White balance and colour
From my experience, Nikon’s lower-end DSLRs and high-end compact cameras generally offer a vivid colour rendition, and the Coolpix P7100 is no exception. During a bright sunny day blue skies are typically punchy, but the greens in the grass and leaves are way too vivid. For such images in standard colour mode, nudging down the saturation by one setting helps. For portraits, the standard setting is fine.
However, standard is not the only colour mode. For landscapes and the like, neutral (not the landscape mode!) is likely to please photographers, while after a couple of images I avoided vivid altogether.
A custom setting can be created with the user-defined adjustments to saturation, contrast and sharpening. Different colour filters are available in the monochrome colour setting, with the green filter great for portraits and the red ideal for landscapes.
White balance offers a comprehensive range of settings, including two auto (one for warm light), the usual presets, Kelvin adjustment and three user-defined settings. I found little difference between the two auto WB settings, although strong yellows are more neutral in the warm light option.
Image: Creative monochrome in special effects allows control over grain to give a high ISO feel
