I'm quite happy with this camera

I purchased my Coolpix 800 camera last September primarily for taking pictures for Ebay. I had read the reviews and decided that the Nikon was the best choice for my budget. I found a great deal, plus a 75.00 rebate. This is the perfect choice for anyone who wants a reasonably priced digital camera.

The Nikon design is quite simple and intuitive, which is good, since there is no hard copy of the manual. The cd-rom that comes with the camera is good, though. I haven't had the need to refer to it very often, but when I have, I have found the information I was looking for very quickly.

There are three quality settings: Fine, Normal, and Basic. You also have the option of using VGA, which will give you pictures perfect for the web, and lots of them. In the VGA Basic mode, you can take 194 photos before you run out of room! That is the setting I use most frequently, as it produces photos perfect for the web, around 40k in size. The images are sharp and clear, using the automatic settings. If you want a camera for extremely high quality prints, the Nikon 800 might still work for you, but you'll have to spend some money on more flash cards. The camera comes with an 8 meg card which will hold one very high quality tiff file. Having spent some time in the magazine industry, I know that the camera will produce images which are fine for print, and you'd be able to store quite a few on the 8 meg card.

Transferring the files from the camera to your computer can be kind of irritating. The camera comes with a serial port connector and the uploads can take a while (think twenty minutes to a half hour if you fill up the whole card). Plus, it's kind of like burning cds- you can't really do anything else on the computer while the pictures are transferring. That having been said, it usually only takes me about ten minutes to upload fifty pictures in the 'worst' setting.

The software is extremely simple, which might bother some people who like more options and a pretty interface, but I appreciate it. It's small, does the job, and doesn't interfere with anything else. I've run the software on Win98 and Win95 and have not had any problems with it.

The camera is larger than a point and shoot film camera, and weighs about as much as a professional camera. You can't just slip it into your pocket. The case the camera comes with is pretty useless. I recommend investing in a better case before you buy any other accessories.

Using the camera couldn't be much simpler. The most frequently used features, like flash, timer, and image quality, are easily accessed by four buttons along the top of the camera. Other features (and there are a lot!) can be reached through a menu screen. Using automatic settings, you don't need to push a button for the flash, which has an automatic sensor. I honestly haven't experimented that much with the manual settings, since the automatic ones give me clear, sharp pictures that are perfect for what I am doing.

Overall, I am extremely happy with this camera. There might be some more advanced ones on the market right now, but this camera is great for a first-time user. If you are looking for a camera for business purposes, this is perfect. I haven't used it too much for personal reasons (I'm paranoid about losing it on vacation, since it was an expensive purchase for me), but the pictures I have taken of my dog came out great :)