Nikon Enters Super-Zoom Race with 18X CoolPix P80

If you’re gonna zoom, ZOOM, goes an old saying I just made up, and Nikon today is heeding those words: the CoolPix P80 point-and-shoot has an 18X optical zoom lens—that’s a 35mm equivalent of 27-486mm. Along with that, it’s got full P, A, S and M modes, optical vibration reduction and up to 6400 ISO at lower resolutions, so it’s all but guaranteed to let you crawl up a fly’s arse in midair. Compared to the budget minded full-manual CoolPix P60, the P80 has a few incremental improvements: a 10-megapixel CCD, up from the P60’s 8 megapixels, a 2.7″ LCD, up from 2.5″, oh and a $400 price tag, up from $230. Helllloooo profit margin! Press release after the gallery.