User review of the Nikon 8800

I've had the Nikon 8800 for a few weeks and I thought I'd post some comments on
the camera. Years ago I worked as a still photographer (large format) and have
had many years of experience with film cameras. My previous digital cameras
we Olympus 360, Canon G2, Minolta Z1, Sony U30. The Nikon 8800 represents my
first serious jump into a more capable digital camera.

I give the camera a big thumbs up, but Nikon made some mistakes that might give
pause to some shooters.

1) The autofocus system is good, but falls a bit short of other cameras I've
used. It is easily fooled with less than ideal situations. Even choosing AF
area can leave you with soft shots from time to time. Overall you can achieve a
high success rate, but my tiny Pentax Optio S5I has a superior AF system
WITHOUT the AF assist light. In side by side tests, the Z1 and Pentax could
both grab focus (in CERTAIN situations) when the 8800 couldn't. This is to say
that the AF system on the 8800 is poor. It's just not as good as it should be
for a camera on this level.

2) Luckily, Nikon knew this would be a camera for the more serious shooter and
added a manual focus. Amazingly it is all but totally useless. A unmarked bar
indicates focus position and it's quite vague. With it's electronic finder, you
have many soft shots using the manual focus. The Nikon manual mentions sharp
outlines when in focus, but like other users I can't see this. Not adding a
distance scale is a crime and a actual focus ring would have made this camera a
killer! To make matters more insulting Nikon didn't even add a focus area
enlargement found on sub 300 dollar cameras. My Optio S5I has a usable manual
focus, but the 8800 doesn't???

3) The SB600 and 800 flash will work with the 8800!!! Yay! I knew that the
flash units had a better AF assist light that would aid the focus situation
and, of course, make for better indoor shots. WRONG. The AF assist feature set
on the 600/800 WON'T WORK with the 8800. This was confirmed by Nikon tech
support.

4) Nikon chose to at least delay your chances of buying aftermarket lens add
ons with it's unique filter thread. Bzzzzzz! Nikon wasn't too bright and
brought accessories to market late. Go to the Nextphoto sight and save money
and expand your choices.

5) A two inch LCD would have been nice, though the 1.8 is "enough."

6) The 8800 optics will NOT match the D70 for ultimate sharpness and detail. No
way, no how. It's the price you pay for the long zoom. But we all knew that!

7) I really wanted the battery grip...but 169.00 for a plastic shell??? It
feels cheap, especially the buttons. Shockingly so. Even the guy at B&H Photo
laughed at it! Buy the flash instead as that will actually expand the camera's
capability.

8) The AF Assist light on the 8800 is not in the best place and can be easily
obscured by a finger.

9) No true manual WB control. Just the usual modes. (CORRECTION-turns out there
IS a manual WB!!!

10) This is no lightweight camera of course. I bought the tiny Optio S5I for
those times when I might not want to lug the 8800 around. My friend with an
8800 felt the same way and bought the slightly larger Sony L1. (Off Topic, The
L1 and Optio are fine little snapshot cameras!)

NOW, reading all of this you might think that I hate the 8800. Not so. It's a
great camera and I have taken shots of my new baby with it that are jaw
dropping. I suppose that the flaws are more glaring in light of how much of the
camera is done right. It is a ultra capable prosumer unit with excellent feel
and tremendous ability. This is a great camera to own while waiting for the
DSLR field to improve and become more affordable.

I hope this review was helpful to some of you. I'd like to hear other detailed
user comments. Happy shooting!

Capt. Robert B.
NY

Bobsprit wrote:
I've had the Nikon 8800 for a few weeks and I thought I'd post some
comments on the camera.

Thanks for your comments. I would love to have gone for the 8800 but its
small aperture at maximum zoom (f/5.2) out me off, so I went for the
Panasonic FZ20 instead. It has excellent manualy focussing, by a ring and
not buttons, and the magnified centre view you admired. Perhaps Nikon can
add this in a firmware update? Fixing the lens will take more effort,
though!

I did get the Nikon 8400 wide-angle camera which has excellent, fast
auto-focus, so Nikon /are/ getting there.

Cheers,
David

Bobsprit wrote:
I've had the Nikon 8800 for a few weeks and I thought I'd post some
comments on the camera.

Thanks for your comments. I would love to have gone for the 8800 but its
small aperture at maximum zoom (f/5.2) out me off, so I went for the
Panasonic FZ20 instead. It has excellent manualy focussing, by a ring and
not buttons, and the magnified centre view you admired. Perhaps Nikon can
add this in a firmware update? Fixing the lens will take more effort,
though!

I did get the Nikon 8400 wide-angle camera which has excellent, fast
auto-focus, so Nikon /are/ getting there.

Cheers,
David

"David J Taylor" wrote in message
...
Bobsprit wrote:
I've had the Nikon 8800 for a few weeks and I thought I'd post some
comments on the camera.

Thanks for your comments. I would love to have gone for the 8800 but its
small aperture at maximum zoom (f/5.2) out me off, so I went for the
Panasonic FZ20 instead. It has excellent manualy focussing, by a ring and
not buttons, and the magnified centre view you admired. Perhaps Nikon can
add this in a firmware update? Fixing the lens will take more effort,
though!

I did get the Nikon 8400 wide-angle camera which has excellent, fast
auto-focus, so Nikon /are/ getting there.

What bugs me is that Sony has shown them how to do it with the 828 (manual
zooming and decent AF) and most of them still can't get it right. The 8800
looks good, but any camera that uses a zoom by wire is, for me, out of the
question. I had a Canon Pro 1 for a week, and couldn't wait to give it back
because of the zoom controls and bad AF. Then again, Sony doesn't
necessarily WANT to sell DSLRs, do they?


Cheers,
David

"David J Taylor" wrote in message
...
Bobsprit wrote:
I've had the Nikon 8800 for a few weeks and I thought I'd post some
comments on the camera.

Thanks for your comments. I would love to have gone for the 8800 but its
small aperture at maximum zoom (f/5.2) out me off, so I went for the
Panasonic FZ20 instead. It has excellent manualy focussing, by a ring and
not buttons, and the magnified centre view you admired. Perhaps Nikon can
add this in a firmware update? Fixing the lens will take more effort,
though!

I did get the Nikon 8400 wide-angle camera which has excellent, fast
auto-focus, so Nikon /are/ getting there.

What bugs me is that Sony has shown them how to do it with the 828 (manual
zooming and decent AF) and most of them still can't get it right. The 8800
looks good, but any camera that uses a zoom by wire is, for me, out of the
question. I had a Canon Pro 1 for a week, and couldn't wait to give it back
because of the zoom controls and bad AF. Then again, Sony doesn't
necessarily WANT to sell DSLRs, do they?


Cheers,
David

"David J Taylor" wrote in message
...
Bobsprit wrote:
I've had the Nikon 8800 for a few weeks and I thought I'd post some
comments on the camera.

Thanks for your comments. I would love to have gone for the 8800 but its
small aperture at maximum zoom (f/5.2) out me off, so I went for the
Panasonic FZ20 instead. It has excellent manualy focussing, by a ring and
not buttons, and the magnified centre view you admired. Perhaps Nikon can
add this in a firmware update? Fixing the lens will take more effort,
though!

I did get the Nikon 8400 wide-angle camera which has excellent, fast
auto-focus, so Nikon /are/ getting there.

What bugs me is that Sony has shown them how to do it with the 828 (manual
zooming and decent AF) and most of them still can't get it right. The 8800
looks good, but any camera that uses a zoom by wire is, for me, out of the
question. I had a Canon Pro 1 for a week, and couldn't wait to give it back
because of the zoom controls and bad AF. Then again, Sony doesn't
necessarily WANT to sell DSLRs, do they?


Cheers,
David

On 24 Nov 2004 22:48:20 GMT, (Bobsprit) wrote:

3) The SB600 and 800 flash will work with the 8800!!! Yay! I knew that the
flash units had a better AF assist light that would aid the focus situation
and, of course, make for better indoor shots. WRONG. The AF assist feature set
on the 600/800 WON'T WORK with the 8800. This was confirmed by Nikon tech
support.

The companion 8400 has more flash features than the 8800. Conversely the
8800 has features that the 8400 doesn't, like image stabilization.

From what I can tell the 8400 uses flash zoom and iTTL. The 8800 uses
D-TTL, but not flash zoom. The 8400 has an AF-Assist Illuminator on the
camera body, but I can't find anything saying it uses the one on the
600/800.

I understand flash zoom. But can someone explain the difference between
iTTL and D-TTL?

Don donwiss at panix.com.

On Fri, 26 Nov 2004 11:58:07 -0500, I wrote:

The 8400 has an AF-Assist Illuminator on the
camera body, but I can't find anything saying it uses the one on the
600/800.

I found in the 8400 manual "the camera does not support ... AF-assist for
multi-area AF." Does this mean it supports it for non-multi-area? From the
SB-800 manual it appears that it may support the center AF spot only for
the 8400.

Don donwiss at panix.com.

I found in the 8400 manual "the camera does not support ... AF-assist for
multi-area AF." Does this mean it supports it for non-multi-area? From the
SB-800 manual it appears that it may support the center AF spot only for
the 8400.


According to Nikon, the SB600/800 AF Assist lamps DON't Work with the 8800.
That's all I know.

RB