barrel distortion. The telephoto end fared better, as I measured a 0.2 percent pincushion distortion. Chromatic aberration is fairly high, showing about six pixels of fairly bright coloration on either side of the target lines in the wide angle shot. (This distortion is visible as a very slight colored fringe around the objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target.)

Resolution Series, Wide Angle

Wide Angle	"Fine" JPEG	"Normal" JPEG	"Economy" JPEG
3,264 x 2,448	CP87RESW8F	CP87RESW8N	CP87RESW8E
2,592 x 1,944	CP87RESW5F	-	-
2,048 x 1,536	CP87RESW3F	-	-
1,600 x 1,200	CP87RESW2F	-	-
1,280 x 960	CP87RESW1F	-	-
640 x 480	CP87RESWTF	-	-

Resolution Test, Telephoto

3,264 x 2,448 (Fine, Tele)

CP87REST8F