go read the reviews on amazon. Read the reviews on dpreview.com and steve's digicams. The latter 2 usually are very thorough and review most of the digital cameras that come out

And when you're reading the reviews on amazon - take them with a grain of salt, the same as you'd do with a bike review - is the reviewer expecting too much out of the camera, did they just never read the manual and are they complaining about something the camera can do, but they just don't know how to make it do? Then decide what you really want out of your camera and if you can live with the limitations that are being described.

I can't say I've ever used a nikon coolpix - the bf had one that I hated, but we fried it using it in a kayak on salt water, so problem solved.