Nikon COOLPIX S6200 16 MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Zoom NIKKOR ED Glass Lens and HD 720p Video (Black)

Background: Hobbyist photographer, other cameras are a Nikon D300 and a Nikon D40 with a plethora of lenses. Main purpose for buying this P&S is for lightweight travel and taking it to restaurants, etc w/o the bulkiness of a DSLR, and a camera that I could hand to someone else to take a photo of me + family, you cant do that with a DSLR.

I took this camera on a 10 day road trip to Disneyland and San Diego, I took several hundreds pictures with it and something like 30 videos so my review is based on this experience.

Pros:

- size. its small enough to carry with you yet beefy enough to use with big hands, as far as P&S go, this is a great size, in comparison, the new Canons are just too small for big hands.
- fast autofocus (instant when outdoors).
- scenes work (but read cons).
- battery life for photo taking is not horrible.

Cons:

- absolutely horrible battery life when taking video. If you take three five minute... Read more

This camera satisfies all of the criteria that might be applied to a small, versatile and relatively inexpensive point and shoot camera.
> excellent exposure under most conditions, color balance very good
> works well in low light without flash
> fast focus, reasonably quick recycle time
> excellent menu, limited of course by lack of manual controls
> excellent battery life
> nice wide angle lens with good zoom range, useful for both party and travel scenarios.

Suggest purchase of external charger and second battery since included charger only works with the battery in the camera.

I am very happy with this camera. It is better than several higher-end cameras I've owned due to their exposure, focusing or low-light problems, none of which are a problem in this camera. I would suggest this camera to a friend.

Recently used my new Nikon COOLPIX S6200 for our family Thanksgiving/Christmas get together and was very pleased. The pictures are vibrant in color and are amazing in quality. The zoom works well and I was amazed at the way I could include a large area and group in one scene and it still have such good detail quality. It does have a slight hesitation before the picture actually snaps which caused me to miss some great shots of my little grandchild, but I'm still learning how to use it. Overall, I love the compact size of the camera, and the quality of the pictures, and am sure I will love it even more as I learn how to use it better. Thanks to Amazon for your great service again!