Nikon COOLPIX P310 16.1 MP CMOS Digital Camera with 4.2x Zoom NIKKOR Glass Lens and Full HD 1080p Video (OLD MODEL)

This review is not about the quality of the camera , its features quality ect.. My first observation was that the flash is manual and has to be released to work but again this is not about the features and if that is a good way to manage the flash. I have returned this camera and the reason is because of the charger, most cameras have a charge you plug the battery into. This helps when you purchase a separate battery and want to charge one while using the other. Well this camera has an external charge that accepts a USB plug that connects to the camera which means the camera must be tethered to charge, my first thought was , wow this is interesting, when I forget my charger, which happens frequently I can plug it into my computer. The enthusiasm quickly faded when I realized this is a standard USB cable on one side and a unique connector on the other side. That means if I lose the cable, which will happen in the mass of other cables in my briefcase, desk draw and the many other places I am bound to lose it I have no ability to charge the camera. If they would have simply used a standard micro USB connector or even the other larger style connector I would have been ok with this . I just don't need another cable to keep track.

I'm a professional photographer[...] and I started getting tired of bringing my DSRL on vacations and out and about so I really wanted an Advanced point & shoot to take over the role of my DSLR on occasions where I just wanted to slip something in my pocket. I originally bought the Fujifilm F505 EXR because it was cheap on Amazon, $149. It had full Manual controls, Aperture and Shutter priority, everything you would expect. The only problem was the pictures were terrible. Smudging of fine detail, no sharpness, focal points were inconsistent, useless ISO, the pictures were just unusable and un-savable even in Aperture 3 or Photoshop.So, fast forward, I sold it and looked for a replacement. After about a month of research I ended up having to choose between the Canon S100 and the Nikon Coolpix P310. I went back and forth and read reviews on how the S100 set the benchmark for all advanced point and shoot cameras and how great it was. It is about $140 more than the P310, which I was willing to spend IF, IF the pictures were far superior to the P310.So I went to a camera store and tried out both of them. As far as how each of them are to use, well I shoot Nikon and after using the Canon and the Nikon I know why I shoot with Nikon. The P310 is simply the most thought out Point and Shoot I've ever used. Nothing is buried in menu's, everything is one touch or a dial. The LCD was much nicer, and sharper. The P310 has a "User Mode" found on Nikon's DSLR's where you can preset your own settings and quickly switch to it. One touch video recording button. It powers on instantly, the auto focus was much faster and more accurate than the S100. Over all it just felt better and I was able to change settings much faster than the Canon. Just like Nikon's DSLR's you can adjust sharpness and other things in it's familiar menu system.So, on to the quality of the pictures. I went on Flickr and spent hours going back and forth between people's photo's who shot with the S100 and the P310. I found over all that the S100 photo's were about 10% better than the P310. But again, these were people that may or may not have known how to fully use their camera ect...So, I ordered the P310 because I thought for the price and it's functionality it was the best deal and the quality of photo's it produced from what I saw online was better than I expected and read from reviews and was far superior to my old Fujifilm I got rid of.Just got the camera an hour ago and tried it out. Did some indoor shots to try out the f/1.8 and higher ISOs, did some outdoor shots to see how well it exposed photo's and handled chromatic aberrations and how well it contained detail and sharpness, and I tried out some macro shots. My first impressions. Wow. Remember I'm a photographer so I'm used to working with photo's from a DSRL all day and I see all my photo's on a 27'' iMac so photo's are blown up huge and detail, sharpness, smudging noise are all much more present than most people with 17 and 19 inch monitors.First off, sharpness. on a scale of 1-10 most of these are a 10, some darker ons are a 9 which can be bumped to a 10 in Aperture or Lightroom.Exposure, I havent really seen anything yet that was way over or way under exposed. Clouds looked great and even a few things that looked over exposed were savable in Aperture.Noise. Virtually no noticeable noise up to ISO 400, minimal noise at ISO 800, that was as high as I went as the camera lets in a ton of light as it is.Detail smudging, the image processing contained detail extremely well especially in grass, leaves on tress, textures.I wish I had bought this camera first. The photo's are brilliant for a point and shoot and quality wise are on par with my first DSLR ever the D3000. These photo's are far superior to what a regular point and shoot camera will produce. The low light lens will basically let you shoot in any kind of light and you will probably never have to use the flash. The Macro mode blew me away. You can literally get with in a few millimeters of a bug or flower and get an amazingly sharp photo with a great blurred background which is impressive seeing as the image sensor in the camera is so small.Bottom line, if you're on the fence about getting this camera and it's at your price point, you won't find a sexier, easier to use camera that produces this kind of quality photos. If you've ever shot with a Nikon you'll feel right at home with the menus and new function button.I can finally leave me DSLR at home now!Update: this camera is blowing me away with the picture quality. Don't waste your money on the S100. This camera will be relevant for years and years to come.=====================================================================Update: My review on the new P330. In a nut shell, don't buy it, get the P310:I wrote a review Praising Nikon's P310, And I suggest to anyone looking for an advanced point and shoot to save their money and buy that model. Everything from fit/finish to functionality to image quality the P310 excels over the P330, and that is sad considering what Nikon did with the P330. The P330 has GPS, larger image sensor all kinds of bells and whistles but the bottom line is I sent it back and I'm keeping my P310.The Nikon P330 compared to the P310.The P330 feels cheap. The on/off switch takes at least 2-3 times to turn the camera on, it's as if you have to push it harder than you could possibly image for it to recognize you've turned it on. The new thumb dial has a different texture compared to the P310. Your thumb slides off more easily when rotating it especially around 11:00. In the menu system either clicking the dial up or down or rotating it to scroll through menus requires 2 clicks or two clicks of the dial to move only 1 position. This makes it feel as though it isn't recognizing what you're doing or makes it feel laggy, the P310 is not like this. The new shutter dial is flimsy and cheap and feels like it's going to break off when you're adjusting shutter speed.The P330 Image quality. In the perfect settings the P330 did appear to have slightly better images than the P310, but that was circumstances you won't be using it in. Using the same ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture the P310 at ISO 100, f/5.0 and 1/500sec produced bright clear noise free shots outdoors. The P330 with the same settings produced a back image. I had to turn the shutter speed all the way down to 1/60sec in order to get the same exposure. What does this mean? Well at 1/60sec moving objects like cars or people become more blurrier. From all the shots I did I concluded the P330 needs to have 3x a lower shutter speed than the P310. I've never gotten a blurry shot with the P310 in light or dark situations. When testing the P330 over and over and over I had blurry shots. Also the auto focus on the P330 on live view is jittery and moving subjects such as people or cars can't be distinguished sharply because it jerks around like the auto focus has a problem, the P310 was not like this.Overall I rate this camera 1 Star and I would give it zero If I could. At $379 it's a terrible waste of money. The P310 is far superior in image quality, functionality and reliability in every single way. If you want Nikon and you want an advanced point and shoot, get the P310, you won't be sorry. I'm just happy I didn't sell mine.

I was very disappointed with this camera. While it has some bells and whistles like f1.8 aperture, you'd never tell it as the bokeh is nearly nonexistent. Worse though, is that the 16 megapixels actually creates more noise, likely due to the very small sensor in this camera. If you use 12 megapixel setting, the image quality is ok, but still poor. I tested this indoors and outdoors. Indoors had TONS of noise in shadows, outlines, and anything out of focus. Outdoors is a little better, but there were bad chromatic aberrations around anything outlined from the sky (like tree leaves). And, worse yet, is that the clear blue sky has color noise, showing areas of purple. My review was done by taking a variety of shots and then looking at them at 100% on an IPS, color-calibrated monitor. If you're ok with low quality pictures and will never print them bigger than 5x7, then this camera may work ok. But at that point, you might as well just use the camera in your phone. I returned this for a refund...just not worth it.