Nikon Coolpix S9300 Digital Camera Review

Updated: June 16, 2012

A compact travel zoom with a promising set of point-and-shoot features whose mediocre photo quality, lackluster low light performance, and poor battery life prevent a recommendation.

3 stars
(3 out of 5)

The Coolpix S9300 is a decent GPS-equipped travel zoom camera, but there are several competitors that I think are better choices. While it does offer a nice point-and-shoot feature set, the mediocre photo quality, poor battery life, and other annoyances prevent me from recommending it.

Read full review @ Digital Camera Resource Page

Pros

Good value for the money
18X, 25 – 450 mm optical zoom lens in a compact, generally well-built body
Optical image stabilization
Sharp 3-inch LCD display with 921k pixels
Fast autofocus in good light
GPS receiver with compass and large landmark database
Scene Auto Selector picks a shooting mode for you
Plenty of scene modes and special effects
Wide selection of burst modes, some of which are pretty good
Redeye not a problem
Full HD movie mode with stereo sound, use of optical zoom and image stabilizer, and full-time autofocus

Cons

Noisy and soft photos have noticeable detail loss, even at base ISO of 125
Strong highlight clipping at times
No manual controls, save for white balance
Low light focusing not great
Below average battery life
Flash is slow to recharge
Not great for night shots, due to 1 sec shutter speed limit and lack of manual controls
Photos taken in portrait orientation are not rotated automatically
Flimsy door over battery/memory card compartment
Internal battery charging is slow, won’t let you charge a spare
Full manual on CD-ROM