Speed of action shots between Canon T3i & Nikon Coolpix P510

i own a p510. there is a way to go around the slow shutter speed, and that is by taking a video at HD 1080p, 30 fps (1920x1080). once recorded, you can play back and select a particular frame to your own liking and capture it as a still image.

for the price and the zoom, i'd go for the p510.

Any DSLR (or DSLT :) will serve you better than any compact. Speed, quality, battery life, you name it. Even the cheapest DSLR is way above any compact, fixed-lens camera. My backup camera, a Nikon D40 (6MP) is able to eat compacts for breakfast. Don't let the megapixels fool you: the more megapixels you pu on a tiny compact sensor, the more noise you get.

t3i is a different game than p51 - cant compare a point and shoot with a dslr - if you have only these 2 options in mind and money is not an issue any dslr would give u better performance in all aspects except long range zoom w/o extra lens.