dpreview reviews Nikon Coolpix P5100 12MP digital camera
Announced just six months after the launch of the P5000, the Nikon P5100 is a gentle re-working of the existing model with a slightly larger, more pixel-dense sensor and hardware-based face-detection. Beyond that, the changes are predominantly cosmetic alterations to the existing model. The camera is Nikon's flagship compact camera, with the 'P' denoting 'performance.' Although it may not visually leap out from a line-up of contemporary compacts, its magnesium alloy body and manual exposure controls belie the unassuming appearance. It aims to offer a greater degree of manual control than the majority of compact cameras and has a strong feature set to help it stand apart. We were actually very impressed with the P5000's image quality and feature set, and only really complained about the sluggish performance. So has Nikon fixed the P5000's Achilles' heel in this update? Lets find out!
Differences compared with P5000
Faster, hardware-based face-detection, allowing more faces to be identified
Expeed processing 'concept'
Continuous flash shooting mode (3 consecutive frames at ~1fps)
Distortion control to counteract lens distortion
Improved user interface
Marginally larger sensor making the lens slightly wider-angle (35mm vs 36mm)
Fractionally shorter battery life (240, rather than 250 shots, CIPA standard)
1:1 aspect ratio shooting mode
Can add black borders to images...
[read more]
