And, of course, the requisite Coolpix models were announced, too:
- P60: Take the one good feature of the P50 out (28mm), add some zoom range (36-180mm), add an electronic viewfinder and sensor shift IS. Another miss
- S600: Pardon me if I think a new "Pastel" mode is not important.
- S550: Like the S600 the new features are D-Lighting, Red-eye fix, and face-priority AF.
- S520: More of the same, only smaller in most of the numbers.
- S210: Okay, we get it, four stylish cameras with similar features differentiated by sensor and lens. And, by the way, when did "black" become "urban black?"
- L16 and L18: At the low end the same basic feature set has been rolled into the simplest and least expensive Coolpix models.
The one thing that can be said for the new Coolpix models is the consistency. Previous generation announcements have had multiple models with differing feature sets and even different UI. This time around, Nikon seems to have worked harder at trying to get to a more basic selling pitch: "these cameras all have the same great foundation of features, so how many megapixels and how much lens do you need?" The thing that I can't tell yet is whether Nikon has fixed the primary thing that has held their compact cameras back: speed of focus. Given that the press releases make no AF performance claims, I'm guessing no.