Name of product:
Nikon Coolpix P100Approximate date of purchase:
October 2010My Review
I've been a professional photographer for 50 years, and the Coolpix P100 is so far beyond the cameras I dreamed about as a young man, that I wonder what can possibly improve the next generation of Nikons. I've written for half a dozen photo magazines, and I remember the shock when built-in light meters appeared, then auto focus. Now, cameras like the Coolpix do things that take my breath away.
As a former fashion photographer and current CSI photographer for the Los Angeles Public Defender's office, I take pictures under the most difficult of conditions. The Coolpix takes on all comers and leaves them in the dust.
I usually work at night with bodyguards standing behind me with shotguns and 9mm pistols. In some ways, it reminds me of my fashion work. The main difference is that the murderers I meet are usually a lot nicer than the fashion editors I used to work for.
The Coolpix makes panoramic pictures easy with its ghost overlap system. It shows you how much to overlap your images, and Nikon gives you the software to turn out first-class wide angle views that are often blown up to huge sizes for court display.
The 26X zoom is perfect for shooting areas that are just too dangerous to walk into without the Marine Corps behind you.
Yesterday, taking a busman's holiday, I shot engagement pictures for my niece. She is going to dental college, so I suspect that her fiance is a man who is not afraid to have a fiance who handles sharp tools.
All in all, the Nikon Coolpix P100 makes me smile with the same kind of enthusiasm that I did when I saw Halle Berry walk out of the ocean in a bikini in a James Bond movie. The difference is that at my age, I can remember why I am smiling about the Coolpix.
Camera "pros"
A package so filled with goodies that even after several months, I have not tried them all.
Camera "cons"
Nikon is talking about another Coolpix with even more bells and whistles. My credit card has crawled under the couch and won't come out.
