| Likes |
|
- Black color with highlights makes it look sleek
- Lots of size options in movie mode
- Small picture option makes e-mailing easy
- Help button
- Vibration reduction system
- Lots of picture effects
|
| Dislikes |
- Flash placed off lens axis (will cast hard shadows beside subject and is easy to obstruct)
- Too many icons around multi-selector
- Body is plastic
- Images from internal memory cannot be transferred to a computer
- Inaccurate viewfinder
- Lacks 3:2-formatted image size |
Conclusion
Dressed in classic black, the Nikon Coolpix 7900 makes several improvements from earlier Coolpix models in body style and features. The 7900 is the only Nikon compact model offered in black. Its body measures 3.46 x 2.4 x 1.44 inches; this is smaller than most digital cameras but still not a slim pocket-sized model. This Nikon boasts a Nikkor 3x optical zoom lens and a Speedlight flash with good range. At a time when many manufacturers are omitting the optical viewfinder, Nikon includes one on the Coolpix 7900 – although it is only 75 percent accurate. A 2-inch LCD screen graces the back of the camera with 115,000 pixels of resolution. The buttons on the back are all properly placed, but the labels and icons look scattered and make the 7900 appear disorganized at first glance. Even so, the menus and modes are easy to navigate.
At $399.95, the Nikon Coolpix 7900 is built for the point-and-shooter with 16 scene modes, framing assists, and technology geared to fix red-eye in the camera and improve the lighting automatically. There is no manual mode, but there are still a few manual controls such as white balance. The movie mode offers three sizes with quick frame rates and the video quality looks pretty good – especially when used with the electronic vibration reduction. The Nikon 7900 includes 13.5 MB of internal memory, but additional memory will be essential as this digital camera has 7.1 effective megapixels. Overall, the 7900 has some odd quirks to it but would still be a good buy for novices who need an easy to use digital camera that will enable them print large and crop while still providing scene modes and movie options.
