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Category: Point-and-Shoot

USER'S EXPERIENCE

Monday, January 19, 2009 - Here's what I receive in the box:

• Coolpix S60 [Burgundy]
• No Memory Card included [I received a Centrios 512MB Pro Series card for the review]
• Wrist Strap
• Stylus
• Rechargeable Li-ion Battery EN-EL10 (3.7V 740mAh) in a plastic pouch
• Battery Charger MH-63 with Power Cable
• Interface Cables: A/V; USB
• English and French Instruction Manuals: Quick Start Guide; User's Manual
• Software CDs: Nikon Software Suite for Coolpix (Nikon Transfer, ArcSoft PanoramaMaker)

The Nikon Coolpix S60 is an attractive digital camera with an all-metal body and clean design. There is an extra large and bright 3.5-in. LCD on the back and the LCD is touch sensitive. In fact, the actual image area occupies just 2.7-in. with two vertical bars right and left of the image area reserved for the virtual controls.

The Nikon S60 is a point-and-shoot model but it has a couple of practical features "under the hood." Preset WB allows you to obtain correct colors in artificial light settings. BSS (Best Shot Selector) allows you to take up to 10 pictures (as long as you keep the shutter depressed) and then the camera selects and keeps the one that is the sharpest.

One feature I really like is Touch AF which allows you to move the Focus area on screen by just tapping your finger to where you want the camera to focus. This allows you to put the camera on a tripod, compose the scene and then move the AF frame to the focus area you want. This greatly facilitates obtaining sharp pictures in macro photography where prefocusing with a half-press of the shutter release button and then recomposing can often result in blurred pictures (since even a few mm movement toward or away from the subject can lose the focus).

Other useful features include the ability to zoom in and crop a picture in-camera as well as making a smaller version for Web display. The original picture is untouched and a copy is saved in each case. If you do not like to post-process your pictures, these features might just make your life easier.

The Nikon S60 includes about 20MB of internal memory. At the 10M* image mode, 20MB can store only 4 images. A 4GB SDHC Card will hold about 805 10M* images.

At 640x480 30fps, you'll be able to store approx. 20 sec. of movie in the 20MB Internal Memory. On a 4GB SDHC Card, you can hold 2 clips of 2GB each (about 30 min. worth each clip).

When turned on, VR allows you to handhold the camera at slower shutter speeds than you would normally be able to, thus reducing the effects of camera shake and the resulting blurred images. It is however difficult to tell how effective VR is on the S60, and this is probably due to the way the camera has to be held: with your finger tips. I find that, even with VR turned ON, I sometimes get blurred images at shutter speeds I should normally be able to handhold shots.

Included in the box is a Li-ion battery EN-EL10 that can take approx. 140 pictures (CIPA Standard). That's not a lot of pictures if you are going on an extended photo shoot session, such as a wedding and the reception, so we recommend a fully recharged spare battery. Included is a battery charger MH-63 with a power cord. The battery charger will recharge a new or fully depleted battery in about 100 min.

The S60 uses USB 2.0 High Speed to transfer images from the camera to computer and transfer speed is therefore fast.

The Nikon Coolpix S60 is an enjoyable camera to use. It's compact enough to carry in my trousers pocket, so it is always available for a quick shot. The touch controls are quite intuitive though it takes some getting used to. Though the S60 provides some manual options (preset WB, Area AF, ISO, exposure compensation), it is basically a point-and-shoot digital camera that gives its best results in brightly lit situations. I find the S60 to be a fun and easy point-and-shoot to use, fashionable to take to events and the touch screen is a wow factor that always generate interesting conversation around the table.