For anyone looking at getting a decent, mid-level point-and-shoot with the look and feel of an SLR, the Nikon Coolpix L120 is by far the best choice, even with its few shortcomings!

As a semi-professional photographer who primarily shoots film (but is slowly converting to digital) I always have kept at least a digital P&S camera with me to get those “quick” shots that I can’t get because of the time involved in setting up the shot in an SLR. My previous camera, the Minolta DiMAGE S414 had been getting long in the tooth and was starting to glitch. A friend gave me his Nikon Coolpix E5200 and I was immediately hooked on Nikon’s legendary imaging quality. However, the 5-megapixel sensor in the Coolpix E5200 was short of what I truly needed, so the same friend who gave me the E5200 also let me try out his Coolpix L110. I was blown away with how well the photos turned out! In my quest to buy my own Coolpix L110, I had heard back in February that Nikon was releasing the Coolpix L120, with a 2-megapixel increase over the L110 and several new features. Having read the first reviews of the camera, it seemed like a sure winner, so I took the plunge on March 14th of this year and secured one for myself.

Instantly, I was hooked on it. Right out of the box, this camera is a winner! The settings, user-interface, the sleek design and the nifty zoom selector on the lens barrel makes this camera worth every penny. In the short time I have owned it, I have already taken approximately 1,200 photos with it; everything from nature, bridges, even the sun! (with a solar filter, of course). And with its fantastic 21x optical zoom, I can photograph a car at more than a quarter-mile away and be able to clearly read its license plate!

The only drawback I can see is that Nikon has left out the ability to manually control your aperture and shutter speed settings (instead, leaving that for the Nikon Coolpix P500 which I was unimpressed with). However, those small shortcomings are overwhelmed by the simplicity this camera offers. Itching to get into Panorama photography, without the need for an expensive SLR with built-in panorama stitching? Consider it done! With this camera’s Panorama-Assist feature (which overlays a small portion of the image onto the screen for the next shot to be composed), and the supplied Arcsoft Panorama Maker Pro 5 software, Panorama-style photography has never been more affordable. Looking to enhance photos with HDR-like color clarity? Consider that done, also! This camera supplies with it built-in D-Lighting that preserves the color intensity of an image yet bringing out the details otherwise hidden within dark shadows. Also supplied, incase you don’t want to edit your images in-camera, is Nikon’s own View NX-2, which not only includes D-lighting enhancement filters, it also offers a host of other image-editing capabilities!

In short, this camera has the competition beat! I would recommend it (I have the black version) over anything else.

Bought this camera and loved the ease of operation and picture quality. I also have the Panasonic DMC-FZ35, which is VERY complicated. I needed something simpler. I learned to use this Nikon after only 1 hour of reading the manual (compared to months still trying to figure out the Panasonic). Was easy getting great pictures. Smile detection and Pet mode worked terrific. Unfortunately, my primary reason for this type of hybrid camera, is for the convenience of camera and HD video in one unit. Video quality on this unit is well below average. I compared it to my Panasonic – no comparison. The Panasonic’s video was smooth and clear, the Nikon – grainy and jerky. I really wanted to keep this camera for it’s ease of use and picture quality, but the poor video quality ultimately caused me to return it. Until I find an easy to use camera with good picture and video, I’ll continue with the months of trying to figure out the Panasonic.

PROS: Ease of use, great pictures, smile detection, pet mode, easy to understand manual, price.

CONS: Poor video quality

I recieved this camera just a couple of days ago. Wow what a fantastic surprise! My two previous digital cameras were a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ10 which I purchased in 2009 for a bicycle tour. While the camera had a lot of good things going for it a couple of problems stuck out which I could not tolerate. 1st and foremost it was very poor in bad lighting and the flash did not compinsate. 2nd..it really needed to be held steady any movement created a blurry picture. Declining light only made the issue worse. My other digital is a Nikon Coolpix 4300 which I bought 6 or 7 years ago to handle an online website. I love that camera, great pictures. good in bad light, not much zoom capability but could deal with that. The big problem…It was designed with an odd memory card which is hard to get and did not hold as much as comparable cameras today. I still use this camera for my website.

Good luck with Nikon and poor luck with Lumix I decided to chance another Nikon. Wow again..quick focus, Holds a common SD card, great zoom capabilities, and best of all it opperates very well in poor light conditions, in fact I forced a poor light condition under my desk with no flash and worked beyond belief! Add to those good reviews the fact they have redesigned the zoom key and placed it on the left side on the lens (can you say 35mm like)long, long, long over due.

If your thinking about one…make the plunge. A+A+A+

This is a very versatile camera and responsive to most needs. It has a good macro range to go along with a super zoom range. It compares well to a Panasonic DMC-GH1 which has a much larger sensor and more expensive optics (the lens alone is twice the price of this Nikon). The Panasonic also produced higher saturation and contrast shots in default mode and this gives the appearance of higher resolution. The Nikon gave a truer auto outdoor color balance and more natural contrast. Even at ISO 800 it was very sharp. You can enlarge a few test shots at the DPReview forums by searching for “Nikon P100 test shots”. or if this works: [...]

The two highlights that amazed me were the Nikon’s focusing indicator system. It is so cool that when you shoot a bouquet of flowers the display shows you each blossom chosen by the matrix focusing system. You click the shutter with the knowledge that it is choosing what you want. Wonderful. The second highlight is the range of the optics from good macro, nice wide angle, and amazing telephoto. Please see the photos I uploaded showing how well this camera compares. What the Nikon lacks mostly comes down to smooth tones and fine detail at high ISOs; and this is only because it is being compared to a large sensor camera. The images would easily pass a fairly critical viewer on an 8×10 print and seem to be better than previous cameras with this size sensor.

Pros (so far):

Great focus indicator system, Display shows small green squares over selected objects for focus = ready to shoot, red square = not ready

Light, easy to hold good fit to my medium sized hands.

Articulated screen seems more natural than the swing out to the side screens (aligned with lens)

Quick access to shoot videos, focus tracking option, slow motion (lower res 240 fps),

Hugh zoom range and quite fast action, 1

I’ve had a Nikon S510 a while back which I loved, and the Nikon S570 is even better. I like vivid colors, and when set to “vivid”, the Nikon S570 produces photos with beautiful vivid colors and excellent contrast. The wide angle lens has great edge to edge sharpness. The Nikon S570 performs well, probably not the fastest (shutter lag and start-up time), but good nonetheless. The only thing that it’s really slow in is the wait time between shots, which seems to be an eternity. I’ve missed a few shots waiting for the camera to be ready for the next shot. Otherwise, I really love this camera. It’s small and light enough to fit in you pocket, and it takes great pictures. And for it’s price, it’s definitely a great buy.

There are many good cameras in this category to select from, and all have Pro’s and Con’s that ultimately are reported in these user reviews. These are personal opinion’s, and mostely not scientific. This review for the Nikon S570 tells you why I chose this camera over the others.

Since I was looking for a camera that was portable and easy to use I chose to look at these “pocket” style cameras. I’ve owned Canon, Olympus, Kodak and Nikon. I’ve found that what I consider important is the ability to get to the picture taking mode quickly. The next most important feature I look for is a menu system that is intuitive so that I can figure out how to do the things I want to do on a routine basis, like transfer pictures, delete those I don’t want and perform a little in-camera editing. Lastly, I look for a camera that has some automatic modes that make sense on daily use type cameras, like night mode, portraits and landscape modes.

For the price I got this camera for on Amazon, this one is tops in speed and easy use. It get’s you to taking picturs very fast, from the time you open the box, until your a pro with it and just need to capture a quick shot. No matter the situation, from family gatherings to landscapes, or low light shots to skinging movies, this camera rises to the challenge.

I recommend spending the extra money for a large SD card to go along with the 12 MP capability and movie action. If your going to keep it handy, It’s worth the extra expense to get a slim case. (something that is easy to open) Finally, even though this camera is not a professional type instrument, I’ve attached it to a tripod and have taken some photos over a wide exposure range to process as high dynamic range images. This camera worked pretty good for this function. (I consider this a little more advanced function for this type of camera, but the situation called for a small portable unit like this one.)

Get one for yourself and buy one as a gift.

I made this purchase for my wife for christmas .

Although I bought this some time ago she just opened it for Christmas and she LOVES it!

very easy to use and the quality is great..very light very easy no problems what so ever .

Her hobby is photography so she finds it very easy to use and she knows her numbers and what to set it on so it is one nice little camera for when she dont want to lug around her bigger one. we have read reviews for this camera and we do not find anything wrong with it ..some say it is slow between shots .. My wife does not at all find this camera slow between shots..no way

Some also say its blurry when you playback the photos.. Ours is not blurry at all and I played my photos back on my 32 inch HD TV..they come out clear as a bell.

But some people DO have that problem..here is a solution that my wife says to do….

DO NOT in any way ROTATE your photos from the camera..this could damage the memory chip you have so what we always do is Hook the camera up to the computer then load the shots on to that ..then you can rotate all you want..you will see the difference .

I hope that helps people.

Also..we have no need to use the software for it either.. we just plug the camera to the computer and take my shots off the camera that way (just open the file) ..then I use my own photo sofware .. and Again not a problem at all

The Video is also cute on it..I wouldnt film “important things” such as one time events..but just for quick things..then its good .but thats not what my wife wants to use it for. so we dont mind it .

All in all we are very very happy with this camera.

Thank you

OK, I was really wanting the RED Nikon S8100 but apparently only black is available unless you buy it directly from Nikon. I decided to go black because I live in Oregon where there is no sales tax, and Nikon was going to tax me and add to the shipping. Black isn’t all that bad looking anyway and it matches my Cooler Master HAF-X PC case.

I’m upgrading from a Sony DSC-V1. The size of the Nikon is a hair wider, a hair shorter and about half as thick. The DSC-V1 had a po-pup flash in the same area as the S8100 so I was used to holding the camera the correct way already. For those of you that can’t think outside the box, the proper way to hold this camera is to make a gun with your left hand, thumb pointing up, then bend your wrist so the gun is pointing to your right, then place the camera in the gun. RTFM. This tip is printed (and pictured) in the quick start booklet that came with the camera. Once you get used to it, you won’t mind pop-up flashes at all. The only issue you will have is when your dense friends take pictures of you with it and hold the flash down, not knowing any better.

The downgrade from the S8000′s 14 megapixel CCD to the S8100′s 12 megapixel CMOS sensor is no downgrade whatsoever. Megapixels are nearly irrelevant to point and shoot cameras above 12 anyway, and the image quality increase, and low light shooting improvements you get with the CMOS sensor EASILY trump a 2 megapixel increase. I am continuing to be surprised how good my pictures keep turning out, in all light levels.

The 10x optical zoom is great, but what is amazing is how clean the digital zoom is beyond that. I am used to fuzzy or blurry shots when using the digital zoom, but this camera somehow gets around that. The placement of the zoom lever forces you to use your right forefinger instead of your thumb which I’m used to. It felt kind of odd at first, but makes complete logical sense from an ergonomic point of view when you are holding the camera properly. On the opposite side, the macro function floored me. For a point and shoot camera, I never expected a macro this good. It macro shoots better than my Cannon DSLR. I can rest the lens up against the object I’m shooting and the image will still focus good.

The LCD screen on the back is a typical 3″ screen, but a very untypically high quality resolution. It has the highest resolution screen of any point and shoot I could find. You can really see the detail of what you are about to shoot with it. It’s bright and the colors are accurate.

The 1080p video this camera produces is better than I expected. Far better. You can use the zoom feature while rolling AND take stills simultaneously. It also records in stereo sound. Great stuff.

Some people complained that this camera is still a bit too large for their liking. If it was any smaller that it is now, you would not be able to hold it without accidentally pressing a button or something, and it fits in my pocket just fine. Those people must have toothpick fingers or don’t realize that size much smaller than the S8100 really isn’t much of an advantage unless you are some kind of top secret spy or something.

The camera has all the basic features you would want, and several that are kind of neat. Manual on the fly brightness, hue, and vividness adjustments can be handy, the skin softening feature turns your subjects into super models, and the ISO sensitivity range is above average. It has a wind noise reduction option while taking video, and all the features you would use the most are easily and quickly accessible.

I know I’m sounding like a Nikon fanboy now but I’m just so happy with this camera. The only thing I can think of I don’t care for is the rubber stop that plugs the USB port on the bottom of the camera. I prefer a flip door, but this is just my preference.

It comes with surprisingly good full version photo editing software, and even a panoramic stitching program that I’ve yet to try. The full manual is on a CD that comes with it though I prefer a book to look at. The start-up speed (power on to photo ready) is just under 2 seconds. Holy cow batman!

One feature that I haven’t taken advantage of yet but look really useful in action shooting is the high-speed shooting at five full resolution frames at up to 10 frames’per’second, and a pre’shooting cache that records up to two shots before the shutter’release is fully pressed. This will really make it easy to get the action shot you really want. The other feature that I’m very impressed by is the advanced Night Landscape mode which combines a series of five consecutive shots taken at a fast shutter speed into a single image with reduced noise when taking hand held shots. Dark backgrounds turn out very visible without over lighting the subject. Very cool technology idea.

In summery, I feel like the 9 I paid for…

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I’ve been waiting since late summer for the Canon 4500 and the Nikon s8100 to be released. The Canon came out first, about three weeks ago, and I immediately bought one.I played with it for a week and decided it just didn’t live up to my expectations (in auto mode: flash too bright and uncontrolable, images NOT razor sharp, 36mm lens too narrow). I returned the Canon 4500 and ordered the Nikon s8100 last week.

What a difference! If picture quality is your main concern (which is, of course, every photographers main concern) this little baby really shines. In auto mode, images are razor sharp and super bright with or without flash and throughout the full range of the zoom. I don’t know if it’s the Nikor lense or the auto focus system but these pictures are superior to any point and shoot I’ve ever played with. The Cannons image quality was similar to a lesser priced digital point and shoot. The Nikon is a full step above this.

There are a few small negatives: the worst being the rediculous placement of the pop-up flash. Each time I’ve attempted to take my first flash picture of the day my finger has been over the flash which prevents it from fully opening. At least a note comes on the monitor which tells you that the flash is not fully up. Once the flash is up it stays up until you manually push it down, so it’s not like this problem occurs every time you take a flash photo. I’m sure I’ll find a different way to hold the camera to avoid this annoying problem…but it’s certainly not a deal breaker.

This camera does not have as many manual controls as the Canon 4500 but if I want to get super creative I’ll use my SLR.

It’s also a tad thicker than I’d like (about the size of a cigarette pack) but can still fit in your pocket. However, both the lens and the monitor are not recessed or protected in any way and scratches will be hard to avoid. I’m using a soft suede pouch when it’s in my pocket to protect it.

Overall, I’m very happy with the Nikon s8100 and highly reccomend it for anyone looking for super high quality photos in an easy to use reasonably priced camera.

UPDATE: Took camera out for first extended shoot on Halloween night. Did not perform as well as I’d hoped for. All pix shot in low lite (outdoors, night) in auto mode with flash. Flash way too bright to the point where some pix were washed out with too much lite. Will try previous commenters suggestion of playing with the limited manual controls to attempt to correct this problem. Images NOT as sharp as day time shots without flash.Will update again very soon as I’m taking out the camera again today for day AND night shots.

UPDATE: I have returned the camera today after observing two issues that are dealbreaker for me. We finally had a bright sunny day today and I took some videos to compare against my 3 year old Canon Powershot TX1 that shoots 720p. I also received my mini-HDMI cable so I could watch the video on my 42″ LCD TV directly without post-processing thru Apple TV box.

ISSUE #1: The video keeps going out of focus while I zoom or pan – whether I set center, weighted focus and/or single AF or continuous AF. The recorded video looks really bad. On the other hand my TX1 stays rock steady with the focus.

ISSUE #2: There is a loud zoom motor noise that gets recorded in the clip. I initially thought that continuous AF or Image Stabilization is causing the noise. I put the camera on a tripod and disabled continuous AF and the noise remained and it was clearly there when I operated the zoom.

The still photography feature of the camera is stunning, but video is important for me as well as I want to carry only one camera on my travels.

I love the 3″ LCD on this camera, but the two issues pushed me over the edge.

Original review below:

This is my 1st Nikon. I have always purchased Canon ever since I used a Canon A1 35mm film SLR nearly 30 yrs back. I own a Canon Digital SLR, Canon DV Cam, Canon Powershot TX1. Most of my photography during travel/vacation has been with the TX1 shooting both stills as well as 720p Video which I edit on my Mac and then stream thru my Apple TV.

I have been looking forward to replacing my TX1 with a camera that is:

- compact like TX1

- bigger and better LCD screen (TX1 has very tiny one)

- shoots 1080p with full optical zoom (not handicapped like Canon has done with all their 1080p shooting compact cameras that don’t allow optical zooming during video recording)

- good range of optical zoom

- image stabilized lens

- reasonable number of pixels

- better low light shooting

- shoot moving objects

- separate shutter button and video recording buttons – this is very useful when the subject is not waiting for you to fiddle with the rotary selector as with most cameras (except for TX1 which had this feature).

It is important for me give all this preamble to relate to what my expectations were from this camera.

Gave up on Canon finally, looked into Panasonic ZX7 – didn’t like the reviews and waited patiently for the release of Nikon S8100. Received it today. Have taken some shots and here is my first impression.

1. I am happy with the image quality of the stills

2. Great quality of 1080p video (haven’t tried the 720p mode as yet)

3. Optical zoom is very good (the rate of zooming slows down during video recording)

4. Controls are simple to use

5. Very fast focus response

6. Very fast start time

7. Very good image stabilization

8. Face detection works very well (even on images on TV)

9. Very good build quality (feels robust) – just like my TX1

Only negative: The position of the flash. It is the place where you would normally grip the camera with your left index finger. If the flash wasn’t a pop up type, this could have been avoided.

Overall, I am very happy with the camera. Will move on to try the remaining features in the next few days. Have to get hold of the mini-HDMI cable to test the direct to TV playback of 1080p video.

Now I’m no professional photographer, but I am picky about how my pictures look. I have a good eye, and can be very anal about details in my photos. I’ve seen this camera get some bad reviews lately, and I am really perplexed by this. I looked at lots of other cameras. some costing more and some less. This was by far the best point and shoot pocket-able mega zoom out there, I thought. I read some negative reviews about sluggish focus and blurred images from here and from Best Buy’s web site. I don’t know if a bad batch of cameras went out? I did have some focus issues right out of the box when I started using the camera; but after inspecting the camera I noticed a nice big greasy finger print right on the lens. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t from me, but I wouldn’t bet my life on it though. After cleaning the lens, I have had no focus issues. The only thing I can say about the focus is that when indoors, sometimes you need to take a step back and use more zoom to get focus lock, and sometimes you might need to take a step forward and use less zoom to achieve focus lock. This happens rarely though. Most of the time my S9100 focuses fast and true. Low light shots are great indoors and out. Auto mode works pretty good for about 90% of my shots, and the rest I use the various setting or scene modes to capture the shot I want. Now I’m not saying every shot I take is perfect and clear. As with any camera digital or film. You have to expect a few bad shots. That’s why I always try to take more that one shot when possible. the lcd is gorgeous. I find that if the pictures look good on the camera, they will look good on my computer. Of course different computers will yield different results. On my laptop the pictures look a bit drab or dull, but on my desk top with a high res monitor the pictures are real vivid and pleasing to the eye. I’ve had the camera now for almost two weeks and I love it. The long zoom is great, but even with image stabilizing enabled you will need a steady hand for clear shots at higher zoom levels. The video from the camera plays nice and smooth on my computer when I use windows media player; but when I tried quick time the video was choppy. In video mode you can take pics while recording, which is nice. There is no shutter sound when you take the picture, therefore no shutter sound in the video. You will however hear the zoom lens in your videos under quiet situations. It’s not very loud, but it is noticeable. The camera starts up quick with little delay from shot to shot. I do recommend a class 6 or higher memory card. It made a big difference for me in burst mode. The camera can fire off 5 shots at a rate of 9.5 fps, but write times with a class 4 were painfully slow. I had to wait a good 9 to 10 seconds before my next shot. I am now using a class 10 and that time has been cut down to about 3 to 4 seconds. A bit of advice on memory cards. Make sure you look at the minimum and maximum write times. Not all class tens or sixes are equal. I saw a lot of class 10 cards with the same write speeds as higher end class 6 cards. I did upload a bunch of pictures so everyone can judge for themselves on quality. I guess the best advice I can give is try some test shots using various scene modes for other than there intended purpose. That’s what I try to do when possible. I’ll take a few pictures of the same shot using different settings. Then I view them on the computer later to see what looks best. Some other things I would like to touch on. A complaint I heard a lot about on the S8100 is the battery level wasn’t displayed until the camera needed charging. It is now displayed always on the S9100. Another complaint was about flash placement on the S8100. It’s in the same place for this one, but for me there is still enough room behind the flash for my finger. The flash no longer pops up automatically. It now pops up by activating a little switch on the side of the camera. This I actually like. I never cared for auto pop up flashes. Some people have complained about placement of the shutter button. That of course is an individual preference and shouldn’t effect a rating. I like where it is on this camera, no problems at all. The other buttons and dials all seem to be good places and easy to activate or use. The camera itself is pretty easy to use. The interface is simple and clean. Settings are easy to get to and not buried under five or six sub menus. All in all, this is a great little camera.

Folks, this purchase came after 3 solid days of research using everything from Amazon, CNet, Infosyncworld, to YouTube. You are here, reading reviews, as I was at the beginning of my search for a great quality digital camera that was neither high-end nor cheap. Let me begin by saying that I just purchased this camera and have not gone over extensive testing myself, but rest assured that you should NOT take Amazon.com reviews for digital cameras (and a lot of other things for that matter) as the gospel. Why? Because too many people come on here, bashing good equipment when the vast majority of the time it is user error. Please, do yourself a favor and do research using professional analysis by people that test these things out and that take pictures and video that you can see for YOURSELF.

I ignored all of the reviews that didn’t specifically point towards any sort of systematic malfunction and that solely complained about image quality or other things that are easily altered and messed up using settings. And also reviews that complained about their camera breaking — yeah I don’t care HOW far you think you dropped it from…dropping electronics and it breaking then giving it a negative review is absurd. After narrowing my search down to the Canon S95, the Canon SX230, the Nikon s8100 and the Nikon s9100, I chose the Nikon S9100.

WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR:

1. a compact camera…not too small, not too big

2. advanced enough to get my feet wet in the world of digital photography

3. offers 1080 HD video

4. optical zoom of at LEAST 10X

5. Under 0 – as I’m not ready to purchase a dSLR

6. utmost picture quality offered by a point & shoot (to include low-light performance)

WHAT MY RESEARCH TOLD ME:

1. professional review websites, not amazon reviewers, know what they are talking about when it comes to digital camera picture/video quality and they back it up with samples

2. not to rely on a handful of negative reviews to sway my decision

3. Nikon and Canon were the 2 most reliable brands offering products that met my requirements

4. cameras are going to offer stuff I don’t need, won’t use

5. pretty much all of the cameras are battery hogs

6. the memory card can influence camera performance/speed (wonder how many negative reviewers trashed the Nikon for their lack of putting a quality card in it eh)

MY FINAL 2 CHOICES:

1. Nikon s9100

Why over the s8100?

-well, the image quality is virtually identical DESPITE what some of the Amazon reviewers are saying because they pretty much use the same imaging system.

-s9100 has slight upgrades to scene modes, video, etc…

-s9100 is the newer model and has just dropped to a reasonable price as compared to the s8100

2. Canon sx230

Why over the S95?

-the s95 didn’t shoot 1080 video (it is a 2010 model)

-the s95 had a lot of manual controls I am not ready for at this point and that I’d probably not use (this is a PRO for a lot of people)

-the s95 would likely be upgraded in the near future with a 2011 model

-the s95 cost roughly more and didn’t really give me anything the sx230 wouldn’t at my usage level

So, How’d I decide on the Nikon S9100 over the Canon SX230:

Menu System: Canon – I really liked the canon menu system and it was really fast to navigate. However, the Nikon menu was just as fast, just not as fancy or “pretty” as the Canon.

Image Quality: Tie; I found pictures taken at the store to be the same, and reviews online touted both cameras as being excellent in both low-light and bright light.

Video Quality: Tie

Picture/Video Stabilization: Picture: Tie; Video: Canon

Zoom: Nikon

Effects: Tie – however the Nikon approaches some of the effects a little bit different. Canon does offer a few effects the Nikon didn’t like a miniature video effect.

Audio: Tie – however you will hear the zoom in your videos if you use it while recording.

Form Factor: Canon – the Canon was more sleek and curvy

Comfortability: Nikon – the Nikon just fit my hand better

Price: Nikon – the Nikon was roughly less.

In the end I REALLY liked both cameras. I’m no pro photographer, but I didn’t want a battery operated purse toy either. So I don’t think I would have gone wrong either way, however I just couldn’t justify spending more for the Canon when it really didn’t offer me anything more features (that I’d use) over the Nikon. I wouldn’t use the GPS function on the Canon…it is a battery hog anyway, EVEN when the camera is off unless you turn the feature off. I wouldn’t really use a few of the extra effects the Canon had, and the Nikon had the better zoom. Despite Nikon’s menus not being as pretty, nor the back of the camera being as pretty. I liked it’s LCD screen better and was able to understand…

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The S9100 is the perfect size and feel for a pocket camera. It looks to be all plastic, but the type of plastic and the quality of the build makes it look and feel like the best small cameras made these days. Startup time is about one second, and going from minimum zoom to maximum zoom takes about two seconds. Image quality is very good for a camera with a 1/2.33-type sensor, but certain very fine details like hair, or a bird’s feathers in a low-contrast part of the bird’s body may be smeared somewhat. This is apparently caused by the noise reduction software in the camera, which can’t be turned down or off. On the other hand, my Canon SX-210 (which I replaced with the S9100) does not reduce noise much if at all, and the end result is a compromise between the two systems. I think the Nikon S9100 wins in that compromise though, since the images on average look better than the SX-210′s. Pocket cameras that have much larger sensors (and consequently much less zoom) can often produce a better image with less noise, but you have to give up the long zoom, or put up with a much larger camera.

In my tests of the S9100′s videos, using the highest quality 1080×1920 (1080p) setting, I did not see any clear superiority over the 720p videos from the Canon SX-210, or the Panasonic ZS3 that I also own. The ZS3′s and SX-210′s videos use about 3mb per second of filespace for the 720p movies, yet the Nikon S9100 uses only about 1.8mb per second to record 1080p movies at highest quality, day or night. Even if the S9100′s video software is much more efficient, it doesn’t account for such a disparity. 1080p is 2.25 times bigger than 720p in resolution, so I would expect 6.75mb per second if using the same video codec as the 720p cameras, or perhaps 3.5mb per second if the S9100′s codec is twice as efficient. In any case, I don’t see a major problem with video quality on the S9100 – where I have a problem is holding the camera steady when shooting movies at maximum zoom. Still photos are not much of a problem in good light, because the shutter speed will be high enough and the image stabilizer will help out. So I would recommend using a tripod, or bracing the camera against a solid object when shooting videos, especially at maximum zoom. If you use a tripod, or place the camera on a solid object so that there is no camera movement at all, you have to remember to turn the image stabilizer off or the video will not be sharp and clear.

Note: Many of the comments I’ve seen about blurry images from the S9100 could be due to using the camera on a tripod or placing it on a firm surface, and forgetting to turn the image stabilizer off. Then of course, you have to remember to turn it back on.

Using the S9100 is easy enough, since the menus and controls are pretty well common to most pocket cameras these days. I especially like the separate video button, which has saved me from a lot of missed opportunities. There are a few nitpicks I have with the S9100, which I wish Nikon would fix in a probably more expensive camera. I would prefer an optical image stabilizer to the sensor-based stabilizer, I would like to have Spot Focus as an option on the menu, and I would like to have the option to adjust the amount of noise reduction, in case I wanted to do noise reduction on the computer with extra software.

Battery life with the S9100 is rated about average for a pocket camera, which I find is good enough for about three hours of use in the local parks, shooting 100 to 300 photos. How many photos you get on a battery charge depends on how many you shoot close together. If you have the camera on most of the time and keep it activated, and take very few shots, the battery will still run down in a few hours due to the LCD screen, to the image stabilizer, and other electronic features that are active when the camera is active. If you don’t want to run out of power when you’re out shooting photos, you should get a second battery (never, ever get anything except a genuine Nikon battery) and make sure both are charged up before heading out.

I gave the Nikon S9100 only four stars because it’s not perfect, but in fact it’s a very good camera – the best pocket zoom camera I know of, and a bargain I believe at the standard price. If a person learns to use the S9100 properly, accounting for its particular features and requirements, they should get excellent photos that in many cases would compete with photos from high-priced DSLR’s.

UPDATE: 1/11/2011 – Because there are so many comments asking the same question I decided I should add this to the beginning to save you agony. This camera is poor in low-light and not the greatest for taking shots of kids running around or in situations where you need to quickly take multiple shots. Having said that, this camera has an absolutely amazing zoom, optics are top notch, macro mode is incredible and great video recording is possible as well. I’ve taken thousands of beautiful photos with this camera. You need to work with this camera and it will reward you handsomely. But read through as many comments as you can because there is a lot of discussion that may interest you. And now on to my original review…

I have two types of cameras that I generally use, small point & shoots, like the Canon Canon PowerShot SD600 6MP Digital Elph Camera with 3x Optical Zoom for “take anywhere” convenience and DSLR’s which for me currently is the Nikon D300 DX 12.3MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only)

If you have any questions about the camera, leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer you. Please note that I have updated my review with some additional observations on 3/29/2010 based on my continued experiences with the camera.

I wanted to get a camera that was SDHC compatible (the SD600 is not SDHC compatible, while the D300 uses CF cards) so that I could use the Eye-Fi wireless card Eye-Fi 4GB Share Video SDHC Wireless Flash Memory Card EYE-FI-4SV with it. I’ve had excellent results with small Canon point & shoot cameras over the years but the Nikon L110 caught my eye and I decided to buy it. It is substantially larger than the svelte Canon SD600, yet much smaller and lighter than my D300. It’s called a “bridge” camera by some people since it has some qualities reminiscent of a DSLR at the expense of being as small and pocketable as a typical “point & shoot” camera. Consequently, depending on where you are on the scale of novice to professional photographer and how pocketable you need your camera to be, this camera may either thrill you or leave you wanting something else. I’m somewhere in the middle.

There is a lot to like about this camera. It has a very nice feel in the hand and the rubberized grip makes you feel secure holding the camera. The large 3″ LCD display is gorgeous… it is bright, sharp and has excellent dpi not normally found in a camera of this price range. It also works quite well outdoors due to the fact that it has an anti-reflective coating on it. However the camera lacks an optical viewfinder which I do miss as I am more accustomed to using a viewfinder than not. The lack of a viewfinder is not a deal-breaker for me though. 12.1 megapixels gives you ample file size to make huge enlargements or lots of room for cropping. And the awesome zoom, from the 35mm equivalent of 28mm-420mm gives you an amazing range. It’s not normally even possible to hand-hold a camera and expect a very sharp image if you are zoomed to 420mm, or even 300mm, but with the great VR and Motion Detection incorporated into the camera, you can actually hand-hold at that extreme and get usable images. I was impressed with that. If you use a tripod at those extremes, then be sure to turn off the VR or you will get poor pictures. This is always the case with electronic VR… you never want to use it when also using a tripod since it is intended to compensate for your hand shake and when you’re on a tripod, there is no hand shake to correct so it is not necessary or desirable to have VR on.

The L110 has a minimal number of buttons and control pads which makes it a very approachable camera to use. Of course, the downside to that is you need to delve into the menu to get to some other features or controls that you may want to fiddle with. Again, coming from the D300, I found this a bit frustrating but someone more used to a point & shoot might not mind or even think about that as much.

What I like specifically about the camera is that I can take stunning photographs with little thought. Using the default “easy auto mode” lets you get started taking photos with little to worry about. Just frame your subject and press the shutter button. But you may not want to keep the camera in that mode all the time because it does come with some limitations that you need to be aware of. Easy Auto Mode automatically determines what you are trying to accomplish then sets the “scene” to what the camera thinks is the appropriate setting… it may not always be correct. And I noticed that auto-focus may not always work correctly especially when trying to shoot closeup images in easy auto mode. So in those cases you can switch to “auto mode” or manually…

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I bought the L110 for the main purpose of taking pictures of my two kids. They are not still subjects and the L110 is doing a great job in keeping up the pace with them. It pops-up in like 2 seconds and is shooting rounds of pictures at max resolution (12.1). That’s for speed.

Wide angle and super-zoom are in the manual. What is impressive is that at max zoom (digital zoom included) – with no tripod – I get to take sharp pictures. That’s for image stabilization.

After ~500 pics and ~30 min of HD video, the original AA Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries are still fully functional. No warning yet.

—-

Later edit. I took around

- 1100 pictures with the original AA Energizer Ultimate Lithium (L91-FR6) batteries ([...]).

- 400 pictures with some alcaline AA Energizer (LR6-E91-AM3) batteries ([...])

- 500 pictures / recharge with some rechargeable Energizer AA 2450 mAh.

All pictures were taken at maximum resolution and the flash fired for about 80% of those pics.

—-

The stereo HD video recording under the same hood is a treat. The maximum length for one video session is 30 minute (regardless of SD capacity) which is decent for birthday parties and similar.

Unfortunately, this is no camera phone that you can slip into a pocket until you need it. The only draw back I can see.

I test drove both Nikon Coolpix L110 and Canon SX200IS before I decided on Nikon. Size is the only advantage of the compact vs bridge, although price is higher for that particular Canon.

L110 is a stylish piece of equipment and an ergonomic one: I can easily operate it with only one hand.

The menu is really simple and intuitive… even for the feminine intuition…

All in all, a great camera and some well spent money.

This is an awesome little point and shoot camera.

I purchased it because I needed something that would take really nice photos but could be easily slipped into my handbag whilst on vacation. My DSLR and lenses are a little bulky to be lugging around all day.

My first choice after reading tons of reviews was the Canon SX20, mainly because I really didn’t want to sacrifice a viewfinder, plus it had the HD video capability. But I have to get a hands on the product first and no stores in our area had one in stock.

When I found the L110 was just being released I decided to give it a go….I have to admit I am impressed….this is a neat little camera. I’ve read some reviews where people are dissapointed that there aren’t any manual settings, but the many preset features are really good for just about all conditions.

One feature that I really like is the smart portrait setting – the camera will automatically shoot the pic when it detects a smile. This feature helped me get some of the cutest photos of our baby nephew. When I was trying on plain auto mode I missed the smile every time. Theres also a setting that will let you know if someone blinked with a pop up on screen warning. This certainly helps avoid those *would’ve been a great pic if only you hadn’t blinked* photos that you notice hours after the event.

As for digital zoom…I don’t really like it on any camera…so chances are I won’t use it unless absolutely necessary. But, I did try it out and found that using the full zoom capabilities you can get a pretty impressive photo of the moon, craters and all ) (I’ll post a photo I took of the moon with the L110) I did need to use a tripod though, because at that power zoom the camera shake was pretty bad. But it could be just me, I don’t have the steadiest of hands.

I also love that I can record HD video, even indoors in low light it’s not really that bad when played on a HD TV. Outdoors in natural light it is pretty impressive. However, its not intended to replace a stand alone video camera so don’t expect Hollywood results. Oh and the mic isn’t ideally placed, but thats probably to minimize the recording of the lens movement when zooming (it already picks up on it so avoid zooming if possible)

All in all its a great camera and I didn’t really find any real cons to it. It definitely isn’t a *pocket* camera, but its not bulky either, somewhere in the middle I’d say.

Oh and as for battery life…..using either the optional recommended Nikon rechargeables, or the included energizer ultimates you won’t be dissapointed, I just can’t seem to get either of them to run out of power.

I just returned from the holidays that I got the camera for. 14 days in Alaska. The camera did nearly everything I asked of it. A couple points I would like to point out. *I used firmware version 1.0 while on holiday, I now see version 1.1 is out, but does not appear to address any of the points I had issue with*

One thing that has me puzzled is when taking a photo in the camera’s B&W mode, it will not focus properly if fully zoomed out. This appears to be a glitch to me, it makes no sense, however it is what I experienced while shooting. I got to work with the video more, and I had very bad luck getting it to focus. However I did notice if I ran the zoom out and THEN turned on the video, it seemed to be able to grab focus on the subjects much better. Again, doesn’t make sense to me, but I will be interested in others that try it and if they have the same experience. I met several folks both traveling with us and at the places I visited that own the P500. I was able to give some neophytes some pointers. Shared experiences with others and got some slick pointers from some too. Almost to the person the folks I interacted with were pleased to very pleased with this camera. Yes, we all shared some of the same gripes. One of the universal ones was the faux pas with a complete lack of filter attachment ability and the lens cap- power on/off.

In the still mode (non-video) this camera will pretty much do whatever you ask of it, IF you’ve studied the manual and played with it. I promise you that if you are putting it in “AUTO” and expecting it to figure everything out, you’ll be disappointed. Experiment, learn the camera. It IS an amazing piece of technology. If you’re interested in looking at some of the photos I took while in Alaska, feel free to visit my webshots page: [...]

<UPDATE> I went out and shot another 200+ photos this morning.

A few more notes on thing I’ve “discovered” while shooting today.

I shot a couple short vids, used flash, turned off the camera multiple times and allowed it to hibernate many times, zoomed in and out and still the camera showed 1/4 of battery life left. Obviously if you’re going to use this in a photo rich environment, carry a spare battery. Always better safe than sorry.

Some reviewers said they couldn’t find any usable photos using HDR. I found it more than usable and will attach a couple photos to allow comparison.

I was using a grade 6 SD card today. That is the minimum Nikon recommends. It took approximately 13 seconds for the camera to process an HDR photo and a couple more seconds to write it to the card. Camera continues to show practically no lag time when taking standard shots. Only panoramas and HDR slow things down, with HDR certainly taking the longest. Nikon does have a progress bar that appears across the bottom so you don’t think the camera is locked up.

While using full (or near full) zoom and in Auto mode, the camera did a fair amount of searching to focus on an item while in MACRO. Since my previous Lumix TZ5 was less than optimal in low light focusing, I am used to using either PROGRAM or Aperture priority on the Nikon to achieve focus on the intended target.

In what i consider “medium light” the camera refused to allow an aperture setting to maintain an narrow field of focus.

I’m certainly not down-grading my rating of the camera. I like it very much.

Just remember it is not a DSLR. In comparison it has a tiny sensor. There are always trade-offs. I am more convinced that this camera will suit my intended uses very well. The VR at extreme zoom still impresses me, as does the low light sensitivity and noise. Yes, there’s noise, even at 560 ISO. It’s not distracting however. Wait for the camera geeks to test and publish their data (i.e. dpreview.com) to get the hard statistics. My over all impression still stands and I’m glad I took a gamble and pre-ordered this camera and was on the initial round of deliveries from Amazon.

<ORIGINAL POST> I have had possession of my P500 for my second evening to this point.

I’ve gotten to “play” a bit with it and here are my impressions.

Is it “the perfect camera for everyone?” No.

I personally don’t believe such an animal exists nor will likely ever. Important factors to one shooter may be a non-factor or possibly a negative to another.

What is important is for each individual consumer (or gift giver)is consider the features that are most important to you.

Quickly summarizing me and my trigger points:

1)Travel friendly; great for nature shots, scenics, wildlife, architecture and has video capabilities. Do a reasonable job of photographing people when I must.

Size wise, very similar form factor (though a bit smaller)than my previous coolpix 8700. (Though nearly 3 times as thick and heavier than it’s immediate predecessor, Panasonic’s Lumix…

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Overall, the Nikon Coolpix P500 is pretty impressive. Although there are a few flaws, the camera’s features make up for them. Below are the major pros and cons I found after using the camera for a few hours.

Pros:

- HUGE 36x Optical Zoom (at full zoom I could see buildings 5 miles away as if they were two blocks away)

- Relatively lightweight and compact, much smaller than I expected.(compared to an entry level DSLR)

- Up to 240 FPS video, nice slow motion.

- Manual controls, a must for any experienced camera user.

- Buttons well laid out and simple to find and use.

Cons:

- Image quality was good but it was pretty much expected, nothing extraordinary for this price range. If you prefer higher quality images over features in this price range, an entry level DSLR such as the D3100 is the way to go.

- If you accidentally leave the lens cap on and turn the camera on, the lens will still try to come out and it will grind the motor. BE CAREFUL! I found this to be the biggest flaw, not having a “lens cap on” sensor or a resistance sensor that would stop the motor if it sensed something in the way.

- No supplied external battery charger. You have to charge the battery while it’s in the camera, via USB cable and supplied AC adapter. And while it’s charging, it won’t let you power it on, so you can’t use it as an AC power source either.

- As with all super high zooms, every tiny vibration is magnified so unless you have a tripod or some kind or support, it’s extremely difficult to get a clear shot at maximum zoom.

All in all, it is very user friendly. From the novice photographer to the experienced photo geek, the features on this camera are sure to impress. If you can deal with a few minor inconveniences, the Nikon Coolpix P500 is pretty nice camera.

I’ve owned the Nikon p90 and p100, so I’ve got an idea of what these Nikon superzooms are like. I wasn’t planning on buying a new superzoom, but the big jump in zoom to 810mm made me plonk down the money again. ( I think I need help, I’m becomeing a camera junkie). While wide angles aren’t usually something I look for in most cameras, 22.5mm (35mm format) is really wide! The p500 is once again evolutionary, rather than revolutionary.

The Good:

- Light and easy to hold, which makes it a good travelling camera. Less than half the weight of my dslr with an 18-200mm lens attached.

- Tilting 3 inch LCD screen.

- Humungous zoom. I write before that the Fujifilm HS10 720mm zoom was huge. 810mm is even huger! (This is the zoom range it should have been in the p100 imho, but as they say, better late than never). You will truly see things you’d never thought you’d see when you zoom out to 810mm.

- Easy to use…relatively. Since I’ve already used several Nikons, I’m more used to it than you might be if you are new to the brand, so I didn’t find it especially difficult to navigate. If you are a pure point and shoot person using little compact cameras, you might find the functions available a bit daunting and you’ll need to look up both the manual, and a FAQ section of photography terms and functions to know how to alter things like shutter speed and aperture. I use shutter speed sometimes, but not aperture, since it’s nothing to shout about. If I want thin sections of focus, I go to my dlsr and f1.4 prime lens

- Photo quality is not bad for this type of camera. Definitely not dslr quality. But if you just want that photo (and you’ll take heaps with 22.5-810mm on tap) then this will more than satisfy you.

- Macros: macro photo quality have always been quite reasonable in the Nikon p90, p100, and this model too. In some ways, they give dslr’s a run for their money because while not in the same league pixel peeping wise, you can get a heck of a lot closer with the p90, p100 and p500, so the colour and detail is quite decent imho. Colour is not as full and bright as some other brands, but is quite acceptable in good light. It’s a bit faded indoors or in poor light.

- Now comes is red, as well as black! Ok, this isn’t really a big thing, but if you don’t want common boring black, you now have a choice. Maybe it will appeal to others

The Bad:

- They STILL don’t provide an external charger! As I wrote before in the p100 review- I’m lucky- I still have a spare from the Nikon s10. All you poor saps who don’t will have to charge your camera battery using the USB cable and supplied AC charger. I don’t know how much an external charger and spare battery are, but if you buy this camera, I’d suggest buying these too.

- If you turn on the camera while the lens cap is on, the camera will freeze up and the motor makes this sad grinding/whining noise as it tries to pathetically push the lens out against the lens cap. This is crazy! It was like this in the p90, p100 and they still haven’t fixed it!

- Still has the same form factor as before. That’s mostly good, but the small electronic viewfinder remains too. I don’t find it easy to use.

I haven’t used the video, so can’t comment.

Overall, it’s more of the same from Nikon, except the lens goes wider and further.

This camera is amazing! I bought it based on the reviews I read, but had NO idea of all the different things this camera does! It shoots videos and it shoots in “sports mode” – taking many pictures one right after the other so you don’t miss anything. We have used this camera at some multiple-day music festivals and are simply amazed at the clarity of the pictures and how easy it is to use! The sound on the videos is good (if your computer speakers are good) and a unipod solves the shake problem if you have one. The batteries last pretty long if you aren’t shooting videos – that seems to use them up quicker. This is my first digital camera, and I bought it because 1) easy to use, 2) large preview screen and 3) uses AA batteries. I was absolutely thrilled it did all this extra stuff. Friends who took the same pictures with their cameras were surprised at the difference when the pictures were posted. Ours were much better. Highly recommend this camera – especially to the camera novice (like me).

I bought this camera after reading all the + reviews on several web sites. This is a very good camera for the price.

Pro’s: price, simple to use, slips right into you shirt pocket or purse, very good pictures, bright LCD (sorry Kodak), uses AA batteries, good video.

Con’s: none! I highly recommend this camera.

This is a great camera for everyday use, vacation shots, sports photos, and more. We take low-light, no flash photos with this on the “sports” setting for dance recitals and plays. The photos turn out terrific, and people always ask what camera we use because they are so impressed with the clarity of the shots.

This camera has numerous features and settings. The navigation between settings is pretty intuitive, and the instruction manual has lots more ideas too. It has good video capability for capturing something in a video file when you don’t have a camcorder handy. You don’t need special software to upload photos from this camera – I have a card reader in my computer to do all that.

The camera does a good job conserving battery life. We use rechargeable AA batteries without any problems for hundreds of photos per charge. It’s compact and fairly lightweight, and it fits into a shirt pocket with ease.

The large screen makes reviewing photos easy, and deleting ones from the camera is simple with just a touch of a button plus an “are you sure?” question to keep you from potentially erasing something in error.

The 3.6x optical zoom is an improvement over the previous Nikon Coolpix we had, so this is now the favorite camera in my home! If you’ve had a Coolpix in the past and are thinking about getting a newer version, definitely do it! You’ll find the operations and menu choices very similar to what you’re used to, but with added improvements that you’ll appreciate.

We’ve not had any problems with the battery cover on this camera or the previous Coolpix cameras we still own. If you break the battery cover, it’s time for a new camera, unfortunately. But it’s very sturdy and reliable, so we’ve never worried about it much.

I recently purchase the Nikon Coolpix L20 after lots of shopping.

I have used only Olympus cameras only up to now.

This time I wanted a smaller pocket sized camera, that still took the AA batteries, and that still gave great photos with all the features I was used to.

This camera fit the bill!

It takes 2 AA batteries, inexpensive SD memory cards and yet still delivers fantastic photos.

I have already tried all the features, and was completly happy.

I love using the different scene settings, and could not live without the video feature.

Both still and video capture worked well in both bright light and low light.

The sound playback via the camera is hard to distinquish (live music), but fine once uploaded.

I didn’t really require the smile feature, but tried it out on my 3 year old, and was blown away….it really works!

The blink feature is also quite ingenious. The camera actually asks you if your subject blinked when they do, but not when they don’t. This is particularly handy when taking photos of children. I would have loved this feature when I was still my daughter’s yearbook photographer.

What can I say, fabulous price and awesome quality!!!

Definately worth the money.

Comparibly priced camera’s that we have used, produce grainy shots…..but have not found this with this camera at all.

I would recommend this camera to anyone!

This is a professional camera capable of crystal clear prints worthy of publication or gallery display, up to 16×20.

And it is incredibly inexpensive for a camera of such value.

Ok, so its 3.6 optical zoom won’t pick sand off an eagle’s beak at a thousand yards. Okay, so it won’t blow up to billboard size without loss of definition. In the real world however and everyday use this is a fine and professional level camera that will do a far better job than you expected. Better than a cell-phone.

Disguised as a point and shoot. That’s what makes it very effective; people are not intimidated by it. You can get right up to them, and it looks like any other camera. Yet, it is more.

In fact, the generous three inch LCD screen means you do not have to hold it to your face. There is no optical viewfinder in any case. So you can hold it at your hip and glance down at it to compose, and snap shots while engaging the subject in small talk comfortably. I have done this effectively with Tarahumara Indian children in northern Chihuahua who normally run quickly from any camera. It works, and came out great. And that large LCD screen has a high-contrast, anti-reflection coating which keeps it clear even in strong sunlight.

This camera is an improvement over the earlier, wonderful Coolpix, such as the great 8 megapix Nikon Coolpix L18 8MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Ruby Red) mainly because it has ten megapix capability. The earlier accessories such as the AC adapter, the Nikon EH-65A AC Adapter, are transferable if you have a long shoot to do in one place (like a schoolful of children, which I have done) or other reason to go off-battery. Nevertheless, a pair of Energizer

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve bought all three, returned the Canon

and Panasonic. Here’s my opinion (again this is mostly opinion, not

fact):

- P300 and S95 are almost the exact same size, LX5 was too big (i.e., too

thick for a pocket)

- P300 and LX5 both have direct video record buttons

- LX5 and S95 both shoot RAW (wasn’t a factor for me, but may be for

you)

- All three have great picture quality (1. P300, 2. S95, 3. LX5)

- Two have great video quality, S95 is just OK (1. LX5, 2. P300, 3. S95)

Because I have an SLR for high-quality pictures, I just want a portable

p&s for when I don’t feel like carrying an SLR. That factor hurt the

LX5, which I thought was the best camera, just not pocketable.

The LX5 had great video, really fast focusing (for pics and vid), and

strong build quality. It’s JPEGs were the worst of the three, but third

best in this class is generally better than 1st place in a lesser class

of cameras. It felt solid. I liked the direct video record button. I

disliked the lens cap.

The S95 never did much for me, it’s pics were good but not better than

the P300. It’s video was definetly the worst of the three, but again,

solid for a point and shoot. The ring around the lens was cute, but felt

loose to me. The lack of a direct video record button was limiting and I

found the auto pop-up flash annoying (it pushes your finger out of the

way, both other cameras have mechanical flash pop-ups).

The P300 is great. Love the picture quality and video quality. Warning,

the video is jumpy on pans, this camera won’t take the place of an HD

video camera, but it’s great for a point and shoot. The direct video

button is great too. The lcd screen is beautiful. The camera turns on

and snaps very quickly. Shot to shot is excellent too. Picture quality

is great (again, I’m a JPEG user, if you’re all about

RAW-post-processing-for-point-and-shoot-quality-pics you may have a

different experience).

You can slice this opinion a million different ways, all three are

awesome cameras. Pick what the most important factor or two is for you

and decide based on that. For me, the discriminators were size and video

quality (as they all took great pictures).

Update 1:

After using this camera extensively for a week or two I’ve come to appreciate it more. Some of my recent findings which may or may not be helpful to you the reader:

- Indoor video can take on a soft appearance and the colors can be off under certain lighting conditions in auto mode, however, it appears that manual tweaks in the program/manual modes carry over from photo to video. So you can set the AWB to a better lighting mode in one of the manual modes and simply switch modes as the lighting situation dictates. Outdoor video continues to be outstanding in auto mode.

- The creative modes (black and white, soft, etc.) can also be used for video, again you will need to be in a program/manual mode (P, A, S, M). Of these I do find the black and white to make interesting video depending on what you’re shooting.

- The fast motion and slow motion modes for video are quite fun to use (they may not be all that useful, but they’re fun).

- The panning motion panorama (easy mode?) combined with the Nikon software if pretty impressive. The stitched assist mode panorama works well too. It’s particulary impressive in multiple monitor set ups, I can spread the picture across 3 screens and see an impressive panorama.

- Having no “welcome screen” is the way to go if you want a quick start up.

- The camera does not weigh much, it’s a little off-putting at first, but light is good.

- I love being able to decide if the flash should be used by flipping the switch because I usually do not want a flash (fill flash is all I use pretty much) and it’s apparent by looking at the camera if the flash is on or off, there’s no digging into menus to find out.

- If you’re reviewing your work (via HDMI for instance) on the camera or a tv you can press (and hold) the play button instead of power to avoid opening up the lens.

- The battery has provided a long life per charge, I haven’t tested it but it may be better than advertised. Two drawbacks: it goes from fully charged to empty without much warning (icon is full, and then it’s down a bar for a few minutes, then empty) and you plug the camera in to charge vs putting the battery into a charger (that’s a draw back because you can’t swap a fresh battery in and charge at the same time, if you buy the separate charger you can do this. I bought both an extra battery and charger to avoid any power outages).

- Applying after effects in the camera works well and the camera automatically copies the original.

- This…

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“Should I buy this camera?” is like asking “Should I buy this car?” The answer to both questions is: It depends on what’s most important to you. For me, I was looking for a point-and-shoot that takes good HD video as well as good still photos, and is reasonably small, light and affordable. I already have a DSLR, and wanted a camera to complement that — one I could slip in a pocket and take to the beach or an evening out without having to worry about it.

I believe other commenters that there are P&S cameras out there that take better photos than the P300, but those models are either considerably larger and heavier, a good deal more expensive (one comment here compared a camera costing 0 with this one at slightly over 0), or the video quality is unacceptable. After a lot of research, the P300 turned out to be the camera that best met my needs.

I’ve only had this for a couple of days, but here’s what I like so far:

* Nice ergonomics. I enjoy holding and using the camera, which isn’t something I can say about my previous P&S.

* Large, bright, sharp LCD

* A good mix of manual controls for when I want them and auto settings for when I don’t.

* Macro closeups are excellent

* Low-light performance is generally good for a P&S, especially with the fast 1.8 lens.

* I’ve been pleased so far with my outdoor shots, although I haven’t really had a chance to do much with this outside yet because weather’s been bad

* The flash only fires when you first pop it up, so it doesn’t inadvertently ruin a shot

What I don’t like so far:

* White balance in mixed indoor lighting seems worse than average

* As I read in another review, video can be jerky while panning

* Detail in distant objects doesn’t look as crisp as in photos I’ve seen from competitors in its class

* (updated) You will hear motor noise when zooming in and out on video (at least I do)

* (updated) Focus in auto mode is limited to frame center

* (updated) Photos taken in portrait mode don’t auto rotate

There are some interesting features such as in-camera HDR and one-shot panoramas I’ve yet to try. All in all, I’m looking forward to taking this with me when I’m going places where I don’t want to take my considerably heavier and bulkier DSLR.

UPDATE: After reading the manual, now I know why I’ve been less than happy with some of my shots in Auto mode: Auto mode focuses on the center of your frame. If you don’t always stick your subject dead center — and most experienced photographers don’t much of the time — don’t use Auto mode. If you have a P300 and are unhappy with its focus and metering, try using the program mode or auto scene selector instead, when you want to “point and shoot” instead of using the manual controls.

UPDATE 2: A few more tests and I’m a bit less happy with the camera. If I could drop this down to 3.5 stars, I would. I really like the ergonomics, the menus, the LCD. Using it is still fun. I’ve shot a number of comparisons with my old 8 MP Canon SD 850 and the results are mixed. Macros are way better, but that’s not what I bought the camera for. I didn’t bother comparing video since the P300 HD I’m sure will blow away the SD 850′s SD. In other situations it was mixed, with the P300 not always better.

Like all point-and-shoots, this is a compromise and there is going to be a sacrifice in return for weight, size and affordability.

FINAL UPDATE: I took the P300 out for some serious shooting last weekend, including several hours with my friend and her new Canon S95. We tried shooting several of the same scenes (although P300 zooms out a bit wider and S95 has a bit more of a telephoto, so it often wasn’t exact). I was happy with the vast majority of the P300 photos. There were some where the S95 versions were better, especially when it came to detail in the photos. But without comparing, I was pleased with the majority of photos I shot with the P300. The difference didn’t seem all that massive except for a couple, and that might have been because I didn’t select the best mode.

On the other hand, the P300 video was quite a bit better than the S95 video, if that matters to you. It does to me. I shot a video at an indoor party last night and was very happy with the way it came out. I didn’t hear any motor noise when zooming in and out in what was a pretty loud room.

Ergonomics: I enjoyed using (and carrying) the P300 more than the S95. It’s slightly lighter. I like the Nikon dials and menu setup more than Canon’s — that’s just personal preference, but I’ve never particularly cared for the menu setup on my old Canon P&S either. I also found the mode selector dial somewhat hard to turn on the S95 compared with the P300.

Bottom line: I’m using this to post photos on the Web and occasionally make 4×6 prints, and also…

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Note: this review is for the layman–who wants to eventually learn to use manual features–but ends up using only auto-mod, so all you pros please don’t make too much fun of me.

I’m a father of a 2-year-old and I take lots of indoor shots and tons of video clips. My almost 3-year-old camera was a Canon SD790IS: 10 MP, 640p video (Yes, very low resolution but it never lost focus!), mono microphone.

Question: Is it too much to ask for a camera with great low-light abilities, Full HD video, a stereo microphone, and no removable lens cover? Apparently the answer was YES!

I bought a Canon SD4000IS but returned it because it couldn’t hold a focus in HD video mode. Not even on stationary objects using a tripod! Ridiculous!

My online search continued with finding cameras that had good video but too many megapixels (above 12 MP is bad) for a point-and-shoot, which made the pictures worse!

I eagerly awaited the reviews for the Canon SX230 but was devastated when I noticed blurring in some posted videos by infosyncworld.

I was even ready to shell out the big bucks for the Panasonic LX5 but it has a removable lens cover! Are you kidding me? I don’t have time to remove the cover before powering up.

So finally, this Nikon P300 comes along and it does everything I wanted! Finally! My 2-year search has ended!

The HD video is amazing! The focus stays sharp throughout. I don’t think I’ll be using the 1080p mode too often (I have a Canon VIXIA camcorder that records 1080p that I use for birthdays), 720p has made me very happy. Even the slow-motion mode can record in HD! Check out YouTube for cool slow-motion videos. A lot of new Canon models recently released can record in slow-motion but only very low quality, less than 640p.

Video mode records in 30-minute chunks, that’s enough for me. When recording in 720p, the camera’s LCD displays a countdown from 30 minutes going down instead of a counter going up. I find this useful, you’ll know how much time you have left. I need to read up more on this though, maybe different SD cards can record for longer.

Many professional reviewers scoffed that this camera did not have RAW Tiff capabilities. I don’t care that it doesn’t have RAW tiff. If I want RAW tiff, I’ll buy a DSLR in the future.

I like how the flash only pops up when you physically pop it up with a switch on the side. So far I don’t need it. The flash design is great, it allows you to place your left index finger right behind it when it’s raised. I didn’t like how some new Canons have a flash that automatically pops up each time you power it up. For shots where you don’t want a flash, you’d have to always fold the flash back down. Try imagine telling that a hundred times to friends: “yeah, turn it on, but push the flash back down, yeah, no, like this…” Annoying. Also, too many moving parts just seem more cumbersome and more likely to break.

Some minor complaints:

1. When importing pictures onto my Mac, I have to manually rotate the portrait shots. Canon did this automatically.

2. I have to charge the battery in the camera. I can purchase an external charger but that’s another . Plus I hear the charger has a long cord instead of a flip-out 2-prong design like the Canon chargers.

I love the design, the dials are sturdy, the record video button is very helpful. Buy it! you’ll love it!