PHOTO QUALITY. This 16-megapixel Point-and-shoot camera captured images with merely fair quality. We judged this model very good for outdoor performance, such as shooting landscapes in the daytime; good for indoor performance, such as photographing a well-lit basketball game in a gym.
FLASH. The CoolPIx A10 captured flash shots that were good. In our distance test, we found the camera's flash could illuminate most subjects that are closer to the camera, but had some problems with distant subjects. The flash also has good, relatively even coverage.
LENS. This camera includes a 5x zoom lens, a bit more zoom than a standard 3x. The lens also has very wide-angle (26mm) capability that's very useful for landscapes and group portraits, although you may notice a bit of distortion when you're shooting faces up close, for instance.
IMAGE STABILIZATION. This is an important feature; taking hand-held shots at the telephoto end of the zoom range can generally blur or soften images due to the slight movement of your hands. Shooting telephoto in well-lit scenes, this model did a very good job of minimizing the effects of camera shake. In low-light settings, it performed poorly and very often produced blurry photos. Overall, the shake reduction results from our tests were poor.
SPEED. In terms of performance, the Nikon CoolPIx A10 does not power up as quickly as top-rated models. It has a relatively long interval between shots, which means you might miss an important shot when shooting fast-moving or unpredictable subjects.
VIDEO. The Nikon CoolPIx A10 takes fair video. It captures HD video at 1280 x 720. As for sound, it captures very good audio in mono.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS. Like most point-and-shoot models, this camera does not include a viewfinder, which means you'll need to rely on the LCD to compose your photo or video. It has a small 2.6-inch LCD, which has good quality that lets you compose your shots and has decent playback of photos and video. This Point-and-shoot is bigger than most in its class.
