The Nikon Coolpix S60 is an ultra-compact and light digital camera with an all-metal body that feels solid and well-built. It is stylish, attractive and is slim enough to slip into a jeans pocket or small fashion handbag.
The Nikon S60 does not have a handgrip (or even "finger grip") and can sometimes be slippery, so the use of the wrist strap is a good idea. The small square besides the lens is the self-timer/AF-assist lamp, easy to block with your fingers if you are not careful.
Besides the Power button and the Shutter Release button, the S60 does not have any other controls! Touch screens are the hot must-have fashion stuff du jour and the S60 has an extra large 3.5-in. touch panel LCD that allows you to tap your way to select the settings you want. In Playback mode, you slide your finger across the LCD à-la-iPhone (though not quite as slick) to scroll through your images.
Press the tiny Power ON button and the camera is ready to take a picture in about 1 sec. The lens does not extend externally.
Shot to shot time
is about 1.7 sec. (I took 3 shots in approx.
5 sec.) There is no practical shutter
lag. Autofocus is very fast in good lighting conditions though it can sometimes
take about 1 sec. in low-light; it is however precise,
so you do lock focus.
STYLE
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Colors: various body colors (Espresso Black, Arctic White, Burgundy, Champagne Pink, Platinum Bronze and Crimson Red) available depending on country, with silver/chrome accents.
-
Looks: fashionable, stylish
FEEL
-
Well designed, comfortable enough to hold, but slippery
-
Touch panel: either you love-it or hate-it
DIMENSIONS &
WEIGHT
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Ultra Compact: fits in a Jeans pocket or small fashion purse
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Dimensions: Approx. 97.5 x 60 x 22 mm (3.8 x 2.4 x 0.9 in.) excluding projections
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Weight: Approx. 145 g (5.1 oz.) without
battery and SD memory card
-
Takes 1 Li-ion battery EN-EL10 3.7V
740mAh
SPEED OF OPERATION
-
Startup speed with no lens extension required and LCD turning
on in less than 1 sec.
-
Shot to shot time about 1.7 sec.
-
No practical shutter lag.
On the top right side
of the camera (viewed from the back) there is a small
plastic "door" that rotates out of the way and hides the HDMI Mini Connector (requires use of optional HDMI cable). The USB connector itself is on the bottom of the camera and unprotected.
Controls
The top of the camera has (from right to left)
the Shutter Release Button and the tiny Power ON/OFF button.
You will search and not find any other control buttons. Instead, the extra large 3.5-in. LCD (230K dots) is a touch panel and allows you to select the settings you want.
The touch panel is a love-it or hate-it proposition. It's cool to be able to scroll through your pictures in Playback mode with a flick of your finger across the screen, but do not expect the virtual controls to work as smoothly as on an iPhone. There is a slight lag that can sometimes be disconcerting and, at times when I am in a hurry, I wished I simply had the usual physical button controls.
As is common on Nikon digital cameras, you can record movie clips (with sound) @ 640x480
at 30fps until the memory card is full as well as Time Lapse movies (up tp 1,800 frames at 640x480 @ 30fps for a maximum playback time of 60 sec., no sound) for special effects. A movie clip is 2GB max. You have a choice of
Single AF (focus locks once movie recording
starts) or Full-time AF (camera continuously adjusts
focus during movie recording, so focusing
sound will also get recorded). Electronic Vibration Reduction is available to reduce the effect of camera shake (not available in Time Lapse movies).
When in Playback mode, the Delete virtual button will
delete the displayed picture; to Delete All, you
need to access the Menu [Home - Menu - Delete - Earse all images].
On the bottom (more or less middle) of the camera is the metal tripod socket. Just besides it, on the right is the Battery
/ SD Card Compartment. There is a small latch
to secure the battery from falling when the door
is opened. You will not be able to change
battery and card while the camera is mounted on
a tripod.
LCD & Menus
The Nikon S60 has no viewfinder but has this extra large 3.5 in. LCD monitor that takes up the whole of the back. The LCD monitor has a wide viewing angle and an anti-glare coating that is supposed to help in bright sunlight though I still find it difficult to view the LCD in very bright sunlight. You can manually adjust the LCD monitor's brightness in SETUP [5 levels, with Level 3 considered normal brightness].
Note that though the LCD measures 3.5-in. diagonally, the actual image area measures 2.7-in. diagonally since a right vertical bar and a left vertical bar are reserved for the virtual controls.
The LCD monitor gains up slightly in low-light (but the image is very grainy) to make it possible to see and compose in somewhat dark conditions. There
is an effective AF-assist Illuminator to help
achieve focus in low-light. You can display a Framing Grid [Home - Setup - Monitor settings - Photo info - Framing grid] to help keep the horizon level.
SHOOTING MODE
SCENE MODES
MOVIE MODE
SHOOTING INFO
- Notice that the two vertical strips of touch controls reduce the image area to 2.7-in. diagonal
SHOOTING ZOOM
- The Zoom is also touch control
- It's positiond
a bit low on the screen, which means that you inadvertently activate HOME when you wanted to zoom out
- ISO sensitivity
- AF area mode
- Distortion control
IMAGE MODE 1 of 2
- 10M*: High (3648*)
- 10M: Normal (3648)
- 5M: Normal (2592)
- 3M: Normal (2048)
IMAGE MODE 2 of 2
- PC screen (1024)
- TV screen (640)
- 16:9 (7M)
- 16:9 (2M)
WHITE BALANCE 1 of 2
- Auto
- Preset manual
- Daylight
- Incandescent
WHITE BALANCE 2 of 2
- Fluorescent
- Cloudy
- Flash
- You can immediately see the effect on the LCD screen
EXPOSURE COMPENSATION
- -2.0EV to +2.0 EV in 1/3EV steps
CONTINUOUS 1 of 2
- Single
- Continuous
- BSS
- Multi-shot 16
CONTINUOUS 2 of 2
- Interval timer shooting
ISO 1 of 3
- Auto (64-800)
- High ISO sensitivity auto
- 64
- 100
- Note: Hi-ISO range is from 64 to 1600
ISO 2 of 3
- 200
- 400
- 800
- 1600
ISO 3 of 3
- 2000
- 3200 (5M)
AF AREA MODE
- Face priority
- Center: camera always focuses on center
AF area
FACE DETECTION
FACE PRIORITY
TOUCH AF
- Tap the screen to focus the camera at that point
DISTORTION CONTROL
- On (will reduce size of frame)
- Off
SCENE MODES
- Scene auto selector, Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Night portrait
- Party/indoor, Beach/snow, Sunset, Dusk/dawn, Night landscape
- Close-up, Food, Museum, Fireworks show, Copy
- Draw, Backlight, Panorama assist, Voice recording
SCENE MODES HELP
- If you don't know what the icons stand for, touch the "?" and then touch an icon to display the corresponding help screen
MOVIE MENU
- Movie options
- Auto-focus mode
- Electronic Vibration Reduction
MOVIE OPTIONS
- TV Movie 640 [640x480 @ 30fps]
- Small size 320 [320x240 @ 30fps]
- Small size 320 [320x240 @ 15fps]
- Time-lapse movie (1800 frames max.)
- Clip of 2GB max.
MOVIE OPTIONS
- Single AF
- Full-time AF (focus sound will be recorded)
ELECTRONIC VR
- Off
- On
SETUP 1 of 5
- Choose HOME display
- Welcome screen
- Date
- Monitor settings
SETUP 2 of 5
- Date imprint
- Vibration reduction: turn this ON to enable
image stabilization; choose OFF when camera
is placed on a tripod
- AF assist: AF-assist lamp lights to enable
focus lock in poor lighting
- Digital zoom
SETUP 3 of 5
- Sound settings
- Record orientation
- Auto off
- Format card
SETUP 4 of 5
- Language
- TV settings
- Blink warning
- Reset all
SETUP 5 of 5
- Firmware version
CHOOSE HOME DISPLAY
- Metallic
- Burgundy
- Lights
WELCOME SCREEN
- None
- COOLPIX
- Select an image
DATE 1 of 2
- Date
- Time zone
DATE 2 of 2
TIME ZONE 1 of 3
TIME ZONE 2 of 3
TIME ZONE 3 of 3
MONITOR SETTINGS
- Photo info
- Brightness
PHOTO INFO
- Show info
- Auto info
- Hide info
- Framing grid
MONITOR BRIGHTNESS
DATE IMPRINT
- Off
- Date
- Date and time
- Date counter
VIBRATION REDUCTION
- On
- Off
AF ASSIST
- Auto
- Off
DIGITAL ZOOM
- On
- Off
SOUND SETTINGS
- Button sound
- Shutter sound
RECORD ORIENTATION
- Auto (Camera orientation is recorded when shooting and picture is automatically rotated in Playback mode)
- Off
AUTO OFF
- 30 sec.
- 1 min.
- 5 min.
- 30 min.
FORMAT CARD
LANGUAGE 1 of 3
- 24 different languages
- Czech, Danish, German, English, Spanish, Greek, French, Indonesian
- On (In Face Priority mode, warns if subject has eyes closed)
- Off
RESET ALL
FIRMWARE VERSION
- Ver. 1.0
PLAYBACK INFO
- Notice the two vertical strips of touch controls on the left and right side
PLAYBACK MAGNIFY
PLAYBACK MENU 1 of 2
- Print set
- Delete
- Protect
- Rotate image
PLAYBACK MENU 2 of 2
- Copy
PRINT SET
- Select images
- Delete print set
DELETE
- Erase selected images
- Erase all images
PROTECT
- Select image to protect
COPY
- from Internal memory to Memory Card
- from Memory Card to Internal memory
The touch panel LCD is the strong selling point of the Nikon Coolpix S60. In fact, there is no escaping it since all controls (except Power and Shutter Release) are touch based. If you like the idea of a touch screen, enjoy finger (or fingertip) control, then definitely check this easy-to-use point-and-shoot camera out.
