Nikon Coolpix P100 10 MP Digital Camera with 26x Optical Vibration Reduction (VR) Zoom and 3-Inch LCD (Black)
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 List Price: $399.95 Sale Price: $439.00 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days 
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Product Description
Zoom closer, shoot faster, and do more with Nikon's Coolpix P100, with its new CMOS sensor, 10.3 effective megapixels and incredible 26x optical Zoom-Nikkor ED glass lens. The cameras huge bright 3.0-inch high-resolution HVGA (460k-dot) vari-angle LCD and Electronic Viewfinder makes it easy to compose and share your pictures. Shoot Full HD (1080i) video with stereo sound as well as high-speed 10fps shooting at full resolution.Nikon's 5-way VR Image Stabilization System takes incredible pictures, incredibly easy. Nikon's Smart Portrait System automatically detects your subjects face , takes a picture when they smile, smooth out skin tones and warns you if they blinked.
Details
- 10.3 megapixels for stunning prints as large as 16 x 20 inches; backside illumination CMOS sensor
- 26x wide-angle optical zoom-NIKKOR ED glass lens
- Bright 3.0-inch vari-angle high resolution HVGA Clear Color Display
- Full 1080p HD movie recording at 30fps; HDMI output
- 5-way VR Image Stabilization System; Smart Portrait System
- 5-way VR Image Stabilization System and Smart Portrait System
- Full 1080p HD movie recording at 30fps and HDMI output
- 10.3 megapixels for stunning prints as large as 16 x 20 inches and backside illumination CMOS sensor
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Rating
I bought this Nikon Coolpix P100 Digital Camera as a replacement for my outdated Kodak V1024 Digital Camera. This camera
is extremely awesome. It looks like a cross between a Digital SLR Camera and Compact Digital Camera. It has great zoom at
26x. This camera has similar features to the Nikon D90 Digital SLR camera.
The advantages of this camera are as follows.
Great focus target indicator system, which displays small green squares over selected objects for ready
to shoot and red squares which indicate not ready to shoot.
The camera is light, easy to hold and a good fit.
The LED screen seems more natural than the usual swing out to the side screens.
Hugh zoom range (26x X 10.3 MP) and quite fast action.
Outdoor sunlight colors quite natural and extremely accurate.
2 step point and shoot, which basically helps to target the picture and then capture the picture.
Extremely good resolution lens at this price range and favorably compares to much more expensive lenses.
Adequately very good view finder Viewfinder is necessary to save power than using LED screen.
This camera is only one that shoots Video in 1080p High Definition.
There are several disadvantages for this camera.
The video is not extremely high quality when shot with 1080p HD.
The camera adjusts the light so that the subjects (foreground) are focused properly with low light, not
so with background as it darkens it in low light.
Other folks who have bought this camera have issues with lens cover, menus, viewfinder, videos etc.
But the fact is that this is a digital camera and not a digital camcorder. I always recommend reading
the Quick Start Reference Guide and the Manual to get the best out of this Digital Camera. I figured
out the Menus of this digital camera in just an hour. I rate the Nikon Coolpix P100 Digital Camera as AA++.
Rating
I have been looking for a camera for months. When I finally decided on this camera and purchased it I was slightly overwhelmed by the large instruction book because I hate reading instructions. However I found them easy to follow and concise. After a few hours I was using the camera and all of its features with little or no difficulty. Better yet I remembered weeks later how to use the features without having to refer to the manual. The video recording is amazing! I specifically wanted to be able to record racing and it handles that beautifully! I would recommend this camera to anyone who is wanting more than just a point and shot but less than a professional type camera. Also perfect for the novice shooter!!!!!!!
Rating
Ok, so I gave it a title that probably makes you wonder what I could possibly be talking about so here it is:
1. a really wide angle lens (26mm) for those close up shots and scenery shots (you know, the church with all of the spires that you have to backup all the way around the block to get into the picture).
2. a fantastic mechanical zoom lens that goes up to 678mm to bring in those distant shots (an with a tripod, the digital zoom puts you into the far objects pocket!). Keep in mind that with a zoom this large, holding it by hand is NOT going to produce a nice picture no matter how much stabilization is built into the camera!
3. One handed camera that is easy to use with a single hand and light enough to do so all day!
4. An articulated view screen that allows you to take pictures over the head of everyone crowding around the parade and still see what you are taking a picture of; it even allows you to take the pictue under the legs of someone standing in front of you or take that shot of a flower without having to bend down!
5. A camera body and lens that looks exactly like the SLR Digital Nikon! The only difference is you have a nice range of lens options that the other person (with the SLR) has to keep changing lenses to obtain. The camera also weighs a lot less and certainly costs a LOT less!!!
6. A wide range of shooting options from fully automatic to manual over-rides. Several scene modes also help with fast actions shots and close-ups.
7. A camera that you will not grow out of soon and one that even pleases the pro when they do not want to fuss with things.
8. the option to use a view finder if you want to! Yes, I know the 3 inch screen is nice, but if it is really sunny, the view finder works much better. Also, it is much quicker to use for those rare shots that you did not plan! You can turn off the through the lens view finder, the 3 inch monitor or both.
A 16 Gig SD card (not included, the internal memory is good for 9 pictures) gives you the ability to take over 6,000 shots (enough for that trip to Italy) without worrying about memory cards. While on that subject, this camera essentially becomes free after your first 900 pictures (figuring that film and processing for 24 exposure film ran about $10). On a recent trip to the Tulip Fields in Washington State, I shot over 300 pictures in that one day! So, the camera quickly pays for itself.
On the note of cost, this camera almost becomes a throw-away on a trip! Say you are in Italy and have been there for three weeks. You have averaged 100 pictures a day (very easy to do) and on your last day of the trip, you drop your camera from the third floor. You recover the memory card with your 2100 pictures. The camera was paid for after 900, so you are money ahead, have your pictures, and do not sweat the loss of the camera! (Ok, reality is that we will still be upset, but think how you would have felt if it was the Digital SLR with the nice zoom lens that you paid $5000 for!!)
The only negative to this camera is that Nikon does NOT make a case for the camera! No one really does. However, the Lowepro case comes very close (a little large) with a belt clip (velcro for easy on and off), a carrying strap (detachable), and a carry handle on top with a front pouch that easily fits two extra batteries and extra memory.
Speaking of battery, the included battery lasted for 350 pictures using the zoom extensively. The in camera charging unit works, but makes it a real pain. Purchase the Nikon En-El5 accessory package from Bargaincell (on Amazon) for $14 with shipping. It gives you a spare battery (larger than the original- good for 400 shots), a quick charger, a 12 volt adapter for the charger to allow you to charge from your car, and a European adapter that allows you to plug your charger in many European countries, including Russia.
This is one fantastic camera and a great price to go with it!!
UPDATE TO REVIEW:
I just returned from a trip to Russia (30 days) and I have taken over 13,000 pictures with this camera during this time. I have used the zoom feature extensively in the many churchs that we visited and at all of the other landmarks. The wide angle lens really did an outstanding job getting all of Red Square into the picture! The zoom did a fantastic job (laying on my back on the floor shooting up at the cupala) obtaining the inlaid tile pictures in the dome!
I made a comment earlier that a 16 Gig memory card would be adequate for a trip, but I found that I took almost 36 gigabyte of pictures and video on this trip! I had taken a laptop with me so that I could review pictures daily, but had not intended to actually do all of the storage on it. Well, that became my main picture store since I only had two 16 gig memory cards with me.
The HD movie feature was fantastic as we were able to record several of the live performances of Russian Dance that we went to. Having the articulated view screen allowed me to shoot great video over the heads of the people in front of us. The only issue with taking movies by hand this wasy is that your arm gets very tired after about 10 minutes of holding the camera! I should have thought to bring a tripod!!
We only had one problem in the trip with the camera and it happened after I had been taking extensive pictures in a very hot building (over 100 degrees) using the flash (took about 400 pictures). The camera closed the lens and gave me an error message. Changing the battery did not make any difference. My wife suggested that the camera had gotten too hot, so I waited 10 minutes and then tried the camera again, it worked perfectly! It has not acted up since. This happened in Moscow while the outside temperature was over 100 degrees and the building felt even hotter. As mentioned, I had been using the flash extensively and the camera was quite warm. Over the next two weeks I took over 5,000 pictures and it never acted up again.
My recommendation is a very strong buy for a great camera and HD video unit!!
Rating
Like others here I’ve got both point and shoot digitals as well as a Nikon DSLR. This camera really fills the space between both of them. The zoom blows away my point and shoot and the more compact design makes it a great choice to bring along anywhere. I’ve had no problems with freezes nor error messages yet like a couple of others have had. Love the low light capability of the video and the ease of use of all the controls. The macro is also excellent as is the 3″ display. Battery life is much better than the AAs that some of the other similar cameras have (some decent quality non-oem batteries are out there really cheap). My only wish is that it had a 12MP sensor, but 10 is more than adequate for most applications.
Rating
I own several Nikon digtial SLR cameras including a D40, a D80 and the wonderful D300s. They certainly have their place in life, and I use them a lot. No other camera manufacturer can touch CLS. But if you are just out walking around, the P100 is truly excellent. Fantastic zoom, HDR built in, active D-lighting, effective vibration reduction, and slow motion movies. Wonderful macros too. I have nothing but praise for the P100. Even at a fully zoomed out 35mm equivalent of 678 mm this camera does a good job. I took a great 97% of full moon shot last night.
This camera does a good job of filling the zone between a full blown DSLR with lots of lenses and a gigantic/heavy camera bag, and a point and shoot that will fit in your front pocket. Despite all of the blah-blah from the naysayers, I am in absolute awe of this little camera. My only complaint is that compared with the P80, the P100 has put on a good bit of weight. Still manageable though. I guess the additional weight mostly comes from all the glass needed for that incredible 26x zoom.
If you want to see a surprising result of a shoot out between the P100 and the D300s see my blog. You will need to paste this address: [...]
SOME TIME LATER: I have owned the P100 for a while now and I’m still very impressed. More and more the DSLRs stay at home, and this is the camera I take with me. The VR works superb even with that incredible 26 X zoom lens.
Rating
Just got home tonight with the camera; went to the store with the idea of buying the Canon SX20IS after reading all the reviews of the Nikon p90 and the Canon; previously I had gotten the JVC HD-1 $3000 HD camcorder and several Sony mini DV camcorders, and a Canon S2 (10x zoom) 5MP digital camera. Before that I had the OM-2 (film) SLR, for which I have a zillion lenses. We also have a Panasonic point and shoot and a new Canon 1300 elph. I notice that a lot of people griped about the Canon SX20 focusing and low light, and even more griped about the Nikon p90. At the store, they had the Canon and the Nikon p100. I thought both of them performed very well at high zoom, during zoom, good focus quickly, etc. Color looked good on the displays. I really like the Canon S2 as a point and shoot (early or first with the high zoom); can’t stand the low zoom point and shoot idea, since I want to be able to bring out things I can’t actually reach (architectural details, wildlife, etc.). I finally decided to try the Nikon (first one I’ve ever had) on the basis of the CMOS chip, 26 instead of 20:1 zoom, 1080p vs 720p, Li-ion battery vs. AA, and mainly the fact that in the (well lit, but not blinding) store, the image on the display was much brighter on the Nikon than the Canon. However, the actual pictures on the Canon were bright and nice, but it was easier for me to see to compose the shot on the display with the Nikon. It was so easy to use I was able to record video or stills and play them back in the store; and it turned out the Nikon was on sale and cheaper than the Canon.
My philosophy of picture taking is that I want to remember vacations, excursions, etc.; my ideal camera would see things the way my eye does except for bionic enhancements like night vision, zoom, etc. But in particular, I love existing light shots (and video) and love the HAD low light sloppy low res color slow shutter option on the Sony camcorders since you can (for example) take video of your wife at dinner in a dim restaurant and have it even if sloppy, at least in color and something like what the experience really was. So I am after memories, and not art, but if you can do art, that would be great. Anyway, I had no idea what to expect out of this thing; based on the tiny size, ultralight construction, low cost, etc. I figured it would be mainly a toy, but I hoped I could take it on vacation as a one thing does all photographic tool. I got the Sandisk “ultra” 16GB SDHC card for it, 15MB/s, figuring for HD you need the fastest card you can get.
I had not read any reviews before buying it, but when I read them when I got home with it, I was pretty bummed out.. all the stuff about locking up, hellish noisy zoom, sloppy focus, can’t use the zoom with video, etc. etc.
I am happy to say that my experience didn’t confirm any of that. (Of course, it might lock up etc. at some point, I have only had it a few hours but I have a theory about that I’ll mention later.)
Anyway, I immediately went around the inside of the house in regular low light condtions shooting stills and video. By low light I mean some rooms only had light coming through the doorways from other rooms, some rooms had a few 13W compact fluorescents, one last room had 5 65W ceiling can lights on. It was lit for atmosphere not reading books. Bottom line is I had no trouble getting very nicely well lit pix and video in any of the rooms with lights on. In a stairwell with no light except a 13W compact fluorescent 6ft outside an archway leading to the stairs the wall and furniture seemed v. dark brown; by eye I could easily see the color. Where the stairs went up to total shadow, the camera cut out to black and white where by eye I could still see color. In comparison to a 5 year old top of the line Sony mini DV one CCD camcorder it was about like the camera on normal setting, not “slow color shutter”. In other words, about as much as I could hope for.
The zoom is not as easy to control to get exact magnification as the Sony, BUT (and this is important) while you can hear the zoom motor on playback, it is very subdued and I didn’t find it at all noticeable..when the room is silent, you can hear it, but it is about like a very soft whisper. In normal tourist situations I don’t think you’d notice the zoom noise at all. With a bit of practice, I was able to use the zoom to my satisfaction.
Another pleasant surprise to me was that the hand held video when walking around the house from darkness to light was smooth and generally not jerky..the image stabilization must work very well, considering you don’t have any weight to stablize the tremor of your hands, footsteps, etc. The video even handles normal panning (aiming the camera forward while walking around the end of a table, for example) without any major glitches…if you shake your hand beyond a given limit, there is an instant of moderate blurriness, but it handles the panning motion by making the whole scene’s resolution lower; while walking and turning in low light, it is maybe NTSC quality, not HD. But the JVC HD-1 just blew up and went to blocks of “ice” if you panned, so I have no complaints about that. If you hold the camera still (handheld, low light as described) the picture is very sharp and looks like HD to me. So I don’t agree with the review that the video is “crap”. I think it will probably be sufficient to take this on vacation as my only camera, but I want to try it out in better conditions for a longer time first. My wife was blown away by the sound clarity, stereo, etc. She thought it sounded better than the Sony camcorders.
It seems to me that the basic operation (load, shoot, zoom, focus, etc.) is very easy and very satisfactory. So, so far I love it. If it had the equivalent of slow color shutter and nightvision it would be pretty well perfect (well, I’d like it to weigh twice as much also, to make it easier to keep steady, but even being light as a feather it competes well with the much heavier camcorders).
The display, navigation, menus, etc. seem to me easier to use than the Canon equivalent; having just set up my wife’s new 1300 elph.
The comments about the viewfinder being dark, grainy, etc. is true in very low light…until you take a picture. As soon as you depress the shutter button to focus, the viewfinder lights up in crisp bright detail and it’s easy to see what you are going to get…I suppose that is some sort of power saving feature. If you are walking around looking through the viewfinder, it may look worse than the Sony camcorder (or the Canon S2) until you press a button to shoot, then it is bright. I can live with that OK. In decent light (moderately well lit room at night) I don’t notice it. In general, no complaints about the viewfinder. The diopter control worked like a champ and I will use the viewfinder not the display for shooting..only use the display for playback.
I like the flash being folded down, so you can suppress it if you wish (which I usually do), and it is easy to pop up if you want it. The flash comes on instantly..unlike the S2..no waiting period on the first use of it.
The Canons Sxx series is better in that you can have the display rotated out of the way (plastic out instead of display out) to keep it clean when you are using the viewfinder.
In short, I just tested it every way I could think of under the worst lighting and shooting (all hand held, low light) conditions and it did very well. I displayed the pictures and movies on a 44 inch top of the line Sony 1080p TV with mini HDMI/HDMI connection cable, and even handheld, you could zoom in (easy, from the camera) before you could see pixelation on the stills so I presume they are better than a couple of MP of usable info even under these lousy conditions.
Just a word of encouragement for its capabilities as a hybrid camera/camcorder…it well exceeded my expectations. With a tripod or decent technique it should be excellent indeed..and very usable without it.
I am very pleased with it. When it’s daylight, will do some more rigorous tests of image quality outside in decent light. By the way, it takes (handheld, so very blurry) time exposures up to at least several seconds of exposure …so I would expect that like the OM-2, which was great for taking full color pictures of my parents’ backyard in the country by starlight, one should be able to take pictures in very dim light with a tripod.
If anything negative turns up, I will post a followup. Otherwise, very happy. I do notice it dies quickly when its buttons are not being pushed…I wonder if this is the “lock up” some talked about. I didn’t find it a problem, just hit the power button and you’re good to go. A bit disconceting vs. the Canon or Sony which stay inactive a lot longer before hibernating, but you may be able to change the setting on that if you want to.
—-Update after more testing—–
I took it around outside in bright sun to see how it does in high light levels, also took some mroe interior shots & video trying some other situations, such as flash with high zoom level in the dark, etc. It did very well. You can point it at something that is so dark you can’t see it, and get a perfect flash picture. You can focus perfectly for time exposures (tripod) through moderately dirty glass at things outside. Focus seems fast and reliable under all conditions except when you are shooting video and move to something that is significantly further away. In that case, it is slow to refocus and the focusing makes sharp clicks on the video sound track (you’re supposed to turn the AF feature to focus only at the start of the video, and not make that sort of move anyway according to the manual.)
I found the focus worked fine outdoors when you were recording video and panning from far off to close up objects, also no noticeable noise. Another defect for video is that the zoom (as others have commented) is very quick, but you can slow it down by using lighter pressure on the lever; I found the rate of zoom could be controlled to be comparable to a camcorder. However, it has one glitch that is completely understandable for a still camera but requires some work-around for video, which is that when you have zoomed out to high levels (say 20+) and are filming, when you try to zoom back in, there is a wibble and jerk in the image as the drive connects with the lens, making the picture shake all over for a second or so. That is about the only unexpected issue I was able to find. There is a lot of wind noise in high wind; there is a wind noise suppression feature I didn’t try. I expect you could put a fuzz pad over the mics also if it bothered you. All in all, I still love it and figure to take it as my sole camera on trips. I haven’t tried all the fancy scene and specialty stuff, and haven’t yet loaded the Nikon software on the laptop. I find the playback on the HDTV to be an absolute delight, and all the contols to be very intuitive and every day discover new things I like…for example, it remembers what you’ve been doing, and comes up with the video screen if you were shooting video, still for stills, etc. Of course if you push the other trigger button it immediately switches. Etc. A million little convenient things like that. For vacations, a neat feature is that when you have your clips displayed on the TV, as you move the zoom lever to the left it puts more and more clip thumbnails (up to 16) on the screen, and then goes to a calendar with the days for which you took shots highlighted, so it would be easy to go back after a trip and find a given subject.
For battery life, it told me battery depleted when I had taken about 130 still images and 35 video clips, maybe half the stills with flash. Probably had erased 10-15 stills and 5-10 videos. Had about 30 minutes of video on the camera, probably. Computer said card had 2.5 GB of files. I had watched all the stills and video at least once on the camera display, and at least once on the TV. So if you were just shooting, it should last significantly longer on one charge.
So all in all, I give it an excellent rating. My only real complaint is the jerking of the zoom when the retraction drive is kicked in when you are shooting video. So I have learned to shut off the video and retract the zoom ratio before starting up the video again at the new zoom ratio if operating at high zoom ratios. Otherwise, it pretty well exceeds every expectation. I am delighted with it. It’s hard to imagine you can do so much photography so easily with such a tiny camera.
PS: It has not “locked up” on me, but thanks to N Jaeger for pointing out my first night speculation about that was completely off base.. totally separate issue from the hibernation time (which you can change). As others have said, apparently need to do a hard reboot by pulling the battery out if it does lock up.
One other thing is the manual gives the data transfer rates under various uses, and the fastest is 14MB/sec for HD video, so the choice of the “ultra” Sandisk card (15MB/s)was probably good. I haven’t ever seen a delay in saving, processing, or shooting. The camera indicates about 29 minutes of shooting time when you bring it up in 1080p record mode, but I can’t imagine that being a limitation. But if you wanted to set it up on a tripod and just shoot your life for the full 2 to 4 hours a big card would allow, I guess you couldn’t do it.
When you play a low light video back through the HDMI cable to the tv, it seems to come out enhanced and bright vs. what you see by just pulling the card and viewing it with Windows on an HP dv6 entertainment pc. The stills and brightly lit videos look the same both ways, but apparently the camera will do some processing on data it considers suboptimal. I assume the Nikon software would do the same in the computer but haven’t tried it.
I remain really tickled with the camera. Good luck.
Rating
A difficult camera to review. I love it though.
First, I just want to say that this camera is not a DSLR and I won’t compare it to one, as No one should really compare DSLRs to Point and Shoot cameras.
Most people know if they are in the market for one or the other. The DSLR will, of course, give a clarity, depth of field, and low light performance no point and shoot can imitate. Point and shoot cameras are designed to be high-quality, simple to use, and easy to carry.
I have owned several cameras, from professional SLRs (Nikon), to slim designed point and shoots that were made to fit easily in the pocket.
If you are looking at this camera, you are probably trying to decide between an entry level DSLR and a Mega Zoom point and shoot. In reference to size, the P100 is very close to a more compact DSLR. If you are looking for a compact point and shoot, this is not the camera for you. This camera is large for a point and shoot. It has to be, to facilitate the mega zoom.
The Vibration reduction is good, in fact I was very surprised with the quality of the picture I took of the moon (you can see in the image section). Very clear and sharp for a hand-held fully extended zoom in no light shot.
Low light is ok, I’ve definitely seen worse with point and shoots. Daylight shots are great with a very good depth of field and color saturation. Sunset setting produces overly Orange pictures; I suggest using P mode or manual settings.
Auto settings are good and easy to use. Vibrant color looks fantastic.
To really get the most out of this camera, you will need to explore the manual settings.
Auto will only get you so far. Many manual functions remind me of my old SLR, very versatile.
Overall: Great color in vibrant setting, Great clarity and focus. Zoom honestly Rocks!!!
Big for a point and shoot, but to get any better pictures you will need to purchase a DSLR.
Why did I purchase this camera instead of a DSLR??
My wife and I love to hike and rock climb. We see some very beautiful places; at times risk our lives to see these places. I wanted to get a camera which would take high quality pictures and provide a decent zoom, without requiring me to carry a large DSLR and several lenses to get desired effects with regard to aperture, wide angle, Zoom, and high-speed.
Note: If anyone is trying to decide between this and a DSLR, I advise you to check out the kit lenses the DSLRs come with, and understand that you will be purchasing a much larger lens to get the equivalent zoom as the P100.