PHOTO QUALITY. This 20-megapixel point-and-shoot camera captured images with good quality. We judged this model very good for outdoor performance, such as shooting landscapes in the daytime; very good for indoor performance, such as photographing a well-lit basketball game in a gym; good for performance under natural light without a flash, such as shooting under an overcast sky.
FLASH. The Coolpix S3700 captured flash shots that were good. In our distance test, we found the camera's flash could illuminate most subjects that are closer to the camera, but had some problems with distant subjects. The flash also has good, relatively even coverage.
LENS. This camera includes an 8x zoom lens, a bit more zoom than a standard 3x. The lens also has very wide-angle (25mm) capability that's very useful for landscapes and group portraits, although you may notice a bit of distortion when you're shooting faces up close, for instance.
IMAGE STABILIZER. This is an important feature; taking hand-held shots at the telephoto end of the zoom range can generally blur or soften images due to the slight movement of your hands. Shooting telephoto in well-lit scenes, this model did a very good job of minimizing the effects of camera shake. In low-light settings, it performed well but sometimes produced blurry photos.
SPEED. In terms of performance, the Nikon Coolpix S3700 powers up very quickly.
VIDEO. The Nikon Coolpix S3700 takes fair video, lower quality than very many in its class. It captures HD video at 1280 x 720 30p. As for sound, it captures fair audio in mono.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS. Like most point-and-shoot models, this camera does not include a viewfinder, which means you'll need to rely on the LCD to compose your photo or video. It has a small 2.7-inch LCD, which has fair quality that makes it more difficult to compose your shots or play back photos and video than with most recommended models. This compact is much smaller, thinner and lighter than most in its class. Even though this is a small and light compact, it was somewhat difficult to control and to take pictures with.
