Nikon Coolpix S8100

Opinion: I bought two S8100 cams (red for wife, black for me) bundled to include a 4gb card, belt case, and charger. My wife has a Canon A650 that does a great job but is too clunky for modern air travel. I also have a Panasonic Lumix FZ28 that has been my always-in-car camera, and a Nikon D70 as a spare to my main battle tank, Nikon D2x. I wanted compact travel cameras that we could fly with (no checked bags), would have great color balance, great autofocus, decent flash performance, quality build, decent battery life, and good ergonomics.

The S8100 hits the mark for all of my requirements. The provided charger uses a USB cable to charge the battery in the camera. If you want to charge the battery out of the camera, you need to buy an accessory charger. It's not a problem for me. The same USB cable used for charging transfers images if you prefer to leave the card in the cam. Charging is OK-fast, about 90 minutes from empty. I can't attest to maximum battery capacity for images, but we took 100+ on some days of a recent vacation, mixed flash and outdoor, and the battery still showed full. So for us, the battery is adequate. I have not been a fan of cameras without an optical viewfinder for use in bright sun, but we did not feel hampered by this lack on bright full-sun days in Houston. We were always able to frame and shoot properly with the LCD which is bright, clear, and beautiful. The camera body feels like metal; too cool to the touch for plastic. The build quality is excellent, solid, substantial. The lens is fully retracted and protected by metal leaf shutters when the camera is powered down. Start up is as close to instantaneous as anything can be. I never had to wait for power-up to shoot. There is no noticeable lag between shutter button press and capture, and recovery for subsequent shots is extremely quick, even with flash. The flash pops up when needed in auto mode, and I had surprisingly little redeye...maybe twice in 200 flash snaps. I don't use auto redeye reduction because I dislike the delay and the extra flash. I prefer to correct redeye in software, but not much of that was needed with this camera. Locating the flash in a popup at the extreme left of the camera probably provides just enough separation from the plane of the lens to make the difference. The flash performed very well considering the size of the flashtube and the capacity of the battery. No complaints. I have always liked the clear Nikon menu system and the S8100 adheres to the Nikon protocol. The scene/mode dial is well located and easily manipulated. The shutter release falls perfectly beneath the finger, and has excellent tactile feel. The provided belt case turned out to be great. Provided (bundled) cases aren't usually worth much, but this one is very well designed and a nice addition. I did use a razor knife to remove the stitched-in SD card pocket from the rear inside of the case, leaving a smooth fleece surface to rest against the LCD. I was afraid that the stitching of the pocket would abrade the LCD. I especially like that you can limit auto ISO even in full auto mode. I like to use lowest ISO available when possible, even when shooting casual snaps, and this camera did a nice job at ISO 160 in all but the dimmest light, when I manually jacked it to 200 or 400 for dim daylight (dusk) or for better flash performance.

I gave this camera 5 stars not because it could replace my D2x, but because it does exactly what I bought it to do, and does it very well. There is nothing about this camera I can find to complain about. It's priced fairly and represents great value for the money. I'm not bashful about taking stuff back that doesn't meet my expectations. But these cams are keepers.

Opinion: I'm a semi pro photographer, but I needed a pocket camera to carry with me. After doing a lot of research, I decided on this model. I have not been impressed. First the top mounted flash is too far to the left and leaves little room for your left hand to hold the camera. Second the flash firmware isn't very good and it tends to blow out exposures on subject at close range. It is not nearly as good in low light as advertised. The high speed setting is pretty much a joke. The focus just can't keep up and unless you are shooting in full sun, nothing is in focus. Low light photos have a lot of red/blue ghosting. The facial recognition software is so determined to find a human face in a photo that it hunts forever if you are shooting a landscape or a pet, causing you to miss a shot. Finally, don't take this camera out in the winter. I was trying to do some snowstorm shots this winter and when I came back in and set the camera down on a table the view screen fractured. The camera still works, but is is disappointing to have to try to look through a broken screen. The battery charging cover on the bottom of the camera is flimsy plastic and it broke off very shortly after purchase. Also you have to charge the battery while its in the camera, instead of using a separate battery charger, so your camera is out of commission while the battery charges. All in all it was a disappointing purchase. The only thing I really like about this camera is the large view screen, the sharpness of the lens and the video recording capabilities.

Opinion: Full disclosure, I didn't concern myself with testing any video capabilities of the S8100, so I can't speak to those features of this camera.

Pros:
–Tactile, matte black, rubberized front of camera is very convenient and stylish, if you ask me.
–LCD is bright & very detailed.
–Macro shots are fantastic.
–Zoom is very capable, if not as large as some others models in this category.
–Response time is fast.
–Setting selection wheel moved firmly, snapping well into place.
–With the rubberized matte front and some nubbing on the back, your right hand will be able to get a hold of the camera very well. (I have large hands, and was very comfortable using it, and it should be even more handy for those with smaller hands.)
–Color was mostly consistent, though sometimes leaned towards cyan. There is a tint setting, however.
–Very good low-light shots with minimal fuss involved.
–Lack of manual controls. Some people simply don't want a full suite of controls. For those people, to whom all the control of a DSLR would be paralyzing, building very good logic into the auto settings is worth more than complete manual control.

Cons:
–Lack of manual controls. With all that said above, I, personally, would still have appreciated manual controls.
–Image processing seemed on par with some others in this class, but the overall compression and noise reduction seemed aggressive. In a somewhat controlled test vs. the Canon SX230HS, the S8100 smeared details that the SX230HS retained.
–Ghosting was usually minimal and on par with its class, but in specific conditions (very high contrast subjects/background) it was very apparent.
–Battery connection cover, as noted by another reviewer, is flimsy, to put it mildly. It might not actually break off, but it doesn't instill confidence.
–Flash placement. I know that the majority of cameras in this class have a pop-up flash on the top left of the camera, and I know there are some advantages to this, but it can be a nuisance. To the S8100's credit, the flash only pops up when it's needed. It will not rise when you have the flash turned off or it isn't required for exposure.

Overall:
Very good quality that will please almost everybody except those who are very exacting and those who want manual controls.

Opinion: This is a great little camera. When I was looking for an updated pocket cam I searched out a few models, but they had to do something wildly different to my old pocket cams to be considered.

Low light was a necessity, a proper zoom and image stabilisation (for when a tripod isn't handy - now I rarely carry one because I don't need to), and fairly solid for the rough days.

I'm not a Nikon or Canon person - if this was built by Hasbro's toys it'd still be the features, price and build quality that set it apart. It's a bargain, it's small and light - maybe not as much as most 'point and shooters' but because it goes beyond the majority of them, I honestly can't say it's a problem, and that I use it professionally means it's a professional camera.

Image quality is pretty good. I won't say it's perfect because it isn't. But I'd also say that of any production camera regardless of megapixel count and sensor size, because the best is only the current best - and just like film photographers of the past, there will always be that little detail you wish you could bring out more.

It feels good in the hand, comfortable and every control is accessible with the right digits for when your left arm is occupied clinging for dear life to a fence, branch, or helicopter handrail.

There's a space-age feeling to the design, it makes me feel that if the Moonlanding were to happen tomorrow this is the camera they'd take. It could have something to do with the bright crystal clear display which has such a wide viewing angle you can hold it virtually vertically above your head, out at armslength or parallel close to the ground and still see what your camera's seeing. Another reviewer described it as a shatterfest if you take it out in subzero temperatures and then plonk it on the table: 1: Duh! 2: Thanks - I might have tried that myself one day. I won't be taking it to Death Valley either.

The lens - 30 to 300 mm equivalent is what I want most often, and it's not too bad at all - if you need it to be wider or longer try taking a few steps backwards or forwards to taste - or switch to panorama mode, which software is provided as one of the easiest to use I've ever come across. In fact all the supplied software is pretty good, though it took me a while to realise it.

Which brings me to the manual - read it. You'll need to because there isn't a simple mode with instructional guide in the camera itself. But there is an auto mode for easy clicking immediately, while the advanced modes are for experimenting with over the days and nights ahead - and you will quickly learn that the slowest shutter speed is excellent, that its HDR capabilities are quite good, that its panorama mode is wonderful, that all digital zooms suck, that high speed video is top fun (Smashing bottles! Water sculptures! Butterflies! Wobbly boobies!), that its Full HD uses a lot of memory but works well if you turn off the antishake - and heaps of terrific stuff.

Did I mention it fits unobtrusively in a shirt pocket? You may want to buy two cases, a slim leather one for casual use, and slightly more robust one for more robust use. There's a need for a spare battery or two as the rated life is in the point and shoot domain, and a charger whilst you're at it (though they're not expensive, otherwise having to stop clicking while you wait for it to recharge might mean you miss the meteor shower). I'd strongly recommend a spare memory card because it is just so easy to get carried away, and standing around deciding which images to delete from a full memory can be the difference between getting a shot of a UFO and the story of the one that got away.

Okay you might not get an actual UFO, but you will feel like it's possible, such is the sense of ability it can give you. In photography this is a very good thing.

Did I mention that it's a bargain? I bought a spare one.

The future is now