The Nikon Coolpix P5100 is one of the most advanced compact digital cameras that Nikon makes. Many of its features are likely to be found on a Digital SLR camera. This includes a hotshoe. Hotshoes are very rare on digital cameras outside of Digital SLRs.
Manual exposure controls include fully manual, aperture priority and shutter priority. Manual focus is available too. Other focusing options include Continuous-servo and Single-servo AF (S). There is also an optical viewfinder for lining up photos.
The capabilities of the 3.5x zoom lens can be increased by adding conversion lenses. Both wide angle and telephoto converters are available to buy.
To minimize the possible impact of camera shake Nikon have built image stabilisation into the camera. You also have access to a variety of flash modes and various aspect ratios. This allows you to even produce square photos if you wish to.
The Coolpix P5100 is one of the few digital cameras able to shoot time lapse movies.