Even though the Nikon Coolpix P3 shows improved image quality compared to its predecessors, this camera is still lacking in important areas compared to other compact digital cameras. The number one disappointment is how sluggishly it performs. Three other major weaknesses of this camera are its poor automatic white-balance system, its strange ergonomics (making it difficult to hold and tedious to change settings) and its rather shot battery-life. This is unfortunate since the P3 has a plethora of digital features such as spot-focus, face-priority, best-shot-selector (selects the sharpest among a series of images) and WiFi image transfer.

On the other hand, image quality of this Coolpix is rather good. Despite that the P3 shows image noise at all ISO settings, it is not significant enough to ruin medium size prints up to ISO 200. At ISO 400, noise should not be noticeable in small prints. The lens is also sharp and its effective vibration reduction system allows to use low ISO settings more often. Because of its image quality, we were considering rating the P3 better than average cameras but there are too many better compact digital cameras to award this one a good rating.

Unless the stabilization or the WiFi capabilities are important, consider other compact cameras such as the excellent Canon Powershot A620, the Canon Powershot A700 or the Fuji Finepix E900. If stabilization is important, the Panasonic Lumix LX1 is a superior alternative, complete with a wide-angle lens, full manual controls and a speedy performance, although its image quality is not as high as the other cameras already mentioned.

Finally, the WiFi feature may seem attractive to some but it does not justify buying any less of a camera to have it. So until an excellent camera is equipped with that feature, it will mostly remain a gimmick. Granted, WiFi image transfer saves using a cable, but it is not worth compromising image quality for that. Shooting images and transferring at the same time is definitely a gimmick since it works only close to a correspondingly equipped and setup computer system, which basically means only at home.