Nikon Coolpix S7c First Impressions Review

by Emily Raymond
Published on September 29, 2006

Navigation
Intro	Physical Tour
Components	Design / Layout
Modes	Control Options
Image Parameters	Connectivity / Extras
Overall Impressions	Conclusion

 

The Nikon Coolpix S7c comes packaged with PictureProject software. The program runs on Macintosh and Windows platforms, but the portion of the program that uploads music to the camera only works with Windows.

 

This digital camera comes with a CoolStation MV-15, which is a tiny camera dock with a PV-11 plastic insert and an AC adapter. The camera sits in the dock with the port on its bottom and can output images and movies through the dock’s jacks. AV-out and USB jacks are there, with a DC-in cable to keep the station powered as well as simultaneously charge the battery.

 

The S7c is PictBridge and ImageLink compatible and can even transfer images wirelessly to a printer with an optional PD-10 printer adapter. If users are within 65 ft, pictures can be taken and sent directly to the printer. Ideally, users could pick up a print seconds after taking the picture. Print orders can be created from the playback mode, where users can choose the number of each print from 1-9. Print orders can be deleted from here too.

 

The lithium-ion Nikon EN-EL8 battery is very skinny and charges up in the included camera dock. It will need to rest in the camera dock often, as the battery life only goes as long as 200 shots per charge.

 

The 7.1-megapixel digital camera has 14 MB of internal memory and accepts SD cards. Users will want to get more memory. Not only does the internal memory only hold up to 6 top-res pictures, but the Pictmotion mode is not even accessible without a card.

 

WiFi Support – The camera’s wireless mode can be accessed from the virtual Mode dial. Once it is selected, the S7c automatically detects the wireless networks within range. The camera then leads users through a step-by-step process that lets them select images, size of images, email addresses (from an internal address book of up to 30 entries), and finally the WEP key. The problem with having the key at the end is that if users don’t remember it or don’t have it, all the steps beforehand are lost. That is a bit frustrating. The S7c uses 802.11 b/g wireless transfer protocol to transfer images to computers and printers without wires – as long as users are within 65 ft. / 20 m of the computer or printer. The S7c is the first Coolpix digital camera to come with the new Nikon Coolpix Connect program, a service that emails pictures directly to recipients after being taken. The service includes an online album that allows users to store up to 50 MB of images for up to two weeks. The service emails recipients a thumbnail of the picture with an option to download the full-res image from the page. Each Nikon Coolpix S7c comes with a free one-year membership to T-Mobile’s WiFi service, which has more than 7,000 hot spots in the United States.