Look and Feel

The Coolpix P3's body, which measures 3.6 x 1.2 x 2.4 inches with the projecting lens tucked away, is small enough to comfortably slide into most pockets and purses. But at 6 ounces, the camera feels pretty substantial when gripped in the palm of the hand.

The P3's elegant aluminum exterior screams quality and durability. A 2.5-inch color LCD reproduces images crisply and colorfully. Even better, the controls and buttons have all been placed right where one would intuitively expect them to be.

Features

First and foremost, the Coolpix P3 incorporates a built-in flash and a 3.5x Nikkor zoom lens with a remarkable range that is equivalent to the 36 to 126-mm lenses on conventional 35-mm optical cameras.

Under the hood, the camera integrates an 8.1-megapixel image sensor; 23 MB of internal memory; an SD expansion card slot to add more memory; Wi-Fi radio and USB port for connecting to a PC, laptop, or PDA; and a set of audio-video outputs for connecting TV sets and other AV devices.

The camera's aperture can be widened to produce the desired level of background blurring or stepped down to smaller apertures to extend picture focus into the distance. Moreover, the Coolpix P3 is capable of snapping images at rates of up to 1.8 frames per second, and of shooting video clips at broadcast-quality rates of up to 30 frames per second. Even better, the camera integrates a time-lapse mode that lets you create video clips in which the action appears speeded up.

Other key features include a "face-priority" capability that automatically detects and focuses on faces no matter where they might appear in the frame, a five-shot buffer that lets you shoot in a continuous burst, and a macro mode for shooting photos from as close as four centimeters away. Also on tap is a voice-memo function for attaching up to 20 seconds of audio commentary to any photograph.

Performance

The Coolpix P3 sports two vibration-reduction (VR) modes to enable photogs to capture rock-steady images at shutter speeds of up to three stops slower than normal. Push the camera's "VR Normal" button to correct for minor jitters, or press the "VR Active" button to compensate for more pronounced movements, such as those that occur when snapping photos from a moving automobile. (continued...)

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