Nikon Coolpix S9900 Followup
Despite having a much higher-quality lens with zoom support than the fixed lens of a mobile phone camera, I found the Nikon Coolpix S9900 disappointing. One of the main reasons for having it was to take macro shots of plants, however I noticed right away that despite its supposedly advanced matrix focusing system it was not focusing on close-up flowers.
However, it also was not focusing on wide-angle shots such as scenery when hiking, and it also had issues with incorrect light balance - which I really noticed a lot taking photos in the shaded Muir Valley area. By contrast, the photos taken by my LG G5 phone's camera were excellent.
I also saw some Leptidoptera in Muir Valley which gave me a chance to test the zoom capability, but again it failed to focus correctly and the light balance was off.
I'm not sure if it was only the specific model that I had or if this issue affects the entire S9900 line. I have a much older Nikon D90 DSLR which has excellent focus and metering ability.
I ended up returning the S9900. I would really like it to have worked better. It would have been a great camera to take on hikes and the GPS feature worked well. However the quality of the photos it took were much lower than my LG G5 so I could not justify keeping it.
Unfortunately GPS is not a standard feature in compact DSLR cameras. I'm not sure why the major camera manufacturers are doing this. I guess mobile phone camera technology is so good that it really wiped out the compact DSLR market and perhaps the manufacturers have lost the drive to innovate.