Nikon Coolpix P310 Summary

The Nikon Coopix P310 is a small compact digital camera with dual control-dials to efficiently access its full manual controls. It is equipped with a unique ultra-bright F/1.8 ultra-wide angle 4.2X optical zoom lens. This lens lets it capture the same scene using a lower ISO than most digital cameras. This advantage lets it keep up with top compact cameras in terms of image quality even with a small BSI-CMOS sensor. Outside of some corner softness at wider apertures, the P310 does well in all aspects of image quality: metering, color, white-balance, vignetting and distortion.

While image quality is there and controls are very responsive, certain important aspects of the P310 are slow: shot-to-shot speed, autofocus and video-recording start. Battery-life is below average as well. The more serious downsides of this digital camera are the impossibility of setting framing for video-recording and the lack of an accurate live-histogram or exposure-priority preview. While the Nikon Coolpix P310 is an excellent choice for social and creative photography without bulk, it would have a tough time with action shots.

Those comparing with the P300
Nikon Coolpix P300 should notice that little has changed. The interface is slightly improved and there is a gain of 25% resolution. All good if you are looking for an advanced compact with efficient manual controls but certainly not enough to upgrade if you already have the predecessor.

Neocamera detailed review Read the full Nikon P310 review.