I really enjoy the process of setting up a picture and then pressing the shutter button to capture it. But sometimes one simply does not have a DSLR or other “full sized camera” on hand. Yes, one can also capture images with a cell phone, such as this one I shared a while back. But sometimes one simply wants a dedicated picture capturing device, not a multitool like the cell phone. Recently I was able to trade a lens that I had three examples of for a couple of vintage lenses and a Nikon Coolpix S800c compact camera. The idea being (in regards to the Coolpix) to have a “pocketable” camera I can slip in my jeans pocket and have along for the occasional photo opportunity.
The Nikon Coolpix S800c was announced in August of 2012. It is a 16 megapixel compact camera with a 10X optical zoom that is rated as equivalent to a 25-250mm zoom lens on a 35mm camera. It was featured at the time as being powered by Android and offered a lot of options for using the Gingerbread release of that operating system for both photo editing as well as cell phone type games and other apps. But Google ended support for this version of their operating system in September of 2021. All well and good if you’re already set up on the camera. But if you trade for such a camera and reset it to factory default – suddenly you’re unable to set up the Android system as Google will no longer allow you to open an account on a Gingerbread powered device. An email (several, actually) to Nikon’s alleged “customer service” yielded only “call our DSLR helpdesk”. Not a good sign. A call to the helpdesk yielded a couple of prolonged “hold” sessions and finally a confession that Nikon will not help you sort out the issue of using the camera sans Android. To say I was bummed at what I’d thought to be a reputable company is an understatement.
BUT thank God for friends. An inquiry to a friend lead to him asking his son (who’s big into tech stuff) who contacted me and helped me figure out that one of the initial screens can actually be swiped up to reveal the option to bypass registration and go right to picture taking with the camera. Woohoo! I’d had visions of hanging the nifty little bit of obsolete technology over my computer screen as a reminder to do even more thorough investigation prior to buying “obsolete tech”. NOW we’ve got a functioning camera! BUT – how does it do in the picture taking area?
What I’m discovering is that this camera likes things to be “just right” and there’s not much manual control. After shooting mostly DSLR’s and learning to use the exposure triangle and such it’s weird to pick up a “point and shoot” and find few options for manually controlling the pictures captured. I’m sure there’s more in there, but we’ll have to dig some to find it. In the meantime, here’s a few of the first snaps that were worth keeping. The reject ratio has ben quite high, hopefully I can learn to lower it.
