Nikon CoolPix S8100

Manifest What you Want, Whenever you Want....

The CoolPix S8100 is a remarkable compact mega zoom camera. The S8100 was Nikon's upgrade to their S8000. The megapixel count may have dropped from 14 to 12.1, however this camera is definitely an upgrade. Both camera sport a 10x opitical zoom. The lens is the same as a 30-300 mm lens.

The S8100 has been updated to include a BSI (backside illuminated) CMOS sensor over the S8000s traditional CMOS. The BSI sensor allows more light through the diode, allowing for better quality on your low light pictures. Making the S8100 a great camera for indoor photos. The shutter speed and responsiveness of the camera are astonishingly fast.

The dimensions of the camera are a small but not too small 4.1 x 2.4 x 1.2 inches. Allowing it to be small enough to fit in your shirt pocket, yet large enough to fit your hands comfortably. It also has a very sharp and clear three-inch LCD display on the back. The controls were intuitive and simple to work with. The camera has a small telescoping lens which shows a small amount of distortion when it reaches it maximum zoom, though that is a common problem with most telescoping lenses.

You can take very clear pictures because the camera uses two different strategies to deal with stabilization. It has both digital stabilization and also an optical stabilization. The camera also has a macro setting that is great. I loved how close you could get to an object and pick up a ton of detail. Available to you are a full range of ISO settings. It offers both manual setup fro 160 to 3200 along with auto settings for those less inclined to play around. The S8100 is supposed to do it's best around 200 ISO.

This camera takes both JPEG still pictures and .MOV videos. The pictures are recorded at 4000 x 3000 pixels, while video is recorded at 1080p at 30 frames a second. The videos are ok on this camera but a dedicated video camera would be better.

The Nikon CoolPix is a great buy ranging between $250 and $300. You really get a very nice camera at this price. Customers and professionals alike are giving the CoolPix S8100 two thumbs up.