Nikon Coolpix S3000 12.0MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Vibration Reduction (VR) Zoom and 2.7-Inch LCD (Black)

I was initially hesitant to buy this camera since there were ZERO reviews to be found, either here at Amazon, or elsewhere on the internet. But, since I've owned two previous Nikon Coolpix cameras (an old 4 MP camera, and a really old 2 MP camera) and both were great, I wasn't too worried. And I was right to buy it: it is working great and taking great photos, after several days of playing around with it. First of all, it is very user-friendly. The menus and controls are completely intuitive, and make sense even if you have not cracked open the manual. ("cracked open" being a bit of a misnomer, since the manual is electronic only; the paper manual that comes with it is just a "quick start guide") Second of all, it is a gorgeous piece of machinery; cute and cuddly and shiny and impressive. I'm afraid my girlfriend is going to try to steal it, it is so cute. I may have to buy her one to preemptively stop that from happening. But, most of all, it takes great pictures. I walked all over town the first day, putting it through its paces, and scrutinized the photos on my computer when I got back home. If I was going to have to return it, I wanted to do so quickly, but I don't need to. The photos are great. It is a point-and-shoot, which means that you don't have direct control over shutter speed, aperture, etc. But, you do have a dozen or so "scene modes" including Beach, Museum, Sunset, Panorama, Action, etc. These are very handy. I haven't tried them all yet, but they seem to be well designed. The second day, I put the camera through its paces inside the house. No problems; it takes great indoor shots, providing excellent exposures both with natural light and with the flash. The wide-angle 4.9 mm lens (equivalent angle of view to a 27 mm lens in a 35mm format camera) was especially nice: you can stand in a corner of a room, and get the entire room into the photo! Nothing left out. That is pretty unusual in an inexpensive fixed-lens camera. My third day test was to take the camera to the beach on a bright, contrasty day. It performed admirably, maintaining both shadow and highlight details, and rendering the deep blues of the sky and water, as well as the bright sand, equally well. This one's a keeper, folks! Another nice plus: there is a "16x9" mode available in the "shooting mode" options. This doesn't quite use all 4000x3000 pixels; it only uses 3968x2232 of them. But the images are perfect "HD" format, and completely fill up a typical wide-screen monitor without any stretching. Somehow, they look all the more impressive on a computer screen than the typical 4x3 ratio. Final tidbit: I bought the camera from Amazon, which was $10 cheaper than the local big-box store, had no sales tax, AND allowed me a 30 day return period with no restocking fee (which would have been 14 days AND a restocking fee at the local store; they need to get a clue). Anyway, as an overall impression, five stars easily for the Nikon Coolpix S3000........JC

Has lots of features for a small camera. Not a lot of zoom ability, but there's some. Perfect camera for my daughter's use. Its a lot at first to figure out, but she loves it, and most of the time just uses it in auto mode. Nikon's Auto settings are really good, even for a small camera. But she's learned how to alter her flash and scene settings, and practices around the house in different lighting and focus points to see what the camera can do. Great for snapahots of friends, and scenery when on vacation. took some nice photos at night on vacation, but just keep people within 10-15 feet for best shots. Flash is good, but is not big, so its a recommendation to keep your subject within a decent area. Camera has settings that can shoot up to3200 ISO, and adjust white balance. Bad thing is there's only a digital guide on CD, so everytime you need to refer to something when learning how to use it, you need your computer around to read it. You can't just keep a small copy of it on you. I had to print the basic pages so I can keep it with the camera. Definitely do your research before buying. Buy for what you really need the camera to do. If you don't need a lot of the special features, this is a great purchase saving several dollars from the next version up. Nikon really delivers with a small camera with big camera features for less than $150, and that's with some accessories added.

This is an excellent camera in this price range. I was looking for price, size, and picture quality. I looked at the Coolpix cameras with touchscreens, but trying one out in the store, I found it wasn't very intuitive. My previous camera was a Canon Powershot. Overall, I like this camera. The viewing screen is large and clear, the pictures seem to be good quality (based on viewing on the computer; I haven't printed any out yet.) I find this camera very easy to use overall. The manual is lacking. There are features that are simply not included in it. Personally, I think that if a manual is included, it should explain everything. I shouldn't have to hunt for information online. Still, it covered the basics well. There are two aspects of the camera that I don't like. First, there is no battery status indicator. I want to know right now how much battery I have left, and I can't find any option for this in any of the mentions. There's no mention of it in the manual. I would expect there to be some sort of indicator, but I haven't found it yet. I don't want to be surprised by suddenly having a dead battery. Second, I find it odd that the battery must be charged while it is in the camera. I plan to buy a second battery. With my Canon, the charger worked on the battery alone. While traveling, I wore out my battery. I put it in the charger, put a second battery in my camera, and took more pictures. By the time I got back to the hotel, the first battery was charged. Charging doesn't seem to take very long, so this probably won't be much of an issue, but I'm still surprised by it. Aside from that, this seems to be a good quality camera for its price. I consulted with friends who do photography and they said that, unless I'm blowing up pictures to a huge size, 10 megapixels is plenty, so I feel good about this purchase of 12mp and 4x zoom.

Overall this is a sleek little camera that is very portable. If you have good lighting this camera can take some awesome pictures but when conditions are less than perfect its a crap shoot to see if you will get a useable pic. There are several modes that help with this after you learn how to use them and with experience using this camera you can improve your odds but some pics just will NOT come out no matter how hard you try and how many modes you select. The worst problem overall is picture blur, a lot of blur. My sister in law had a Nikon Coolpix that so impressed me that I got this one...big mistake. I have read several places including Consumer Reports and all reviews point to one basic fact; there is a wide variance of good versus bad in the family of Coolpix cameras from Nikon. Goes with out saying pay attention to the reviews for each specific model of Coolpix as some are great and others not so much.

I bought this camera about 15 months ago as a replacement for the Canon ELPH I had for 5 years. I loved the ELPH, but replaced it to get something more modern. From the outset, the picture quality with the Nikon was nowhere near what I got with the older, supposedly lesser quality Canon. Since I had donated the Canon to a charity auction, I didn't have the option of going back to it or I would have and trashed the Nikon. Last week we went on vacation and I planned to take a bunch of pictures. Well, the Nikon will not turn on. Installing a freshly charged battery doesn't help. Talked to Nikon, and of course it's out of warranty, so they want a small fortune to look at it. I'll never buy another Nikon . . . I'm going back to Canon.

Before I bought this camera I did a lot of research on digital cameras. I narrowed it down to three brands. Canon, Nikon, and Sony. It took a very long time to make a decision since I didn't want to buy crap. I eventually settled in the Nikon brand because I am very familiar with its features and camera functions. I was replacing a cheaper older model of a Nikon Coolpix L10. So, I was definitely going spend a little over $100 for this camera, but then again cameras have come a long way since the 2007. Even if I didnt buy the S3000 I knew I would get something better than my older camera due to the advancement of the compact camera technology. This camera is great for everyday/events picture taking. After having the camera for a few days, I tested it out when I went to a family reunion. I got many compliments and inquiries about where i got the camera from. I believe I took about 100 pics in the two days spanning the family reunion. Camera Features: I took pics using a wide variety of the camera's features. The micro mode was pretty cool, the camera was able to focus on the subject and the picture did not come out blurry. It was pretty easy to take a pic in panorama mode. At first when I took the pics that would make up the panorama pic, I wasnt sure how the whole pic would come out, but the panorama maker software that comes with the did wonders. Once you out the pieces of the panorama pic in the correct order the software makes the panorama picture for you. Now that I know that I made a great panorama photo I will be using this feature very much in the future. This camera definitely tells you if someone blinked in the photo after the photo has been taken and you can always opt to take another pic. Continuous shot selecter is also a nice feature. You can choose to take 3 continuous shots or 16 continuous. Pics in low-light or darkness are excellent and always give light exposure buy the flash and orange light on the front of the camera. I took a picture in my room with the only source of light in the room being light from a television and the picture came out as if a ceiling light was on. Other features that are nice are skin-softening, smart portrait(recognizes faces), 17 scene modes including panorama, subject tracking Video: For a compact camera, the video quality was great. The sound quality was also excellent inside the video too. Playback on my laptop was seamless. You could hear words and sentences very well in the background of the video. It's NOT HD, but I could make out everyone in the video and nothing at all was blurry. Battery is a plus since you can charge it, as oppose to change AA batteries all the time. The charge is very short as well. Definitely get a case for this camera, it is very compact, slim, and small. I have a case logic compact digital camera case. I bought my case at Walmart for $7 and cents. I feel like my camera is very well protected. Overall I am very happy with my purchase of the Nikon Coolpix s3000. Its a great everyday camera for the busy college student or for someone who just wants to capture life's moments. Definitely buy this camera, it well worth your money and you will not be disappointed.

We own a Nikon D5000 and it's the best thing since sliced bread. So when we wanted something that we could take with us without having to worry about damage/theft/loss, we decided to stick with the Nikon line of cameras. Like I said, Nikon makes a great SLR, but stay away from their point an shoot cameras. Here's the list of problems this camera had (we returned it of course): -poor white balance on auto mode -slow to take pictures -very slow to save pictures before you can take another shot (no difference when you take a lower resolution pic either!) -will not use flash on auto mode... even in the dark -have to use manual setting if you're not outside during the day, otherwise your pictures WILL come out yellow and blurred -will only record 10 seconds of video before it tells you it cannot record video and stops (maybe needs a high speed flash card for this?) -navigating the menu on this thing is a nighmare... takes 30 seconds to get it right -resets your settings every time it goes to standby or when you turn it off! Seeing how you need to use manual settings to take a decent picture, this is a HUGE problem. Only reason I give it two stars is because it seems well-built, battery lasts for a long time, and it IS capable of taking a good picture, but only if you're interested in still shots and you have lots of time to waste while messing with all the settings every time you'd like to take a picture. To call this a "point and shoot" is a tremendous misnomer... there's no such thing with this camera! It's a "turn on, change settings, point, shoot, wait, wait, take another shot because your settings weren't just right and your picture is blurred, oh.. nm, it's too late!" camera. I'm going back to Canon for a point and shoot. I've had their cameras in the past and even a 10 year old point and shoot Canon will put the S3000 to shame when it comes to usability. This is one of those products that Nikon should have left on the shelf. They really aren't living up to their name with the S3000.

I have had the same Sony Cybershot for YEARS and when I realized my phone's camera was only 1 MP less than my point and shoot, I decided it was time to upgrade. Since I use my digital SLR for quality shots, I wanted a simple point and shoot camera. This camera was exactly what I was looking for and the price was right. The pictures are insanely sharp. The auto focusing works very well, even when zoomed. I am still amazed at how compact and light the camera is. I'm using an old sunglasses case as protection until I invest in a formal case and there's plenty of room in the case with the camera in it. I highly suggest using the included wrist strap when using the camera at parties as the camera is so light you forget it's in your hand at times. I have two complaints: 1) The wait time between shots is a bit long 2) There is no way to turn on the flash (to use as a light) when in video mode If you're looking for a compact and light, point and shoot camera that takes EXCELLENT pictures without spending a fortune then this is the camera for you.