Nikon COOLPIX 7600

The Nikon Coolpix 7600 is a mixed bag. On one hand, it offers great picture quality in a compact model, but on the other hand it lacks the features, functions and style of several of its competitors.

One area in which this model does completely outshine the competition is the LCD. It's not large--only 1.8"--but it depicted the subject perfectly regardless of how they were moving. Never before have we seen a screen with so little evidence of ghosting or blurring.

This screen really helps you get the best out of your shots, and the 7.1 megapixel 7600 also produced great images. We were particularly impressed with the colour saturation; it presented the rich blue of the sky and the dull green of tree leaves wonderfully. There was perhaps a small problem with sharpness around very detailed areas, but overall the image quality was very impressive.

While taking shots in low-light areas the camera suffered from painfully long recovery lag, in the range of four to five seconds. Outside it was fine, with a fairly standard one to two second wait between shots. There was also a noticeable lag between holding down the shutter button and the camera actually taking the shot. The images themselves were quite good, but these periods of downtime can make shooting tedious.

The design itself is a blend of positives and negatives. It is quite small for a 7.1 megapixel model and would fit comfortably in a pocket or bag, but its boxy design wouldn't appeal much to the fashion-conscious photographer. It felt reasonably durable, but has a little more plastic than we like to see. Some of the buttons felt poorly mounted as well, and required several attempts to successfully push.

It sports a fairly standard set of features. It has white balance and exposure control, but no manual aperture or shutter speed setting. It has a basic, 16-shot continuous shot function, as well as a 10-shot "best shot" function, but no real exposure bracketing features. There are also 16 pre-programmed shot modes, which cover most of the basics without offering anything fantastic.