In the previous review I wrote some technical first-touch tips about my new Nikon Coolpix P5100.
The best bridge camera by Nikon.

Now, after more than a month of use, I want to complete that review.
I tested the camera a lot, in night, fog and rain situations, and I’m really satisfied.

I bought also a tripod (gorillaPod) to make some photos of Venice in odd and hard places.
Very funny.
I will talk about him later.

The Coolpix behaves very well.

Let’s begin with the sad part… the macro.

I did a lot of tests between my new Nikon Coolpix P5100 and my old Samsung digimax i6, and I can say that the Samsung Digimax is insuperable.

Here are some… examples…
A spider web with some crap behind it:
Nikon: Samsung:

And another spider web with some free space behind it:
Nikon: Samsung:

Focusing with the Nikon is very hard, and the 4 centimeters of limit don’t helps.
I will still go around with both of them, for a while…

The manual modes features up to 8 seconds of exposition, and a lot of interesting options.
That allows to do very bright photos, even in very low light situations.

Indoors, the camera is definitive, cause every kind of light is well compensated, also neon flickering light.

For example, look at this photo did with the programmed manual mode and 8 seconds of exposition:

That light was hurting my eyes: low, and blinking very slowly.
But that was nothing for the camera.

After that I did some very bright photos of Venice…

This is a bit exagerated (I over exposed it on purpose):

And that is really cute:

I did also one without tripod, just taking the camera in my hands, obtaining a nice result:

I love Venice in the night:

• gloomy
• no tourists
• a lot of colors

Every photo you do with the Nikon Coolpix P5100 you can be safe that she did her work, always on focus, always good quality.

So, let’s round off with a pros and cons list:

• STRONG POINTS
  • Awesome quality (12 mega pixels, all in their place)
  • VERY LOW rumor (I still have to see any red-blue-green pixels)
  • Compact size (98 x 64,5 x 41 mm) and a light weight (200 g)
  • Well working functions and automated modes
  • the battery really endures a lot
  • Manual functions comparable to a reflex digital camera
  • The quality is the same of my father’s Nikon D70, a very expensive reflex.
• WEAK POINTS
  • Not good for Macros… it tries to imitate the reflex cameras inheriting this flaw
  • I had to buy a case for it, buyng a too large one.
    Was it too much expensive to gift one in the box?

This is the first part of a review about my Nikon Coolpix P5100… after 3 weeks of use.

As I already wrote, the first approach wasn’t good because it’s really different from my previous camera.
However, I can say it’s a lot better in everything, except the macro function (I will talk about that later).

The camera is small, so it can be considered a “portable” camera…
… so after some inital doubts (it’s not something you can lost and buy every month) now I bring it with me every day.

I started to experiment, first of all, every automatic function.
The scenes (the classical sunset, landscape, and so on) works great and are a good way to be “almost sure” you will not burn a good occasion to do a nice photo.

I was surprised more than everything else by the potrait and night potrait functions, that target faces automagically and follow them if the person moves.
The result is very good.

Of course, the semi-manual modes are the top feature of this camera.

I call them semi-manual cause there is no way to play with the focus, and that for me is really a great loss.
Probably, that is normal for a bridge camera… but from the best Nikon bridge camera I expected something more.
So there are only the most common three ways of using the focus:

• Automatic (infrared or yellow-light pointer)
• Macro (for very-near targets)
• Infinite (for landscapes or outdoors)

That of course means that you can’t do immediate photos (snapshots) cause the camera has to focus the target before you can do the shot.
That is an example:

Of course with some hacking you can… :

1. pre-focus another object that is at the same distance of the real target, keeping the “soft shot” button pressed
2. turn the camera against the real target
3. do the photo instantly just pressing harder the shot button

That can be done also with the flash removing the “red-eye” function.
This is another example:

I have still few photos of the same objects, to compare the two cameras …
… and I don’t think I will do more, cause the cost of Coolpix P5100 is nearly the double of the Digimax i6, so there can not be comparison between them.
However two of them are these:

There is clear that the new camera is a lot better than the old one.
Unfortunately the swans was not in the scene in the second photo, that was done two weeks after the first in the same hour.

In the next review I will:

• Compare the macro function that is the only thing I miss from my old Samsung Diximax i6 (I have to decide if sell it or not!)
  I will of course upload examples.
• do a list of the “pros and cons” of this amazing camera.

This tuesday the gift I did to myself finally arrived.

My new camera, a Nikon Coolpix p5100.

I bought it at a good price at pixmania.com. It was 80€ cheaper than the shops around there, and so, also to give them some more incomes, I bough also an additional battery, a fast (150x) SD memory of 4 Gb, a bag for it, and a multy-memory-card usb-reader to make some order on the desk.
The total, with expedition and taxes, was 450€.
My only regret is that the italian nital.it insurance+service is missing, cause the camera is imported for Europe and the services Nikon provides are displaced nationally.

The choice, was really hard.
My initial intention, after a really good experience with Samsung, was to trust the brand and buy another Samsung.
Infact, my final step is to buy a reflex, but I needed a “nearly-professional” camera before that, to learn how to use it in a more professional way, so I thought to buy a bridge.

The problem, was that Samsung have done a lot of confusion with it’s cameras, and I was unable to decide wich one to buy (and to find wich one was the NV-series best camera).
Also, the peak Canon bridge camera was too much expensive for me, 100 more euros and I could have had a small reflex for the same price.
So finally I choosed a P-series Nikon, the best one. Coolpix P5100.
Nikon coolpix p5100 is a bridge camera, so, it’s in the middle between a compact and a reflex.

I arrived home at 19:30 like every day, and I opened the box ensuring that every thing I bought was working correctly.
When I finished, I had a very fast dinner and I runned out of the house with her in my hands.

The initial approach wasn’t good. My “old” Samsung was more intuitive and simple, but that did not worry me cause it is a more professional camera, and that was ok for me.

It’s body is bigger than a normal compact camera, and it have an objective that cames out from the front when it turns on.
It’s not portable like my “old” one, but it can be also carried easily in a small bag (even to attach to the belt) or around the neck with it’s strap.

My first photos with her was really impressive, of course I used only the “automatic” mode but I was really surprised.

I had a Dungeons & Dragon session that night, but I played with her a lot during the game and I setted it up totally before the end of the day.

I will write a serious review of that camera when I will know it better, for now, I can just say it do very nice photos and I’m particularly surprised by the indoor and night shots, they are so bright even with very few light.
Also the flash, the times I tried it, is very well-balanced with the shot.
So if you do a photo with the flash (I hate it but sometimes I have to use it) the target is perfectly illuminated, not too much, not too less.

One of the first reason why I changed camera was that, the impossibility of doing photos in low-light situations, even in morning or just after a sunset, or indoor.

One year is passed…

How much memories, how much experiences.

My Samsung digimax i6 was really a nice camera.

Samsung, really, was never been a famous brand of Digital Cameras, but, they always created a lot of components for the cameras of others brands. Expecially LCD screens and other electronics. And electronics for a compact camera is so important.
That was clear to me when, the last october, I bought it.

She keeped company to me for an entire year, and the photos I did with her are in this website in my galleries and personal galleries section.

I can speek only well of her, cause for the price I payed it’s really a great camera.

I could speak for hours about her, cause in a year I can say we know so much each other, but the best way to make a review is to list it’s strong and weak points:

• STRONG POINTS
  • Very cheap
  • DivX video recording
  • Awesome quality of the images
  • Intuitive menus and functions
  • Amazing macro function
  • It can be used as mp3 player

• WEAK POINTS
  • The battery lasts less than a hour if you use the camera intensively like I do
  • The flash cannot be customized (only red-eye double flash, and that prevent to do snapshots at night)
  • No way to play a little with the advanced functions that some compact cameras have.

What else to say?

After a year… I needed something more professional.

Farewell, I will never forget you.