Nikon Coolpix S6 Review

Overall Rating

Excellent resolution in a small body, good battery life, compact design, uses SD memory cards. The "Scene" presets adjust ISO, flash, and shutter speeds effectively, making this a very user-friendly camera.

Video abilities are excellent, with the capability of recording for as long as space remains on the memory card (as opposed to 60 second limits on other cameras). The GUI for the menu interface is quite spiffy. A better than average system of sorting through images, including a by-date method.

Controls and buttons are logically located, with the exception of the zoom button (see bad points). The scroll wheel is quite nice, and allows for a quick perusal through images stored on the memory card or the camera's internal memory.

Following the trend of the Sony Cybershot ultra-compacts, the S6 has an enormous 2.5" (diag.) viewscreen, which makes for and excellent and thorough image scrutinization without having to zoom in quite so much.

Many cons that other reviewers would list are simply due to the limitations of an ultra-compact. These include the fact they require adequate light to take an image without blurring, but this is true for any camera, and an experienced even amateur photographer should be able to overcome this (tripods, supported positions, ISO/shutter speed adjustments). However, for the S6 per se, I must agree with WiFi function. While it is a great concept, it simply is too much of a hassle, although I did manage to get it working, and I find myself using my trusty multi-format memory card reader instead. The dock, as many complain about it, is necessary a necessary evil in order to keep the camera small and compact. Extra plugs for A/V, USB, Firwwire, etc. would make the camera body too large. But what is exceedingly bad about the dock, and admittedly other brands are guilty of this as well, is the fact that the transfer rate of the dock for this camera is an appalling USB 1.x - why?

As far as the control layout is concerned, they are mostly intuitive and easy to use, but Nikon has decided to move the zoom button to the top of the camera next to the shutter release. While this might seems like a logical position being next to the shutter release, it is non-standard, as the majority of digital cameras have the zoom button on the back of the camera. The zoom button itself it tiny and frail, not at all suitable for large fingers.

Granted the fact that the Nikon 25547 is an ultra-compact, but why not include some ability to manually adjust shutter speed? This is an excellent camera in and of itself, but I would save some money and go for an S3 or S5, because the WiFi ability is the only real difference between them and the S6 (5 MP is more than enough resolution for the average amateur photographer). The S3 and S5 are also substantially smaller without this WiFi hardware. For any of the S series Nikon ultra-compacts, a stand-alone USB 2.0/Firewire card reader is a must due to the sluggish transfer rate of the dock.