Nikon Coolpix S51c

Viewfinder (0.0)
The Nikon Coolpix S51c doesn’t have room for an optical viewfinder because of its enormous 3-inch LCD screen. The big LCD makes a decent viewfinder, though. It has good resolution and a decent refresh rate, although moving subjects look a little choppy as they traverse across the screen. The S51c’s LCD has a 100 percent accurate view of the recorded frame, whether in Shooting or Playback mode. This is an upgrade over Nikon’s current P-series offerings, the P50 and P5100, which have only 97 percent accuracy.

Live viewing is great indoors, but a little tougher under harsher lighting; the screen seems to wash out when under the sun. It’s hard to tell whether the screen is washed out or the images are overexposed; it seemed the problem was the LCD, but then when images were loaded to the computer we realized many of them were overexposed.

We like to view file information when shooting, but hide it when playing the images back on the LCD screen. That’s a tough order for the Nikon Coolpix S51c. Users have to enter the Setup menu to change any of the information shown on the LCD screen. This is done through the mode button, which isn’t very intuitive because many cameras access the setup options through the menu button instead. The S51c’s display options are in a "monitor settings" menu that contains photo info and brightness submenus. The photo info can be shown, hidden, or automated (this is the default; it shows the info for five seconds and then hides it). A framing grid can also be added to the full file info already shown.

Viewing images isn’t a problem on the large LCD, but switching the amount of information shown is a pain because of its placement in the hidden Setup menu.

LCD Screen (9.0)
The Nikon Coolpix S51c is equipped with a 3-inch LCD screen that has 230,000 pixels. These are excellent specs, putting the S51c near the top of the line in this department. This used to be the high standard, but the Sony G1 stole that designation when it came out with its 3.5-inch, 921,000-pixel LCD screen. The G1 is a direct competitor of the S51c with its wireless technology, but costs a whopping $599.

The S51c’s LCD is very similar to its predecessor’s LCD, which measures 3 inches and has the same resolution. The only difference is that the older S50c has a wider viewing angle of 170 degrees rather than the S51c’s 160 degrees. The new S51c’s viewing angle still looks excellent; the image on the screen can be seen from above, below, and to the sides of the photographer’s face.

There is an anti-reflection coating on the Coolpix S51c’s LCD screen. It doesn’t seem to do much in the sunlight, where the screen looks washed out. The bigger problem is the amount of grease that collects on the LCD; fingerprints are reflected in the sunlight, making it hard to see the image beneath.

The brightness of the LCD can be adjusted on a five-step scale to combat the problem in the sunlight. Good luck finding it when out in the sun, though. The brightness option is buried. Most digital cameras have a display button on the camera body, but the Nikon Coolpix S51c hides its brightness options in the Setup menu, accessible through the mode button – none of this is very intuitive.

Flash (3.25)
The built-in flash is located directly to the left of the lens when viewing from the front. It has powerful specs that state it can reach from 1 foot to 19 feet, 8 inches when the lens is zoomed out and 13 feet, 1.5 inches with the lens zoomed in. These specs are more impressive than the flash really is, though.

The flash on the Nikon Coolpix S51c caused the most red eyes we’ve seen on any digital camera in 2007. About 70 percent of images taken with people in them and using the Auto Flash mode came out with red eyes.

Nikon advertises an in-camera red-eye fix, but it is nowhere to be found on the camera. I searched through menus and pushed buttons, but the red eyes wouldn’t disappear. There is an automatic exposure fix in the Playback mode, but it did nothing for the red eyes in images.

The Flash modes are found by pushing the top of the rotary dial. A small submenu appears with Auto, On with Red-Eye, Off, On, and Slow Sync options. The flash seems too powerful for subjects closer than five feet and too weak for subjects more than 12 feet away. The coverage isn’t very even, either: the central third of the image is very bright, while both edges are significantly darker.

Overall, the flash isn’t as powerful as its specs indicate, and its uneven coverage and unavoidable red eyes are not flattering.

Zoom Lens (6.5)
There aren’t many changes in the set of components: the LCD and flash are nearly the same as those on the S50c. The 3x optical zoom lens is the same story. It comes with the same lens-shift optical vibration reduction system. The optical image stabilization can’t be used in the Movie mode, and neither can the optical zoom for that matter, but it is effective in minimizing blur in still images.

The Zoom-Nikkor lens measures 6.3-18.9mm, which is equivalent to 38-114mm. This isn’t a very wide angle, so users will have trouble shooting landscapes and big group portraits. The Sony G1 has the same equivalent 38-114mm range, so this is certainly a common problem for tiny internal lenses. Users who want a wider and longer lens should go for the compact Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 with its extending 10x, 28-280mm lens that is also equipped with optical image stabilization.

The S51c’s lens seems to cause problems for its images. There were all kinds of undesirable lens phenomena: color fringing, lens vignetting, white ghosting, and blurry edges.

The zoom is controlled by an undersized sliver of chrome that is placed in the upper right corner of the back and rocks to the right and left. When touched, a horizontal bar graphic appears across the top of the LCD screen. The control allows the lens to stop at eight focal lengths within the 3x range and access the available 4x digital zoom.

There are 12 elements in nine groups that make up the 3x lens, and they must shift quietly because the lens doesn’t make a peep. The lens operates with an electronically controlled aperture that opens to f/3.3 when zoomed out and f/4.2 when zoomed in; this doesn’t let much light pass through to the image sensor, but is common on tiny lenses.

The placement of the Coolpix S51c’s lens can be troublesome. It is positioned in the upper right corner of the camera when viewing from the front; this is where the left fingers curl around and grip. I snapped several pictures of my left index finger.

The lens is poorly placed in the way of the left fingers. That combined with its narrow 38-114mm range and the abundance of lens distortion and phenomena make it another low quality component on the list.