The simple hinged Compact Flash compartment door swings to the rear of the camera, it is held closed by a simple (but effective) integral clip. Inside is a Compact Flash Type I slot, the Coolpix 3100 comes with a 16 MB Compact Flash card.

On the left side of the camera (from the back) is the combined mini-USB / Video-out terminal (you get either depending on which of the supplied cables you connect). Below this is the DC-IN (4.2V) connector for use with the optional AC adapter. These connectors sit behind a rubber 'grommet style' cover, it would have been far cleaner to have a proper integrated hinged plastic door.

The Coolpix 3100 has a small extending 3x optical zoom lens, it has an equivalent focal length zoom of 38 to 115 mm and a maximum aperture of F2.8 at wide angle and F4.9 at telephoto.

Lens extension is very quick at just over one second, however actual extension doesn't begin until about half a second after you flick the power switch, total startup takes just over three seconds.

On the base of the camera is a plastic tripod mount which is positioned fairly close to the center seam of the two camera halves (so the camera won't tilt forwards or backwards on a tripod mounting plate). However the mount isn't near to the lens so panoramas may be tricky.

The Coolpix 3100's flash unit is located above and to the left of the lens, it has a rated range of 3.0 m (9.8 ft) at wide angle and 1.7 m (5.6 ft) at telephoto. Unlike other Coolpix designs the 3100 doesn't appear to have an external flash sensor.

Supplied in the box are (European kit):

 • Nikon Coolpix 3100
 • 16 MB Compact Flash card
 • 2 x NiMH batteries
 • MH-70 battery charger
 • Wrist strap
 • USB Cable
 • Video Cable (A/V)
 • CD-ROM (Drivers, Photoshop Elements 2)
 • Manual