Duel at dawn

They were looking for a camera that accompanies me on walks, excursions or festivities, instead of my heavy DSLR equipment - a so-called "Always with camera". The decision to purchase was quite a long process. The technical specifications of the "delinquent" are relatively close together. On the P340 was shot with calibers such enormous inertia, low light intensity in the zoom range or battery life. Compared to the P330 it is also no real improvement. So I took my advice on the Internet:

dkamera.de had to suspend the very detailed test hardly anything on the P340. If the negatives relate to a fiddly on-off switch and a relatively long time or something slow reactions, it sounds "long sought" more like until finally still smears were sunken. At the same judgments come dxomark.com and digitalversus.com. Also etest.de rated the P340 as a very good camera and called as Contra-points all those that are completely irrelevant for me: no folding screen, no touch screen, no viewfinder, not a lot of tele and no accessory shoe. In testfreaks.com the P340 lands at No. 18 of 255 in Nikon cameras with 8.9 of 10 points. Most but better placed are the large DSLR cameras like the D7100 or D810.

The P340 is compared frequently with the Canon PowerShot S120 and the Sony Cybershot DSC-RX-100 II with marginal differences. Against Sony, focussed on significantly different price range for me. The Canon is with 30 more slightly expensive. In direct comparison with dkamera.de but the focus on the Nikon appear larger.

If, in the price Chip.de filter 300, the P330 and the P340 land on the 5th and 6th place. The front seats prove Fujifilm Finepix X10 (1), Pentax MX-1 (2), Olympus XZ-2 (3) and the Sony HX50V (4). For the X10 the optical viewfinder would have spoken, because in most photos (sun at your back) little has to do with the displays. The X10 is heavier and larger than the P340. Because of the projecting lens and the small aperture range (2.0 2.8) they gefiehl me much less. Klobigkeit also applies to the MX-1, the will here also rumored slower autofocus and Sonnenuntauglichkeit the display. Size, weight and battery life have spoken to me and against the XZ-2, especially the touch screen. I prefer in such a small device still buttons. With the Sony Cybershot DSC HX50V other hand I have quarreled long. She was due to the high video frame rate of 50 fps long a serious competitor for the Nikon, albeit slightly larger and heavier. Even the AVCHD videos procedure was the slightly better and the camera quickly overall. Ultimately, said the maximum aperture of 3.5 against Sony.

Compared to the P330 is the P340 is slightly faster and dispense with the GPS module in favor of WiFi. GPS I would not want anyway, and was the reason to decide against the lower-priced P330: Eats unnecessary amount of electricity, needs minutes to useful and provides the end not really relevant information. Mostly I can remember where I have my pictures taken. Even with WiFi I hesitate. Pictures Curling home directly from the SD card, so that WiFi might even come for remote control in question. That maybe once or twice a year and even then I would probably use my DSLR.

But what say to me all the many comparisons? Finally, I see it a little smirk with a dueling at dawn. The Nikon takes barely 2 seconds after switching on the first image can be made (versus 1.6 seconds for the Canon S120). The autofocus needs at wide angle 0.29 (Canon 0.18) and at the telephoto 0.62 (Canon 0.32) seconds. Between two images 1.3 (Canon 0.6) seconds. These are all values ​​that are worlds below the times of my decision! The brilliant snapshot is already a matter of luck and can probably be obtained more from a film sequence is stored at the Nikon at 25 fps.

Much more important to me sharpness and uniform image quality, especially at close range (macro) and beautiful moods (interior with soft lighting). Since I was the Nikon so far can inspire. The maximum aperture of 1: 1.8 makes here fully paid. Snapshots will not succeed, because the auto focus and the artificial light used therein indeed take some time. It will be rewarded with low noise and sharp images with an agreeable warm light and the open market. Since it is a full-blown DSLR hardly faster. The same applies to compromise on Tele, where especially the luminous intensity and the autofocus be faulted. For me this is comparing apples with pears. Tele-images I do not like because of the upset impression anyway too happy. When I'm on the road with the pocket camera in place of the large equipment, then to be able to keep even more obvious to remember, above all, to be able to make me a full picture what 24 mm wide angle are pretty good.

My P340, I then purchased from photo Bantle in Ravensburg. They also often ordinary prices and were this time 15 Euro cheaper than Amazon.