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2026-10-12 Nikon Coolpix S3100 Digital Camera

If you are a collector of all things photographic, you sometimes end up repeating yourself. Once I had a grip on all things I had already collected, which is a funny characteristic of memory. If you are shown 100 unrelated images you can’t always identify all of them, but you can usually identify an image you are sure isn’t one of them. I use this memory characteristic to make quick decisions about collecting cameras as I encounter them.
    Trouble is there is a tendency to snap up unappreciated cameras being sold at low prices, even when you know you have at least one of them somewhere.
    Anyway, I was roaming in some desperation through my closest thrift store. I had immediately identified there weren’t any new cameras—new from the week before—but I had competition. This week it was the normal two brothers that are there every week, but I acquired another child in the parking lot while waiting for the store to open. These children are far faster than I, and scoop up anything that looks interesting. 
    Unfortunately they like the same things I do.
    Imagine having a school child “shooting” you with a 110 camera, delighted by the viewfinder and musing they could get some film for it and start to take photographs. It brought a lump to my throat seeing a vision of how I was when I was his age. Not only had I the heartlessness to point out the second camera he held up took the same film, but both took a film that was no longer available.
    I should move on to kicking puppies…
    Feeling I had to do something I pointed out there had been two more LED pen lights where I had found the Milwaukee brand penlight I had. Immediately all three children said, “Where! Show us”. So I trooped across the entire store to show them the two left. The 110 enthusiast grabbed the smaller one while the younger of the brothers took the other.
    I circled back to the electronics area and suddenly noticed a LowePro camera case hanging on its strap down one of the shelve’s uprights. Not daring to hope I reached to see if the case held anything.
    It did!











    The outside pocket held a charger. It is the one drawback to this story that the connecting charge/connecting cable was not with the camera.














    But speaking of cameras, the content of the large zippered compartment is a Nikon Coolpix S3100. It is a lovely camera with stickers touting a “Wide” 5x zoom and 14.0 Megapixel sensor. Wide means a 26mm (equivalent to 35mm) zoom that goes to 130mm.





    These cameras are available in 7 colours. They are slightly larger than a credit card and really slim at under 50 mm (1⅞ inches) thick. They are also stunningly light at 116 g (4 oz). The battery is good for 220 shots. The camera came with an 8 G SD card. With each JPEG compressed image being in the 4.5 Meg range you could store 1,778 images on the card!








    The controls are well laid out and work well. There are many scene modes, macro to 10 cm (4 inches), various colour choices including a slightly unusual cyanotype as well as sepia, B&W, Vivid (which is recommended as the normal images are slightly bland) and Normal.
    The camera is clever, recognizing closed eyes and faces. It isn’t great with image stabilization, depending on boasting the ISO or using multiple images (choosing the sharpest from a burst of image captures). Complaints are made of captures in poor light being noisy and generally not being a stellar performer while pointing out at the same time it is a reasonably cheap camera quite suitable for snapshots.
    And I have a Nikon Coolpix S3100 I collected five years ago. I have even written about it before. Now if I hadn’t taken it, imagine what the young 110 camera fan I thwarted could have developed into. 
    Some times I think you don’t die of old age. You die of guilt… 

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