Electronics & Computers Deals here!Nikon Coolpix P80
Manufacturer: Nikon Inc. Part number: 26114
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Accessories
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- One of the better 18x megazooms, nevertheless you should consider the Nikon Coolpix P80's sluggish performance before you commit to it.
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CNET editors' review
Nikon Coolpix P80 price range: $519.95
- Reviewed by: Lori Grunin
- Reviewed on: 06/09/2008
- Released on: 04/14/2008
The good: Optically stabilized, wide-angle, long zoom lens; comfortable shooting design; voice annotation; time-lapse mode.
The bad: Poor noise handling above ISO 200; no raw support; relatively slow performance.
The bottom line: One of the better 18x megazooms, nevertheless you should consider the Nikon Coolpix P80's sluggish performance before you commit to it.
For megazoom shooters, the Nikon Coolpix P80's 18x zoom, 27-486mm-equivalent f/2.8-4.5 lens likely sits at the top of the list of the P80's attractions. The range provides a good combination of wide-angle and telephoto views at relatively wide maximum aperture values. Nikon supports the lens with an agreeable and functional design. Weighing almost 14 ounces, the P80 is no feather, but that is common for this class. It's relatively compact, with a comfortable rubberized grip and thumb rest.
My one pet peeve, which I've mentioned with regard to other cameras, is having to access the setup menu from the dial. I always find myself hitting the menu button to make it go away, ineffectively, of course. If you only had to go into the menu once during the initial setup, it wouldn't be so annoying. However, that's where Format resides, and you have to format regularly.
Like its competitors, you summon most of the frequently used shooting controls via a dedicated button, including exposure compensation, focus modes (macro, infinity, and manual), self-timer, and flash (including red-eye reduction, fill, slow sync, and rear curtain sync). You can also navigate via the back dial, which also controls your shutter, aperture, and exposure-compensation adjustments in the various shooting modes. The display and LCD/EVF toggle buttons feel oddly small given the size of the camera, though.
Other controls you access from the shooting menu. Most notable are an array of ISO sensitivity options. In addition to complete Auto and manual 64 through 6,400 (ISO 3,200 and ISO 6,400 are reduced resolution modes); it offers High ISO sensitivity Auto (64-1600) and Fixed-range auto, which lets you choose one of three ranges: ISO 64-100, 64-200 or 64-400. Given how aggressive the blurring gets at ISO 400, I suggest you stick with the 64-200 modes if you're going to use the automatic mode.
In addition to matrix, center-weighted, and spot metering, the P80 offers spot-AF area for use with the AF-area modes. The AF-area modes include face priority, auto, manual, and center. As usual with these technologies, I find the face-priority setting too inefficient, the auto makes undesirable choices, and the manual AF-point selection is only useful if you're shooting the same composition repeatedly. The center-focus-and-recompose approach, albeit old fashioned, is still the most efficient. Other shooting options include image size and quality, Optimize image (custom and preset settings for contrast, sharpening, and saturation), white balance, single or full-time AF, flash exposure compensation, noise reduction, and distortion control (which reduces frame size). Lack of support for raw files is a big hole in the feature set, though.
Unfortunately, the P80's performance is quite disappointing. Its 2.9 seconds to wake up and shoot isn't awful for a megazoom, but the 1.1 seconds it takes to focus and shoot in decent light is slow for any class; in low-contrast circumstances, its 1.4-second time is closer to average. The camera has a concomitantly high shot-to-shot time of 2.4 seconds, which seems to be fueled by slow memory writes. While the 2.8-second flash shot-to-shot performance may not be worst in class, it's still on the high side. Burst shooting, at a typical rate of 1.3 frames per second, also comes in near the bottom of its class. In practice, the slow performance means the subject can move or someone can walk into the frame of the photo before you get the shot. It's definitely not your best choice for shooting sports, children, or animals.
The P80's lens isn't bad. Barrel distortion is about what you'd expect at the widest angle of 27mm-equivalent, however, it exhibits visibly more pincushioning in the middle of the range (around 150mm-equivalent) than the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18. Zooming doesn't feel smooth, it vibrates a little disconcertingly as you zoom through the range. However, it's responsive, given that it's stepped (as most are), and the optical image stabilizer works as well as we've seen from Nikon's other VR lenses.
The 2.7-inch LCD is pretty good, it has a wide viewing angle and doesn't wash out in direct sunlight. It's supplemented with an electronic viewfinder; both displays update fast enough so that they don't interfere with shooting, although the EVF only displays 97 percent of the scene, compared with 100 percent for the FZ18. While the battery didn't conk out too soon, its 250-shot-per-charge rating (CIPA standard) seems underpowered compared with the FZ18's 400 shots or the Canon PowerShot S5 IS's 450 shots (with AA nickel metal hydride batteries).
As frequently happens, I'm ambivalent about the photo-quality rating. The 10-megapixel P80's strongest point seems to be the saturated, more-frequently-than-not spot-on colors. Exposures tend to be quite good, though in bright sunlight it seems to produce more than its share of blown-out highlights. But even when printed, the photos had a slightly crunchy digital look that I didn't see in shots from other cameras--including the recent Coolpix S600 or older Coolpix P5000, as well as other megazooms such as the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H10. Furthermore, Nikon's aggressive noise suppression kicks in at ISO 400 and blurs most of the detail away; if you have a lot of detail in your scene, the photos are borderline at ISO 400 and unusable by ISO 800. So depending upon what you shoot, the P80's photos can range from great to just OK. For the image-quality rating, I split the difference. (See the slide show for image samples.)
For movie capture, the P80 also offers a neat time-lapse mode, though I wish you could choose shorter intervals than 30 seconds. There's also a 30fps VGA movie mode, which produces reasonably good AVI clips at a bitrate of about 1.1 megabytes per second, but it's pretty limited: no optical zoom or VR available while shooting.
Among the handful of 18x megazoom models--the Panasonic FZ18, old-ish Olympus SP-560UZ (we haven't yet gotten in the 20x SP-570 UZ) and the Fujifilm FinePix S8000fd--the Nikon Coolpix P80 ranks as one of the better ones. But if speed and solid high-ISO photo quality are really important to you, consider stepping up to a dSLR with configurable lenses.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Typical shot-to-shot time | |
Shutter lag (dim) | |
Shutter lag (typical) |
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User reviews
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Excellent camera, Great image quality, Almost Perfect
by resvelvet on May 8, 2008
Pros: 10.1MP, 18x Zoom, Amazing Image quality, Large LCD, Manual A,S,P,M Modes for SLR control, Nice ISO range, great in low light, great on camera editing features like d-lighting, small, built well, SDHC
Cons: Doesn't shoot in RAW(only con for some), a little too big to fit in pockets, flash isnt amazing at times, only take 13fps at 3mp not 10mp, not really cons, just wish had a little more
Summary: I own a Nikon d40x, and D300 and this is an amazing back up camera. It takes as great shots as my d40x does, sometimes haha. I would recommend this ...
Summary: I own a Nikon d40x, and D300 and this is an amazing back up camera. It takes as great shots as my d40x does, sometimes haha. I would recommend this to anyone just starting out, if you it's your first camera or as a backup, you will not be disappointed at all. It takes amazingly clear shots and at 10MP you can blow up your shots poster size...it has a great video function, manual modes for up to 8" long exposures. The LCD is bright, clear and accurate. The long lens range and 18x zoom along with macro function lets you get some great shots you would not be able to with any other coolpix or canon SD series camera. This is an excellent camera, the only thing I wish it had was RAW, I love shooting in RAW, but that's just me. This would be a 10\10 if it had RAW and if you could expose for more than 8 seconds, but hey for 400$ its practically as nice as an 800$ d40x!!!! Buy this camera, you will not be let down.
12 out of 12 users found this user opinion helpful.
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The best camera I have bought in years!!
by kiddrule on May 1, 2008
Pros: long zoom lens, vibration reduction, large lcd (2.7 inch), small size camera body
Cons: none so far
Summary: I have had this camera for 2 days now, and I could be happier. It beats the Canon S3 IS and S5 IS, the Olympus SP 560 and 570, and ...
Summary: I have had this camera for 2 days now, and I could be happier. It beats the Canon S3 IS and S5 IS, the Olympus SP 560 and 570, and the Panasonic FZ18. I have done extensive research on all of these models, and tried them all at a store. I took a gamble and went with this new nikon model and i love the speed, picture quality, and the super fast zoom lens. The VR is extremely effective when i am taking pictures of my kids in their sports leagues. I can't put this camera down!!
12 out of 13 users found this user opinion helpful.
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a flawed but still a fine camera with a lot of capability.
by dfwatt on June 15, 2008
Pros: extensive feature set, huge zoom range, generally very good to excellent image quality, operational flexibility
Cons: very noisy above ISO 200, no RAW file format, somewhat sluggish performance
Summary: I think the expert review on this web site is actually fairly accurate and well-balanced, and frankly better than most of the other expert reviews on this camera. A lot ...
Summary: I think the expert review on this web site is actually fairly accurate and well-balanced, and frankly better than most of the other expert reviews on this camera. A lot of people coming from digital SLR's have posted reviews on the Web that criticize this camera because of its relative lack of speed and somewhat noisy images, but it is a little bit ridiculous to compare any of the so-called ultra zooms to any digital SLR on those points. Admittedly, the camera could be faster, and I have disabled ISO above 200 because it is frankly virtually unusable. It bugs me that they don't allow you the in-camera editing features on full-size images, which seems to defeat the whole purpose of being able to do red-eye correction, image cropping and other editing tools within the camera itself.
On the other hand, the cameras feature set is so intuitive that I was able to access virtually every feature without consulting the manual. People need to remember that ultra zooms as a class are always going to have some fairly significant intrinsic trade-offs between absolute image quality and flexibility of being able to go from wide-angle and fairly extreme zoom ranges without having the inconvenience of switching lenses and without the enormous bulk of a digital SLR and two (very expensive!) large lens kits. I do think Nikon probably should have done a better job making the camera a bit more responsive, as it just takes too long sometimes to get a shot off. And I'm completely baffled as to why they included editing features that you can't use most of the time. however I have to say that the images that I have gotten so far have been consistently good to excellent including some very fine macro images, an area where Nikon has always excelled. If you keep some of these trade-offs in mind, and you're not looking for digital SLR levels of performance and low noise at higher ISO speeds, this camera will not to be a disappointment (snooty reviews on the Web to the contrary). It packs a lot in a very small container, and frankly gives you a lot for your money.10 out of 10 users found this user opinion helpful.
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This is a great camera
by elynngreen on May 28, 2008
Pros: 18X Zoom! Fast clear picutures
Cons: No Raw Would prefer AA rechargeables.
Summary: I finally upgraded my Olympus 4 mega pixel 10X zoom camera. I really like Olympus cameras and have purchased several lately for gifts (compact 6-7 mega pixels). So when it ...
Summary: I finally upgraded my Olympus 4 mega pixel 10X zoom camera. I really like Olympus cameras and have purchased several lately for gifts (compact 6-7 mega pixels). So when it came time to upgrade my 10X zoom, I expected to get another Olympus. But after reading reviews and checking out the pros and cons, I opted for this Nikon P80 and am VERY satisfied. The "zoom factor" for a camera in this price range is far more than expected and the quality has been excellent. I haven't tried all the features yet, but so far, so great. I would highly recommend this camera.
7 out of 8 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Light, high quality camera
by Kenneth Zoellner on June 9, 2008
Pros: Fast zooming, lots of pixels
Cons: Sports action in bright light makes streaks
Summary: Got the first one at Best Buy and after 2 weeks it started displaying white streaks on the vu-finder. Returned it and got a replacement from Best Buy, no questions ...
Summary: Got the first one at Best Buy and after 2 weeks it started displaying white streaks on the vu-finder. Returned it and got a replacement from Best Buy, no questions asked. The replacement has worked great with no problems. They must have been working out the bugs in the first batch. The zoom is super fast. The sports action mode has some problems in bright light in that it makes over exposed streaks on the pictures, but in dim light it works well. Was able to take pictures of pitches crossing the plate in a local baseball game and actually see the ball in successive shots as it moved closer to the plate! I've had the Nikon 5700 and 8700 in the past, and like the features of the P80 better. Just wish they would have kept CF memory and the same battery as the 5700 and 8700 so I didn't need to buy new batteries, chargers and memory cards, sigh... I ended up getting extra batteries, chargers and memory on e-bay and PriceGrabber for good prices. Overall, an excellent camera, the sports action setting needs a little improvement in bright light situations.
6 out of 6 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Great little camera!
by stoutdog on June 21, 2008
Pros: Feature packed
Cons: It not $200 ??? Just kidding. Have not found a con yet.
Summary: I wanted a compact camera with super-telephoto and SLR features that I could always have with me. My D70 with all its lenses and accessories isn?t always practical. I ...
Summary: I wanted a compact camera with super-telephoto and SLR features that I could always have with me. My D70 with all its lenses and accessories isn?t always practical. I wanted the ability to shoot video too. On the first day of use I shot a couple of portraits of two of my grandchildren that were just amazing. I have had the camera for about 2 weeks now and am fairly familiar with it. There are still a few features that I need some more practice with, but my favorite feature is the preprogrammed scene modes. If you are looking for a camera that will do most everything well, check this one out. I would highly recommend that you get an extra battery if you plan to do lots of shooting especially with the speedlight (flash.) It won?t replace my D70, but since I will always have a quality camera with me I won?t miss that shot either.
4 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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I wish I had read the review before I got one. I am truly disappointed with this Nikon.
by e-llustrator on June 11, 2008
Pros: Still looking. The lens may be a positive feature, but... I'll look some more
Cons: Washed out highlights -- washed out entire areas under bright lights, e.g. sun.
Summary: The review of the Nikon P80 notes the digital noise, the slow processing, (even on the fastest read/write memory chip I have, I still found it to be slow,) ...
Summary: The review of the Nikon P80 notes the digital noise, the slow processing, (even on the fastest read/write memory chip I have, I still found it to be slow,) etc.
The most disappointing aspect of the camera is the washed out pictures--not only highlights, but entire well lit areas. I have fiddled with the menu to try to get better renditions, to some inprovement.
It is ironic, I got the camera because of its manual, shutter and apperture priority features, but the best pics I have gotten were obtained using its point-and-shoot option.
Truly disappointig!!4 out of 6 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Env/Sett Dark room.2feet from object Set:Portrait+Flash
by Herc_power on September 7, 2008
Pros: Wow!did not expect such clean shot! And Pic quality!EvenD60and higher cam. can?t do that!Uwill not achieve the same shot!Unless U spend at least $800.00 just for lines!NikonP80 cost about $400.00there is no better camera in the world for this price!
Cons: Cons: Need more light, Small Flash. However, You should count all facts! I was sitting on my chair! Did not want to move My b..! If I get up and try to do the pic again it will be Perfect quality!
Summary: Nikon P80 cost about $400.00 there is no better camera in the world for this price!
AND please all other Reviewers! When you right about camera please mention what ...Summary: Nikon P80 cost about $400.00 there is no better camera in the world for this price!
AND please all other Reviewers! When you right about camera please mention what lenses are you using! Thanks!2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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terrible software
by najeebkhan--2008 on July 25, 2008
Pros: good quality pictures and zoom
Cons: S L O W .... and what's the point if pictures don't upload to your computer?
Summary: This is a very slow camera, slow to turn on, slow to take pictures, and the internal software won't take more than ~ 10 shots in a row w/o ...
Summary: This is a very slow camera, slow to turn on, slow to take pictures, and the internal software won't take more than ~ 10 shots in a row w/o freezing up.
Further, despite all the software updates I am now unable to upload pics from my camera to my mac. Both Nikon and Mac have been no help.
I am returning this **** camera for a full refund. What a waste of my money and time.4 out of 7 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Excellent camera, disappointing zoom lens.
by Eudinemate on February 3, 2009
Pros: The camera is easy to handle, takes sharp clear pictures and images transfer easily to PhotoStudio or PhotoShop Elements. I do not experience the noise and other defects others seem to find in the camera.
Cons: The camera is rated at 18x zoom, yet it does not take a clear image (let alone sharp) at the same distance as my Nikon Coolpix 8800. I took a picture from my back porch of a sitting Osprey hawk with both cameras. The 8800 took a far better picture.
Summary: I am very satisfied with all aspects of the camera - except - the deficiency in the zoom capability as compared to the Coolpix 8800 which has a rating of ...
Summary: I am very satisfied with all aspects of the camera - except - the deficiency in the zoom capability as compared to the Coolpix 8800 which has a rating of 10x zoom as compared to the P80 which has a rating of 18x. Shouldn't it take clear pictures at nearly twice the distance? The picture I took of a hawk at full focal length with the P80 was neither as clear nor as large as the picture I took of the hawk on the same limb of the same tree from the same back porch with the Coolpix 8800.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Nikon Inc.
- Part number: 26114
- Description: Powerful 10.1 megapixel camera with high-magnification zoom. With an outstandingly versatile NIKKOR 18x zoom lens, this all-in-one compact camera lets you capture impressive wide-angle and distant telephoto shots. Whether you are interested in expansive landscapes, portraits or sports and wildlife, the powerful 18x zoom lens will focus from infinity to as close as 1 cm with a Macro mode that can capture extreme close-ups in stunning detail. The COOLPIX P80 - the compact camera with SLR-like versatility.
General
- Product Type Digital camera - Compact
- Width 4.3 in
- Depth 3.1 in
- Height 3.1 in
- Weight 12.9 oz
- Enclosure Color Black
Main Features
- Resolution 10.1 megapixels
- Color Support Color
- Optical Sensor Type CCD
- Total Pixels 10,700,000 pixels
- Effective Sensor Resolution 10,100,000 pixels
- Light Sensitivity ISO 64, ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400, ISO 800, ISO 1600, ISO 2000, ISO 3200 (3Mpix), ISO 6400 (3Mpix), ISO auto (64-800), ISO auto (64-1600)
- Digital Zoom 4 x
- Shooting Modes Frame movie mode
- Shooting Programs Copy, Museum, Sunset, Close-up, Dawn/dusk, Fireworks, Landscape, Back light, Beach/snow, Sports mode, Party/indoor, Portrait mode, Night portrait, Night landscape, Panorama assist
- Special Effects Monochrome
- Image Stabilizer Optical (image sensor shift mechanism)
- Max Shutter Speed 1/2000 sec
- Min Shutter Speed 1/8 sec
- Exposure Metering Spot, Matrix, Spot AF area, Center-weighted
- Exposure Modes Manual, Program, Automatic, Shutter-priority, Aperture-priority
- Exposure Compensation ±2 EV range, in 1/3 EV steps
- Exposure Metering Zones 256
- Face Detection Yes
- White Balance Presets, Automatic
- White Balance Presets Flash, Cloudy, Daylight, Fluorescent, Incandescent
- Digital Video Format AVI
- Still Image Format JPEG
- TV Tuner None
Memory / Storage
- Supported Flash Memory SD Memory Card
- Integrated Memory 50 MB
- Floppy Drive None
- Image Storage JPEG 3648 x 2736, JPEG 3264 x 2448, JPEG 2592 x 1944, JPEG 2048 x 1536, JPEG 1600 x 1200, JPEG 1280 x 960, JPEG 1024 x 768, JPEG 640 x 480, JPEG 3648 x 2432, JPEG 3584 x 2016, JPEG 2736 x 2736
Camera Flash
- Camera Flash Pop-up flash
- Flash Modes Auto mode, Fill-in mode, Slow synchro, Flash OFF mode, Red-eye reduction
- Red Eye Reduction Yes
- Effective Flash Range 1.6 ft - 29 ft
- Features AF illuminator
Lens System
- Type Zoom lens - 4.7 mm - 84.2 mm - F/2.8-4.5
- Focal Length 4.7 mm - 84.2 mm
- Focal Length Equivalent to 35mm Camera 27 - 486 mm
- Focus Adjustment Manual, Automatic
- Auto Focus TTL contrast detection
- Auto Focus Points (Zones) 99
- Min Focus Range 15.7 in
- Macro Focus Range 1cm
- Lens Aperture F/2.8-4.5
- Optical Zoom 18 x
- Zoom Adjustment Motorized drive
- Lens Construction 11 group(s) / 14 element(s)
Additional Features
- Self Timer Yes
- Self Timer Delay 2 sec, 10 sec
- Additional Features DPOF support, Face detection, Audio recording, Built-in speaker, PictBridge support, In-camera red-eye fix, USB 2.0 compatibility, Face-priority AF function
Viewfinder
- Viewfinder Type Electronic
- Viewfinder Color Support Color
- Viewfinder Diagonal Size 0.24 in
- Viewfinder Resolution 230,000 pixels
Display
- Type LCD display - TFT active matrix - 2.7 in - Color
- Display Form Factor Built-in
- Display Format 230,000 pixels
Digital Player (Recorder)
- Type None
Microphone
- Type Microphone - Built-in
- Microphone Technology Electret condenser
- Microphone Operation Mode Mono
Connections
- Connector Type 1 x Composite video/audio output, 1 x USB
- Expansion Slot(s) 1 x SD Memory Card
Software
- Software Drivers & Utilities, ArcSoft Panorama Maker
System Requirements for PC Connection
- Operating System Support MS Windows Vista, MS Windows XP SP2, Apple Mac OS X 10.3.9, MS Windows 2000 Professional, Apple Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later
- Peripheral Devices USB port, CD-ROM drive
Miscellaneous
- Carrying Case None
- Microsoft Certifications Certified for Windows Vista
- Included Accessories Lens cap, Carrying strap
- Cables Included A/V cable, USB cable
Power
- Power Device Battery charger - External
Battery
- Supported Battery Nikon EN-EL5
- Supported Battery 1 x Li-ion rechargeable battery - 1100 mAh ( Included )
Environmental Parameters
- Min Operating Temperature 32 °F
- Max Operating Temperature 104 °F
Accessories
Manufacturer info
- Nikon Inc.
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Nikon Inc. products on Shopper.com
-
- Website: http://www.nikonusa.com/
- Address:
1300 Walt Whitman Road, Melville, NY 11747-3064 - Phone: 1-631-547-4200
