Nikon Coolpix 7900

Auto Mode
Automatic mode on the Nikon Coolpix 7900 takes the guesswork out of taking decent photos by managing photographic elements such as exposure, aperture, shutter speed, white balance, focus, and ISO. Most people invest in these smaller compact digital cameras for their ease of use, and the automatic mode on the Coolpix 7900 won’t disappoint. From what I could gather at the show, and from my experience using other Coolpix cameras, the auto mode on board is reliable with manual control options available if they are needed.

Movie Mode
There are a few movie mode options on the Nikon Coolpix 7900, including TV (640 x 480) at both 15 or 30 frames per second, Small Size (320 x 240) at 30 fps, Smaller Size (160 x 120) at 30 fps. The Coolpix 7900 includes a Vibration Reduction (VR) feature that helps to stabilize the image. The movies are saved to the memory card as a QuickTime movie and all of the movie modes include sound.

Drive / Burst Mode
There are a couple of continuous shooting modes included, but it’s far cry from a real burst mode. Within the menu of the Nikon Coolpix 7900, users can select the Continuous mode feature and scroll within its contents, which include: Single, Continuous, 5 shot buffer, Multi Shot 16. Mostly these assist the user by capturing a set number of frames within a given time period. Again, these should not be construed as a true burst mode.

Playback Mode
Playback mode on the Nikon Coolpix 7900 is as easy to navigate as the main menu in imaging mode. Users can select the playback menu by pressing the playback button on the back of the camera body, located next to the menu button. This switches the camera into playback and allows quick access to photos taken, and includes a variety of playback options. For example, Nikon’s D lighting feature can be put to work in playback on pictures that might lack light in the foreground. It’s a great feature to have, and allows users to keep those otherwise useless photos.

Users can utilize the telephoto zoom toggle to magnify projected images in playback mode. Other features available in playback mode include automatic red eye removal, date and time stamp, crop, and the before mentioned D lighting.

Custom Image Presets
The Nikon Coolpix 7900 (and the Coolpix line in general) has an obscene number of custom image presets. This exhaustive list includes the following: Auto, Scene Assist (Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Night portrait), Scene (party/indoor, beach/snow, sunset, dusk/dawn, night landscape, close up, museum, fireworks show, copy, back light, panorama assist, underwater), BSS (best shot selector), Image adjustment, Image sharpening, Saturation control, Auto exposure bracketing, WB Bracketing, Noise reduction.

If something you would like to see on the list doesn’t appear, like cooking or cleaning, just notify your nearest Nikon representative and I’m sure they’ll include it in next years model. Facetiousness aside, the numerous shooting modes (each tweaking the internal control settings in their own unique way) should be ample for even the most avid compact digital camera user. These modes are accessed mostly through the SCENE selection on the mode dial, or through the Portrait selection (represented by a bad drawing of a woman wearing a hat). There are several modes accessible through the main menu when the camera is in automatic mode.