Nikon Coolpix S80 and S8100 update S series

Nikon has announced two new digital cameras, the sleek and stylish Coolpix S80 and the versatile Coolpix S8100. The S80, the successor to the S70, sports several improvements including a 14.1 megapixel CCD sensor and a 819,000 dot OLED touch screen. The S8100, which replaces the S8000, has a new 12.1 megapixel backside illuminated CMOS sensor for improved low-light image quality and high speed shooting ability as well as a full HD 1080p movie mode.

Nikon Coolpix S80
The ultra-thin S80 measures only 0.7-inches thick, has a sliding lens cover that turns the camera on and off and a lens with folded optics design to maintain the camera's sleek profile. It features a 14.1 megapixel CCD sensor and a 3.5-inch touch panel OLED screen.

Other features include a 5x optical zoom lens equivalent to 35-175mm, a five-way vibration reduction image stabilization system, motion detection, ISO settings up to 6400 and Nikon's Best Shot Selector, which automatically takes up to ten shots while the shutter release button is pressed, and then selects and saves the sharpest image. The S80 has 17 scene modes and an easy auto mode, which automatically recognizes the shooting situation and adjusts camera settings accordingly.

The S80 further includes Nikon's Smart Portrait system, which incorporates a series of automatic functions including an in-camera red-eye fix, improved face priority auto focus, a smile timer, blink warning, blink proof and skin softening modes. The S80 has an HD 720p movie mode with optical zoom and stereo sound available during recording. The new touch screen camera also features many photo editing functions, available in playback mode.

Nikon Coolpix S8100
The pocket-sized S8100 features a 10x optical zoom lens covering the 30-300mm range, a four-way vibration reduction image stabilization system and subject tracking to keep a moving subject in focus. The S8100's shooting speed is enhanced by a pre-shooting cache that records up to two shots before the shutter release is fully pressed.

For extremely fast action shots, the S8100's sports continuous shooting mode can record up to 120 frames per second. The S8100 has 17 scene modes and a Scene Auto Selector, which automatically recognizes the shooting situation and selects the proper scene mode.

The S8100's HD 1080p video mode is activated by a one-touch recording button and supports the use of optical zoom and stereo sound recording. Some special features made possible by the S8100's backside illuminated CMOS sensor are its night portrait mode, which combines consecutive shots of a subject with and without flash, an in-camera high dynamic range (HDR) function which merges images of the same scene to achieve a single image, and a night landscape mode, which combines a series of five consecutive shots taken at a fast shutter speed into a single image with (in theory) reduced noise.

Pricing and availability
The Nikon Coolpix S8100 will be available late September 2010 for a suggested retail price of $299.95 in a choice of three colors, black, red and gold. The Nikon Coolpix S80 will be available in fall 2010 for a suggested retail price of $329.95 in a choice of six color, red, black, blue, pink, gold and silver/brown.

For additional information about the new Nikon Coolpix S80 and S8100, see Nikon's website.