7.0/ 10 SCORE
Nikon Coolpix P1100
Pros
Remarkable 125x optical zoom
Bluetooth and USB-C
Some use beyond its zoom
Cons
An absolute unit of a camera
Zoom is conspicuous (to put it mildly)
Slow lens and small sensor
The Nikon Coolpix P1100 is, to put it mildly, a unique camera. Unique, at least, in the modern era of point-and-shoot cameras. Its headline feature, its only major feature really, is an absolutely bonkers 125x optical zoom. That kind of reach is incredibly rare at any level of photography and especially at the P1100’s price. You could sit in the stands of a football game and take photos of the opposing team’s playbook. You could be in the cheap seats for a concert and see the conductor’s score. You can’t see the Apollo 11 landing site, but you can get shots of the moon that rival some inexpensive telescopes.
Beyond that admittedly impressive trick, the P1100 has some noteworthy limitations. Most notably, it uses a small image sensor. That, paired with the slowness of the lens, means it struggles with anything but brightly lit scenes. Even in broad daylight, getting an image without lens shake or blur is often challenging. Also, its resolution is only 15.9 megapixels, which is fine but far lower than most contemporary cameras. Image quality in general isn’t bad, but other than the zoom range, it’s nothing impressive. So, overall, it’s an interesting camera for sure, but one with a very narrow niche.
Specs and hardware
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Nikon Coolpix P1100 specs
Photo resolution 15.9 megapixels (4,608×3,456)Video resolution 4K30Sensor size 1/2.3-inchLens 24-3,000mm (35mm equivalent) f/2.8-f8Image stabilization Optical (photos), Optical and Digital (video)Screen type 3.2-inch LCD (not a touchscreen), 180-degree pivot and rotateViewfinder OLEDStorage SD/SDHC/SDXCWeight 1,410g (3.1lbs)App iOS/Android
Because it’s by far the most important aspect of this camera, let’s talk about the ludicrousness that is the P1100’s lens. At its widest, it’s a reasonably wide 24mm (35mm equivalent). This is similar to what you’d get from the primary camera in many phones. At its longest telephoto end, it’s a borderline ridiculous 3,000mm. Ever seen those huge lenses on the sidelines at sporting events? Those are in the 500mm to 1,200mm range. This 125x optical zoom is incredibly rare, at least today. While many companies made superzoom cameras in the past, this is the only new one.
A few things make such a zoom range possible in a reasonably compact, portable package. It is not a very fast lens. It’s a reasonable f2.8 at the wide end but that drops off as soon as you start to zoom in, ending at f8. We’ll talk about this more in the next section but the short version is that the slowness of the lens combined with the small image sensor conspires to make handheld photos a bit challenging, even in bright light. It’s also quite soft at its farthest reach so the image will lack the sharpness you might expect even if you nail the focus (not a given with a relatively slow autofocus). It does have a macro mode, though, so you can get some cool close-ups of flowers and such.
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Speaking of that sensor, I’m not exaggerating by saying it’s small. In the heyday of digital point-and-shoots, the P1100’s sensor size was the most common — from cheap snapshot cameras to pocket zooms and beyond. But today, even the main camera sensors in the iPhone 16, Google Pixel 9 and Samsung Galaxy S24 are all larger.
The P1100’s sensor is the same size as the far more compact Panasonic ZS99, our overall pick for best point-and-shoot camera, but it’s far smaller than the 1-inch sensor in the Sony ZV-1 II and far, far smaller than the APS-C sensors in the Ricoh GR III or Fujifilm X100VI. Now, in fairness, the Panasonic and Sony cameras have only a small fraction of the Nikon’s zoom range, and the Ricoh and Fuji have no zoom at all. This means the P1100 can’t capture as much light as the others so to correctly capture a scene it needs some combination of a wider aperture (limited by the lens), slower shutter speed or higher ISO (not easy to adjust). This is less of an issue in bright scenes because you have plenty of light. But in anything other than bright scenes, it can be. Even in full sun, if you’re trying to capture something in motion, the shutter speed is so slow your subject often ends up blurred.
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Beyond the lens and sensor, most of the camera carries over from its predecessor, the P1000. The screen not only pivots perpendicular to the camera but also rotates fully up and down so you can see it from just about every angle. That’s good but it’s hard to see with some sunglasses and worse, it’s not a touchscreen, which would have helped the camera’s usability a bunch. On the body, only two physical dials are available to adjust settings without going into the menus. In addition to manual modes like aperture and shutter priority, there are also specific Bird and Moon modes. The latter easily adjusts to change the moon’s apparent color temperature. The significant changes the P1100 adds from its predecessor are Bluetooth 5.2, for easier connections to modern phones, and USB-C, required by EU law but a welcome addition regardless.
Nikon’s SnapBridge app (iOS/Android) isn’t flashy but connects to the camera easily. In addition to downloading your images, you can control the camera remotely.
Usability and photo quality
Taken from the same spot about 1 minute apart. You can just barely make out the first duckling coming around the corner on the left size of the maze.
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Let’s get this out of the way up front: this camera is chonkers. It is not subtle. It is not small. It is larger than my full-frame Canon R6 with a huge prime lens on it. When you zoom in, the lens extends out from the body, nearly doubling the total size and it looks absurd. It’s possible to use one-handed but given the odd weight balance, you’ll generally need two hands. For anything other than bright sunlight, I strongly recommend a monopod or tripod. I wanted to state that info up front because this is a niche camera and as such, it’s not for everyone. I want you to understand what you’re getting into.
That water bottle is in the center of the image on the left.
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And what are you getting into? Well, if you want to take photos that need an extreme zoom, this is one of the least expensive, most compact ways to get it. A perfect use would be going to a National Park like Yellowstone, where there are lots of wild animals but they’re often quite far from the roads. This camera would let you get “up close” without being a touron and actually getting up close — the same with safaris, birding tours, etc. Depending on the conditions, you’re limited more by atmospheric effects than the lens’ reach. Heat rising off the hundreds of feet of surface between you and your subject can blur your photo significantly.
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You can also get some great shots of the moon. You’ll generally need a tripod, but you can get incredibly close and detailed pictures. Any closer and you’d need a telescope or an industrial supply of liquid oxygen and RP-1.
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However, that doesn’t extend to any other close-up astronomical studies. At its farthest zoom, the lens is a slow f8. That’s only 12.5% of the light reaching the sensor compared to the f2.8 at its widest. That, and because of its small sensor, means that in order to capture enough light for a usable photo, the shutter speed has to be so slow that any stars or planets you’d want to capture will move. In other words, no pinpoints of light. Stupid rotating Earth.
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Even with photos of animals, or whatever else you’re zooming in on, unless it’s really brightly lit, you risk either lens shake or a blurry, moving subject. Increasing the ISO could help but even in manual mode, it’s buried in a menu, not easily accessible from one of the dials. There’s only so much it could help anyway, the max ISO is 6400. So there’s an extremely limited range, even with the right light, where the shutter speed is fast enough to shoot handheld or photograph a moving subject but slow enough that the image isn’t underexposed. A monopod or tripod will help a lot but you can’t be too cheap with the latter, as this is a heavy camera with an odd balance when the lens is fully extended.
The plane I was trying to photograph is not in focus and would have been blurred anyway because of the air. However, the bird, which I didn’t notice at all until looking over the photos, is perfectly sharp.
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Overall image quality is … fine. Lacking the computational tricks of a modern phone, the images aren’t as vibrant or sharp as you can get with better, modern phones. You can shoot raw, at least in some modes, so you can improve the image with whatever photo editing software you choose. After shooting with the P1100 for a while, I got the best zoomed-in results standing as still as possible, shooting burst and “walking” the camera to the right, framing on a distant subject as it took multiple photos. Trying to get the right shot one-and-done proved beyond my patience. To be fair, shooting bursts is pretty common for many types of photography. I just typically shoot landscapes. At 7 frames per second, the burst isn’t particularly fast and it takes a moment to save the maximum of seven images to the SD card. Still, overall, I got a far greater number of photos that I was satisfied with using this method.
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The camera’s video is fairly unremarkable, looking much like the video from a phone a few years ago. It’s great that you can use the zoom while recording. The optical and digital stabilization means you can even get reasonably stable footage handheld. The lens’ zoom and focus motors aren’t particularly quiet, however. If you zoom or have autofocus enabled during a recording, and there isn’t a lot of ambient noise where you are, you’ll hear them in your video. This isn’t a huge deal, it’s an extremely recognizable sound. Many Hollywood movies add it in when a character is recording video and zooms in because people expect it. There are newer cameras and lenses with much quieter motors, but again, they’re all more expensive.
Will the photos and videos work for social media? Yes. Can you print the photos? If you nail the focus, yes, but not too large. To put it as broadly as possible, you can absolutely get pictures with the P1100 that would not be possible with any phone, and without spending significantly more money, and no other new camera can either. However, the photos are often quite soft and lack the detail, color, and dynamic range of better cameras.
Zoom zoom
This is a comparison between the P1100 and the Pixel 9 Pro which has optical and digital telephoto. Upper left is the P1100. Lower left is the Pixel 9 Pro’s main camera. Upper right is the P1100 zoomed in. The middle right image is the 9 Pro’s 5x optical zoom, a common range for smartphone telephoto lenses. The lower right is the 30x digital zoom which even on social media would look extremely soft.
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Most products, cameras included, are designed for a fairly broad audience. Sure, not everyone needs noise-canceling headphones, a 4K TV or a point-and-shoot camera. Still, if someone is looking for a product within those categories, generally the products found are designed for “most people.” As the point-and-shoot category has withered since the advent of phone photography, the opposite has happened. Most compact cameras “for anyone” have disappeared, and what remains in 2025 are far more specialized. Even within that framework, the P1100 is a camera with an extremely specific, almost single-minded use. This is not a camera for everyone. It’s not even a camera for most people.
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So, who is this for? Basically, anyone who wants or needs a massive zoom lens without taking out a second mortgage to pay for it. You’d have to spend many thousands of dollars to get a comparable zoom in a mirrorless or DSLR, and the gear would be far larger and heavier. The P1100 is $1,100. That’s equivalent to just the camera body of many interchangeable lens cameras. Big telephoto lenses, which rarely have the range of the P1100, would be several thousand on top of that, even if buying used. So, without exaggeration, there really isn’t anything like the P1100 without spending a ton of money.
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However, the necessary compromises that let the P1100 exist need to be considered. The image sensor is tiny. That, paired with a relatively slow lens, means that the image quality is pretty average, at best. If the light isn’t perfect, it’s definitely not going to be at its best. The image stabilization is decent, but with the aforementioned sensor and lens, combined with the remarkable zoom, it means that even in bright light, many zoomed-in images will be blurry. If you’re considering this for shooting indoor sports or other events, you’ll likely be extremely disappointed with the results. Understanding ISO, aperture and shutter speed is vital to get usable images, even if the range you can adjust those settings is fairly limited.
This is a great “budget” option for some impressive closeups for birders, budding wildlife photographers and moon aficionados. For anyone who doesn’t need the extreme zoom but still wants some zoom, the Panasonic ZS99 has the same size image sensor and is half the price, a fraction of the size, but has a still-impressive 30x zoom.
In addition to covering cameras and display tech, Geoff does photo tours of cool museums and locations around the world, including nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, medieval castles, epic 10,000-mile road trips and more.
Also, check out Budget Travel for Dummies, his book, and his bestselling sci-fi novel about city-sized submarines. You can follow him on Instagram and YouTube.
