Nikon COOLPIX S6200 Compact Digital Camera - Red (16MP, 10x Optical Zoom) 2.7 inch LCD

I own a DSLR camera, so I have something that can take great quality pictures and video, but its massive. Taking it anywhere it a real pain and taking it on holiday where there is no where secure to leave it is a big problem as its a very expensive camera. All in it probably costs about £1000, that is not something you want to leave laying around and as it won't fit in the room safe what other choice do you have....

So, I decided to buy a compact camera to take on days out and holidays etc. I looked around at what was available and found that things had moved on a lot since I had my last compact camera, and these days the compacts are not far away from the DSLR specs. As my DSLR is Nikon and I have always had Nikon's in the past I didn't see a reason to change brands which left me with a choice of several models.

Looking through the specs of them all this one seemed ideal:
Good MP rating
Great zoom
Decent size screen
720p Video with sound
Rechargeable battery

Those are the features that were important to me and this camera had them all. There was another model with 1080p video but it was more expensive and has slightly worse zoom capability, and 720p is good enough for me anyway!

So far this camera has been a few places with me and so far has not failed to disappoint. Its been on a speedboat, in a racing car, at a zoo, on a plane and its worked everywhere so far.
The battery seems to last a decent length of time, I have not managed to run it out on any one of my trips so far which is more than I can say for my last compact camera. The quality of the pictures it takes are fantastic and for such a small camera I don't think I could expect anything more. The video is also great quality, much better than I expected, the sound is not fantastic but again its a lot better than I expected from past experiance. The zoom is also great and really gets you close to the action!

The camera did develop a fault the other day where the zoom would not work which was highly annoying. One minute it was zooming fine and taking pictures and the next minute it just would not zoom in or out. I contacted Nikon online and arranged for an RMA, to my surprise the postage to Nikon was via a free postage label which made a nice change. They said it would take 2-3 weeks to fix the camera which seemed like a long time and annoyed me a little bit as if it took 3 weeks I would miss out taking photos of an event I wanted to capture. I got an email a day or so later to say that they had the camera and would be looking at it shortly. I didn't hear anything for a few days and then within about a week the camera was delivered back in my hands working again. The next day I got an email saying that they had sent my camera back! Hahaha

So all in all, although I had a problem with the camera it was quickly sorted and its working perfectly again. I will be taking it on holiday again very soon and can't wait to get some more pictures with it!
On the front of the camera box there was also a sticker to contact Nikon to get a 2 year warranty on the unit which is great value for a free extended warranty.
Overall I think this is a fantastic camera and well worth the money! Well done Nikon.

I have been looking for a small camera for some time, to be used by my wife and by myself when I am not carrying my DSLR, (D300+16/85+80/400). What attracted me was the price reduced to below £100. I suspect that the new S6300 -(which replaces this)- with its CMOS sensor may produce even better quality pics, but the quality out of this one is still superb. It is nice and easy to carry, fitting into a pocket even when in a soft case. It is fully automatic all the time, which is a bit limiting to someone like me, but that suits the other half exactly. I haven't actually tried yet, but I suspect, that the 45Mb on screen image size would allow high quality A3 or A3+ Prints to be made on a Photo Printer. Most of the output will be used for Facebook or Flickr and a decent Program is needed to reduce the pixel size down to what they need, and View NX2 which is provided can do that easily. I had a first attempt at producing a Panorama last weekend, and it was remarkably easy and successful, without even needing to make use of my Tripod - putting this little Red Camera onto a full size, 30 year old, tripod could look more than a little ridiculous, in any case.

Over all we are very pleased with it, and I did wonder,(for just a little while), whether I really needed all that heavy expensive Gear I normally use.

I am so pleased with this camera. It's easy to use and has lots of settings for sone unusual effects. Huge zoom for this class of camera. Very pleased.