PHOTO QUALITY. This 20-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; fair for indoor performance, such as photographing a well-lit basketball game in a gym.
FLASH. The CoolPIx A300 captured flash shots that were fair. In our distance test, we found the camera's flash could illuminate close subjects, but had significant problems with distant subjects. The flash also has fair, somewhat uneven coverage.
LENS. This camera includes an 8x zoom lens, a bit more zoom than a standard 3x. The lens also has very wide-angle (25mm) 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 zoom set at 4x in well-lit scenes, this model did a very good job of minimizing the effects of camera shake. 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 well but sometimes produced blurry photos. Overall, the shake reduction results from our tests were good.
SPEED. In terms of performance, the Nikon CoolPIx A300 powers up very quickly.
VIDEO. The Nikon CoolPIx A300 takes fair video. It captures HD video at 1280 x 720. As for sound, it captures fair 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 thinner than most in its class.
