Coolpix P7700 and Coolpix P310 - two practical compact from Nikon

While I am waiting for a new product from Samsung - a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 tablet, I decided to try to describe 2 compact cameras from Nikon - the Coolpix P7700 and Coolpix P310 models.

The younger of the models described fits easily into the inner pocket of the jacket, and, despite its compact dimensions, makes it possible to take decent pictures. The older Coolpix P7700 is equipped with a higher-quality matrix, the high-aperture NIKKOR zoom lens with a 7.1x magnification and a fast aperture, thanks to which the space for photo and video experiments that opens up this tool is huge.
')
At the time when I tested these cameras, the weather in Kiev, despite the end of March, was snowy-winter ( 1 , 2 , 3 ). It is freezing outside, there is a blizzard outside the window, roads and sidewalks under a thick snow layer. In general, it was fun! Although the blizzard had calmed down with time, but the frost lasted for many more days, so most of the photos for this test review had to be taken in indoor conditions. In such a difficult situation, the feeder helped me out, which can be seen from the windows of my house, as well as the birds who kindly agreed to pose for the camera for sunflower seeds.

The manual control capabilities in both cameras are very pleased: the shutter speed and aperture controls are exactly where you need it, quick access to white balance, sensitivity (ISO) and exposure compensation in the COOLPIX P7700, programmable buttons in the two models under consideration, all this is very, very by the way. You can find more information about cameras, examples of images and video footage with birds of different types under Habrakat (Caution, traffic — photos and slideshows).


Thanks to Nikon Ukraine, I had the opportunity to experiment with Nikon cameras from the Performance series (I was in the hands of the COOLPIX P300, COOLPIX P310, COOLPIX P7100 and COOLPIX P7700), but I haven’t described the cameras before that and this will be my first review of photo equipment .

Before starting this review, I looked through most of the articles from the Photo Equipment hub. I thought that some articles from this Hub should be added to this review, as pointers to theoretical materials and practical recommendations on photography, I cite the links below:

• Theory of photography:
  Photo basics: shutter speed, aperture, DOF, photosensitivity , Learning to photograph , What is the crop factor , Mirrorless revolution
• Digitization of negatives and positives:
  Digitizing 35mm film , Digitizing large negatives , As I digitally film, and not only
• A few practical things for the future:
  12 ways not to tinker with the flash , Nikon Hand Strap II wrist strap as an alternative to the neck strap , A couple of useful sites for choosing photographic equipment

And now, actually, let's proceed to the continuation of the review.

Complete set, appearance of devices, technical characteristics

Package of cameras looks like this:

Nikon COOLPIX P310:
Camera strap, rechargeable Li-ion Battery EN-EL12 (with protective cover), mains charger EH-69P, UC-E6 USB cable, EG-CP16 audio / video cable, ViewNX 2 installation CD, CD with detailed user manual



Nikon COOLPIX P7700:
Camera strap, LC-CP26 lens cap (attached to the camera body), EN-EL14 rechargeable Li-ion battery (with protective cover), MH-24 charger, UC-E17 USB cable, EG-CP16 audio / video cable, ViewNX 2 installation CD, detailed user manual CD



Technical characteristics of both devices bring below in the form of a comparative table
(for compactness, hid the table under habrakat):


Photos of Nikon COOLPIX P310 and Nikon COOLPIX P7700 cameras in different angles see below.


Front view: COOLPIX P310 , COOLPIX P7700

Nikon COOLPIX P310 and Nikon COOLPIX 7700 cameras are equipped with high-aperture lenses, which make it possible to take high-quality images in a variety of lighting conditions. The younger model is equipped with a NIKKOR lens with 4.2x optical zoom, the Nikon COOLPIX 7700 is equipped with a NIKKOR lens with 7.1x optical zoom. A wide range of available shutter speeds and apertures (COOLPIX P310: f / 1.8–4.9, COOLPIX P7700: f / 2–4) makes it possible to get clear photos with good color reproduction.

On the front panel of the Nikon COOLPIX P7700, there is a wheel for controlling the diaphragm, with the camera gripping, the index finger exactly lies on this ribbed control element.

To the right of the camera lens at the bottom of the front panel of both cameras are additional device control buttons (Fn - on the COOLPIX P310, Fn1 - on the COOLPIX P7700). During my experiments with the cameras in question, I did not use these buttons, but while working on this review, I decided to still see what they were for.



Rear view: COOLPIX P310 , COOLPIX P7700

On the back panel of the Nikon COOLPIX P310 you will find a non-rotatable contrast screen with a wide viewing angle, a button for recording video (setting video options: MENU -) go to the left panel -) choosing a video camera icon -) Options video), a button to switch from the snapshot mode to the photo view mode, the rotary multi selector, the MENU button and the button to delete pictures in the photo view mode.


On the back of the Nikon COOLPIX P7700, you will find a contrasting swivel screen with a wide viewing angle, a flash opener switch, a DISP button (changes the way information is displayed on the screen), a shutter speed dial (for thumb), an exposure lock / focus lock switch ( AE-L / AF-L), button to switch from picture taking mode to photo view mode, rotary multi selector, MENU button and button to delete pictures in photo view mode.


Optical viewfinder in Nikon COOLPIX P7700 and Nikon COOLPIX P310 models no. Right view: COOLPIX P310 , COOLPIX P7700








Left side view: COOLPIX P310 , COOLPIX P7700 The top panel of the Nikon COOLPIX P310 contains the following elements: a flash pop-up flash, a shooting mode dial, a device power button, a shutter speed adjustment knob and a shutter combined with a zoom control.





The top panel of the Nikon COOLPIX P7700 contains the following elements: a pop-up flash, a quick access disk for settings, a hot shoe for connecting a flash, a dial for shooting modes, a device power button, a wheel for manual exposure compensation, a second Fn2 programmable button and a shutter, combined with a zoom lever.



Bottom view: COOLPIX P310 , COOLPIX P7700

The bottom panel of the COOLPIX P310 and COOLPIX P7700 cameras contain compartments for the battery and memory card, as well as a tripod socket (ISO 1222). The younger model on the bottom panel in addition to this, has a universal microUSB connector, designed to connect the AV- and data-cable, through which the battery is also charged.

Look at the cameras Nikon COOLPIX P310 and Nikon COOLPIX in different angles, you can also, revealing spoilers:

Also, these photos can be viewed in a folder on Dropbox .

Nikon COOLPIX P310 and Nikon COOLPIX P7700 - manual shooting mode

Both cameras give you the opportunity to photograph in several automatic modes, there is also a large set of pre-set scene modes, but personally it was most interesting for me to photograph manually.

When photographing in manual shooting mode, the parameters that have to be changed most often are the shutter speed and the aperture size. In both considered camera models, these parameters are controlled by two wheels.

In the case of the Nikon COOLPIX P7700, the wheels for adjusting the shutter speed and aperture are placed on the back and front panel of the camera, made very convenient (control of the exposure with the thumb of the right hand, exposure control - index):



In the case of the Nikon COOLPIX P310, the aperture in shooting mode can be changed using the multi selector wheel, the shutter speed is adjusted with the dial on the top panel. It is most convenient to change both parameters with the thumb of the right hand. Such important options as a timer (and remote control for the COOLPIX P7700), focusing method and flash control in both models are placed on a circular multi selector located on the back of the camera, to the right of the screen. I have already listed the list of available options for these parameters above under the spoiler. For clarity, I made a slideshow in which I showed the possibilities that the multi-selector wheel and joystick on the back of the camera provide to the user: Nikon COOLPIX P310 , Nikon COOLPIX P7700 .





In the COOLPIX P7700, you can also select the appropriate autofocus zone mode (for the COOLPIX 310, changing this parameter is only possible through the menu).

The list of settings of the COOLPIX P310 and COOLPIX P7700 cameras, which can be accessed by pressing the MENU button on the back of the camera, will be shown below as a slideshow. Before that, I wanted to show you some of the options of the COOLPIX P7700, which can be accessed much faster than through the menu thanks to the additional disk manipulator on the top panel of the camera.



QUAL - here it is interesting to look at the available resolution images. The number of pictures with the selected parameters is displayed in square brackets, with enough free space on the flash drive.



With the Nikon COOLPIX P7700, you can save images in RAW format . You can also adjust the ISO

sensitivity of the Nikon COOLPIX P7700 using the additional control dial located on the top of the camera. Available ISO values ​​are from 80 to 3200, there is also an option Hi1 (equivalent to ISO 6400). You can also adjust the white balance ( WB ) on the COOLPIX P7700 using this disk manipulator, the available options are listed below in the form of a slideshow: You can see other settings available for manual shooting using the menu by opening the spoilers:

Below are the photos of birds taken by Nikon COOLPIX P310 and Nikon COOLPIX P7700 cameras. With the maximum use of the optical zoom capabilities, in addition to the birds themselves, less interesting objects also fell into the frame, which I would like to lower, fully focusing on the birds. Therefore, many of those photos that I will give below are rectangular fragments of those pictures that I took with the help of the cameras described in this topic. I was advised to apply autofocus and autoton to some photos, but after thinking about it, I decided to leave it as it was (without editing).

To begin, let me show you a photo showing the approximate height of snow that fell in Kiev in March of this year:



In such a bad weather to the trough, which can be seen from my window, various kinds of birds flew. It was possible to recognize not all birds, but tits , sparrows, ringed turtle doves , finches and bullfinches were exactly. I managed to capture some birds, here are the photos below.
















More photos of birds taken with Nikon COOLPIX P310 and Nikon COOLPIX P7700 cameras can be found in the album on Dropbox .

Also, as examples of pictures taken with the help of Nikon COOLPIX P7700, I want to give photos of a young cat Maximilian, who recently settled with my friend. Photos of the kitten uploaded to the dropbox, if you wish, you can see them in this album .

Maximilian the Cat:



In addition to the photos of the birds and the kitten, the quality of the pictures taken by the COOLPIX P310 and P7700 cameras can be seen from the photographs of the devices in this review (I hid a lot under the spoilers; those photos that captured 2 devices at the same time, made an old soap box, pictures, where only one of the cameras is presented was doing the second test camera from the Performance series).

Video shooting

Nikon COOLPIX P310 and Nikon COOLPIX P7700 cameras have the ability to shoot video as FULL HD (1920 x 1080, 1080p), but I personally have 720p (1280 x 720) for comfortable viewing on a 23 inch monitor with a head.

Since the birds often visited the trough in the cool-snowy March, I decided to test the possibilities of shooting video on test cameras. To do this, I took the Slik Sprint Pro II 3 Way tripod for a while (I will briefly describe the tripod photos and my impressions of working with it below), set up a camera on it and started shooting.

I didn’t have enough COOLPIX P310 4x optical zoom to close up the birds, but the test video I shot from this camera (both in 1080p and 720p) was quite decent quality. But the 7-fold optical zoom of the older model Nikon COOLPIX P7700 turned out to be very useful, thanks to which I captured more than 3 hours of video on birds with this camera. In both cameras there is a limit on video shooting - 29 minutes, so most of the commercials that I shot for 25-27 minutes.

Having selected the most interesting moments, I edited a short 7-minute video that I bring to your attention to assess the quality of the video captured with the Nikon COOLPIX P7700:



I recommend to watch in full screen at a sufficient volume level.

When the video was mounted, the task was to extract the video track from the MOV container and place the same track in the MPEG-4 media container (the program in which it mounted the video did not support files with the .mov extension). The Avidemux program did an excellent job with this task.

Four models of the Performance series of cameras passed through my hands: the COOLPIX P300, the COOLPIX P310, the COOLPIX P7100 (I even made a couple of video additions to the reviews of the Kindle and Nook Simple Touch readers) and the COOLPIX P7700 with this camera. Did not record video only with the COOLPIX P300. The remaining 3 models when recording video save the footage to files with the extension .mov.

I thought maybe someone for editing the video, captured using one of the cameras described in this review, can be useful information about how you can quickly transfer the video from the MOV container to MPEG-4 (.mov -) .mp4). Who cares, the information below under the spoiler.

Slik Sprint Pro II 3 Way Tripod, MeiKe MLL3 Remote Control and Lenspen DSLR PRO KIT Cleaning Kit

Experimenting with Nikon COOLPIX P310 and Nikon COOLPIX P7700 cameras, I bought some accessories in addition to cameras (a remote control and a set for cleaning optics), and also took a tripod to be able to shoot video. I decided at the end of the review to talk briefly about them.

I really liked the tripod, a manufacturer from Japan, but the tripods of this model are assembled in Thailand.
The tripod looks like this:



The tripod is very convenient: it is possible to rotate a fixed camera around 3 axes out of the box (you do not need to buy special tripod heads for this purpose), light but at the same time durable and reliable, compact (when folded), in general, I really liked it. In the legs, you can push up to 3 sections, declared a maximum height of 162 cm, designed for cameras weighing up to 2 kilograms. Very practical and useful thing, I appreciated!

I took most of the pictures of the birds from the window, but some of the birds are afraid of people. Turtle doves noticing me near the camera often flew away, I thought that I should try to shoot with the remote (the camera is fixed on a tripod, I am on the side, the shutter is triggered when the button on the remote is pressed). For this purpose, he took the Chinese MeiKe MLL3 console, which coped with the task assigned to it.
This remote looks like this:



By inexperience, I took those pictures that I took with a tripod in the auto focus mode. But, I think that it is better to use the focus on the center.
With the Nikon COOLPIX P7700, when using the remote control, you can select the shutter release option from the following options: shutter release by click, 1 second, 2 seconds after pressing, or 10 seconds.

During my experiments with cameras, I accidentally put an imprint on a Nikon COOLPIX P7700 camera lens. It was necessary to clean the lens, which I had not done before. Googling, found information on how to do it better. Choosing a kit for cleaning optics, he stopped at the Lenspen DSLR PRO KIT.




Choosing looking for a cleaning kit that is suitable for both DSLRs and compact cameras.
Stopped on a set of Lenspen, which includes:

• 1 "pencil" for cleaning filters Lenspen Filterklear (diameter cleaning pad - 13 mm);
• 2 “pencils” for cleaning lenses: Lenspen Original (diameter 13 mm) - for cleaning lenses of DSLRs and advanced compacts and Lenspen MicroPro (diameter 4 mm) - for cleaning mini lenses in compact digital cameras, and also for cleaning optical viewfinders in mirrors;
• Microfibre napkin with pockets stitched on it under "pencils" (serves as a "case" - convenient and practical).

I personally cleaned the Nikon COOLPIX P7700 lens with a Lenspen Original “pencil”, and the Nikon COOLPIX P310 lens with a Lenspen MicroPro “pencil”. Convenient and fast, after cleaning the lenses as new.

This is a small review of Nikon’s COOLPIX P310 and Nikon COOLPIX P7700 compact cameras. It is difficult to list the advantages of devices, since there are so many of them. Excellent image quality under different lighting conditions, convenient and thought-out control, the ability to shoot high-quality video in different resolutions up to FULL HD - these are all the strengths of both cameras.

• Nikon COOLPIX P310 is a compact and lightweight camera that fits easily into the inside pocket of your jacket or jacket. The picture quality is excellent; you can adjust shutter speed, aperture, light sensitivity, white balance and a number of other useful parameters when choosing the manual mode. A large number of preset shooting modes are available.
• Nikon COOLPIX P7700 - an advanced compact, providing even more opportunities to experiment with photos and video. Lens with 7.1x optical zoom; high-quality matrix, which in conjunction with the high-aperture lens makes it possible to make high-quality images; the ability to shoot great video; remote control support; the ability to connect an external flash through a hot shoe is an incomplete list of the advantages of this model.

I really liked both cameras, it’s really nice to photograph them! Those who are planning to buy a camera better than cheap soap trays but easier DSLRs, I recommend to pay attention to these models. If you plan to take a photo tightly, these cameras are also good in that the control of these devices is similar to the control of SLRs (it will be easier with time to switch to a more serious camera).

At this point I will put the final point, I hope the review turned out to be interesting and informative.

I am grateful to Nikon Ukraine for providing the Nikon COOLPIX P310 and Nikon COOLPIX P7700 cameras , as well as to the PROPHOTO company, which provided an excellent Slik Sprint Pro II 3 Way tripod, which was very helpful in videotaping birds.

Thank you all for your attention, good pictures and great mood!