Picture Quality / Size Options (7.75)
The Nikon Coolpix S700 is one of a handful of compact digital cameras that have a whopping 12.1 effective megapixels on their imaging sensors. The S700 has a 1/1.72-inch CCD with 12.43 total megapixels that has the ability to produce large and detailed images.
The top image size of 4000 x 3000 pixels is available at high and normal compression settings but the rest are available only at normal compression. The remaining options are 3264 x 2448, 2592 x 1944, 2048 x 1536, 1024 x 768, 640 x 480, and 3968 x 2232 (16:9).
We ran some tests to determine how effective the resolution is; the tests are outlined in the Testing/Performance section. The resolution proved better than the 8-megapixel Nikon S510 – as it should – but it wasn’t as sharp as a 12-megapixel camera should be. An overabundance of noise reduction smoothed over fine details to reduce noise at the expense of fine details.
In the Playback mode, users can resize images to 640 x 480, 320 x 240, and 160 x 120-pixel options.
Picture Effects Mode (6.25)
There is a small handful of color effects in the Recording menu. Besides the standard color mode, there are vivid, black-and-white, sepia, and cyanotype options. These aren’t as elaborate or plentiful as the color filters on the Canon SD950 but are more than adequate for the average photographer.
