Nikon Coolpix S60 Digital Camera Review

Nikon Coolpix S60

Digital Camera Review

The Coolpix S60 is a stylish new addition to the wide-ranging Nikon lineup. It boasts a handsome 3.5-inch touch screen LCD and a surprising lack of buttons and switches: the screen is the only method of input, However, this seems to be a case of form over function, as the screen's response time is mediocre, the manual controls minimal, and parts of the camera shoddily constructed. The Nikon Coolpix S60 ships in September for $349.99
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Viewfinder
The Nikon S60 has no viewfinder.

LCD Screen
The LCD on the S60 is certainly an impressive size, but its resolution leaves a lot to be desired. At only 230,000 pixels across its 3-inch diagonal length, pixels become clearly visible. The Sony DSC-T700 offers a touch-screen camera with a 3.5-inch LCD, boasting 921,000-pixel resolution, for only $50 more than the S60. What we will say for this screen, though, is that the reflective coating worked well under the ultrabright lights of the convention hall we were testing it in. The screen glare was minimal the entire time.


The LCD is large but pixelated

Flash

As we were shooting in a fiercely illuminated hall, we couldn't gauge the coverage of the flash, but it didn't strike us as especially bright. Flashes as small as this tend to be underpowered, but at least it's placed quite far from the lens to minimize red-eye.


The flash is central on the body of the camera.

 
Lens
The S60s lens is tucked away in the upper right corner of the body. It is 5.9mm - 29.5mm (35mm equivalent 33mm  -165mm); f/3.8 - f/4.8; 12 elements in 10 groups. It offers 5x optical zoom, but only two f-stops.


Though not very fast at f/3.8, at least the lens offers 5x zoom.

Connections
The S60 has two sets of connections. First there's the USB connector, which is left completely exposed on the bottom of the camera, flush with the tripod mount. Then there's the HDMI output, shown below, which is on the right side. The HDMI port protector is plastic, as is its connection to the body, and feels excruciatingly fragile. This will not to a good job of keeping the plug protected. You can also see in the image below just how easily the chromed sections become smudged and fingerprinted. This was after less than five minutes of use.



The HDMI port with its sub-par cover
Battery
The S60 uses an EN-EL10 rechargeable Li-ion battery, and is only rated for approximately 140 shots. If this is accurate, heavy shooting will quickly leave your battery levels lower than an emo kid without a prom date.

 
You'll get less than 150 shots with this battery,
so charge early and charge often.
Memory
With the Coolpix S60, the battery and memory card are placed right next to each other beneath the camera. The Nikon takes SD and SDHC cards, which are small, easy to find, have good capacity and are quite affordable.

 

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