Nikon today announced two new Coolpix models:
- Coolpix S5100. Another in the 12mp S lineup. 28-140mm.
- Coolpix S1100pj. The updated projector camera, now with a 14mp sensor, touch screen, more RETOUCH functions, and 720P video in a slightly different body.
While a lot of writers keep proclaiming projectors a thing of the future in cameras, I'm not convinced that they are. The trend is away from real social get-togethers (parties) and towards virtual ones (Facebook, et. al). Yes, it's an ice-breaker, but is it any more than that? I don't see the staying power. After all, I've got a perfectly fine little stand-alone pocket projector right now, and I'm not exactly running around trying to get people to look at my unedited pictures with it by connecting it to my camera. The real fad is the coming tablets. Now if that Coolpix automatically brought my images up on my iPad...
...I'll give you a moment to think about that last bit...
...Okay? Ready to move on?
A wireless and fully integrated connection with an iPad trumps the projector thing in virtually every way. First, there's the immediacy: touching is better than standing back and viewing, and more intimate. Second, there's the quality: an iPad's image display just trounces the little projectors. Third, there's the editing possibilities (applying styles, using Faces Wild on a portrait, and much more). Projectors are so one-way and so limiting. Imagine that programmable, communicating, modular camera I keep writing about. Where's the projector fit into that? It probably doesn't, because the Camera Redefined doesn't need a built in projector, does it?
Still... I'm not quite sure how they achieved it, but Nikon has taken a mediocre Coolpix lineup and grabbed more market share with it. But serious Nikon DSLR users don't seem to use Nikon compact cameras as their walkaround camera. This exposes a problem for Nikon: those that buy Nikon's excellent DSLR products tend to do so because of quality; those that buy the Coolpix tend to do so because of name and price. Traditionally, you want a brand to stand for one thing, but over time the Coolpix/DSLR split has got to come back to haunt Nikon. Those that buy into the Nikon brand at the Coolpix end don't see the quality and performance necessary to get them to jump to a Nikon DSLR. Those with a Nikon DSLR sample one Coolpix and jump ship to another brand for their low end camera. This is not the dichotomy I would work towards if I ran Nikon's product line.
From the Coolpix 900 about up through the Coolpix 8800 Nikon enjoyed a reputation that was similar in both the low end cameras and high: quality, performance, unique. But Nikon was losing compact camera market share during that time to the ubiquitous undistinguished compacts. So Nikon started down the path that has brought us today's L, S, and P cookie cutter models. Meanwhile, Canon continued to iterate its G series well, and added some other decent compacts, too (the S90, for example), while Panasonic upped its game. The best compact cameras are no longer Nikons.
To me, the Coolpix line has long felt like "filler." It's empty calories served blandly. Nothing in these announcements changes my mind.