Nikon Coolpix S8200

[AmyF]

What are your thoughts on the Nikon Coolpix S8200? I tried it out in the store and was really impressed with the functioning and when maneuvering around the various settings. I am torn between this camera and the Canon Powershot SX150..

[n8]

I feel kind of bad that this has been sitting here untended to for a few days, but I'm guessing it's because nobody here as used on. I can vouch for the P300...it contented with the canon s95 for me but lost due to no raw format. I usually rely on amazon or cnet for most of my reviews.

[Franglais]

You really want to know what I think about this camera (and the Canon camera that you mention)? Well here goes..

This is really not the sort of camera for me. Are you sure it's right for you?

- The image sensor is small with a very high pixel density. This means that it won't be able to handle contrasty light without burning out the highlights and looking awful. Plus in low light there will be noise and the image will look mushy. It won't look as beautiful as what I can produce easily with my DSLR
- Can't shoot RAW so I can't correct technical mistakes afterwards
- The lens zoom range (14x) is too wide to give good, sharp results without distortion, plus the maximum aperture is going to be small which will make the low light problems worse
- It's a point-and-shoot meaning that I don't have easy control of what it's doing. There are lots of functions in the menus that are useless to me but if I want to do something essential quickly like adjusting the exposure or setting the aperture then I won't be able to do it

I must admit I've never handled the camera, this is just what I suppose from looking at others. I'm what we call an expert - like most of the people on this forum. That's probably why you've had so few replies. If you've found your way here - perhaps you're interested enough to consider something else.

Most of us shoot DSLR's. Some also have a compact camera for times when we can't carry round a lot of gear. Mine is the Canon S95 which looks like the S8200 but is in fact quite different:

- larger sensor (still not large enough) with bigger pixels (10Mpix instead of 16)
- shoots RAW
- restricted zoom range (3x), wide aperture lens, very sharp
- lots of buttons and dials so I can control what the camera is doing quickly

In fact - what do you want to use the camera for? Taking pictures yes, but of what?