Nikon COOLPIX S7000 Digital Camera with 20x Optical Zoom and Built-In Wi-Fi

My son bought one of these and I borrowed it so often that I had to buy myself one. The zoom is incredible, the pictures are great. The camera works great every time with easy use. I have taken tens of thousands of pictures out on rough terrain, hiking for a geology project. The camera has been amazing. I bought a little padded case (Wal-Mart $5 variety) and have accidentally dropped it a few times (while in the case) with no problems.Did I mention that the zoom is incredible? Many times I have come back to review my pictures on my large laptop and been amazed at the picture quality and how much more I was able to see with the zoom. I have gotten great close-ups of lizards, insects, snakes, perched birds and hard to reach rock outcrops. I have gotten nice night pictures of kangaroo rats, tarantula spiders, and nocturnal lizards. I also have videos of some of these and they are adequate.The close-up mode is also great. The camera has a setting that allows you to take high quality, very close pictures, that reveal wonderful detail. I have happily photographed fine details in leaves, rocks/fossils, insects/bugs (and kid injuries).The only problem I have had is with faster moving objects. A few times a large golden eagle has launched from a perch near me and I have not been able to get it out and follow him well enough to get a close picture. Hawks circling up in the sky have been no problem, but the faster moving eagles have been very hard to follow and get a descent picture. The auto zoom is just not capable of finding those faster objects in the sky and getting a good picture. Once they are further away (and thus not moving as fast relative to me), then the pictures are fine, but at such distances you miss all of the detail.

UPDATE: Originally given 4 stars, this little gem worked flawlessly for 3 months. Ten days ago it lost the ability to focus. Hunts and hunts and hunts, and then says it is focused when still so blurred you can't recognize the scene. With some playing around you can get it to focus in middle ranges of the zoom, but for quick point and shoot this thing is worthless.I got it at what must have been an introductory price from Amazon or something, not this $196, so I don't consider it worth the hassle of returning it or sending it to Nikon for repair. I just consider it a learning experience. I have another Nikon (d3300) that is exceptional and wouldn't trade it for the world, but this is junk and I'll be leery of Nikon from now on. Too bad, I loved this little camera and carried it nearly always.First off, you are unlikely to ever win any photo contests with this camera. However, this is an acceptable little device. It does not have the image quality of a DSLR and low light performance is average at best. It is small, pocketable and if you choose the right settings, it has decent image quality for a 1/2.3 sensor.I purchased this to carry with me when walking my dog or when I otherwise wouldn't want to carry my DSLR. I compared images from this model with others from reviews on several photo sites and decided quality was pretty much the same on all when given adequate light. I chose this one because the ones with 20 megapixels seemed to have even lower performance in low light conditions. Cramming too many pixels into too small of a space degrades low light performance drastically.The S7000 seems to me to have better images than most phone cameras. The iphone 6s may be the exception. I don't think I would replace one with this, but since I use a "stupid" phone this works.I'm holding back on giving this 5 stars only because of the controls (which I think Nikon could have done a better job on), the position of the flash (right where your finger wants to be), and the wireless app which is close to useless.Otherwise, if you just want a point and shoot with average or a little better pictures, most people should be quite happy with this.

This is a terrific camera with lots of features. BUT, you need to fully understand how to use the camera, what all the settings do, and customize those settings to fulfill your style of photography.If you try to take this camera out of the box and start taking fast pictures based on your knowledge of an old point and shoot camera that didn’t have all these bells and whistles, using this camera's default settings, and without reading the Quick Start Guide (comes with the camera) section titled “Basic Shooting and Playback Operations” and the Reference Manual (must be downloaded from Nikon’s web site) sections to learn how to properly use this multi-functional camera properly, you might not get the good results you expect. Yes, this camera can be used to take quick pictures by pointing and shooting in less than an half a second, but only after adjusting your settings for that kind of action. The default settings take advantage of the Autofocus feature that takes a little more time to get that perfect shot – and it’s worth it.If you take the time to learn about the camera’s features and abilities, and properly use them, you will be amazed at the crisp, bright photos that you can get from macro close-up mode to full zoom.I am very pleased with this camera so far except for one situation in which the camera locked up with the lens out the first time I turned the Mode Dial. I had to reboot the camera by taking out the battery and reinserting it. Everything has worked great since then and I have some fantastic pictures to show using several of the camera’s features.