Lately I have been noticing that gadget technology has sort of hit a wall. New cell phones and MP3 players are coming out every day with exciting new features that ultimately turn out to be mostly useless. How about a 2.5-inch screen for watching videos? No thanks. Or what about a touch screen phone that does everything but make and receive phone calls properly, and whose primary function seems to be transferring greasy fingerprints to your face? Not a fan. Hey, the Nintendo Wii sure is a cool video game system, too bad nobody has made any games for it yet.


Prominent CraveOnline kingpin at the wedding of the year.

And so it pleases me very much to inform you that the Nikon Coolpix S51c has actually succeeded in introducing the first truly useful feature to come along in awhile: Wi-Fi picture transferring capability. Tired of dealing with memory cards? Are you sick of waiting until you’re back from vacation to share your pictures with friends? Those problems are all but eliminated by this new innovation. All you have to do is add your friend’s email addresses, or your own, and send the pictures at any wireless access point. You also even set up an account at Nikon’s “Picturetown”, and automatically upload your pictures there. Your camera will even send your pictures to your account automatically when you plug your camera in to charge. How cool is that?


Your intrepid reporter and some weirdo in the background.

Wireless features aside, the Nikon Coolpix S51c is still a great camera, and at an affordable price ($329.95 or less). At 8.1 megapixels, it is capable of extremely high quality images. The Coolpix is loaded with features that stabilize the image and properly light and focus the subject. If you can screw up your shot with all these stabilizers and auto-enhancements working in tandem to help you out, then you should maybe consider a new hobby.


This camera has a specific "indoor party" setting that's great for pics like these.

The Nikon Coolpix S51c doesn’t even stop at picture taking, either. Also included are movie and voice recorders of particularly good quality, especially for a secondary feature on an extremely compact camera. I am particularly pleased with the stop motion feature that lets you record at different frame rates. Not that I’d use a camera to shoot movies very often, but it’s nice to know that those features are present. You never know when you might want to set up a time-lapsed sunset shoot or a camera-assisted 360-degree panoramic shot of the skyline.


I took this one before I figured out how to use the "red eye reduction".

There are a surprising amount of technical shots that can be accomplished with this little camera. The only thing really separating the Nikon Coolpix S51c from its professional brethren are the interchangeable lenses. But if you’re looking for a portable, compact and fully featured camera that offers something new this holiday season, look no further.


Red Ted the pirate cat in all his furious orange glory.