Product Reviews

The coolpix p2 is Nikon's new wireless-enabled digital camera. Sadly though, Nikon's Wi-Fi implementation isn't as elegant as Canon's. Support for 802.11g and a proper set-up wizard are both welcome, but Wi-Fi connections are slow to initiate and the camera becomes inoperable for the five to 10 seconds it takes to transfer a picture. In Shoot and Transfer mode, which lets you transfer pictures as soon as they're taken, all but the most basic camera settings are unavailable. The best way to use the

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wireless connection is to transfer images once you've finished shooting.

Wi-Fi is just one of many features packed into this camera, however. Aperture priority mode provides control over the depth of field for either a narrow focus range (good for still life photography) or to keep everything in focus (useful for action photography). There are no manual focus or priority modes, but otherwise the list of options is exhaustive, with contrast, saturation, exposure bracketing and white balance bracketing on top of the usual ISO, metering and exposure compensation settings.

We found image quality to be generally excellent, with superb colour accuracy in natural light and barely any image noise at high ISO settings. Focus was a little soft though, making detail more on a par with a good 4-megapixel camera. We also found that the white balance needed adjusting to achieve accurate colours in artificial light. Battery life is poor at just 119 shots from a single charge and £25 for a spare battery is excessive. Still, we can't complain about the cost of the camera itself.