<p>An acquaintance of mine purchased this Nikon Coolpix P80, then had to immediately sell it because she was moving out of the country. I took it off her hands, thinking that it would make a nice compact alternative to the times I'd rather not haul my Nikon D70s around.</p>
<p>I haven't pounded on the functionality enough to provide an in-depth review. However, I have used it enough to know that it gives really nice shots in good light. The Zoom lens boasts an impressive range (27-486mm), and the VR works great to reduce motion blurring on handheld shots, but the shots start getting very noisy very fast in low light. The movie function is passable but not great (it only records as high as 640x480, and the image quality seems to suffer from compression). The time lapse function was useful, but if you're doing, say, a 24-hour time lapse, the low light performance once again becomes an issue.</p>
<p>Apart from the functionality, from a form-factor standpoint I found that it didn't fit my needs at all. While much smaller than my D70s, it still retains a faux-SLR form factor. While I assume that's necessary to contain the zoom lens, it does make it bulky enough that it's impossible to fit in a pocket, thus negating any convenience aspect that I might be willing to trade for the lack in manual control and image quality vs. my D70s.</p>
