Nikon Coolpix S610c
Digital Camera Review
Dec 26, 2008
- By Tim Barribeau
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Hot from the hands of Ashton Kutcher, we got hold of Nikon's Wi-Fi enabled S610c. This 10-megapixel, 4x zoom camera costs $299.99, and lets you upload for free from thousands of locations via the Wayport Wi-Fi network, or any unlocked Wi-Fi hotspot you happen to have available. While we weren't too enthused by the staid camera design, we liked the fast startup time and excellent manual noise and dynamic range results in our tests. Read on to see just how well the S610c did overall.
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Speed/Timing
In addition to testing for all facets of image quality, we also look at how quickly the camera responds over a number of situations. All of these tests were undertaken with a high-speed SDHC card to minimize the chances of data transfer bottlenecks.
Startup to First Shot (9.00)
This test measures how long it takes you to turn on the camera and then take a photo. This time is important if you're pulling the camera out of your pocket to grab an unexpeced photo opportunity. As it happens, the S610c is speedy, taking just under a second to startup, which means you won't be stuck waiting for it to warm up before you can start snapping away.
Shot-to-Shot (9.23)
This is perhaps the most important speed test we run, assessing the ability to take rapidfire shots in sequence. The Coolpix S610cperformed slightly above average for a point-and-shoot at 1.3 frames per second.
Shutter-Shot (7.02)
Our third timing trial is a measure of how long it takes the camera to focus and take a photo, which we test by completely pressing the shutter button once, and measuring the delay between shutter press and photo acquisition. The Nikon took around 0.3 seconds, which is quite fast.
Processing (4.74)
The final timing test looks at how quickly the camera can process the data hitting the sensor and store the results to memory. The S610c took 1.8 seconds, which is reasonably fast.