I bought this camera for the fast F1.8 lens, however, I quickly discovered the AF system can't support it. The AF system does not perform in low light situations... Constant 'red boxes', indicating the camera can't obtain a focus. It defeats the whole purpose of a fast lens! On the other side, when you do get a good shot, the picture quality is top quality.... Clean, sharp and with excellent color and light balance. If you're not concerned with low light photography, this is a winner of a camera! Does anyone know of a compact point and shoot or a compact DLSR that meets my needs???

UPDATE - The AF system does not function well in low light when the camera is in 'Auto' mode. The AF system functions well when using 'Night' or 'Dusk / Dawn' modes...

First of all, this is not a full review (people already did great jobs in reviewing the older model P300) this is more like a comparison between p300 and p310 because I had a hard time until I've settled on this camera. The choices for me were (P310, Canon s100, Olympus XZ-1, and of course the older model P300)

I don't own and never used the Nikon p300, so I can't tell if the p310 worth the extra 70$ but am going to mention the added features to the p310 and you decide for yourself :

- 16.1 megapixels instead of 12.2. Some might say it will produce more noise, but in my case I didn't face any issues with the 16 megapixels, no noticeable noise at all. And with some added features such as noise control of 3 different levels (which is also not available in the P300), then I don't think you should be concerned at all trust me.

- fn button (This is customizable, allowing you to assign a frequently used camera setting to it rather than having to dig through... Read more

I just got this camera a few days ago, so this review is only based on a few days of playing around with it. No real action in the field.

Pros:
- a lot smaller than my previous camera (Panasonic GF-1), so it fits in my pocket
- low light performance is great
- VR is outstanding, I can take shots handheld at the widest angle at 1/10 of a second shutter speed, no problem.
- fast lens
- you can charge the camera from a usb port on a computer, I travel a lot I don't want to have to lug around an extra charger

Cons:
- there is a FAN in the camera. If I'm in a silent room, I can hear the whirring of the fan. Its a small nitpick, but it annoys me like crazy. The fan stops when reviewing pictures
- even though its small, it's not small enough where I can forget that its sitting in my pocket, it fits, rather than slips into my pocket. Maybe I just need bigger pants.
- zoom during video is really slow. I imagine this is to prevent... Read more