Nikon Coolpix S6 Digital Camera Review

Pushing the Mode button and rotating around the on-screen mode dial to the camera button brings up the automatic mode on the S6, which the dial also calls “Shooting.” Some users may not like the fact that there is no single button or physical dial to easily access the auto mode.

 

The auto mode uses default settings until users change them, then remembers the settings for later. Ironically, it has the most manual control available, including the lengthiest menu, complete with manual white balance and ISO selections. The auto mode seems to take decent pictures except in low light, when it either blurs subjects or fires the nasty flash.

 

Movie Mode (7.0)

The movie mode can also be found on the on-screen dial. It records QuickTime movies at the following resolutions: 640 x 480, 320 x 240, and 160 x 120. The top resolution records 30 frames per second, while the QVGA resolution can capture 30 or 15 fps. There is also a Pictmotion movie mode that records 320 x 240 pixels at 15 fps for up to a minute. It records sound, but the background music muffles it in an actual Pictmotion sequence. When recording movies, users cannot access the zoom lens, but are restricted to 2x digital zoom instead. This degrades picture quality, of course, so the old-fashioned zoom of walking toward or away from the subject yields better results. There is an electronic vibration reduction system that can be turned on and off in the movie mode, but it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference. The other available option is the auto focus, which can be set to Single or Full-Time AF. The focus system worked quickly and kept subjects fairly crisp even when in motion.

 

The Nikon Coolpix S6 has a time lapse movie mode, which can be found in the Movie Options portion of the menu with all the other size options. It records a single frame at intervals of 30 seconds or 1, 5, 10, 30, or 60 minutes. It does this for up to 1,800 stills, then strings the frames together in a movie file. This mode can keep vigil on the cookie jar or track the progress of the new building going up next door.

 

The Nikon Coolpix S6 has a decent burst mode, especially when compared to its ultra-slim counterparts. At its best, it can shoot 2.2 frames per second for 5 consecutive images. This is only when the continuous mode is activated in the recording menu; the camera’s default is the single mode. Other burst choices include a multi-burst mode that snaps 16 shots at 2 fps, then stitches them together in a grid that looks similar to the Brady Bunch intro. This works well as long as subjects don’t move toward or away from the lens. Don’t expect to crop these and enlarge them either; all sixteen images make up one 6-megapixel file. An interval timer shooting function that operates much like the time lapse movie and even has the same interval choices (30 seconds, 1, 5, 10, 30, or 60 minutes), but keeps the images as separate files instead of merging them into a movie. Also of note is a self-timer that snaps a shot after 2 or 10 seconds of waiting.

 

The playback mode is facilitated by the large 3-inch LCD screen, which lets friends and relatives can gather round and check out the day’s photos. This mode displays pictures in the traditional manner or as moving slide shows in Pictmotion mode. It shows the images one by one, automatically rotating them; the monitor settings section of the setup menu lets users choose whether to show or hide file info.

 

With playback mode, users can pan pictures, zoom in on them up to 10x, and resize them into the following formats: 640 x 480, 320 x 240, and 160 x 120 pixels. They can also copy individual pictures – or large amounts of pictures at a time – to the memory card or internal memory and add transfer markings to one, some, or all, to streamline transfer later. Users can also protect and delete pictures.

Pictures can also display in index frames of 4 or 9 images. Users can scroll through the index frames and select images for deletion, print orders, transfer markings, slide shows, etc. The Nikon Coolpix S6 doesn’t offer many in-camera editing features, but does have a one-touch D-lighting button (the same button as the one-touch portrait button) that automatically brightens pictures. This works well, showing users the before and after shot before overwriting the better image.

 

The Nikon Coolpix S6 was designed well for organizing and storing lots and lots of pictures. Its rotary dial lets users navigate through scores of pictures with a single sweep of the dial. Users can also list pictures by date and in a calendar grid.

 

While it’s possible to play movies back with audio, and the rotary dial can scroll through movies frame by frame. However, the S6 doesn’t offer any other interesting movie features, such as splicing or editing options.

Traditional slide shows play pictures for 2-10 seconds and offer a loop option. Once users see the Pictmotion mode by muvee, though, they won’t want to use the standard slide show function any more. As the function doesn’t work with the internal memory, however, users without memory cards won’t see it at all.

 

Once users insert a separate memory card, the Nikon S6 allows access to the Pictmotion mode. This lets users scroll through pictures and video, selecting up to 30 files to play back in a cool Pictmotion slide show. After choosing pictures and movies, users can go on to pick out background music, effects, and playing options. There are five soundtracks preloaded onto the camera: Pachelbel Kanon, Scarborough Fair, Pomp and Circ. March, Turkish March, and Grandfather’s Clock. These aren’t as classical as they sound; Nikon mixed these tunes to give them a techno flare that could spawn a dance party. If this doesn’t sound appealing, the included PictureProject software can load three more soundtracks onto the camera.

 

The Pictmotion mode calls its transitions the following: Moody, Pro-Slow, Pro-Fast, Classic, and Motion. The Moody transition moves the frames vertically or horizontally continuously, while the Pro-Slow option looks a little more traditional: it keeps pictures still and just uses fades. The Pro-Fast option looks like a Baz Luhrmann movie, (remember the erratic filming of the 1996 Romeo and Juliet?) with images quickly flashing, panning every which way, and disappearing. The Classic option looks traditional but colors all photos in an awful pinkish sepia tone. The Motion transition fades, moves, and pans pictures quickly; it almost makes users wish the Pictmotion mode included the electronic vibration reduction system.

 

Users can play pictures randomly or in order and choose whether to repeat the photos or music. As cheesy as it sounds, the Pictmotion mode is one of the coolest slide show functions I’ve seen on a digital camera. A demo is at http://www.stunningnikon.com/, where users can select pictures of Kate Moss along with a soundtrack for a Pictmotion slide show.

 

The Nikon Coolpix S6 has 15 scene modes. There is a scene position on the on-screen mode dial, along with the basic scene modes that come with some assistance. These include Portrait, Landscape, Sports, and Night Portrait. Selecting these and pressing the menu button brings up the option of framing helps, yellow outlines that indicate the ideal location for subjects’ heads and bodies. The Portrait and Night Portrait modes offer the following assists: Portrait Left, Portrait Right, Portrait Close-up, Portrait Couple, and Portrait Figure. The Landscape mode offers Scenic View, Architecture, Group Right, and Group Left. The Sports mode has a spectator mode and a composite mode similar to the multi-burst mode.

 

The remaining 11 scene modes are located in the menu when accessing the scene position from the mode dial. They include Party/Indoor, Beach/Snow, Sunset, Dusk/Dawn, Night Landscape, Close Up, Museum, Fireworks Show, Copy, Back Light, and Panorama Assist. The menu is set up as a grid, with image size and exposure compensation as squares on the grid next to the scenes. The Panorama Assist mode shows a light overlay of the last photo taken; making it easier to line the next shot up, but doesn’t stitch pictures together in the camera, leaving that to the software program.

 

Nikon included a designated button atop the S6 to access its portraiture technology. The one-touch portrait button activates the face-priority auto focus and in-camera red-eye fix. Face-priority, which shows yellow brackets around faces once it finds them, then focuses on them, was a little slow. The red-eye fix doesn’t work nearly as well. Devilish-looking eyes still plagued many pictures.

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