Nikon Coolpix S9100

If you are looking for a compact camera that is capturing huge, 12.1-megapixel Nikon Coolpix S9100 ($ 329.95 direct) has you covered, incorporating a 18x optical zoom is nothing less than a pocket-sized body. It lacks some features of its competitors, as a striking user interface, or GPS, but if you want to be closer to the action, the S9100 offers the important moments. This camera is lightning fast, packs a high resolution LCD screen, and capture pictures and videos of excellent even in low light, so is the camerarom our latest Editor's Choice superzoom digital. Design The S9100 wants to be taken seriously, and opt for a professional look on the attributes of a publicity stunt or color. Comes in black, silver, red, or my test unit was black. It qualifies as a pocket, but only at 2.5 by 4.2 by 1.4 inches (AAP). The right front has a small grip-basically just a pipe that looks like a design to succeed, but is meant to give you a better grip. Like many higher-end cameras, the S9100's flash must be manually appeared to be used. The back of the camera has a sweet little rotating ring on it so you can quickly breeze through the menus. The button layout does not deviate from what one sees in most compact cameras, there is a D-pad below the scroll wheel, dedicated buttons for playback and movie recording, and shooting mode dial and zoom. You'll be hard pressed to find a camera the size of the S9100 that can offer more zoom. Last year we reviewed a handful of the best compact superzoom cameras, and is the Canon PowerShot SX210 (349.99 U.S. dollars, 3.5 stars) that offers the best lens specifications: its 14x optical zoom lens extends 28-392mm (35mm equivalent). The S9100 is better than both ends with a 18x optical zoom lens covering 25-450mm. With this camera, you get the best of both worlds: a wide angle lens and a telephoto impressive. Like most competitors, opening ranges corresponding f/3.5-f/5.9. The 3-inch LCD screen on the back of the camera is one of the best on the market. Most compact cameras to fill their screens with 230,000 points, and some go up a sharp 460,000. The S9100 or in packages of 921 000 points, and the result is an LCD screen that looks like it belongs to a digital SLR camera, images are bright and colorful, and the text is crisp and easy to read. The user interface is the same as all other Nikon compact cameras we've seen in recent years, simple but boring text-based. Do not expect colorful graphics, quick menus, or the description of the modes. However, the high-resolution LCD screen makes the gray user interface more attractive and easier to navigate than many low-resolution LCD screens. The S9100 is generally easy to handle. There are fully automatic shooting and a scene mode for most shooting situations. There is also a dedicated mode for panoramic shots, just slip the camera from left to right, and combine several pictures into one shot panorama teacher. You can manually control the ISO sensitivity, white balance, focus area, and more, but unfortunately, as is common in compact cameras, there is no way to control the shutter speed or aperture. Unlike some competitors superzoom, the S9100 does not contain a GPS. Although this is not really a coup, it is worth noting that if you are looking for a versatile camera travel superzoom few options you have to add a GPS for geotagging photos, like the Canon PowerShot SX230 SA ($ 349.99, 4 stars) The HXV5 Sony Cyber-shot ($ 349.99, 4 stars) or the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 ($ 399.99, 4 stars). Performance The S9100 is an absolute speed demon. The camera shoots up and in an average of 1.56 seconds. When lit, the average is only 0.50 seconds of shutter lag, and only a wait of 1.58 seconds between shots. In comparison, the Sony Cyber-shot pales HX5V: gets up and shoots in a poor and 2.33 seconds, S9100 matches the shutter lag, but the waiting time up to 1. 80 seconds between shots. In the PC Mag labs use Imatest to objectively evaluate the image quality and performance of the S9100 were solid in all areas. In terms of sharpness, the S9100 offers a center weighted average 1,767 lines per picture height, almost identical to the HX5V Sony, which provides a weighted average in the middle of 1796. Nor is it a huge number, but a good result for a compact camera. camera sensor offers excellent imaging performance in low light. If you want to shoot in low light without flash, it is necessary to increase the ISO to absorb more light. But the higher you go, the more noise that is injected into your shots. If Imatest detected noise of 1.5 percent on an image, is likely to be visible grainy or noisy. The HXV5 Sony was able to keep the noise below 1. 5 percent up to and including ISO 1600, which is pretty good, but the S9100 set all the way to ISO 3200 before becoming visibly producers noisy images. The S9100 will serve you well in optimal lighting conditions. You have plenty of options for recording HD video with the S9100-1080 at 30 frames per second and 720 at 30 and 60 fps. (60 frames per second is very rare, other than a dedicated video camera.) You even have the option to create low-resolution (320 by 240) video in slow motion, capturing 240 frames per second. The videos are captured as. MOV that can be uploaded on YouTube and Facebook with ease. The S9100 allows you to use its enormous zoom while recording video, but when zooming in and out you capture the subtle noise that drives the lens. You can also autofocus while recording, and in my tests, I have not heard any noise while he did. There is a stereo microphone audio, it captured sounds great too. You can play back videos on your HDTV using a cable connection to the S9100 built-in mini-HDMI port. Files can be transferred to your computer via USB port on the camera itself. The camera writes to SD, SDHC, and memory cards SDXC. The Nikon Coolpix S9100 is a top choice for a superzoom compact camera. The shooter $ 330 provides one of the largest optical zoom lens that can be found in a compact camera with excellent picture quality, nice video capture options and a great LCD at a fair price. Despite an integrated GPS as well as being an asset, the S9100 is still easily earns our Editors' Choice.