Scene Modes
For ease of use, the Coolpix 8400's Scene shooting mode offers a menu of fifteen "Scenes", each corresponding to a common situation, such as a backlight subject, sunset or interior shot. Simply select the mode appropriate to your lighting conditions, and the camera will automatically adjust the aperture, shutter speed, focus, flash, contrast, sensitivity and white balance.

The Scene Modes include: Portrait, Party/Indoor, Night portrait, Beach/Snow, Landscape, Sunset, Night landscape, Museum, Fireworks show, Close up, Copy, Back light, Panorama assist, Sports and Dusk/Dawn.

Focus (AF Area Settings)
The Nikon Coolpix 8400 allows you to select from the following three AF area settings:

• Auto: Automatically selects and focuses on the subject closest to the camera, when it is contained within any of the five AF areas. When the shutter release button is pressed halfway down, the AF area that the camera automatically selected will be indicated. Best for shooting irregularly moving objects or when there is not enough time for focusing.
  
  
• Manual: Select the appropriate AF area from nine areas displayed on the monitor. Use the Multi-Selector to select the AF area. Appropriate when shooting fairly still, off-center objects or focusing without using AF Lock.
  
  
• Off: Using only the AF area in the center. The AF area will not be displayed. Use AF Lock if the subject is not in the center of the frame.
  

High Speed AF
If you set the AF Area to Off, you can select between the following two auto-focus methods for focusing on the subject.

• Hybrid AF: Using its AF range finder, the camera measures the distance to the subject and adjusts the focus at high speed. The focus is adjusted more quickly than when Standard AF is selected. Generally used when erratic movement of the subject requires high-speed focusing.



• Standard AF: The camera determines the most suitable focusing position. Generally used when time is available to frame shots and subject is relatively stationary.
  

Focus Range
The Nikon Coolpix 8400 can focus from 50cm (19.7 in.) to infinity in normal wide angle mode, and from 1m (39.4 in.) to infinity in telephoto. The camera can focus from as close as 3cm (1.2 in.) to infinity in macro and manual focus modes.

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BSS (Best Shot Selector) mode
In this mode, when the shutter button remains depressed, the camera stores up to ten images in its memory. The image considered sharpest is then automatically selected (based on a comparison of image-data characteristics) and then recorded onto the CF card. However, it is not effective for moving objects or when composition changes during the continuous shots.

The Coolpix 8400 also features Nikon's AE-BSS mode (Auto Exposure BSS). When using this function, the camera automatically takes five consecutive shots with a single release of the shutter. Then the camera automatically selects the image with the best relative exposure from the five shots by analyzing the tonal range and gradation of each image based on the selected mode (Highlight mode, Shadow mode, or Histogram mode). Then the selected image will be recorded on the CF card.

Continuous Shooting Modes
The Nikon Coolpix 8400 offers a number of different continuous shooting modes, including;

• Single: Pressing down the shutter release button captures a single image. Even if you keep pressing the button, continuous shooting is not available.
  
  
• Continuous H: Keep pressing the shutter release button, and capture up to 5 frames at 2.3 fps
  
  
• Continuous L: Keep pressing the shutter release button, and capture up to 11 JPEG frames at 1.2 fps
  
  
• Multi-shot 16: Press down the shutter release button, and capture 16 frames at approx. 1.6 fps. The camera combines the 16 images, put 4x4, and saves it as a single image (3,264 x 2,448-pixels)
  
  
• Ultra HS: Pressing down the shutter release button captures up to 100 frames at approx. 30 fps in the size of 640 x 480 pixels
  
  
• 5 Shot Buffer: Keep pressing down the shutter release button, and capture images at 0.7 fps. When you release your finger, the camera quits capturing images and records the last five in the CF card
  
  
• Interval timer shooting: Automatically captures still images up to 1800 frames at set intervals

Movie modes
The Nikon Coolpix 8400 provides the following five movie modes. All except time-lapse movies include sound recorded via the built-in microphone.

• TV movie 640 (640 x 480 pixels; 30 fps) up to 60 seconds with audio. Suitable for playback on TV
  
  
• Small movie 320 (320 x 240 pixels; 15 fps) up to 2400 seconds* with audio
  
  
• Time-lapse movie (640 x 480 pixels; 30 fps) up to 35 seconds (1050 frames) without audio. This automatically captures a series of still images at set intervals, and then combines them
  
  
• Sepia movie 320 (320 x 240 pixels; 5 fps) up to 2,400 seconds* with audio
  
  
• B&W movie 320 (320 x 240 pixels; 15 fps) up to 2,400 seconds*

  *depends on the size of the CF card

Voice Memo recording is also available and can be recorded for up to 20 seconds. Voice Memos are recorded in WAV file format.

Image Quality and Image Size
The Coolpix 8400 stores images in one of three formats: NEF/RAW, TIFF or JPEG. The available Image Quality settings include: NEF/RAW, Hi , Extra, Fine, Normal, Basic.

NEF/RAW and Hi (TIFF) Quality files are not compressed. The new Extra JPEG mode has a compression ratio of 1:2, Fine JPEG a ratio of 1:4, Normal JPEG 1:8, and Basic JPEG 1:16.

The following image size selections are available on the Coolpix 8400:

• 8M (3,264 x 2,448)
  
• 3:2 (3,264 x 2,176)
  
• 5M (2,592 x 1,944)
  
• 3M (2,048 x 1,536)
  
• 2M (1,600 x 1,200)
  
• 1M (1,280 x 960),
  
• PC (1,024 x 768)
  
• TV (640 x 480)

The file size is determined by image quality and image size. Therefore, the number of images that a CF card can record varies with the image quality and size. The following is an approximate number of images and file sizes with a 256MB CF card.

* The numbers above are approximate. Numbers vary depending on the make of card, characteristic of JPEG compression and contents of the image.

RAW mode image recording
For those who desire more creative freedom when editing, the Coolpix 8400 offers the benefit of NEF/RAW image recording. Files can be opened and saved with the supplied Picture Project Software. A RAW image can also be converted in-camera into a Hi-quality TIFF copy , allowing the image to be viewed in any application that supports TIFF.

For extended editing capabilities and complete NEF (RAW) file support, optional Nikon Capture 4 Image Editing software is required.