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CNET editors' rating:
3.0 stars
Good
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 9 reviews
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Product summary
The good: Wi-Fi transfer and printing; very good image quality; many customizable image parameters.
The bad: Sluggish performance; limited manual-exposure control; can't e-mail images or post them to the Web via Wi-Fi.
The bottom line: The Nikon Coolpix P1's good image quality offsets its novel but limited Wi-Fi capabilities.
Specifications: Digital camera type: Compact; Resolution: 8 megapixels; Optical zoom: 3.5 x; See full specs
Price range: $371.02
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 11/10/2005
- Released on: 09/14/2005
Before using the Coolpix P1, you must install a version of Nikon's image-management software that includes a wireless-setup routine. Setup is fairly simple, but Wi-Fi transfers are a chore: they're much slower than USB transfers, they drain the camera's batteries, and they're subject to the whims of your computer's Wi-Fi reception. We see the P1's Wi-Fi capabilities as helpful for special applications--for instance, printing photos as they're shot at events--but superfluous for typical home use.
The 6.6-ounce Nikon Coolpix P1 has a fairly mixed feature set, with myriad image-control parameters but limited manual-exposure options. You can adjust contrast, saturation, and sharpening and can even turn sharpening off. Most of the 16 scene modes have two advanced options that provide a bit of manual control. However, the P1 doesn't offer full manual exposure--only an aperture-priority mode that lets you select from a fairly limited range between f/2.7 and f/7.3. The lens has a pretty standard 36mm-to-126mm (35mm equivalent) zoom range. The camera has no raw or uncompressed-TIFF support.
Image quality is very good on the Nikon Coolpix P1, with neutral color balance and minimal lens and processing artifacts. Flesh tones are pleasing and warm, showing little ruddiness even with flash. The lens-and-sensor combination provides fairly sharp images. The smart exposure system makes it very hard to blow out highlights, though unfortunately, its compression of the dynamic range means shadow detail suffers. Flaws are minor; we noticed a bit of vignetting and barrel distortion in our test shots, but it was hard to see in everyday snapshots. We did see purple fringing in backlit scenes when viewing photos at full size, though.
The Nikon Coolpix P1's most noticeable flaw is its somewhat sluggish performance. Slower than many cameras in its class, it takes more than 5 seconds to grab its first shot after powering up, and it has a poor continuous-shooting rate of 0.7 to 1.4 frames per second. Shutter lag is average at around 0.7 second.
Some users may find the Nikon Coolpix P1's photo quality good enough to offset the poor performance, but you may want to shop around a little before deciding.
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
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Shutter lag (typical) | |
Time to first shot | |
Typical shot-to-shot time |
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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User reviews
- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 9 reviews
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Nikon Coolpix P1:
