Nikon D7000

Although ergonomically, the D7000 is a very close match for the D90, its overall 'feel' is considerably more serious, thanks to a magnesium alloy body shell and slightly thicker rubber coating on the hand grip and rear of the camera. At 16.2MP the D7000 offers the second highest resolution of any Nikon DSLR, behind only the 24Mp D3X. All of these pixels are packed onto a newly developed CMOS sensor, which offers a 'standard' ISO span of 100-6400, expandable up to the equivalent of ISO 25,600. The new camera boasts a 39-point AF array with 9 cross-type AF points and works in collaboration with a new 2016-pixel RGB metering sensor to allow 3D AF tracking.

Other changes include the same combined live view/movie switch control as the 3100, and a significantly upgraded movie specification, up to 'full HD' - 1920x1080 resolution at 24fps. The Nikon D7000 produces high quality output in almost any shooting situation. Default JPEGs are clean of artifacts and with natural colors and tonality. At a pixel level low ISO images are very slightly soft but still show very good detail which can be further increased by shooting in RAW. There is one negative though: in bright, high-contrast conditions the camera has a tendency to overexpose - unfortunately by quite a large degree.

Sony Alpha 77

The A77 is the long-awaited replacement for the A700, and spec-wise it's impressive: the A77 features a new 24MP APS-C CMOS sensor, 12fps full-resolution shooting and the highest resolution EVF we've ever encountered (a 2.4M dot OLED finder).

It also uses a new 19-point AF sensor, 11 points of which are cross-type (sensitive to detail in both the vertical and horizontal axis).

Clever use of the main sensor's live view allows the A77 to track objects as they move across the frame, enabling the camera to have a better understanding of which AF point it should be using at any given time.

The A77 isn't perfect, but we're pretty confident though that whatever your level of expectations and expertise, its rugged and well thought-out ergonomics, innovative full-time live view and AF systems and exceptionally good EVF will keep you very happy indeed. However, the somewhat mushy JPEG image quality, high noise levels and slightly laggy operation stop the A77 from getting a gold award.

Sony Alpha 77

Nikon Coolpix S8000

The Coolpix S8000 is Nikon’s first travel-zoom camera, featuring a 10x zoom lens with a versatile focal range of 30-300mm.
Measuring just 27.3mm thick, the Nikon S8000 is also currently the World’s slimmest camera with a 10x optical zoom.
Other key features include 14 megapixels, high resolution 3 inch LCD screen, 720p high-definition movie mode, lens-shift Vibration Reduction, 3fps continuous shooting, 1cm macro mode and a fast “DSLR-like” auto-focus system.
Available in three colours, Black, Brown and Champagne Silver.