When I was shopping for a camera, I was extremely finicky. I wanted something that took great pictures (obviously), had manual controls (i was just starting to get into photography at the time), and was very portable (if you can't take it everywhere, what good is it?).
I spent months and months online reading reviews, shopping around, and decided on this camera. It has certainly delivered.
Display: I've never really had a problem using the display in all but the brightest sun. The viewfinder's there if you need it, too, which is nice. I would love it if it was a through-the-lens viewfinder, but it's not; it shows what's in front on the viewfinder, rather than what's in front of the lens, and can't adjust for zoom. This is a really minor complaint though, as I've really never had much trouble with the display.
Ease of use: The auto mode on this camera works great. The special scene modes are great. (That covers ease-of-use for amateurs-- you can easily take great pictures with this camera even if you never touch any of the manual controls.) If you're more knowledgeable, the camera has full manual, aperture, shutter, and program modes too. As someone who's shopped around, I can tell you this is really hard to find in a camera that's this size and price. All of the controls feel intuitive and I've always found it easy to find everything I need. If I could change one thing here, I wish the camera would remember settings that I'd changed after I've turned it off and on again. For instance, I almost never use the flash, but every time I turn it on, I have to turn the flash off again.
Features: Features. Hmm. This camera has every shooting mode I could ever need, manual controls, a FLASH HOTSHOE, *and* can accommodate additional lenses? Ok, so it doesn't come with on-board GPS like the P6000, but other than that, I can't think of a feature I would ever want that this camera doesn't have. Oh, and the vibration reduction's great too. I've been able to take shake-free pictures with shutter speeds up to 1 or 2 seconds handheld if I steady myself on something. This is really nice for shooting in low-light or at night. Complaint: the flash. The flash on this camera is bad. It's not very powerful and most pictures taken with it come out looking unnatural. I think it also sometimes gets the shadow of the lens, which is odd. Then again, if this really mattered, I could always buy an external flash. It hasn't really bothered me, but it has turned me into a natural-light purist. Vibration reduction really helps with this.
On the negative side, don't even try to take pictures of kids playing sports with this thing. It has a mode for it, but I wouldn't recommend it. The camera seems a little too slow to respond for this sort of thing. The high ISOs are really grainy, too. I like to set it at ISO 64-100 and take pictures of fairly stationary things. If this isn't for you, you might want to consider a slightly more nimble little camera.
Picture quality: Picture quality is stellar. Really. Occasionally, I see pictures taken with a professional DSLR and say, "Wow, I don't think I could do that with my camera," but short of being a DSLR, this thing can take really amazing pictures. The 12MP also make it easy to crop things way down and find a more impressive photo hidden within an otherwise dull one.
Portability: It's not as small as some digital cameras made these days, but it's still easily purse/pocket-sized (bulgy pocket, but still). For all the features this thing holds, it seems downright miniscule.
If you can't tell already, I highly recommend this camera. I took mine in for repair the other day (fell off a table and got a lens error. :( otherwise, has been very durable, though.) and, after quoting me the price for the repair, the woman in the camera store said that whether it was worth it or not depended on how much I paid for it and how much I love it. I think I was blushing a little as I told her, "It's worth it."
I am so in love with this camera.Get more detail about Nikon Coolpix P5100 12.1MP Digital Camera with 3.5x Optical Vibration Reduction Zoom.
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