P/S Camera: I bought the Nikon Coolpix S6200 to keep in my purse and use as a convenient point/shoot camera. It's 16 mp but I have not been happy with the sharpness of the photos taken...

Photo Girl Loc: SE Pasco County, FL

I bought the Nikon Coolpix S6200 to keep in my purse and use as a convenient point/shoot camera. It's 16 mp but I have not been happy with the sharpness of the photos taken with this camera. I have seen photos posted here with the Lumix p/s's and was amazed at their sharpness. I'd like to know how UHHr's think this Coolpix measures up. Thanks for your opinions and please don't be shy; I really need honest critique.

Church Nativity Scene

Cropped Church Nativity Scene

amehta Loc: Boston

The exposure for this shot was f/3.2, 1/3sec, ISO 400. Was it mounted on a tripod? If not, then it's incredibly sharp for 1/3 sec handheld. Also, very few lenses are at their best wide open. A better baseline test for sharpness would be in better lighting conditions.

tramsey Loc: Texas

I think it measures up to anything that you want to compare it to except a full frame camera. You are in for a lot of fun and satisfaction with that one. congratulations on a great purchase. :thumbup: :thumbup:

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Good points from amehta. I'd be thrilled with that image quality from a P&S under those conditions.

OddJobber Loc: Portland, OR

Yeah, what amehta said. As for comparison, "Lumix" is not one camera, but many, same as "Coolpix". Some good, some pretty bad. You have 16 MP but they're packed onto a tiny sensor, not good for low light. Hard to judge the camera by one low light shot. Step outside and shoot a few, then see if you like it better.

Photo Girl Loc: SE Pasco County, FL

amehta wrote:

The exposure for this shot was f/3.2, 1/3sec, ISO 400. Was it mounted on a tripod? If not, then it's incredibly sharp for 1/3 sec handheld. Also, very few lenses are at their best wide open. A better baseline test for sharpness would be in better lighting conditions.

This was handheld. I waited or the parishioners to leave, then went up to it to shoot. All I had was the flash in the camera. Honestly I didn't even look at the specifics of the picture. I just get so frustrated trying to take a picture with it. I thought it had a red eye feature but it doesn't. There are very few adjustments that can be made in it. To take a picture of seated people, I had to select tracking to get any kind of a focused picture. The pictures I get out of it just don't seem to be crisp. Thank you for your reply.

Photo Girl Loc: SE Pasco County, FL

OddJobber wrote:

Yeah, what amehta said. As for comparison, "Lumix" is not one camera, but many, same as "Coolpix". Some good, some pretty bad. You have 16 MP but they're packed onto a tiny sensor, not good for low light. Hard to judge the camera by one low light shot. Step outside and shoot a few, then see if you like it better.

Here are a couple more that I took this past fall.

Fall picture 1

Fall picture 2

Photo Girl Loc: SE Pasco County, FL

amehta wrote:

The exposure for this shot was f/3.2, 1/3sec, ISO 400. Was it mounted on a tripod? If not, then it's incredibly sharp for 1/3 sec handheld. Also, very few lenses are at their best wide open. A better baseline test for sharpness would be in better lighting conditions.

Thanks amehta, I posted a couple more outside shots from this fall.

Photo Girl Loc: SE Pasco County, FL

tramsey wrote:

I think it measures up to anything that you want to compare it to except a full frame camera. You are in for a lot of fun and satisfaction with that one. congratulations on a great purchase. :thumbup: :thumbup:

Thanks for your reply tramsey.

Photo Girl Loc: SE Pasco County, FL

Linda From Maine wrote:

Good points from amehta. I'd be thrilled with that image quality from a P&S under those conditions.

Thanks Linda, but other shots I have taken were just so frustrating. It has a hard time focusing.

amehta Loc: Boston

Photo Girl wrote:

This was handheld. I waited or the parishioners to... (show quote)

It does have red-eye reduction (see page 56 of the manual). Pressing the top of the multi selector dial goes to the flash options.

It also has exposure compensation, by pressing the right of the multi selector dial.

It seems that what it doesn't have is manual exposure or aperture priority.

amehta Loc: Boston

Photo Girl wrote:

Thanks Linda, but other shots I have taken were just so frustrating. It has a hard time focusing.

I don't know that any other P&S will be much better. For better focusing, you might have to move up to a different class of camera, maybe a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera.

amehta Loc: Boston

Photo Girl wrote:

Thanks amehta, I posted a couple more outside shots from this fall.

Those are good shots!

Photo Girl Loc: SE Pasco County, FL

amehta wrote:

Those are good shots!

Thanks amehta, but the one I submitted in the fall contest didn't get anywhere! LOL.

amehta Loc: Boston

Photo Girl wrote:

Thanks amehta, but the one I submitted in the fall contest didn't get anywhere! LOL.

That's not a really good measure of how good the camera is. There's the topic next door about "WOW factor". This shot is good, but not wow. You can get there with practice and experience.