Small camera with BIG zoom!
Pros:
Great pictures with lots of zoom in a little camera!
Cons:
Video is jumpy, but much better than most digital cameras
The Bottom Line:
Best for those who want quality (picture and camera), zoom capability, affordability, and ease of use.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
We shopped for a camera that would give us more than 4 mega pixels as well as the ability to zoom at least 10x. This is hard to find in most small cameras if you don't want to spend a fortune.
The camera gave us more than we asked for and we love it! The Nikon name, the ease of use, small size, and of course the zoom and quality are what pleased us the most.
Ease of use: The camera has 3 settings. 1) auto - my favorite in situations where is lighting changes with each picture and you don't want to reset the 'scene'. 2) Scene selector - you choose what category fits the picture you are about to take and the camera changes the settings to match. It even helps you to position the object you are photographing. 3) Movie: this setting works like most camera I've seen. However, the quality is better than the average digital camera. One other note on ease of use, you can easily change from each setting type and back again.
Zoom - Because this cameras lens twists, it allows the smaller size camera to zoom more than the average small camera. (In order to zoom to any great degree, the lens needs the depth of the camera...this camera uses the depth only on the swivel lens. Genius!)
Quality - what can I say...6mp = Great pictures! Also, the color is very true to life. The last camera I used for every day was a Cannon and the picture alway looked pale. The Coolpix even has a feature where you can see the picture you just took with the auto fix already done.
One last feature we like...it uses regular batteries. No hauling a charger on vacation or waiting for the battery to charge!
Overall, I recommend this camera...we have had ours for about 3 months and it is holding up like a champ. I expected to have problems with the swivel lens, but it made VERY well.
UPDATE:
Answers to some questions I have been asked to answer in this review:
Flash performance- average, I don't notice that it is too bright or too light. It seems to work as it should.
Autofocus - also work as it should, maybe a little easier than other cameras I have used. A half push of the shutter and the camera will focus before the picture is taken. Or just point and shoot and it will take the picture and focus at the same time.
Menus - the menus are easy to use and change on the fly.
Other Features- one of the many settings (or scenes) is a sports scene (my favorite) that allows you to either take non-stop pictures (no delay) or a grid of pictures taken a fraction of a second apart, panoramic with help from the camera, includes picture perfect software, a notification if the video camera is not being held still enough during a video recording, etc. There are more features, but I am not familiar with them at this point.
