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Nikon Coolpix 3700 3MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

Nikon Coolpix 3700 3MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

List Price:
Your Price: $334.94
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent digi camera
Review: I've tried my share of digi cams, from sony to canon to fuji and found that the Nikon 3700 is by far the best in its class. Sweet Compact Size and really light in weight. Excellent quality of pics during the day and at night, found it to be superb in most cases. Scene modes can come in handy. Tons of great features. Movie quality is probably the best in a digital camera. At 640 X 480, it was excellent. This camera is very satisfactory and worth the $350.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Compact size, metal body
Review: Pros:
-compact size, stylish
-metal body, nice build quality
-selectable AF sensor and metering in M-record mode, each AF bracket acts as spot meter, useful for tricky lighting
-framing guides on LCD
-generally competent metering, Auto white balance, focusing. again, for difficult lighting, the AF sensor acts as spot meter in M-record mode
-straightforward transfer with Nikon View, although a separate card reader is recommended instead of connecting camera directly to computer, this is to save those USB contacts in the camera from wearing out prematurely.

Cons:
-movie mode exhibits that notorious audio-sync problem
-hot or dead pixels on my unit, resulting to those annoying white spots on the image when viewed at full size
-Scene Modes disable features here and there, and that set up may not be what you really want
-no option to set ISO, camera adjusts ISO on its own, which may result in noisy images
-more on noise, you really need lots of illumination, either daylight or flash, to keep the camera from bumping the ISO up, and with it, the noise
-still having difficulty dealing with the green cast of fluorescent lighting (as do most cameras)
-button operated zooming, with those tiny Wide-Tele buttons, especially when in Macro mode, is not the easiest thing to do

Overall, a decent picture taker that requires well-lit scenes to perform well. That means it is a "flashy" camera. For someone used to the Olympus Stylus, this is not an issue, however, this camera is not for those who prefer shooting without flash, especially indoors. There's the auto-ISO issue mentioned above, which leads to noise, also, the lightweight and small size of the camera, not to mention all those buttons which get in the way of the left hand, prevents any decent steady handhold. This maybe the reason for those soft lens comments from other reviewers, among other variables (e.g. how is the Sharpness set?).

Many of the cons are limitations imposed by the small size of the camera. Regardless of make, for compact cameras, these limitations are something one must live by. If you want more control (to prevent the ISO from bumping up by itself), and you want to stay Nikon, the larger Coolpixes (4500, 5xxx) maybe the better choices. The Canon A70/75/80 also offer greater controls, but at the expense of compactness. However, I cannot believe that Nikon or any other manufacturer for that matter, cannot make a compact that allows manual ISO setting.

The decent build and finish of this camera are regrettably offset by noise issues, and in my sample, dead pixels, which prevents me from giving this camera a higher rating.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good Product
Review: The CP-3700 is my 5th camera I owned in 5 years due to my traveling need. The last one I use was Nikon CP-3100 and which have been lost by my friend, I then bought this Nikon CP-3700.

This camera is very handsome and small. Its whole metal body is stylish and well built. It can easily fit into any pocket, so you can carry it all the time and never lose a scenery. This camera is fast and its vedio mode is super that takes 640*480 vedio with sound, and the length is only limited by the memory card you installed. And this camera has assistance beam to help focus at low light condition. However, when talking about image quality, I am not impressed.

The color of the pictures are always very good, and seems they were always well exposured, however, most of the images are not very sharp, even compared to the cheaper and older CP-3100. besides, serious distortion occurs at the wide angle, which makes those pictures looks very bad especially when there were big buildings near the edge.

So, if you want a small nice-looking camera and you are going to take family pictures or party pictures or for flowers or yor dog, this one is good. However, if you are going to take picture with part of building in it, say you are going to shot in New York or Paris, then avoid this one, or you will find curved skyscrapers and cathedrals in your picture.

I already gave this camera to my girl friend. I may buy the Sony DSC-W1 for my next digital camera, it is slitly bigger but it comes with Carl-Zeiss lens, some manual controls and can attach with some converters.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Mediocre pictures, very poor movie mode
Review: The Nikon Coolpix 3700's pictures are no where near as quality as my old Canon or the Sony Cybershot P73. The photos I took inside were washed out and a bit grainy.

But the main reason I've chosen to return this camera is the movie mode. The sync between audio and video is terrible, and there is a continuous clicking noise through each video. I've heard that the clicking noise is from the lens focusing in continuous focus mode, but even when I stood very still, filming one thing, the clicking persisted.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Cameral!
Review: This camera is excellent. I cannot believe the quality of the images. I bought it because I especially wanted to use it for close up shots - and they turned out much better than I expected. The camera is a great size, easy to learn and control, has almost no noticable shutter lag, and takes great shots. The battery life is not the best, but I like that the battery is removable and extra batteries are cheap. All-in-all I'm very glad that I bought this.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great camera, good movies and audio
Review: This camera takes great photos and gives you lots of options, from simple point and shoot to preprogrammed settings (landscapes, fireworks, dusk, closeups) to total manipulation of features and images using camera features and software. We wanted a small, light camera, and this one is compact while easy to get your fingers on the "mouse" and dial. We were especially surprised by the quality of movies and audio (movies with sound and sound alone features) for an inexpensive camera that is not meant to be a true video/audio recorder. What a bonus!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Point and Shoot Camera without question
Review: This camera will create images with color accuracy to not only rival but beat other digicams costing 5 times as much - *BUT* it must be used in certain modes to accomplish this. Just go to www.pbase.com and compare pictures from almost any camera.

To create TERRIFIC *indoor* pictures use the "BACK LIGHT" pre-programmed mode - for every indoor occasion. Hold the button down halfway until the camera is ready and then press all the way. To eliminate camera shake, which ruins many pictures, use a tripod (a great folding SLIK w/case costs less than $25).

I haven't taken any pictures outdoors yet but I have seen pictures from this camera that astonish me. So I am sure that I will be able to identify a mode that will do the same for me when the occasion arises. *IF ONLY* Nikon made this EXACT camera with some manual modes, a hotshoe, and accessory lenses, AND anti-shake. Enjoy!


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