Nikon COOLPIX S100 16 MP CMOS Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom NIKKOR ED Glass Lens and 3.5-Inch

I've had this camera for a few months now, and so far it's performed very well. The lack of buttons and the sweet touch screen makes for an elegant package. I haven't tested most of it's capabilities, however.

BUT, this camera inexplicably has no Auto-off function. The sliding cover acts as a switch, and if you accidentally leave it open it enters a standby mode, but then DOESN'T SHUT OFF! It slowly drains the battery completely. I keep it in a case and didn't notice I had left it open, only to twice find a dead battery when I really needed a camera. And you can't pop in a spare. I think every digital camera I've owned had this feature. It simply doesn't make sense to leave it off a relatively expensive camera, especially since it's so easy to leave it open unintentionally.

And on the subject of that sliding cover/switch, using it creates several parallel scratches on the front of the camerawhich takes away some of the elegance I mentioned. Not a real problem, but I still wonder why Nikon created a system destined to deface itself.

After a lot of research, and a top recommendation from Consumer Reports, I purchased this camera for my wife. Bottom line: I do not recommend this cameras.

It had all the features I was looking for: good optical quality, thin and compact, lightweight, fast start-up time and recovery, a fixed lens (doesn't protrude out) with a good optical zoom, and it even came in red. For these qualities, it is successful.

Where it is not successful is giving a decent picture. It exudes several poor behaviors:

-Inconsistant focus. 3 out 5 are way out of focus (optical focus, not image blur) and 1 out of 5 is actually sharp.

-This camera has a very slow shutter speed in low light (lots of streaking). It must have a poor image stabilizer, too.

-The flash is very inaccurate and inconsistent. No two shots are the same, even if taken right after each other.

-Most shots are too bright. I must use exposure compensation always, which often resets back to 0.

-The video is often very blurry and the focus stays fixed. One must stop and start the video to get it to refocus.

-The slide to turn it on slides out in my wifes purse and turns on, depleting the battery.

-The lens is in a poor location; my wife keeps covering up the lens with her finger.

-Low light pictures are almost unusable.

-The panoramic mode does not process properly so there is lots of ghosting/double imagery.

-Very grainy in dark areas.

-The camera remains on and the battery will go dead if the USB cable is plugged into the camera but removed from a computer after downloading pictures.

-The charger form factor takes up too much space on a power plug.

-The color balance is either way too warm or way too cold. It doesn't seem to be able to adapt to shade properly.

-The OLED touchscreen easily scratches.

-Touching menu buttons is often read as wanting to take a picture, so it does. Lots of deletes.

-Seems to be losing videos.

-I don't get "thumbnails" of the pictures in Windows 7 x64 folders.

I thought Nikon made good cameras but not so on this model. I have a Kodak 3 MP camera from 2002 that consistently yields better pictures than this camera. I just went back and reviewed a bunch of pictures from a staycation and found very few keepers. I really recommend you avoid this camera so I am downgrading to a single star.

Buy Nikon COOLPIX S100 16 MP CMOS Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom NIKKOR ED Glass Lens and 3.5-Inch Now

Very nice camera except for the ability to touch the OLED screen to trigger the shutter. I found myself taking many unintentional pictures.

I found there was an option to change the touch to something other that the shutter. I changed it and things are much better.

Read Best Reviews of Nikon COOLPIX S100 16 MP CMOS Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom NIKKOR ED Glass Lens and 3.5-Inch Here

Someone stated that the camera is bound to deface itself over time because of how the slide functions. True. But if you wipe the camera with a micro fiber cloth (which you should have anyway for the OLED screen) it will slow the process. Now with that said, buy it. I promise you this is the best point and shoot on the market for the money. Also it helps if you know how "work" a camera, I.e, know what changing the iso,shutter speed actually do and things of that nature. And quick tip for the Newbie noobs, FLASH IS NOT YOUR BEST FRIEND. Learn when the flash is NEEDED. And with this camera.....well I've used the flas 3 time literaly.

Want Nikon COOLPIX S100 16 MP CMOS Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom NIKKOR ED Glass Lens and 3.5-Inch Discount?

I bought this camera for my wife and she loves it. She finds it easy to use and it takes very good pictures. My wife previously had a Cannon digital camera and did not like it very much. I thought the Cannon was fairly good but ordered the Nikon as a Christmas present. It has made her happy and therefore I'm happy.

Save 50% Off