Nikon P7000: Completely different from its predecessor

(Credit: Nikon USA)

Given its roots, Nikon's lag in the increasingly crowded enthusiast compact market strikes me as odd. Not only does the company lack a competitor for the popular Canon PowerShot S90 (and its presumably potentially-as-popular replacement, the S95)--even Samsung has a competitor for that in the TL500--but its G11/LX5 competitor the P6000 has been languishing, unloved for 2 years. Nikon seems to be attempting to rectify that with the Coolpix P7000, in part by following the same path Canon took from the G10 to the G11. And really, the P7000 seems like a complete reworking of the P6000 rather than just an update.

(Credit: Nikon USA)

The most notable step on that path is a welcome return to a lower-resolution sensor. Consumers will eat up those marketing-driven resolution boosts but the hobbyists always push back, in this case to the same 10 megapixels as the rest of its class. Like the G11, the P7000 goes a little retro-dial happy, with an exposure-compensation dial as well as a "Quick Access" dial behind the pop-up flash for calling up ISO, quality, histogram, bracketing and MyMenu settings; I'm not sold yet on a dedicated dial for the latter compared to the speed of using the four-way navigation switch on the back of the camera. Another recanted feature includes the GPS, though I'd've thought they would have replaced it with integrated Eye-Fi support. And I hope it wasn't dropped because Nikon attributes the failures of the P6000 to GPS' inability to carry it out of relative obscurity.

Other changes include a new sloping-top design with a completely new control layout, a longer zoom lens, larger LCD and HD movie capture. Here are the basic specs:

9/8/2010: updated with newly available spec information

	Canon PowerShot G11	Canon PowerShot S95	Nikon Coolpix P6000	Nikon Coolpix P7000	Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5
Sensor (effective resolution)	10-megapixel CCD	10-megapixel CCD	13.5-megapixel CCD	10-megapixel CCD	10-megapixel CCD
	1/1.7-inch	1/1.7-inch	1/1.7-inch	1/1.7-inch	1/1.63-inch
Sensitivity range	ISO 80 - ISO 3,200	ISO 80 - ISO 3,200	ISO 64 - ISO 6,400	ISO 100 - ISO 3200/6400 (expanded)	ISO 80 - ISO 3,200
Lens	28-140mm f2.8-4.5 5x	28-105mm f2-4.9 3.8x	28-112mm f2.7-5.9 4x	28-200mm f2.8-5.6 7.1x	24-90mm f2-3.3 3.8x
Closest focus (inches)	0.4	2.0	0.8	0.8	0.4
Continuous shooting	1.1fps frames n/a	0.7 frames n/a	0.9fps frames n/a	1.1fps n/a	2.5 fps frames n/a
Viewfinder	Optical	None	Optical	Optical	Optional OVF or EVF
Autofocus	n/a Contrast AF	n/a Contrast AF	99-area Contrast AF	99-area Contrast AF	23-area Contrast AF
Metering	n/a	n/a	256-segment matrix	256-segment matrix	n/a
Shutter	15-1/4,000 sec	15-1/1,600 sec	30-1/2,000 sec	60-1/4000 sec	60-1/4,000 sec
Flash	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hot shoe	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
LCD	2.8-inch articulated 461,000 dots	3-inch fixed 461,000 dots	2.7-inch fixed 230,000 dots	3-inch fixed 921,000 dots	3-inch fixed 460,000 dots
Image stabilization	Optical	Optical	Optical	Optical	Optical
Video (best quality)	30fps VGA H.264 QuickTime MOV	720/24p H.264 QuickTime MOV	30fps VGA n/a AVI	720/24p H.264 QuickTime MOV Stereo	720/30p AVCHD Lite Mono
Manual iris and shutter in video	No	No	No	n/a	Yes
Zoom while recording	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	n/a
Mic input	No	No	No	Yes	No
Battery life (CIPA rating)	390 shots	220 shots	260 shots	350 shots	400 shots
Dimensions (WHD, inches)	4.4 x 3.0 x 2.0	3.9 x 2.3 x 1.2	4.2 x 2.6 x 1.7	4.1 x 2.4 x 1.2	4.3 x 2.6 x 1.7
Weight (ounces)	14.5	7 (est)	8.5 (est)	8.5 (est)	9.8 (est)
Mfr. Price	$499.99	$399.99	$499.95	$499.95	$440
Availability	October 2009	August 2010	September 2008	September 2010	August 2010

Ah, the lens: I bet Nikon's going to take some heat for it. For the most part, I think shooters in this class would prefer the wider angle, faster aperture lenses like that of the LX5. Nikon plans to offer a wide-angle adapter, but you're still stuck with that f2.8 aperture (and you'll likely lose some light with the adapter). And you can't fight physics; the more range you try to pack into a lens the less sharp and more distorted it gets--7.1x might be pushing it for some picky photographers. The camera does have a built-in neutral density filter, of which I'm a big fan.

This model also comes up to snuff on its movie-capture options, though I don't have any specs on bitrate. It offers manual exposure controls and the ability to zoom during capture; when I asked about lens noise, a Nikon spokesperson replied that whether you hear it depends upon the ambient noise, for whatever that's worth. Like the P6000, the P7000 uses "standard" OS-compatible NRW raw files rather than its proprietary NEF format, and the camera has some basic raw processing to create secondary JPEGs. It also ups the exposure bracketing to 5 shots.

While cheap dSLRs, compact ILCs and powerful ultracompacts like the S95 are chipping away at the market for these models, there's still some reasons to buy them: Optical viewfinders, large enough for big hands but not overly so, and that rangefinder-like aesthetic. It will be interesting to see if the P7000 can get Nikon back in the game.