Nikon Coolpix Cameras - A pictorial review

I had the opportunity yesterday morning to go out to Parramatta Park in Sydney's west and take some some candid, "everyday" type shots as my way to test the new Nikon Coolpix range of cameras. I am not one who wants to read in depth comparisons and the finite points of what goes into the cameras, or how many millimetres the lens extends to or info like that.

Why?

Because in my experience in both selling and sharing my knowledge with a lot of end user consumers, they really do not care for the most part, they are not buying a camera because it is a camera, they are buying a tool to help them preserve their memories and to help them capture their life moments and to keep them in remembrance.

This review I make will not discuss the"ins and outs" of how they performed under controlled conditions, or each and every feature, I just wanted to show what the cameras could do, without having the expensive SLR's I would normally use. Often people say to me that I get the pictures I do BECAUSE of the camera I use and in a way I wanted to show simply and easily the results that ANYBODY can get under similar conditions.

I wanted my pictures to be without tripod, without any lens accessory or other attachment that would be different from any regular person who might go and buy a camera straight off the shelf, and start taking the same images. So what you see is without staging and without gimmick.

At the outset, let me say how really impressed I was with how they easily responded and captured the available light.
As their name suggests, these cameras from Nikon are VERY Cool. One of the things I like about Nikon is that they don't make refrigerators, TVS or mobile phones they just do photographics and do it very well!

Nikon Coolpix S60 camera - Recommended Retail Price (RRP) $549 Australian$ (AUD).



This shot was very dark, and for a small, thin camera I rested on a wooden fence joint, performed brilliantly with the colour and light. It is a touch screen camera with a very big 3" and very user friendly.

Nikon Coolpix S220 Camera - RRP $279 AUD







This little camera is only 18mm thin and what a wonderfully easy little pocket dynamo it is. For the price, there is nothing in the Australian market between $199-$299 retail that has a camera that is in my humble opinion, anywhere as good as this.

Nikon Coolpix S230 Camera - RRP $379 AUD










This Camera really hit the spot for me. The touch screen that is 3" is easy and friendly, images you dont want simply touch the garbage bin and it asks if you really want to delete IN CASE you hit the bin by mistake, and once agreed to by pressing YES, the image is deleted. The stylish look and the feel of this little camera was great! I became a big fan of this as a pocket camera and allrounder.

Nikon Coolpix S620 Camera - RRP $549 AUD




The S620 is a very compact solid camera with lots of feature. I used this at the Wiggles concert at the Enmore theatre in Sydney and it took wonderful images of my little man seeing his heroes. I also couldn't resist the prams lined up outside the Enmore as well. I really like its simplicity and colours like the S230 and S220 are slightl;y subdued but very nice cameras to shoot with.

Nikon Coolpix L100 Camera - RRP $499 AUD



This camera is a first for Nikon to introduce a AA battery bridge type camera between compact and Digital SLR and it is a wonderful camera. Please do not assume that like the S60 earlier, because there is only one image that it wasn't as good, it is just that I took so many images with each camera, with many of the same scenes, that the images you see here for each camera are the ones, that really jumped out at me as being extra ordinary. All the cameras did well, and this L100 is no exception. I used the supplied AA batteries and with its huge 3" screen and was so impressed by its performance. A great mid range buy for those who like this style of camera, but I would really suggest the purchase of a very good high mah AA battery and charger combination as well. It will save you bucket loads of dollars in batteries.

Nikon Coolpix P90 Camera - RRP $799 AUD





The P90 is the upgrade from the L100 and is really a massive step up. It has a huge 24x OPTICAL zoom, and almost equivalent to a 600mm lens at full zoom. I hear often people whine and moan about the quality of digital zoom and whilst is less than optical zoom in actual image quality, on these range of Nikon beauties is very impressive all the same. I really liked it. For those people who like the bridge style of camera this has a lithium ion battery which lasts quite a long time and worked like a charm EVERY time I went to use it.

Nikon Coolpix P6000 Camera - RRP $749 AUD






This camera is a wonderful piece of machinery. It even has a built in LAN point ready to upload images and data from the camera straight to the web. It has a built in Global Positioning System (GPS) so for those people who like Google earth, it will identify the exact co-ordinates the image was taken in. It is a feature that is not found in many cameras, some offer a unit as an attachment but this is a small and very powerful unit. The look and actual feel of this camera in the hand is a very ergonomic. I have become a devotee of this, and will have to try and find a way for Nikon to give me this unit! I love it, it gives a smoother look on the big screen and it even shoots in a format called RAW which preserves more visual information than a standard jpeg. This camera in my opinion is for people that have an SLR but want a camera that is small that emulates the quality they have become used to or the enthusiast who loves geo-tagging (the gps - google earth thingy I mentioned earlier) and wants to really not only LOOK Cool, but be Cool as well!

Nikon D5000 D-SLR Camera - RRP $1995 AUD (includes 18-55mm & 55-200mm lens







I continue to be impressed by this camera. For the people who want a better image quality that only comes from a Digital SLR without the expensive lessons, and the 10 hour reading of an instruction manual, this camera is the best SLR value that I have seen for a complete amateur or "newbie" to pick up and start shooting things like a pro. It is very good for the value. I love it a lot and would really recommend and believe that there is a camera here in this range that I have tested independently that will cater for the vast majority of needs. If you want the specs on the cameras individually, please click here.