Nikon Coolpix S9 digital camera review
| Design |
| There’s nothing memorable about the design of the Coolpix S9. It’s very rectangular in shape and comes in a soft silver colour or you can get in-your-face pink and Bahamas Sea blue. This is the predecessor to the Coolpix S5 but in many ways is less of a camera. So up front you’ve got the 38mm to 114mm lens up at the top right hand corner which looks like a peeping Tom starring out at you and sat right next to it, hugging it tightly is the flash. Other than that the only other thing to be found on the front is branding, a Nikon label and Coolpix S9 logo. Turn the camera around and you’ll see a 2.5 inch LCD with 153,600 pixels. There’s no view finder but to the right you’ll find a column of buttons and a wheel. The buttons from top to bottom include a play button, mode, the wheel in the middle for navigating around the digital camera, the menu button and the delete button. The on off button is positioned at the top of the Coolpix S9 as is the zoom cradle and a small microphone. |
| Setup/Installation |
| There's really nothing to do other than charge the battery up and start clicking. The idea behind the Coolpix S9 is that anyone can use it from novices to experts. |
| Features |
| The Nikon coolpix S9 ultracompact digital camera has very simple features that even a beginner can use. To start with there are 15 scene modes that you can pick from – depending on the mode the camera will configure itself for optimum photo taking. There’s also exposure compensation up to 2EV+- which allows you to play around a bit if you want to over expose a particular scene. The Nikon ultracompact camera comes a handy One-touch portrait button that provides direct access to three unique in-camera Nikon image innovations: Face Priority AF, which automatically detects and achieves sharp focus on people’s faces wherever they are in the frame; In-Camera Red-Eye Fix, which automatically overcomes the red-eye effect sometimes caused by flash; and Nikon’s D-Lighting, which rescues underexposed images or shots with too much back light. It also has a Best Shot Selector which allows you to take a series of shots in succession and then picks out the one that is least blurred. The camera also comes with three continuous shooting modes. The normal burst mode continues to capture images as you hold down the shutter button, the second captures 16 images and arranges them in a grid as part of one 2,816x2,112-pixel image, and the final one captures up to 1,800 images at intervals of 30 seconds, one, five or 10 minutes. It also takes video footage at 30fps. |
| Performance |
| The Coolpix S9 produced decent images with accurate-looking and adequately saturated colours, but they weren’t as good as some of the other ultracompact digital cameras out on the market. The camera wasn’t the fastest to start up either, taking around 2.6 seconds to power up and around three seconds between shots using a flash. Shutter lag was pretty fast at 0.7 seconds in high-contrast and 1.7 seconds in low-contrast. The video facilities were good considering it’s a 6MP camera you could get quite good footage of moving objects. The camera on the whole was very easy to operate too with a simple menu to operate. |
| What's In The Box? |
| Nikon Coolpix S9 digital camera, Rechargeable Li-ion Battery, Battery Charger, Audio Video Cable, USB Cable, Strap , PictureProject CD-ROM. |
| Overall Opinion |
| Not the best ultracompact digital camera on the market but the Nikon Coolpix S9 for the price isn’t a bad camera. It is really easy to use and the picture quality is of a decent standard. However for a few quid more you could go for the slightly older model the Nikon Coolpix S5 which looks similar but has far more oomph about it. |
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Pros + Ultra compact + Easy to use |
Cons - Very basic - Picture quality could be better |
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Picture Quality 7/10
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Battery Life 7/10
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Setup Simplicity 8/10
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Build Quality 7/10
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Ease of Use 8/10
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Overall Rating 
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By Babita Wakelin
24/10/2006 at 3:32:27pm
24/10/2006 at 3:32:27pm
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