CoolpixS80
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Nikon Coolpix S80 gets reviewed: loads of style, short on substance
Nikon's Coolpix S80 sure seemed like a worthy successor to the S70 on paper, but Photography Blog's latest review sheds light on a couple of underlying issues that hinder it from being a runaway hit. The critics pretty much adored the sexy styling, but they noted that the all-touchscreen operations were a love-it-or-hate-it affair. Furthermore, the large OLED on the rear tended to inaccurately show how images were turning out, making it exceedingly difficult to know whether a shot was truly under or overexposed. The extra megapixels didn't really help either, with reviewers calling the image quality "so-so" and pointing out that low-light shooting was far from being in this unit's wheelhouse. That said, the camera was still recommended with a laundry list of caveats, so we'd give the source link a peek before aimlessly pulling the trigger.
Nikon Coolpix S80 and P7000 hands-on
Sharing the limelight with the Nikon D7000 today were these two Coolpix cameras: the OLED touchscreen-donning S80 (left) and the prosumer-oriented P7000 (right). Let's start off with the S80: this 14.1 megapixel compact turned out to be pretty sexy and solid, and we had no qualms with sliding its lens cover, either. That said, the 3.5-inch touchscreen was one helluva double-edged sword -- sure, it was responsive to our touch input (for tap-to-capture or tap-to-focus), but a lot of the times we found our naughty fingers slipping onto the screen, thus accidentally triggering the camera. And just as we speculated, the lack of physical buttons (zoom control and shutter, for instance) was pretty intimidating to begin with, but as with many smartphones these days, it probably just takes time to get used to this newfangled interface. If we were to improve the camera as it is right now, we'd probably throw in a sharper alternative for the OLED display -- despite its wide viewing angles and vibrant colors -- for the sake of focusing and playback. Do read on for our thoughts on the P7000 after the break.%Gallery-102327% %Gallery-102330%
Nikon Coolpix S8100 gets 1080p video, S80 sprouts an OLED touchscreen
In addition to the intriguing new Coolpix P7000, Nikon also announced the Coolpix S8100 (pictured above) and S80 tonight -- sure, they're not the dramatic new models, but they're certainly respectable updates to the S8000 and S70. The S8100 actually learned one trick from the P7000: it's dropped the megapixel count to 12.1 from the S8000's 14.2 in order to improve light sensitivity -- it can now hit ISO 3200 natively, which isn't bad for a tiny cam with a 10x zoom. It's also got a new 1080p movie mode and a faster 10fps burst mode -- although we're told it can only burst five frames at a time, so that's not nearly as interesting. It'll hit later this month in a few colors for $299. The S80 goes the other way, boosting the megapixel count to 14.1 from the S70's 12.1, and upping the 3.5-inch touchscreen to OLED. The touchscreen enables all the same snazzy tricks as on the new S1100pj, including the ability to draw right on your pictures, and and the 720p movie mode and 5x optical zoom are unchanged. It'll hit this fall in all sorts of colors for $329. Honestly, we're still not entirely sold on touchscreen controls for cameras to begin with, and on top of that we're definitely concerned that OLED will make a touchscreen camera virtually useless in daylight, but we'll wait to see this thing in person before we rain too hard on this parade. Check a pic of the S80 along with both press releases after the break.
