Nikon P7700

Nikon had announced a new advanced compact camera, Coolpix P7700. The new model has brighter lens, 28-200mm F2.0 - F4.0, than P7100, and can take 40.5mm filters without an adapter - that's great. The sensor specs (1/1.7" 12MP back-illuminated CMOS) are similar to BSI CMOS sensor used in Samsung EX2F, and it can be a Sony sensor. Apparently back-illuminated sensors give about one stop improvement in noise over conventional sensors. Some full-size imaged from Samsung EX2F are posted on flickr.

Nikon P7700 has very attractive lens which goes to 200mm and remains relatively bright (F4.0). According to dpreview it has a new / updated vibration reduction system, and according to imaging resource the camera is more responsible than the predecessor.

 The camera lost optical viewfinder, and this can reduce cost of the assembly. In compact cameras optical viewfinders are very small, and usually suffer from parallax issues. I practically do not use OVF on my Fuji X10 (and Fuji has relatively big viewfinder). Some people claim that shooting with optical viewfinder increases camera stability but I have higher proportion of sharp photos from Fuji X10 used at arm length than from Olympus E-30+14-54mm lens and traditional DSLR shooting style. For long exposure I use a camera strap for additional stability: I push camera forward with the strap around my neck, so the camera does not shake much. So, do not see the absence of the optical viewfinder as a big problem. The camera should be cheaper without a viewfinder :) 

Samsung NX2F and Panasonic DMC-LX7 have brighter lenses but both are below 100mm. Nikon P7700 has build-in neutral density filter (three stops), and I wish my Fuji X10 would have one. The maximal shutter speed of Fuji X10 at F2.0 is about 1/1000 sec, so at bright sun it takes pictures only at closed aperture. Otherwise, Nikon P7700 looks very attractive, mainly because of its lens and size. The lens specs are similar to old Minolta Dimage 7 but the camera is smaller. The only reservation I have is a dynamic range but hopefully reviews of the P7700 will be available in nearby future.

official samples