This is what practitioners of Kyodo, the Japanese martial archery, seek: "correct hitting is in correct shooting". And this is how this camera makes you feel after mastering and getting used to its controls and abilities.

After months of research I decided and bought this ultrazoom. SLRs take better pictures but I refuse to carry all the extra equipment when on vacation. NIKON P5100 was the choice on the other end but it lacked both the x18 tele and the wide end zoom.

The (close) second contender was OLYMPUS SP-570UZ but here is why I found the NIKON a better choice and did not regret it: although the OLYMPUS comes with a larger zoom (x20) it is controlled solely by an awkward (motorized) ring that requires both hands and has an uneven feeling. Moreover, both cameras sport 10MP but, contrary to the OLYMPUS which just had more mega-pixels crammed onto the old (550 & 560) sensor, the NIKON comes with a newly developed sensor. On top of that, I avoided the slow and limited XD-cards OLYMPUS seems stuck on. On the other hand, I missed on 2mm of wideness and x2 on tele zoom.

I have been using the camera with undiminished enthusiasm for over a week and I have only good things to tell you about it. It took me a while to familiarize myself with the settings - full auto will not get the best results under any conditions. Once that harmonious point is reached though, this is the camera you would want to be using in most situations.
Where it looses the 5th star: the flash does not pop up automatically when needed. Forget to do so under low light and a high (and noisy) ISO creeps in. So yes, this piece of equipment is not without its caprices...

Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle (and Zen masters) warn about the observer altering the event being observed. With NIKON P80 one can obtain the shot visualized either from very close or from afar. And it does so with simplicity and style.