Nikon Coolpix S80 14.1 MP Digital Camera with 3.5-Inch OLED Touchscreen and 5x Wide-Angle Zoom Nikkor ED Lens (Gold) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The camera just came out but doesn't live up to the hype and reviews I had read. This is based on about 2 weeks of use, indoor and outdoor, including an indoor speaker event, a large outdoor rally on the mall in Washington DC, a party, a hike in a park during autumn, and various other activities. The camera is physically well-designed and manufactured with quality materials & construction.
Biggest Issue: picture quality is hit-or-miss, mostly miss. Quality for both color and sharpness was occasionally excellent, and typically like a cell-phone camera. There are over a dozen interesting settings, such as sports and landscape modes, and they didn't help enough to solve the picture quality & consistency issue.Other Cons:
most of the controls are on-screen, and these are not always fast to operate (such as zoom in & out, and changing photo settings)
menu system is not as helpful or intuitive as it could be, so sometimes it was easier to turn off and on instead of navigating.
the camera has internal memory that always came up first when reviewing photos... had to click through several menu options to view today's photos by date just to see the most recent photo taken. And everyone wants to see how they look in the photo you just took, so it wasted a lot of time.
video is HD but grainy at times
auto-focus seemed slow to kick in at times (this may be setting-dependent)
time stamp on video files was different by several hours and minutes from the time stamp for photos (on Win 7 PC). Pros:
Pinch-and-zoom touchscreen works nicely
the optical zoom is all inside the camera, and will stay clean... and worked well.
when it took nice photos, the 10+ megapixels were nice to have for printing, cropping, etc.
small and slim
has some internal memory
boots up fast enoughOverall the camera works okay for taking photos & video, but appears to almost be defective in execution. Given the price (upper 200's) it is not going to be kept (even if I have to eat the cost of returning it plus Amazon's fee of apparently 15% for opened items.) Researching the other new Nikon - Nikon Coolpix P7000 10.1 MP Digital Camera with 7.1x Wide Zoom-Nikkor ED Lens and 3-Inch LCD.
Original Review Nov 10, 2010.
Update Nov 24, 2010: I bought the Nikon Coolpix P7000 and it has the superb quality & features that I hoped would have been better delivered in the S80. I've sent the S80 back to Amazon.
Also, since this camera comes in many colors, check the reviews of other colors (Nikon Coolpix S80 14.1 MP Digital Camera with 3.5-Inch OLED Touch Screen and 5x Wide Zoom-Nikkor ED Lens (Red) (many reviews) , Nikon Coolpix S80 14.1 MP Digital Camera with 3.5-Inch OLED Touch Screen and 5x Wide Zoom-Nikkor ED Lens (Black) ). Hope this review is helpful to you as you shop.

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High style meets high tech with the debut of the ultra- slim, Touch Control Nikon Coolpix S80. A large, bright 3.5-inch Ultra-High Resolution (819,000-dot) Organic LED (OLED) Clear Color Display provides touch control of camera functions, and the display's wide viewing angle and anti-glare coating make for bright, brilliant image composition, viewing and sharing. The 14.1-megapixel S80 features a 5x Wide Zoom-NIKKOR ED lens, HD (720p) stereo sound movie recording and creative image editing functions, including the ability to write or draw on the image. The S80 also offers VR Image Stabilization and high sensitivity up to ISO 6400. In a variety of colors, the stylish COOLPIX S80 is as beautiful as the pictures it takes.FEATURES:
14.1-megapixel CCD sensor for stunning images.
5x Wide-Angle Optical Zoom-NIKKOR ED Glass Lens Versatile 35-175mm lens ranges wide to capture landscapes, zooms in to get close to the action. In the NIKKOR tradition of precision optics, the high-quality ED glass lens delivers superb color and razor-sharp results.
Optical VR Image Stabilization by lens shift minimizes the effects of camera shake.
Hybrid VR Image stabilization by lens shift and electronic VR.
Motion Detection automatically detects moving subjects and adjusts shutter speed and ISO to compensate for camera shake and subject movement.
High ISO up to 6400 for optimum results when shooting in low light or photographing fast-moving subjects.
Nikons Best Shot Selector (BSS) automatically takes up to ten shots while the shutter is pressed, then selects and saves the sharpest image.
EXPEED C2 continues to expand the possibilities of photography with improved levels of image quality, fine detail and proce