Nikon Coolpix 7900 Digital Camera Review

Viewfinder (3.5)
The Nikon Coolpix 7900 has an optical viewfinder that zooms with the lens, but isn’t very accurate. The viewfinder is off-center from the lens and only gets 75 percent of what is actually recorded. Furthermore, the optical viewfinder only shows the subject (and at 75 percent accuracy, maybe not even that!); it does not show shooting information or more importantly, the focus. I advocate the inclusion of optical viewfinders because using them and turning off the LCD conserves power when the battery is low and important shots still need to be captured. However, on the 7900 there is no on-camera button to turn the LCD view off; users must instead dig through menus to turn off the monitor. The somewhat impractical optical viewfinder magnifies the image from 0.31-0.77x. There are two small LEDs next to the viewfinder on the back of the camera. The top light shows red for when the flash is enabled and the bottom light shows green and indicates the auto focus. It also flashes when the camera is recording images to the memory.

LCD Screen (6.0)
An amorphous silicon TFT transflective LCD monitor takes up much of the back of this small digital camera. The 2-inch screen has 115,000 pixels, providing decent though not superior resolution for viewing and reviewing images. The Nikon 7900 provides several views on the LCD screen. Users can show all of the shooting information, hide all of the info, or only show relevant info. A framing grid can also be displayed or the monitor can be turned off completely; all of these options are located in the setup menu. The screen has a 5-step brightness adjustment that works well and looks good in most lighting. The LCD looks best when wandering fingers haven’t poked it, as it seems to attract skin oils. The 2-inch LCD monitor is the best viewing option on the Nikon Coolpix 7900, providing 100 percent accuracy along with a live view of the camera’s auto focus and shooting information; it also has no problems with glare.

Flash (6.0)
Nikon included a built-in Speedlight flash on the Coolpix 7900 and coupled it with its in-camera red-eye fix technology to offset the red-eye problem so prevalent in compact digital cameras. There are five modes available: Auto, Auto with Red-eye Reduction, Off, Fill Flash, and Slow Sync. These modes are easily accessible through the top arrow on the multi-selector. Nikon reports that this flash is effective from 1 foot to 14’ 8” when the 3x optical zoom is at its widest 7.8mm (38mm equivalent) setting. When the 7900 is at its most telephoto 23.4mm setting (114mm equivalent), the flash is effective from 1 foot to 11’ 5”. This range puts the flash into a middle region among compact digital camera flashes. The flash unit itself is small and narrow, creating focused, specular beams of light. Since the flash unit is positioned slightly off the lens axis, there will be thick, hard-edged shadows cast along side the subject. Also, the positioning does lend itself to potential obstruction by wandering fingers.

Lens (6.0)
Like most compact digital cameras, the Nikon Coolpix 7900 has a 3x optical zoom lens. The Zoom-Nikkor lens is constructed of 7 elements in 6 groups and includes one glass-molded ED lens element. The lens reaches from 7.8-23.4mm, which is equivalent to 38-114mm in 35mm format photography. The lens has two stops of aperture in the wide and telephoto settings. The aperture can open to f/2.8 at its widest focal length or a narrower f/4.9 in telephoto mode. The min aperture setting is f/8.2.

The zoom mechanism is controlled by the two buttons in the top right corner of the back labeled ‘W’ and ‘T’. The Nikon Coolpix 7900 makes a tiny noise when zooming, but this sound isn’t loud enough to be too aggravating. When the zoom buttons are lightly tapped, there are eight focal lengths in the full 3x optical zoom range. There are also 4x worth of digital zoom available; the LCD view shows a line where the zoom exits the optical and enters the digital realm. Users must hold down the ‘T’ button for just a moment to access the digital zoom. It is not recommended to use this feature though, as it only deteriorates the picture quality.

The zoom lens has a plastic door on its front that snaps open and closed when the Coolpix 7900 is turned on and off. The cover isn’t that sturdy though. The door can be lightly pushed open with fingers – or pretty much anything – and its fragility is on par with that of flower petals. The cover can protect the lens from dust, but anything larger than a fleck of it could do some damage.