Nikon S8000 and L110: new super-zooms

Nikon Coolpix S8000 MARCHANDS €     Amazon.fr m...  24.00  Pixmania.com  69.90  Pixmania ce...  71.49  Darty.com  75.00  Ubaldi  87.00  L'univ...  89.90  Compare prices

In amongst its latest announcements, Nikon has included two rather unusual products.  The S8000 is the manufacturer's first 'real' super-zoom compact, and it will have to work hard to stand out in an already crowded sector.  The L110, meanwhile, is a successor the L100, and is looking rather lonely as one of the few surviving 'fake bridges'.

Nikon S8000

The S8000 is a super-zoom compact, with a 10x optical zoom.  That seems quite modest compared to the 12x adopted by Canon and Panasonic, or Samsung's new 15x zooms.  Its focal length extends from 30 to 300 mm, which also seems quite odd: we had thought that 28 mm was becoming a minimum for wide-angle, and some cameras have even reached 24 mm.

On the other hand, it is incredibly thin, measuring just 27 mm front front to back (according to the new CIPA standards, everything is included but the camera is switched off), and seems a likely rival to the Panasonic ZX3.  Another major strength is that its 3'' screen has a VGA resolution, making it much easier to work with.

Inside, there's a 14 Megapixel sensor, something which seems increasingly common in 2010's crop of cameras, and it's joined by a new sensitivity system, designed to reduce the effects of electronic noise and coloured fringing.  It should also be a pretty fast little camera: when we got our hands on a prototype, it started up quickly and showed an impressive autofocus.  We'll check that out when we test it though.

The S8000 films in 720p HD with stereo sound, and will be available in February.

Nikon Coolpix L110 MARCHANDS €     Amazon.fr m...  279.00  Amazon.fr  495.89  Ubaldi  501.00  Webdistrib.com  689.99  Digit-photo...  699.91  Amazon.fr  717.00  Compare prices

Nikon L110

Bridge cameras look like SLRs, but actually aren't.  The L110, on the other hand, looks like a bridge, but isn't.  Like its predecessor the L100, the only way to focus is using the LCD screen, which now has 460 000 pixels.  It's a welcome improvement, even if it didn't blow us away when we tried the prototype.  Unsurprisingly, the sensor has been upgraded to 12 Megapixels.

The 28-420 mm lens is the same as the one found on the L100, but the rest of the camera body has seen other changes: it's now more solid and includes separate controls for video mode.  These aren't revolutionary changes, but we're still glad to see them.  The new camera is still powered by four AA batteries, which should let it last for 840 shots, an impressive figure we're looking forward to checking out.

The video mode has moved up to 720p HD, while the sound is now stereo, and you can use the optical zoom while recording.

We hope that some of the L100's weaknesses will have improved to make the L110 a real super-zoom that's both affordable and technically excellent. 

Whatever happens though, what with the P100 this morning, the SP-800 from Olympus yesterday and Samsung's WB600 series, something tells us that we haven't yet seen the back of super-zoom cameras for 2010 …


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