Nikon has been a leading Japanese producer of cameras and camera equipment for nearly 100 years. With a solid reputation in film cameras, they have successfully made the move into the world of digital cameras over the last 15 years, producing a solid line of hit cameras that are both easy to use and take great photos - requirements for the fickle consumer digital photo market. In fact, Nikon now focuses almost entirely on the digital camera market, as film cameras have largely gone the way of the dinosaurs, no longer offering any advantage over digital pics. Nikon still makes high end DSLR cameras for professional photographers, like the Nikon D1, D2X, and D2Xs, and lower end units like the D70, and Nikon D40, but most of us recognize the Nikon name from their popular line of consumer digital cameras, the Nikon Coolpix cameras. In this guide we will take a look at the best Nikon Coolpix cameras - find out what's popular, how much you should expect to spend, and what you should look for when buying a digital camera. Enjoy!
Best Nikon Coolpix Cameras
The Coolpix S10 (an update to the older S4) is one of Nikon's most popular little cameras, and it is a camera with a twist, literally. When closed, the lens appears to sit on the "top" of the camera rather than on the front - but the camera is split into two halves down the middle. Give it a swivel and then the lens can be pointed straight out or at any angle. Most of the time you would just point the lens forward and use the 2.5" LCD view screen on the back to compose your photo (no optical view finder), but with the swivel function, you can hold the camera over your head and swivel the screen down towards you to see what you are shooting. It has a 6MP CCD for highly detailed photos that can be cropped and blown up to sizes as large as 16" x 20" -- this is adequate for most people, but newer cameras offer up to 10MP resolution, which is a significant increase. Another nice feature on this camera is a 10X Nikkor optical zoom - that is pretty impressive in such a small model, as is the vibration reduction (VR) function, which helps steady your shots and eliminates blurs. The S10 is powered by a lithium ion battery which should last you for about 250 photos on a full charge. Overall, we rate this camera about an 8.5 - we love the ease of use and image quality (the stabilization really works), but we'd like to see more megapixels of resolution. You'll find this camera selling for about $250 retail (Amazon.com and most electronic or camera sites). RECOMMENDED - Browse all the top rated Nikon Coolpix cameras here.
If you are looking for something a little cheaper, check out the Nikon Coolpix L11 or L10. These small cameras are 6MP and 5MP respectively and sell for about $130 and $100 -- that's a pretty good price for a decent digital camera. They both feature 3X optical zoom and a nice LCD display screen that is usable even in bright outdoor sunshine, and SD memory cards are used for storage. They're powered by AA batteries so you don't have to worry about running out of power - just pop in new ones on the go if needed. A nice feature found here and in the S10 is the Face Priority AF , where the camera can intelligently find and focus on faces in a scene, which is of course what you want when shooting people or portraits. The Nikon Coolpix L11 (and L10) also has a movie mode, letting you capture video up to 640x480 in size. Some users complain about the quality of the photos from these cameras, and we grant you that they are not going to be as perfect as ones coming from a 12MP DSLR, but for everyday use from a close to $100 camera, they are perfectly adequate. If you are trying to get professional level images, you aren't going to be looking at these $100 cameras anyways, so adjust your expectations accordingly. See Nikon digital cameras here.
Nikon Coolpix S50 7.2MP
If you are looking for something a little snazzier, check out the Coolpix S50 ($250), a nice, THIN black camera with a 7.2MP CCD for high resolution photos (how thin? try 3.6 x 2.3 x 0.8 inch thick!). Zoom is just 3X, but about average for these small cameras. The display screen is a massive 3" in size, very bright, very crisp -- like a lot of newer cameras, there is no optical viewfinder, just the LCD screen for framing shots. The VR image stabilization is another highlight on this camera, making it much easier to shoot nice, clear photos. We also like the voice memo function that can record any notes you want to jot down, either attached to particular images or separately as WAV files that can easily be copied over to your computer. Your not going to get high-fidelity recordings of concerts or anything, but perfect for everyday needs. The movie mode is also better than average, resulting in smooth video capture with good audio to match. Video clips can be as long as you have memory space available. So if you are looking for a small, light camera that takes good pictures and videos, put this one on your shopping list. We like what we've seen.
Finally, we wanted to mention the Nikon Coolpix P5000, which is their $350 10MP camera with 3.5X zoom and VR feature. This is a sweet looking little black camera with a tough magnesium alloy body and 16 pre-programmed shooting modes to get just the right shot every time. Dimensions are: Width 3.9 x Height 2.5 x Depth 1.6 inch. Again, uses SD memory cards for storage. Overall, this camera takes excellent pictures, is affordable for a 10MP model, and is light and compact enough to carry everywhere you go -- and video mode means you can leave the video camera behind!
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BUYING GUIDES
- find out what's popular, how much you should expect to spend, and what you should look for when buying a digital camera. Enjoy!
