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Photograph: Rick Rizner
Nikon Coolpix 8400
- Spec Navigator
- Digital Format
- Display
- Exposure
- Image Processor
- Lens
- Shutter
- Storage
- LCD Screen
- Exposure Controls
- Dimensions
- Power
- Flash
- Lens Features
- Connectivity
- Other Features
Image Processor
| Number of image sensor pixels | 8 megapixels |
| Image sensor | CCD |
| Maximum horizontal image resolution | 3264 |
| Maximum vertical image resolution | 2448 |
| Image sensor quantity | 1 |
| Image format |
|
| White balance | 0 |
Exposure Controls
| Maximum shutter speed | 3000 |
| Minimum shutter speed | 8 |
| Bulb setting | 0 |
| ISO equivalencies |
|
| Exposure settings | 0 |
| Exposure compensation range | 0 |
| Number of scene modes | 15 |
Pros
High image quality
Very wide angle lens
Cons
Uncomfortable to hold
Middling battery life
Bottom Line
Relatively compact, and the standard lens offers a very wide angle of 24mm.
Nikon Coolpix 8400
Coolpix 8400 Review, by Anush Yegyazarian January 4, 2005
The 3.5X optical lens on Nikon's new $900 Coolpix 8400 starts at 24mm--the widest angle in its class, and excellent for shooting massive monuments and vast landscapes.
Our panel of judges admired the high-quality shots the 8400 produced. It ranked third in the group for sharpness and for overall picture quality. Color precision was slightly less impressive, but still very good. The 8400's sibling, the Coolpix 8800 (which we tested at the same time), also turned in high-quality shots, but it substitutes 10X optical zoom for the wide-angle lens.
You'll have to spend some time learning the controls on the Nikon. The menus, though not hopelessly labyrinthine, can seem that way. The 20-plus items in the main menu betray no organizing principle. Customizing the My Menu option, let us put our six most-used settings at the top of the main menu.
The camera's magnesium alloy body, relatively light at 16.5 ounces, fit nicely in the hand, with a rubberized grip for comfortable holding. And the buttons, dials, and Jog Dial-type "multi selector" controls are conveniently located and easy to operate. Regrettably, the ring for the camera strap on the right side can dig into your hand if you don't hold it in exactly the right way.
The 3.5X optical zoom and 4X digital zoom are adequate, though not impressive on an 8-megapixel camera. The 1.8-inch LCD swings out and rotates a full 180 degrees, but it's small for a camera in the 8400's price range. You also get an electronic viewfinder, with easy-to-adjust focus controls. Both offer good color and relatively sharp picture quality in the image preview.
Users who don't want to fiddle constantly with white balance, image contrast, aperture, and dozens of other settings will find a good range of automatic options, including 15 presets for specific shooting situations like fireworks displays, night landscape and backlit subjects. You also have the usual "tweener" settings, like aperture priority and shutter priority, if you don't want to go fully automatic or fully manual.
The 8400 theoretically lets you store two user-designated settings for specific shooting conditions. It would have been nice to get a few more--and to get more than one that behaves like a typical saved setting. All changes you make to settings while in manual mode get stored in whichever of the two User Settings you happen to be in. You can successfully store a set of values in Setting Two if you're careful to use that setting only under your chosen conditions, but Setting One will inevitably reflect the last manual shot you take. The camera's auto-bracketing, which includes both exposure and white balance, is a bit better than that of many cameras in its class, but the manual focus is somewhat awkward and slow: You hold down a button and spin and spin the selection dial.
Nikon also includes a Best Shot Selector--after taking an initial reading to set focus, exposure, and white balance, the camera turns off the flash and snaps a series of up to 10 shots of the subject, selecting the one with the best detail and sharpness to save. Nikon recommends using this feature in situations where you can't use the flash and where accidental movement may blur the picture. As you might expect, Nikon's idea of a best shot may differ from yours.
The rechargeable lithium ion battery lasted nearly 3 hours, a middling result. The wireless remote is a nice step up from an autotimer. The unit comes without media.
Upshot: Wide-angle lens lovers should be thrilled with the shots the Coolpix 8400 can take. It's a powerful, flexible camera; but like many other Nikons, it's not the easiest or fastest advanced camera to use.
Anush Yegyazarian
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User Reviews
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User Reviews From Around the Web
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Reviewed by: 8400
Strengths: RAW
Weaknesses: Wide angle lens is very wide.bad focus, nasty color even in RAW
Overall: I also bought this camera from Ritz for the price.I must say the images are good even better in RAW but at 300DPI they are very small images and don't print well. The wide angle lens is hard to use for normal shooting of buildings and people. The wide angle lens also makes shallow DOF very hard to achieve even at full tele position. I had to use a tele converter to conquer this. Macro is not as close as stated or very detailed.I really don't like this camera at all.I have Minolta Dimage 7 and Z1 and Z6 so my Nikon coolpix 8400 never gets used, I did lug it around for about 6months and shoot around 2200 images and of those only 1/4 where betterphoto quality.I have found that if shooting trains or landscapes are your thing then the 8400 is good. For all else, it is a bad camera as the wide angle lens is so wide that buildings look round and DOF is a hit or miss but never shallow.The manual functions are meeker and the f-stop is variable and the manual focus is well shabby to say the least. Image colors are blocky and not solid.
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Reviewed by: gladiatorbk
Strengths: Excellent pictures; ease of use; wide focus lens
Weaknesses: Small display screen
Overall: The Nikon 8400 is the best in the market for the money. I bought this camera for $399 from Ritz/Wolf camera. This is a great camera if you are not going the SLR route. There are tons of features with this camera, but you can just use the auto focus and start snapping great pictures. The flash is pretty good although you can purchase an additional one though it is quire expensive. Also, there is not much of delay from the time you push the button to snap the picture until the picture is actually taken. (All digital cameras have a delay.) The one negative about this camera is the small display screen though it will not hinder your picture taking. Overall, this is a great camera for the money.
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Reviewed by: vivek007
Strengths: 8 megapixels with wide angle zoom
Weaknesses: Need to read the manual to utilize all functions
Overall: I bought this camera for $399 from Ritzcamera.com and let me tell you..this buy was a bargain deal. BestBuy sells the same camera for $900+tax. The optical zoom is not that much but with the 8 MP, the picture comes out sharp. Movies have great quality too. When the auto-exposure mode is selected, the camera automatically takes 10 pictures on a single click, compares and keeps the best picture.. This is just auto-editing.. Overall, I'm satisfied with this camera for the price I bought it for!
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Reviewed by: coldeye
Strengths: 85mm to exceptional 24mm wide-angle zoom,
Weaknesses: a little heavy
Overall: The Coolpix 8400 packs an impressive 8.0 megapixels of clarity to capture highly satisfying detail and produce sharp, detailed prints with high resolution. The Coolpix 8400 also features the additional convenience of PictBridge, allowing easy direct printing with compatible printers.
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Reviewed by: quangmai3rd
Strengths: 8 megapixel CCD, EVF with 97% accuracy, 5m built-in flash guide number & 24mm wide angle
Weaknesses: The "display" LCD monitor is small and washes out in sunlight.
Overall: I?m very interested in the 8400. It looks a lot like the C-5060 and I expect it handles very much like it as well. In fact, in a side-by-side comparison, the two cameras appear very similar. However, the 8400?s 8 megapixel CCD, EVF with 97% accuracy, 5m built-in flash guide number & 24mm wide angle, among other features, make it appear very attractive. I?m an architect & planner, so most of my pictures are of buildings - both exteriors and interiors - and open spaces. As a result, the long tele isn?t that important to me but the wide angle is, which is why I?m interested in the 8400 vs. the 8800.In addition, the electronic viewfinder turns out to be too dark to see the face of the person you are trying to photograph indoors with the flash, you cannot see any expressions, just the outline of the person's head, so you guess and shoot several times and then see the photos you just shot in the viewfinder. Outdoors you cannot see enough detail in the viewfinder to know what you are including in your shot.The "display" LCD monitor is small and washes out in sunlight.
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