Nikon B700 Review: Is It a Good Camera? Are There Better Alternatives?

 

So you have been researching mid-range cameras and you keep coming across recommendations for the Nikon B700. You’re looking for an honest no B.S Nikon B700 review, so you can decide if it’s worth your money.

I was in the same position, so I went ahead and bought the camera. Actually, this review is the review I wish I read before buying the camera!

In this Nikon B700 review, we’ll cover:

This camera is now a member of my equipment batch, to see the full list, check it out here.

What is Nikon B700?

The Nikon B700 is a DSLR camera in the Nikon’s COOLPIX series. It’s a mid-range DSLR camera with most of the key features you would expect from a camera.

One of the most notable features is the 60x optical zoom, my favorite feature. We’ll cover the specs in more detail in the next section. Overall, it’s a decent budget-friendly camera with plenty of features.

Quick Pros & Cons:

Here’s a table to skim the pros and cons.

Pros:	Cons:
60x Optical Zoom with Digital. Very Cool. Works with Videos too.	Transferring Files via Wire Takes a Long Time.
Dual Detect Vibration Reduction (Videos and Pictures)	Changing ISO is Annoying
Very Sturdy Build.	Not Many Video Frame Rate Choices
Plenty of Shooting Modes.

Scroll down for a more detailed list.

Quick Review:

The Nikon B700 is a great DSLR camera, and I’m quite happy with it. The most notable feature would be the 60x optical zoom which allows you to get some really nice closeup shots of animals. If you’re wondering where to get one, you can take a look at the listing on Amazon. 

Nikon B700 Specifications:

The specs:

• 20.2 Megapixels.
• 60x Optical Zoom
• 60x Digital Zoom
• 4K Video Recording
• Built-in Wi-fi & Bluetooth
• Lithium Battery
• Vibration Reduction (Active, Normal, Off)
• RAW files
• SnapBridge Ready

But the main features you probably are interested in are the zoom and video recording modes. Thankfully, this camera has a really nice optical zoom.

What is Optical Zoom?

In case you didn’t know, optical zoom is the zoom built-in to the lens, native to the camera, it’s mechanical. In other words, it’s the actual lens that adjusts and creates the zoom, it’s not digital, which is most commonly found in phones. Generally, with digital zoom, when you enhance an object you lose image quality.

But with optical zoom, there’s no quality loss. In short, optical zoom is superior. If you want to take high-quality pictures of faraway objects, then you need a camera with a good optical zoom.

The B700 has a native 60X optical zoom lens as well as digital. When the optical zoom reaches its maximum level, the digital kicks in, so you can get even closer, at the expense of image quality. Actually, the digital zoom is supposed to double the zoom multiplier.

But I disabled the digital zoom because it also ruins some of the quality. Overall, I’m pretty happy with the zoom capabilities.

It’s a feature that was lacking on my Go Pro Hero 5 Black so I’m really happy to have a camera with a good zoom.

Video Recording Modes & Resolution:

To record a video, hit the red button. It will record whatever is on your screen. I’m quite happy with the video recording capabilities.

Mainly because you can zoom in really close to objects, and capture some cool videos.

Here are the modes:

• 4k at 30 FPS.
• 1080 at 6o FPS.
• 720
• 480

Here’s a picture:

The only issue I had is the frame rate is a bit low. On my GoPro, I can record 2.7K at 60 FPS and 1080P at 120 FPS. With this camera, you can only record 4K at 30 FPS and 1080P at 60 FPS. So that was a little disappointing but I’m still happy with the video recording modes.

Tip: Use a tripod for videos with a lot of zooms because, at that distance, even the tiniest hand movement can shake the entire video.

The camera does have digital video stabilization, and it helps, but you’ll still need a steady platform. You can change the digital image stabilization in the menu, “Active” is the highest mode. If you’re not satisfied with the native zoom, you can always buy an additional lens.

Shooting Modes:

I admit, I’m still new to the world of DSLR cameras, so I’m not too familiar with these modes. I’m a newbie. But it has all the same modes you would expect professional cameras to have:

Aperture, Shutter, Manual, Auto, Program, and Scene modes.

The Scene mode is pretty helpful actually since there is a scene for bird watching! One thing I noticed there are a ton of shutter speed modes for really cool action pics, the maximum shutter speed is 1/4000. You can change the setting in S mode or manual mode.

Star Trail Mode:

One mode I really liked is call Star Trail mode. You’re supposed to use this for night-time photography. To access the mode, rotate the dial until you find scene mode, then hit menu, and select Star Trail. It’s best to use a tripod, otherwise, nothing will make sense.

What About the Focus?

Now, this is where I ran into some issues with the camera. 

When trying to take pics at maximum zoom, the auto mode took awhile to focus on the object. I had to keep activating it by holding down the capture button until it properly focused. And even then, it didn’t completely focus on the object.

Sometimes it works, but usually after a few tries. And by then the animal you wanted to take a picture of is long gone.

You can manually focus too, which is what I have been playing around with…

How to Manually Focus Nikon B700:

Unlike other cameras, you can’t rotate the lens to focus on an object. Instead, you have to change the focus by using the menu buttons, which is a bit of a pain.

To manually change the focus, hit the macro button on the screen, it’s the one at the bottom of the dial. Then select manual and use either the buttons on the lense or rotate the dial. You can customize which buttons to use to adjust the focus too.

SnapBridge and WiFi:

Most COOLPIX series use SnapBridge, a mobile app to connect to the camera. The app works okay, I don’t use it that much. If you really want to copy a picture from the camera to your phone, you can use the app to connect to the camera over WiFi.

From there, you can select the content to download to your phone. It’s pretty useful for getting a quick picture to upload to Instagram. You can use do remote photography with it. I only was able to test the range in my home.

Does Nikon B700 Shoot Raw?

Yes, the Nikon B700 shoots RAW. You can choose to save the files in JPEG or RAW or both at the same time. To change the settings, click the menu button to open the settings. Then click OK and select Image Quality and choose the setting you want. Here’s a list:

• Fine
• Normal
• RAW
• Raw + Fine
• Raw + Normal

Nikon B700 Pros:

While I have some issues with the B700, the pros outweigh the cons.

Optical Zoom ✔️

The main thing I love about this camera is the zoom. As I mentioned earlier, it has a 60X optical zoom, and a bit of digital zoom too.

Usually, the digital zoom on cameras is garbage, but this camera uses a technology called Dynamic Fine Zoom, which is quite crisp. And it only kicks in once the 60x optical runs out.

There are a lot of settings you can play around with it. What’s cool is when you find a setting that works you can hit the red button to record a video, and it will use all of the same settings.

There’s another model, COOLPIX P900 that has an 83x optical zoom, but I haven’t had the chance to try that camera out yet.

Dual Detect Vibration Reduction ✔️

In other words, digital stabilization. Since I use the camera at maximum optical zoom, any little bit of stabilization helps. The digital stabilization is decent, I found it quite helpful when recording videos.

The Cons:

And here’s what I didn’t like…

Transferring Files via Wire Takes a Long Time ❌

Transferring files is a pain. Yes, it comes with a standard micro USB cable and you can use it to copy files to your computer. The problem? File transfer speed is crazy-slow!

Using their Snap Bridge APP to send files to my phone works faster than transferring files with the USB cable.

The solution: 

As it turns out, I might have a solution.

You need an SD Card to USB adapter. This one should do the trick.  You have to remove the SD card, insert it into the adapter, and then plug the adapter into your computer. When I tried this, I was so happy to copy files in seconds, instead of waiting 30 or more minutes.

So if you’re an avid photographer, getting one of those adapters is a must. I like to take a lot of pictures and videos when I travel, but copying the files to my computer the traditional ways takes such a freaking long time, I usually give up and forget about it. The adapter dramatically speeds up the data transfer speeds.

Changing ISO is Annoying❌

I found it kind of annoying to change the ISO settings. Luckily, there’s a trick I discovered to make changing the ISO easier. You can hit FN1, near the recording button, and assign it to a function, I assigned it to change the ISO. So now I can change the ISO in a couple of seconds, it’s great.

Not Many Video Frame Rate Choices❌

As I mentioned at the beginning of this Nikon B700 review, the video frame rate choices are limited. The only high-frame-rate modes are for 480P which is a pretty low resolution. I usually shoot videos at 1080P at 60 frames a second.

Summary:

To summarize this Nikon B700 review…

Though I am new to the world of DSLR cameras, I don’t have any major complaints with this particular model. Everything works fine, and the images are great.

One feature that is particularly useful is the ability to save files in RAW format, which offers high levels of detail. The camera takes some getting used to, but once you become familiar with it, you can use it to take some great pictures and videos.

In my opinion, it’s a perfect entry-level camera, I’m quite happy with it. And I can’t wait to take it abroad.

Thanks for taking the time to read this B700 review. Hopefully, it provided you with the information you need to make a decision.

I added the camera to my list of officially recommended equipment. 

If you have any questions, I will answer them as best as I can.

Until next time.

Save travels.