It's about time Nikon made a P&S worth looking at (assuming it lives up to expectations). It's so big though! The G11 I had was just too chunky, and the P7000 is larger than that! I just got a LX5, and it may be the last P&S I buy for a very long time - leaves nothing to be desired in image quality or controls, imho, and is small.
Hopefully the P7000 is the first of many Nikon P&S's of this quality level. Looks like they listened and put out a nice camera.
it's only a little smaller than my GF1. still, it has got me trying to decide. the Canon S95 uses a smaller sensor to get the smaller body size but it shoots RAW and has 720p video too. that's also in the running even though i know the image quality will be worse because of the smaller sensor. i like the articulated LCD on the G11. the last Coolpix i liked was the 8400, which i still have. i had a P6000 for a little while. poor image quality at base ISO and a GPS unit that basically didn't work unless you were in the center of a clear field meant i had it for about 4 months.
sjms wrote:
its no space station. its a usable small camera for those who know how to use it.
It's bigger than the G-11 despite the lack of a articulated LCD screen. Pocketability is a key feature for me in this category. The 'G' cameras are too big for the sacrifice in IQ.
I'm going to wait for a G12, P7000, LX5 shootout.
Sep 08, 2010 at 11:38 AM
Andre Labonte Offline • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
I read on Gizmodo that it was also a CLS commander. Off camera wireless TTL flash? Wow, that makes it really really compelling for me. I assume you can also throw an SB400 on it for bounce flash.
I had a G11 for a few weeks and never learned to like it. It was a strange size that never made much sense to me. It was too big to be a pocket camera and added very little functionality over the S95. It certainly wasn't a replacement for a DSLR.
I decided to stick with my F31 for a while longer, and then replace it with something like the S95 or LX5. I'll give the P7000 a pass.
P7000 seems like a no go for me vs. the Panasonic LX5 (to which I plan on upgrading from my LX3).
Too bad Nikon settled for a 28mm equivalent wide end--the Panasonic's 24mm is for me the most-used focal length by far--and 28mm is very limiting. (Some people might find the opposite, of course, in that the Nikon will go much narrower at the long end--but if I'm in a long lens situation, I usually have my DSLRs). And while Nikon is offering a wide angle adapter, carrying and using a clunky adapter is not what P&S camera are about for me--if I want to change lenses, I have other cameras for that.
Also too bad they settled for f/2.8 instead of an f/2 lens, like the Lumix. That extra stop makes a difference.
The Nikon sensor looks to be about 4 percent smaller than the Lumix--though that calculation is imprecise because we are given only one dimension for each of the sensors, and the aspect ratios may differ. Not sure 4 percent is enough to make much of a difference, but in general, bigger sensors are good things. (Sensor sizes are .613" Lumix, .588" Nikon; convention is to state them them as fractions rather than decimals for some bizarre reason, but I find decimals more intuitive, hence the conversion.)
Lastly, the Nikon looks like a behemoth compared with the Lumix. I have a D700, a D200, and D40 to carry when I can. The P&S is for the other times. For a P&S, small size matters big time.
Lastly, unless Nikon had a really, really good reason for introducing yet another proprietary raw format, their executives should line up for a round of dope slapping. (The Lumix also has a proprietary raw format, which should also earn them a dope slap--but as far as I know, that company has at least stuck to one.)
--Chris
PS--I can think of an easy reason Nikon would find it useful to introduce yet another proprietary raw format. Few people would purchase a $180 software program (Nikon Capture NX2) for a $500 camera. Maybe the extra format will let them introduce a restricted raw converter that processes only the P&S raw format, without letting those of us with DSLRs get off cheap. Likely those of us who already own Capture NX2 will be able to use it for this camera, but they certainly wouldn't want to cannibalize sales of their higher end software product. If that's it, the execs should get two rounds of dope slapping.
