Digital Camera Review

Digital Camera Review

Nov 11, 2005 - By Emily Raymond
The Nikon Coolpix P1 looks like all of its other compact Coolpix cousins with its 3.6 x 2.4 x 1.5-inch body, but it comes with a little something extra—wireless technology. The P1 and its sibling, the P2, were announced in September 2005 and hit the market a month later for a $549 retail price. Nikon claims the P1 to be the world’s first wireless digital camera, though Kodak also makes that claim of the EasyShare-one. We can say for sure however that the 8 megapixel P1 offers the most megapixels and most manual control of any consumer wireless digital camera currently out. This Nikon Coolpix has 16 scene modes, an auto mode, a program mode, and an aperture priority mode. This model also has the Nikon technology suite that includes Face Priority Auto Focus, in-camera red-eye fix, and D-Lighting compensation. The compact P1 has a 2.5-inch LCD screen with 110,000 pixels, a 3.5x optical zoom lens, and 32MB of internal memory. Its most distinguishing feature is its built-in wireless port, which can transfer pictures and movie clips to a wireless enabled computer or printer within a 100-foot range. The P1 comes out just as the consumer wireless market is heating up.
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Front (7.0)
The P1 has the look of many other Nikon Coolpix digital cameras with its compact form and slight right-hand grip. The grip has a polished silver-colored highlight that doesn’t serve any functional purpose but gives the P1 a little cosmetic appeal. At the top of the grip is the shutter release button, which just barely sticks out toward the front side. On the right side of the P1 is the Nikkor 3.5x optical zoom lens, which is labeled just so with lettering around the rim of the lens assembly. Also printed on the rim are the lens’ focal lengths and apertures: “7.5-26.3 mm, 1:2.7-5.2.” The actual lens has a plastic door that snaps shut to protect it, although the door itself is quite fragile. The lens barrel is a brushed silver color and protrudes from the camera a bit more than half an inch even when the camera is off. Above the left side of the lens are an AF illuminator and a microphone. Above those features is the Speedlight flash. To the right of the flash is the Nikon Coolpix P1 logo.

Back (8.0)
The layout on the back of the P1 is fairly simple. The 2.5-inch LCD screen takes up the left two-thirds of the back. Below the screen is a printed Nikon logo. To the right of the screen is the typical gamut of control buttons; more on those in a moment.

In the top right corner of the P1’s back is the single-paneled zoom toggle that rests in a shallow thumb divot. The ‘W’ sits on the left and the ‘T’ on the right with icons below each side. The ‘W’ has a multi-up icon below it that looks like a checkerboard. Below the ‘T’ is a magnifying glass to signal that this side of the toggle is used to zoom in on pictures during playback; there is also a question mark to signify that pressing it brings up the Help mode.

Below the wide end of the toggle is a flash icon next to an LED. Below this is the circular Menu button. The multi-selector is below the Menu button and centered below the toggle. It is made of a central OK button surrounded by a single donut-shaped control. There are icons in each of the four directions as well as an icon to the multi-selector’s top right, which shows the OK button with a transfer marking symbol next to it. Around the multi-selector, the flash icon sits at the top, the exposure compensation on the right, the flower macro icon on the bottom, and the self-timer icon on the left. There are two circular buttons below the multi-selector: the playback button is on the left and the delete button is on the right.

Left Side (7.5)
The left side of the P1 shows two black panels with a silver highlight band sandwiched in between. At the top of this side is a dark but still somewhat translucent panel with a WiFi label on it.

Right Side (7.0)
This side of the Nikon Coolpix P1 is a bit thicker than the other side. The black panels still sandwich the silver band, but the front panel protrudes as a hand grip. On the left panel is a tiny rubber cover with a tiny bump to help in prying it open. It is labeled with the USB logo and A/V out lettering. To the right of this cover is a polished silver eyelet where the wrist strap attaches. At the bottom of this side is another tiny rubber panel that serves absolutely no purpose; it is decorative rather than functional.

Top (7.5)
A brushed silver band runs across the top – the same band that runs along both sides. It is merely for looks, but this camera’s appearance certainly benefits from it. On the left half of this band is a built-in speaker. Just left-of-center and towards the back is the mode dial, complete with icons, words, and letters. To the right of the dial and situated more toward the front of the camera is the shutter release button. On the far right of the top is the recessed and rectangular On/Off button with a small LED by it.

Bottom (7.5)
The left side of the bottom has a plastic door that slides to the left and pops open to reveal the skinny slots for the lithium-ion battery and the SD card. On the far right side of the bottom is the tripod socket, which is the standard quarter-inch size. In between these two features are scores of required labels and logos.

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