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.
Picture Quality / Size Options (8.0) The S51c’s predecessor, the S50c, has only 7.2 megapixels. The Nikon S51c upgrades to 8.1 megapixels on the same 1/2.5-inch CCD. The following image sizes are available: 3264 x 2448, 2592 x 1944, 2048 x 1536, 1024 x 768, 640 x 480, and 3200 x 1800 (16:9). You can resize images in the Playback menu to 640 x 480, 320 x 240, and 160 x 120 pixels.
The Nikon Coolpix S51c not only upgrades its image sensor, but its processor too. It comes with a new Expeed image processor that is also included on other Coolpix cameras, including the “performance series” P5100 and P50 models.
Picture Effects Mode (6.25) The Nikon S51c has only a few color options when the camera is set to Auto mode. The color options in the menu include standard color, vivid color, black-and-white, sepia, and cyanotype. There is a live preview of the selected item in the menu, which is a nice feature for beginners who can’t quite picture what images will look like in cyanotype without actually scrolling onto it. These color effects are only available in the Shooting mode, not the Playback mode like on some other digital cameras, such as the Canon A720IS.