Good resolution and detail, with good color, but somewhat high contrast.

The extreme tonal range of this image makes it a tough shot for many digicams, which is precisely why I set it up this way, and why I shoot it with no fill flash or reflector to open the shadows. The object is to hold both highlight and shadow detail without producing a "flat" picture with muddy colors, and the Coolpix 3700 performed fairly well.

The shot at right was taken with a +0.3 EV exposure compensation adjustment, which resulted in slightly dark midtones, but very bright highlights. The contrast is a little high here, compromising detail in the brightest highlight areas. I chose the Manual white balance as the most accurate overall, as the Daylight setting was greenish, and the Auto setting slightly cool.

Marti's skin tones are nearly right, albeit a bit more red/pink that I'd like, but the blue flowers in the bouquet are quite dark. (Many digicams have trouble with this blue, which is actually a light navy blue with just a hint of purple in it.) The remaining color looks pretty good, however. Resolution is high, as the camera picks up good detail throughout the frame, even in the shadows. Image noise is fairly low overall, but increases in the shadows.

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +0.7 EV, see files CP37OUTMP0.HTM through CP37OUTMP2.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

High resolution with good detail, though again high contrast.

Overall results are similar to the wider shot above, in terms of color and exposure, although Marti's skin tones look a bit more natural here. Contrast is again high, but midtone detail is pretty good. The Coolpix 3700's 3x zoom lens helps prevent distortion, though some distortion is noticeable here. The shot at right was taken with a +0.3 EV exposure compensation adjustment, which produced very bright highlights. Detail is stronger in this close-up shot, with more fine detail visible in Marti's face and hair.

To view the entire exposure series from -0.3 to +0.7 EV, see files CP37FACAM1.HTM through CP37FACAP2.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Normal Flash +1.0 EV

Slow-Sync Mode +0.3 EV

Good coverage with the built-in flash, with excellent color, although some exposure compensation is required.

The Coolpix 3700's flash did a very nice job here, providing even illumination and excellent color. The 3700 did require the same +1.0 EV exposure compensation that I've seen with other cameras on this shot though, as the default exposure was rather dark. In Slow-Sync mode, it required much less exposure compensation, but picked up a slight warm cast from the incandescent room lighting.

Auto White Balance

Incandescent White Balance

Manual White Balance

Good exposures, very good color, with a range of choices provided by the various white balance options.

This shot is always a very tough test of a camera's white balance capability, given the strong, yellowish color cast of the household incandescent bulbs used for the lighting. The Coolpix 3700 did quite well with this difficult light source, even in its auto white balance mode. Auto left the image a little pink, Incandescent left it a little yellow, and the Manual option produced an image that looked a little green to my eye. None were objectionable though, personal preference would determine which option any given user would prefer. - I chose the Incandescent setting as producing the most natural effect though.

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Good resolution and overall color.

Though ever so slightly reddish in the white trim, the Coolpix 3700's Auto white balance produced the best overall color here. The Daylight setting resulted in a yellow cast, while the Manual setting produced a cooler, blue image. Resolution is high, with good detail in the tree limbs above the roof, and in the house front. Details are slightly soft throughout the frame, and a bit softer in the corners. A good job overall though.

Good detail, excellent color, slightly limited dynamic range.

This image is shot at infinity to test far-field lens performance. NOTE that this image cannot be directly compared to the other "house" shot, which is a poster, shot in the studio. The rendering of detail in the poster will be very different than in this shot, and color values (and even the presence or absence of leaves on the trees!) will vary in this subject as the seasons progress. In general though, you can evaluate detail in the bricks, shingles and window detail, and in the tree branches against the sky. Compression artifacts are most likely to show in the trim along the edge of the roof, in the bricks, or in the relatively "flat" areas in the windows.

This is my ultimate "resolution shot," given the infinite range of detail in a natural scene like this, and the Coolpix 3700 does a decent job for a three-megapixel camera. The tree limbs over the roof and fine foliage in front of the house show good detail, perhaps just slightly softer than in the very best 3 megapixel models. The 3700's in-camera sharpening is a tad heavy-handed when viewed 1:1 onscreen, but will likely produce crisp-looking prints. The image is surprisingly sharp across the entire frame, with little of the softness I'm accustomed to seeing in the corners. Dynamic range is a little limited, as the camera loses essentially all the detail in the white paint on the bay window, although it does hold onto a reasonable amount of detail in the dark shadows near the door. A good job overall.

The table below shows a standard resolution and quality series, followed by a sharpening series.

Resolution Series:

Sharpening Series:

Lens Zoom Range

A fairly typical 3x zoom range.

I routinely shoot this series of images to show the field of view for each camera, with the lens at full wide angle, at maximum telephoto (3x, in this case), and at full telephoto with the digital zoom enabled. The Coolpix 3700's lens is equivalent to a 35-105mm zoom on a 35mm camera. That corresponds to a moderate wide angle to a moderate telephoto, a very typical range for point & shoot digicams. Following are the results at each zoom setting.

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Some color cast with each white balance setting, but good resolution.

This shot is often a tough test for digicams, as the abundance of blue in the composition frequently tricks white balance systems into producing a warm color balance. The Coolpix 3700's Auto white balance setting fell victim to this trap, and produced a warm, reddish image. Still, overall color was best here. The Daylight setting was a bit too yellow for my taste, and the Manual setting too cool. The warm color cast gives the blue background and robe a greenish tint, and the models' skin tones a red tone. However, resolution is high, as the embroidery on the blue robe and red vest show good detail.

Standard Macro Shot

Macro with Flash

Superb macro performance, with good flash results as well.

Like most Nikon digicams, the Coolpix 3700 performed exceptionally well in the macro category. It captured a minimum area of only 1.67 x 1.25 inches (42 x 32 millimeters). Resolution is high, with great detail in the dollar bill. However, the coins and brooch are soft due to the very short shooting distance, which results in very low depth of field. (Not the camera's fault, this is a fact of life with macro shooting.) There's quite a bit of softness on the left side of the frame, a common digicam failing in super-macro shooting. The camera's flash throttled down surprisingly well for the macro area (despite the close range), although the brooch created a bright reflection.

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Good overall exposure and excellent, vibrant color, but a tendency toward a warm color cast.

The Coolpix 3700's Auto white balance setting did the best job here, despite a slight reddish tint. The Manual setting was close to accurate, but had a strong cool cast (which some may prefer, depending on taste). The Daylight setting produced a stronger warm cast. Exposure is just a little bright, but the camera distinguishes the subtle tonal variations of the Q60 target well. Aside from the warm cast, the large color blocks look really good. The shadow area of the charcoal briquettes shows a fair amount of detail, with low noise.

Low-Light Tests

A decent performance for a fully automatic digicam, capable of shooting bright images under average city street lighting at night.

The Coolpix 3700 operates under full automatic exposure control, which limits its low-light shooting abilities somewhat. In my testing, the camera produced usable images down to the 1/2 foot-candle (5.5 lux) light level (although the shot at 1 foot-candle was better-exposed.), with a slightly warm color cast and low image noise. Since average city street lighting at night equates to about one foot-candle, the Coolpix 3700 can capture bright images at just slightly darker light levels. The table below shows the best exposure I was able to obtain for each of a range of illumination levels. Images in this table (like all sample photos) are untouched, exactly as they came from the camera.

Flash Range Test

Somewhat limited flash range, falls off beyond ~8 feet in my test.

In my testing, the Coolpix 3700's flash illuminated the test target all the way out to 14 feet, but showed a fair bit of light falloff beyond the 8 foot starting point. Below is the flash range series, with distances from eight to 14 feet from the target.

8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft	12 ft	13 ft	14 ft
1/ 60 secs F4.9	1/ 60 secs F4.9	1/ 60 secs F4.9	1/ 60 secs F4.9	1/ 60 secs F4.9	1/ 60 secs F4.9	1/ 60 secs F4.9

ISO-12233 (WG-18) Resolution Test

High resolution, 1,000-1,050 lines of "strong detail." High barrel distortion though.

The Coolpix 3700 performed well on the "laboratory" resolution test chart. It started showing artifacts in the test patterns at resolutions as low as 600 lines per picture height, in both horizontal and vertical directions. I found "strong detail" out to 1,000 lines, although you could perhaps argue for as high as 1,050 lines. "Extinction" of the target patterns didn't occur until about 1,300 lines.

Optical distortion on the Coolpix 3700 was high at the wide-angle end, where I measured approximately 1.07 percent barrel distortion. The telephoto end fared much better, as I couldn't find even one pixel of distortion at that zoom setting. Chromatic aberration was a little higher than I like to see, showing about five pixels of moderately strong coloration on either side of the target lines. (This distortion is visible as a very slight colored fringe around the objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target.)

Resolution Series, Wide Angle

Wide Angle	"Fine" JPEG	"Normal" JPEG
2,048 x 1,536	CP37RESWLF	CP37RESWLN
1,600 x 1,200	CP37RESWMN	-
1,024 x 768	CP37RESWSN	-
640 x 480	CP37RESWTN	-

Resolution Test, Telephoto

2,048 x 1,536 (Fine, Tele)

CP37RESTLF

Sharpness Series

Sharpness Series
Soft	Normal	Sharp