Nikon Coolpix P300 compact camera
Manual dexterity
Review Nikon's endeavour to rein in Canon’s success in the compacts market has seen the Coolpix P7000 released as a direct competitor to the Canon PowerShot G12. By introducing the P300, Nikon's first pocket-sized advanced compact, the company seems keen to cast a shadow over the Canon PowerShot S95.
Small wonder: Nikon's Coolpix P300
Aimed at serious enthusiasts, the Nikon P300 showcases attractive features with its 12.2Mp, back-illuminated CMOS image sensor married to Nikon's Expeed C2 image processor. This combination delivers a sensitivity up to ISO 3200, along with an impressive 8fps continuous shooting at full resolution, plus 1080p HD video recording.
The jewel in the crown is the fast f/1.8-f/4.9, 24-100mm (35mm equivalent), high refractive index zoom lens with optical stabilisation. It offers decent wide-angle shooting and useful, rather than spectacular, telephoto magnification. At at 920k dots, the 3in LCD screen – albeit the same size screen as the Canon PowerShot S95 – has almost twice the resolution, delivering very good viewing angles from this crisp, bright display.
The Nikon P300 is essentially a rectangular black box measuring 103 x 58 x 32mm and weighing 190g with battery and SD memory card. The metal body is solidly built and feels good in the hand. The grip is aided by a raised rubber strip at the front and a small thumb rest on the back. Together these work well to make handling such a little camera feel safe and comfortable, allowing for easy one-hand operation too.
The front of the camera is devoid of any controls, featuring only the retractable zoom lens, while the top plate houses both the Mode dial and the Control dial, used to adjust shooting parameters and to review images in playback or to access menu options. Hidden away on the top left corner of the camera there is also a built-in flash that can be manually activated by a switch on the side of the camera.
Familiar layout plus a video recording button to avoid dialling it in
On the back, there are only four dedicated buttons – direct movie recording, Playback, Menu and Delete – and a navigation wheel that also doubles as four-way controller giving access to Flash Mode, Exposure Compensation, AF mode and Drive modes. The Nikon P300 offers several shooting modes: the conventional Auto, Program Auto, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, Manual, and Scene modes plus a Backlighting and a Night Landscape option.
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COMMENTS
More spellcheck
I agree about the viewfinder - there are times when you just need one. Also, the 'fast' lens is only f1.8 at wide-angle (24mm). f4.9 at 100mm (when you need it) isn't very good at all.
No viewfinder = No Purchase
Just my opinion but only having a display on a 300 GBP camera takes it off the list of possible purchases which is a shame because otherwise it seems to be an ideal camera to carry about.
Also, i've asked for this before but I'll ask again, could you include in the vital statistics the time to first shot and the time between shots?
Sigma
"From what I can see compacts with APS-C size sensors run to over 1000GBP and for me no compact is worth such money, again just my opinion."
See title.
Re: So?
As I said it's just my opinion. The S90 doesn't have a viewfinder. The P7000 and G12 only have a 7x and 5x zoom respectively which for a 400+ GBP cameras is inadequate. I suppose we can find something lacking in just about anything. I currently carry around a Canon SX10is which if it were half as thick, didn't take 1.5 seconds between shots and wasn't so noisy above 100 ISO would be almost ideal.
From what I can see compacts with APS-C size sensors run to over 1000GBP and for me no compact is worth such money, again just my opinion.
4/3rds?
I recently bought a GF2 with a zoom and pancake. So far very impressed with the IQ in RAW, the in camera processing lets down the JPEG's. But it's quick to shoot with, not quite as fast as a mid-price DSLR, but fast enough to get most candid shots.
Not so impressed with the touch screen, it may not appeal to some people. For them perhaps the ELP2 for Oly is a better choice. At least that's the feelings of Thom Hogan who is a big Nikon fan and uses the Oly as well.
The Oly has a better electronic viewfinder.
