Nikon Coolpix S60
Digital Camera Review
Sep 25, 2008
- By Tim Barribeau
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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Model Design / Appearance
The S60 is an incredible looking device. Available in seven colors (which Nikon dubbed Crimson Red, Espresso Black, Arctic White, Burgundy, Champagne Pink and Platinum Bronze), the design of the front of the camera is gorgeous. It's small, sexy and feels good in the hand. It's such a shame that it's nearly bereft of controls.
Size and Handling
The S60 measures 3.9 × 2.4 × 0.9 inches (97.5 × 60 × 22 mm) and weighs 5.2 oz (145 g) without battery or memory card. It's small enough to easily throw in a pocket or handbag, and since there are no projections (not even the lens), it won't get caught on anything. While small and light, it doesn't feel insubstantial in the hand and is easy to hold. The shiny surface, especially around the chromed areas, is easily smudged.
The sole point of interface between the user and the camera is the touch-screen LCD. This camera's fate relies pretty heavily on a fast and accurate control system. Unfortunately, it doesn't achieve that goal. In our brief time with the S60, the LCD touch-screen response was often sluggish or required multiple presses before it registered. In order for a touch-screen camera to compete with standard cameras, the touch-screen has to be just as fast and just as responsive as the competition. With the S60, it just isn't. While it's a nice gimmick, and just tapping the screen where you want it to focus is pretty nifty, it just seems to slow to respond most of the time.
While it looks sexy, the touch-screen LCD leaves something to be desired.
Menu
The menu system is clear, easy to read, and written in large letters. The touch-screen speeds up menu browsing slightly, as you don't need to scroll through options, you just tap the one you want, and use page up and page down to move between sections. However, on the down side, navigating around the menus is problematic, and exacerbated by the imprecise controls. To get from shooting mode to the menu, you have to press Home in the bottom right, then Menu, and then find the setting. Even though it's only one extra step, the delay that it causes coupled with the sluggish touch reception means changing settings feels like it takes forever. And going through this every time you want to adjust the exposure compensation does not strike us as good user interface design.
Ease of Use
The S60 is incredibly easy to use, in that it has almost no manual controls, and the interface is extraordinarily simple. The feature where you can tap on an object to focus on it is very handy, and there's a help button in the menu system in case you don't know what you're doing. This camera definitely seems aimed at users who don't want detailed controls, but just want an easy-to-use camera that looks amazing.
