Nikon Coolpix S6300 Digital Camera Review

Motion

In bright light, the Coolpix S6300 produces vibrant video with good smoothness, though there is visible trailing and artifacting—not unexpected for video from such a tiny sensor. We did notice some odd "tearing" in the black and white striped pinwheel in our motion scene, but only when viewing the file in Quicktime 10.1. In version 10.0, it rendered the motion there normally. We suspect this to be a codec issue, and it shouldn't be a problem for most users. When uploaded to YouTube, the video also renders properly. More on how CamcorderInfo tests motion.

Video Sharpness

Sharpness was acceptable for a camera in this class. We measured 625 lw/ph of sharpness on the horizontal and 600 lw/ph on the vertical in bright-light testing, which puts it on a reasonably even footing with rivals from Canon et al. More on how CamcorderInfo tests video sharpness.

In low light, sharpness drops off significantly. In our lab testing, we recorded 400 lw/ph of horizontal sharpness and 375 lw/ph of vertical sharpness when video was shot at 60 lux of illumination. Again, this is pretty much on par for the class, and compares favorably to its rivals, but it's not a good result. Video shot in this kind of lighting is muddy and unattractive.

Low Light Sensitivity

The S6300 was able to maintain white levels of 50 IRE (a broadcast standard for minimum brightness in a video image) down to about 15 lux of illumination, which compares quite well with its peers, many of whom are unable to go below 30 lux and maintain a visible image. However, despite this success, video shot in such dim lighting isn't exactly pleasant to watch.