Nikon Coolpix S51

Opinion: Nice camera, pretty responsive, but a bit noisy and a bit pricey.

Opinion: First impression: what a jewel! Second: I'm probably not geting the best out of it. My pictures (some at http://www.pbase.com/akimbo/s51) so far are worse than others I've seen, only marginally meeting my expectations. It's probably me, though.

The camera seems well built, solid with the exception of the door.

Opinion: Final conculsion, the camera is going back. Purchased the camera on black friday weekend and had it delivered. spent the last week plus taking a wide variety of pictures from close ups to landscape. inside, outside and mix lighting. while the camera is easy to use I have found the picture quality extremely poor. I have retuned the camera and was given a replacement (just to be sure it wasn't a bad unit). I've yet to be satisfied with any of the pictures. comparisions with my easy share DX4330 reveal hands down, my tired 3M pix kodak out performs this high-tech slimline.

Opinion: Honestly, I think "prob" is being overly critical.

I too bought the S51 on Black Friday. I wanted a compact point and shoot for my wife: something that would take good pictures without having to fiddle with a ton of settings.

The S51 is delivering that beautifully.

Both the flash and non-flash pictures we've been taking look fine.

Are they "noisy"? Well, that depends. At ISO 400 they seem about as noisy as my DSLR (Olympus E-510) is at ISO 800. However, they're LESS noisy than my other PS (A Panasonic Lumix FZ-10) at ISO 200.

That seems acceptable to me.

If people are looking to get noiseless images out of a compact camera with 1/2.5" 8MP sensor at ISO 800+ they're kidding themselves ... laws of physics say it can't be done. But compared to the 1/2.5" 4MP sensor in the Panasonic, this little camera is doing quite well.

The build on the S51 is solid, the vibration reduction works well (a nice feature on a $199 camera) and it comes with a 3x optical zoom in a credit card sized package. I'd say that's not bad.

If you want something with a lot of manual controls that takes RAW images and gives you full control over the creative process, look elsewhere. If you want a credit card sized point-n-shoot that you can keep in your pocket / purse at all times that will deliver good point and shoot quality photos, you'll enjoy this camera.