Rating: 
Summary: Good Value, great pics, a bit frustrating on the fly
Review: I actually bought my Niko in Japan and it came with the NiMH batteries, which I'll get too later. I had intended on buying one of the newer Sony camera's, but after shopping around a little I found that Nikon had all the same features as the Sony equivelant and took better pictures. Sony pics look a little grainy, especially at large sizes. This is my first digital camera although I've had a digital video camera for almst 4 years. Picture quality: first and foremost, the picture quality is very good and is easily of the best camras in the 3.2 meg range. I've worked to blow the pictures up, use them as screensavers, etc and they look immaculate on my 19" screen. Scenes: I haven't had much call to use the scene function, but I have worked on the indoor/ outdoor settings, portrait and even took some pictures with the "snow" setting in a room that looked way too white. The scenes also utilize flash contol. Overall these are easy to use, although as Amazon notes, you probably won't have use for many of them. Performance: Autofocus could be a little quicker and a little more responsive in my book. I've had problems with the camera not focusing during portraits and coming out all blurry. With the time it takes to autofocus, the time it takes to record and the time it takes to setup for the next pic, the shutter speed is moot. Usually though, the camera works very well, indoors and outdoors. Outdoor pics look amazing on a nice sunny day. The Flash is a pain and requires some tooling. Get too close and everything comes out white, portrait takes a little too long. Everything else is fine. Batteries: My biggest complaint. Anyone out there expecting to get any kind of use out of regular batteries can dream on. Even the NiMH batteries die way too fast and require constant recharging. When the batteries get low, which is usually after 10 or so pics, the camera will auto shut down while the flash recharges. Very irritating when combined with the autofocus and the time it takes to record pics to the memory. Takes forever to get another shot off. I'm tempted to bring the review down to three stars over this one feature, but I haven't experimented with other batteries yet so I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt. Conveience: The size, features and computer to camera setup is top notch. I have windows XP and I didn't need to install any software to copy the pics to my hard drive. It was plug and play. I like that the camera uses compact flash cards while other companies are going to more expensive formats. I have an Epson printer that can copy pics of the CF cards and they lok amazing. Value: about average for a camera in this class, and I think the pros outweight the cons. Lets face it, this is just above entry level and not the best camera on the market, but easily one of the best in it's price range. Having owned this one for a little over a month, I may decide not to skimp when I upgrade. Most of my complaints could be easily resolved if I were willing to shell out the extra dough. Great camera for vacations, parties and portability.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Little Camera, Great Little Price
Review: I've had this camera for about a day now and I love it. I read a lot of reviews and saw that the main flaw was battery life, and that the included cr-v3 battery would die after 10 minutes. This has absolutely not been true so far. With the original battery I have taken over 200 pictures at the highest quality setting, and the battery is still going strong.
The camera will easily fit into a pocket, and thanks to the built in lens cap you don't have to worry about it getting scratched. The menu is easy so easy to follow I was up taking pictures in less then 10 minutes from opening the box. The biggest problem, I think, is the scene modes. The seem to just make your life difficult. But the autofocus/flash is so effective that these other features almost never have a chance to get in your way. The manual exposure compensation is the easiest way to manage the light getting into the camera, and ensures that every photo looks great. The only things you need that are not included in the box are a) rechargeable batteries, cause the included cr-v3 will not last forever, and b) a 128 mb min memory card. The included card takes 10 pics at highest resolution, while a 128 takes 80 at the highest quality, and over 150 at the next highest quality. This is a great camera and is so easy to use and it does not cost a lot of money. The pictures look great and are more than enough resolution for prints up to 8x10.
Rating:
Summary: Very good little camera.
Review: I have had this camera for 4 months now and I can not find any thing remotely bad that all the naysayers have writen about. Battery life? I took over 400 pics. with the first battery, this is with 60% flash assisted. To slow? All I can say is read the book. Grandkids are never still and I have had no problems. My experieance has been great. Buy one you will be happy.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Digicam
Review: I got this very quickly from Amazon.com, even with saver shipping. It's my first digital camera, and so far, I'm impressed. I've used plenty of Nikon 35mm and SLR cameras, but I needed a portable, high quality, yet affordable, digital camera. This is it. It is the smallest 3+ megapixel digital camera I've seen, even smaller than its big brother the Coolpix 4300. I would have bought the 4300 but then this camera came out and is pretty close in quality and quite a bit cheaper than the 4300. As for quality, this camera impresses me greatly...especially because of its small, yet very comfortable size. Sure, there are smaller cameras, but they fall out of your hands, whereas this one does not (I always use the wrist strap anyway). The scene modes are a bit of overkill, but the full auto mode works well, and I have yet to really get into the "manual" mode, but it seems to be quite useful for taking several pictures at the same time/selecting the best shot (using the camera's automatic best shot selector feature). Overall, the camera is great. The tried and true 3x optical zoom nikkor lense, combined with an excellent CCD and extremely small, yet grippable body make this the perfect camera for someone who wants portability, quality, and a great price too.
Rating: 
Summary: Not impressed
Review: My camera is currently back at Nikon being "fixed" after 4 months of ownership. It would freeze up and stop working. I had to adjust the brightness evry time I took a picture. The quality of the pictures I had developed were bad-grainy and dark. I went to a great film processor, too. Don't buy this camera!
Rating:
Summary: Fun little gem
Review: Small, easy to use, excellent quality to 5 x 7 prints, good quality at 8 x 10. I own a Nikon 5700 digital camera and love it, but it's complex overkill for others in my house. They LOVE this camera for its size, its picture quality, its scene modes, its flexibility and its "go anywhere" size. On jaunts it's always around someone's neck or just in their hands. Foolproof and REALLY simple to use; scene modes are wonderful. Flash is anemic, but we've found Nimh batteries are good for 50-60 pix easy, and a set or two of good ones plus a charger is all that's really needed. Add a 256 high-speed CF card and one is ready for anything. A GREAT camera for a novice. Incredibly easy to use; hooked it up to our TV right out of the box and used the TV to focus, crop, and then shoot portraits. A truly fun camera within its limitations as a versatile point and shoot. A real winner from Nikon.
Rating: 
Summary: Expected much more from a Nikon....
Review: After about a year, I started experiencing the battery charge issues mentioned in a few of the other reviews. At first, I thought it was my charger, so I bought disposable batteries and took a trip to Europe. I could get about 5-7 pictures before the camera told me the batteries were dead. Since I was in Europe I kept buying batteries until about 1/3 of the way through the vacation, then the camera died. We just returned from vacation so I have not started the process of trying to get it fixed, but I am expecting the worst. Don't buy this camera!
Rating:
Summary: Great Camera
Review: This has worked well for us since we bought it for our baby. It sucks battery power like crazy since it only has 2 AAs, so get rechargeables.
Rating:
Summary: "So small you want to just hold the thing!"
Review: I love this camera! The smallest case I could find for it was too big! Here are the highlights and lowlights:
Hits:
Size--it's smaller than it looks; you just want to hold it!!!
Quality--Nikon. That should tell you it's quality.
Macros--Nikon is legendary for awesome close-ups!
Format--uses AA's and CF media. SO cheap and easy!
BSS--best shot selector. Handy!
Lots of features! Missses:
Some shutter lag, but there always is in this price range.
Not the fastest focus--same as above, though.
Harder to find now. 3200 model not nearly as format-friendly!
3 megapixels can only be enlarged so far. Enough for most. For the price, this one is impossible to beat. 'Adorable' is the most heard description. The fact that it takes good photos is a bonus!
Rating:
Summary: Great of 6 to 8 photos- but dont expect more!
Review: According to the Australian distributors web site: "Australian users have recently reported problems of short battery life with the Nikon Coolpix 3100 camera. Earlier in 2003 a firmware upgrade to version 1.2 was issued which changed the sensing point of the battery level indicator for a 'low battery' condition. (The battery indicator on the 3100 indicated a low battery condition even though batteries were still almost fully charged.) However, even after applying the firmware change to their cameras, some remaining customers have reported that they still experience apparent short battery life" How long has Austrlian distributor and the retail vendor known about this - who knows! - Neither the vendor nor the distributor advised me of this matter at the time of purchase or later when the product was registered. So much for vendor service and Maxwells customer service. So I take the camera for the 'adjustment' to be carried out "while we wait" ----- and wait --- and wait. Finally - the camera is returned and its all fixed.... or so we are told.
So take out the camera - three sets of fresh batteries (best to be sure) - and away we go.... AND STILL THE CAMERA IS UNABLE TO TAKE MORE THAT 6 OR 8 PHOTOS BEFORE REPORTING THE BATTERIES ARE DEAD. Dont buy this 'camera' - if you want to take more than 6 or 8 photo's - its just junk.
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