1.7The latest digital camera in Nikon’s “style” series is the wireless-enabled Coolpix S51c. It was released alongside the S51 and offers the same automated features, with the addition of wireless transfer technology. The Nikon S51c has 8.1 megapixels, a stabilized 3x optical zoom lens, and a 3-inch LCD screen. It comes in a sexy little body and retails for $299, making it one of the least-expensive and best-looking wireless-enabled digital cameras on the market.
Connectivity Software (7.0)
The S51c comes with a Nikon Coolpix software suite CD-ROM that includes Nikon Transfer software, QuickTime, ArcSoft PanoramaMaker 4, and Kodak EasyShare Software. Yes, you read that right. Apparently Kodak’s software is now coming with Nikon’s digital cameras. We can’t offer any explanation for that move. We’re baffled, too.
The transfer software isn’t very exciting and is made for computers that come with absolutely nothing on them. Most computers come preinstalled with some form of image-fetching program that grabs pictures off digital cameras. In case yours doesn’t, Nikon included this extremely basic program for you. It uploads images only: no viewing, browsing, editing, etc. Save that for Kodak.
The Kodak EasyShare Software doesn’t automatically load images every time the camera is connected to the computer. Images and folders must be loaded manually. Once there, images can be viewed as thumbnails or as lists of details. The size of the thumbnails can be adjusted and all of the images can be selected to create albums, slide shows, CDs, or DVDs.
There are easily-accessible buttons for these functions across the top of the window. There are also easy buttons to add pictures and edit them. Editing features include cropping, rotating, eliminating red eyes, enhancing, color balancing, and a few other effects. There is an option called “scene balance” that is similar to color balance but has simpler preset terms. Scene effects and fun effects are also available.