Nikon Coolpix S6 - Easy Digital Camera Review

The Nikon Coolpix S6 is one of those extremely slim digital cameras made for stashing in a pocket, and its size isn’t its only asset. The S6 has a solid feature set and is even WiFi-enabled so it can send pictures to a computer or printer without ever having to hook up the USB cable. This Coolpix has 6 megapixels, a 3x optical zoom lens, a 3-inch LCD screen, 15 scene modes, and an interesting Pictmotion mode that creates really cool slideshows. It retails for $399.

The all-metal body of the Nikon S6 is stylish. It has a wave design that makes handling a tiny bit easier. The 3.9 x 2.4 x 0.8-inch digital camera has miniscule buttons and controls that make life difficult for larger-handed folks, but if you have small hands or can operate the camera with sharpened fingernails, this model is for you.

Overall, the Nikon Coolpix S6 is easy to use. It has an Auto mode and 15 scene modes. The Auto mode works well in good lighting, but yields ugly pictures in low light. The only difficult feature is the WiFi setup, which requires you to download a setup program from a CD-ROM and connect the S6 – with wires – to the computer. You have to know what type of security your wireless network uses and know the login and password to it too. This is a bit much for most people, so if you plan on using the S6’s WiFi, have your technologically minded cousin over for dinner to set it up.

If you’re shooting portraits, there’s a one-touch portrait mode button atop the camera. This button activates Nikon’s face priority auto focus system, which searches for facial features and focuses on them no matter where they are in the screen. The portrait mode also activates a digital red-eye fix mechanism that honestly doesn’t work very well.

The Coolpix S6 has an enormous 3-inch LCD screen with 230,000 pixels. The good news is that the screen has a wide viewing angle, so you don’t have to look straight into it to see your shot. The bad news is that it requires some serious battery power, so the included lithium-ion battery only gets about 200 shots per charge. The camera’s flash is awful: it reaches about 8.5 ft, so group shots are impossible to take with the flash. When the flash can reach the subject, the result still doesn’t look good. Remember those pictures of shiny foreheads? It’s like that.

The Nikon S6’s movie mode looks smooth, but the optical zoom is not available while recording. Movies and pictures can be integrated with background music in the camera’s Pictmotion mode to create awesome slideshows. The S6 comes with five classical songs remixed into techno preloaded onto the camera; more can be downloaded with the included PictureProject software. To access the Pictmotion function, users can’t rely on the internal 20 MB of memory, but must have a separate SD or MMC card.

As far as performance goes, the Nikon S6 doesn’t produce colors very accurately and it has a 0.4-second delay from the time you press the shutter button to the time the picture is recorded. Still, the S6’s pictures are fairly clean and look good if in the right lighting.

In the end, the Nikon Coolpix S6 is an extremely sexy camera that is good only for a few people. If you have small hands, shoot only in bright light, and know terms like SSID, then the Nikon Coolpix S6 is for you.

Nikon Coolpix S6 - THE BOTTOM LINE.... Rating: 311.44

Likes

- Sexy camera body - Metal construction - 3-inch LCD screen - WiFi enabled - Rotary dial - Pictmotion slide shows

Dislikes

- Short battery life - Weak flash range - Wireless setup isn't wireless - Tiny zoom control - Red-eye fix doesn't work - Short ISO range

Nikon Coolpix S5 Rating:	Canon PowerShot SD430 Rating:	Kodak EasyShare-one 6 MP Rating:	Nikon Coolpix P3 Rating:	Casio Exilim EX-Z750 Rating:
Better	Better	Better	Better	Better
- Skinnier profile - 10 more shots on battery life - $349 price tag	- My Colors modes - Includes optical viewfinder - Larger 15-1/1500 shutter speed range - Print/Share button - Includes wireless print adaptor - Capture pictures remotely through computer - Larger f/2.8 max aperture	- Large LCD folds out and rotates - Optical zoom available in movie mode - Kodak Perfect Touch technology - 256 MB internal memory - $299 list price - Comes with leather carrying case	- 8.1 megapixels - 3.5x optical zoom lens - 1/1.8-inch CCD - 23 MB internal memory - Flash reaches to 13 ft	- 7.2 megapixels - 1/1.8-inch CCD - 30 scene modes - More manual control - 325-shot battery life - Optical viewfinder included - Users can set right and left sides of multi-selector to perform different functions - Past Movie mode records 5 seconds prior to pushing button
Equal	Equal	Equal	Equal	Equal
- 6 megapixels - 3x optical zoom lens - Metal housing - Same scene modes - One-touch portrait mode - Pictmotion slide shows - Same LCD resolution and wide viewing angle - Rotary dial	- 3x optical zoom lens - WiFi enabled - Standard 50-400 ISO range - Accepts SD/MMC cards	- 6.1 megapixels - 3x optical zoom lens - 3-inch LCD screen with 230,000 pixels - Wireless capability	- 10-step aperture priority mode - Electronic vibration reduction - 200-shot battery life - WiFi enabled	- $399 price tag - Accepts SD and MMC cards - USB camera dock included - 3x optical zoom lens - 0.88 inches thick - Metal construction - Standard 50-400 ISO range
Worse	Worse	Worse	Worse	Worse
- No WiFi - Smaller 2.5-inch LCD screen	- 5 megapixels - 2-inch LCD screen - No manual controls - Longer at 3.9 inches, but similatly sized otherwise - Does not include camera dock - $499 retail price - 150-shot battery life	- No cool background music with slide shows	- chunkier plastic body - 2.5-inch LCD screen - $449 list price - Slower 1.8 frame per second burst mode - No time lapse movie option	- Only 8.3 MB internal memory - 2.5-inch LCD screen with 115,200 pixels - Not as easy to use - No wireless capability