Nikon P100 Digital Camera - Black (10.3MP, 26x Optical Zoom) 3 inch LCD

This is around my tenth digital camera. For wildlife photography it is superb and the best and most versatile camera I have ever owned. The image stabiliser with the 26x zoom works perfectly as long as there are reasonable light levels. At iso 800 there is hardly any graininess. The colour reproduction is superb and especially so on a bright day. The electronic viewfinder is ideal for easily locating wildlife, for example a bird in a tree. This can be extremely difficult if using only the screen. The flip down screen is great for photographing botanical subjects at ground level. There is a wide range of video settings from full hd widescreen video to something suitable for emailing. There is a HS function as well which allows slow motion video to be recorded. The button for video can be used while the camera is in still mode which means that you can capture some action which otherwise would have been missed if you had to fiddle around changing settings. If you want to record some action while zoomed in at 26X there is a problem because the screen goes black as the video is starting to record and this can mean that the subject cannot be followed and will be out of view when the screen reshows the image. This is only a problem when the subject is almost filling the screen. A way to overcome this is to start the video in a wide angle mode and then zoom in when the video is being recorded, the subject can be tracked more easily. Macro works really well and on the wide angle setting there is a fantastic amount of depth of field and you can produce a photo which shows the subject in its habitat or environment.Some form of rest is probably required when shooting video at 26X , preferably a tripod but a monopod can be used effectively as well
DaveH

The reason most people are interested in this camera is because of it's zoom, and it's ability to take decent pictures without carting a DSLR with various lenses around. And it is therefore a very good camera for this purpose.
Granted it has a few faults, which are better explained by other reviewers, but the main complaint I have come across is that the images are soft. Some of them are, but when you compare against a DSLR it is always going to come off worse! However, by playing around with settings you can improve them considerably.
Overall I have found this camera extremely good, and think that it's advantages more than outweigh it's disadvantages. If you want to take serious photos then you will need a DSLR, but for most people this is more than adequate. I have spent ages trawling through the reviews on Amazon and appreciate them enormously (hence why I am adding my pennies worth) but no-one has the same requirements and needs from any one camera, so there will always be an element of bias.
I own a Canon DSLR and several point and shoots (I can't stop buying cameras) but they all fulfill different functions, as there is no camera on the market that can do everything...for everyone!
The best advice anyone can give is to go into a camera shop and play around with as many cameras as possible - make them put batteries and a memory card in so you can take some pictures and make comparisons. Then you can look around online for the best deal. Also make a list of the features you really want, so you don't get carried away by fancy features you will never use.
Also remember that everyone has different preferences, and some cameras just feel more intuitive to you!

This is perhaps my first 'serious' camera and it seems ideal.
Obviously more chunky than a pocket camera, but I am very impressed with the optical and digital zooms. The results look good to me....have uploaded some photos to the page.
Plenty of features and settings and it is easy to switch between them. Can't claim to have used it for 'action shots' (see first review below) however have used the continuous shooting for various wildlife photos and it is great. If you use the 'L' setting you can take 2.8 pictures per second with no apparent delays in writting to the memory card. You have the option of changing continuous shooting from 1 frame every 10 mins up to 120 fps.
Just getting started with the P100 - but first impressions are that it has great picture quality, great zoom, easy to use and there are plenty of options when using.