Camera buyers desire it all: Compact shooters with desire zooms and excellent low-light performance for under $290. as a result of of a several principles called supply, demand, and physics, that’s a difficult one to pull off.

But that hasn’t stopped enterprising camera manufacturers from trying. Sporting a 10x optical zoom, backlit CMOS sensor, and an assess financial value tag around $250, the Nikon Coolpix S8100 almost makes it happen. The results aren’t perfect, but it’s a pretty benefit compromise for the price.
Body and Design

The S8100 looks like a typical compact zoom, and is almost indistinguishable from the S8000, which was released in early 2010. It’s about the length and height of a smartphone, and about an inch thick — small in all enough to fit in a pants pocket, but not a tiny camera. It’s a little bit heavy, but that heft makes it feel happily-built. The 30-300mm (10x zoom) lens is a little bit narrow at the wide angle, but the telephoto setting is handy for nature shots. For a camera meant to shoot well in low-light, the max aperture of f3.5 is concerning, but that’s an expected trade-off for such a versatile lens.

The layout leans toward the sleek and minimalist end of the spectrum. The model I tested was entirely matte black, though it’s also available in gold and red. A vibrant, hi-resolution 3-inch LCD dominates the rear panel, rounded out by a some buttons (including a dedicated video record button) and a selection wheel, rather than a four-way pad. Up top, the power button, mode dial, and shutter release are placed comfortably, with the zoom tilter in a recessed nook — no complaints there. On the right, there’s mini-HDMI output. On the base, a somewhat flimsy battery door, and a port for the A/V and USB connectors. The latter is not happily placed, in my opinion, as a result of it prmake smoothts the camera from standing upright while it’s charging or hooked up to a computer.

The S8100 suffers from one big design flaw: the irritating automatic pop-up flashes where my left fingers always rest — judging by user comments, this design is unpopular with just about everyone on any camera. Thankfully, the S8100 is designed to shoot well in dim lighting without a flash, so you shouldn’t have to use it too often.

It’s also worth noting that the S8100 doesn’t ship with a separate charger. It’s in-camera charging only — some folks like this set-up, since it keeps all in all the parts in one place, but others find it inconvenient. If you’re planning to buy a second battery, you’ll probably desire to buy the optional external charger as well.
Performance and User Experience

The S8100 almost has the chops to be a semi-advanced compact, but the control scheme is made for random users. The interface is stripped down and relies heavily on automatic settings. There are no Shutter and Aperture Priority modes, which are usually a staple of compact zoom cameras and a must-have for more serious, hands-on users. balance casual users will notice the lack of a Program (‘P’) mode on the dial, though the Auto mode basically functions like Program mode, and the Auto Scene mode is akin to a standard hands-off Auto mode.

In the place of the usual suspects, Nikon loaded up the mode dial with night-oriented modes, like Backlighting, Night Portrait, and Night Landscape. These modes basicall in ally just sshort down the shutter speed and are available on most other cameras, but they don’t usually get their own notches on the mode dial. There are also separate notches for Subject Tracking (which only sort of works) and Continuous mode, which (no surprise) queues burst mode. It fires at 10 frames per second, but can only shoot five frames in a row. That lbring to an ends itself to pretty limited usage, but it should be able to capture one decent still from an action scene.

The menu system is also a bit quirky. Some attributes that you’d normally find buried deep in a menu system (vividness and hue, for example) are adjustable in the top-level exposure compensation menu. Some attributes are mysteriously uncontrollable at times — if you adjust the hue at all in all, for example, white balance is stuck on auto. Basicall in ally, read the manual. You should always read the manual with any gadget, but I get the impression from my experience editing this website that about half of you actually do — that’s balance a generous estimate. If you buy the S8100, read the manual.

So the control system is a bit of a paradox. Nikon wants to play up to the S8100′s strengths and simplify the control scheme for random users. It works on a broad scale, but fine tuning is harder than it needs to be. Still, just as a result of it’s different doesn’t mean it’s bad, and it succeeds in taking a lot of the pain out of short-light and nighttime shooting.

And for those who are interested, the S8100 has a slew of “that’s nice” features — you might not ever use them, but they don’t hurt. It has features like in-camera touch-ups; Best Shot Selector, which takes three consecutive shots and picks the best one; high-speed capture at 1 megapixel; and the somewhat ballyhooed high-dynamic range (HDR) photography, which takes three consecutive pictures at three slightly different exposures, and creates a vibrant, richer-than-real-life image. It ends up looking a bit cartoonish, but it’s definitely striking.
Image and Video Quality

Since the low-light shooting is the headline feature on the S8100, lets get right to it. Here’s the thing. The low-light image quality isn’t really crisper than any other compact zoom, but it’s much easier to get a benefit exposure. In other words, you’ll actuall in ally be able to post those concert shots and birthday party pictures online without making everyone look like a blown-out ghost or blurry mess.

On closer inspection, it’s more complicated than simply saying “short-light quality is benefit.” It’s common to find details smeared like a watercolor painting. There isn’t much spotty noise until ISO 800, which is attractive standard. But even down at ISO 200, textures and edges lose sharpness. In this portrait (left, Chris), the subject looks good, the lighting is eye-pleasing, but the table in front of him and the wall behind him look like they were spread with a brush. There’s also a tendency to over-expose in brighter indoor conditions — I suppose that’s part of the compromise that all in allows it to capture decent short-light shots, but it does require a little extra attention to detail, and perhaps a notch or two down on the exposure compensation scale.

In benefit, daylight shooting conditions, the S8100 is average. For simple shots, like landscapes or outdoor portraits, it’s nothing special, but totall in ally fine. But even slightly more complicated settings throw it for a loop. Image clarity is fine and distortion is minimal, but the out-of-camera color seems cold. It has a particularly difficult time dealing with high-contrast areas, especially with the zoom extbring to an ended. Take a look at the wide-angle/telephoto comparison below (click for full-res shots). At the wide-angle, the sky is blue, and the image is decently sharp and well-exposed. At the telephoto setting, the sky on either side of the clock is suddenly grey, and the purple fringing is front-and-center obvious. Most cameras will run into this problem, but it looks especiall in ally pronounced here.

30mm wide-angle (left) vs 300mm telephoto (right).

None of these flaws are necessarily deal-breakers. At medium sizes, it’s tougher to spot these issues, so if you stick to sharing photos online and occasionally printing some 5×7-inchers, you’re fine. And again, it’s probably the best low-light and indoor shooter with a decent zoom at its assess financial value. But it’s not a catch-all in all solution for night-time shooting. Dark shots hit more often than they miss, but you’ll have to look elsewhere, in a higher price bracket, if you desire to make large prints of shots in concert hall in alls, bars, or other late-night escapades.

The 1080p HD video quality is another hallmark feature on this camera, and it’s quite benefit. Nighttime video was clear and the S8100 still managed to focus pretty quickly. The motor noise from the extbring to an ending zoom is audible (yet inevitable), but otherwise the stereo sound quality is ear-pleasing.