Roundup: Compact Digital Cameras : Nikon Coolpix S710
21. Nikon Coolpix S710
What are 14 million pixels good for?
With 14 Megapixels and a 300 dpi printer, you can print your photos out at a size of 30 x 40 cm (12 x 16 inches) ... but good luck finding anybody who needs photos that big who wouldn't find it easier to have them printed professionally.
One alternative is cropping your photos to zoom in on a small detail without dropping down to a very low resolution. Nikon's digital zoom works like this, and you can go from a full-size 14.5 Megapixel image down to a tiny detail with just 3.
This gives the equivalant of a 101-404 mm zoom lens.
With its S710, Nikon cross what--for digital compacts at least--is a very symbolic barrier: 14 Megapixels. Although many people had written off the headline-chasing days of the pixel wars as finished, the end of 2008 has seen a rush towards 14, and even 15 Megapixel compacts.
Indeed, some compacts are beginning to boast heftier sensors than SLRs, leading us to wonder whether or not the exponential increases in sensor resolution on what are traditionally entry-level cameras is really necessary?
Handling
- Coolpix S710 Black...
When you unpack the Coolpix S710, you're faced with a comfortable, if fairly bulky frame, which looks out of place next to the slender shape of Canon's latest PowerShot models. Available in either gray or dark red, the case is in stainless steel, and, despite the hefty shape of the camera, feels rather lightweight.
A screen on the back only displays 230, 000 pixels, which doesn't provide enough detail given it measures three inches from corner to corner. But when you're focusing shots using the LCD, images are reasonably fluid in good light, but less useful as light levels drop; the display tends to jump in burst mode. An anti-glare coating on the screen cuts down on reflections, making it easier to use in bright sunlight.
Despite all the space devoted to the screen, the controls are still well laid out, and the scroll wheel makes flipping through different options easy. The menus are reasonably clear and it only takes a few minutes of using the camera to work them out. A few automatic features are included, including face recognition, smile detection and automatic red-eye correction, as well as a manual mode.
The S170's powerful 3.6 x optical zoom sports both a 28-mm wide angle lens, and a smaller telephoto that goes as far as 101-mm. It's a shame that the macro mode doesn't work any closer than 10-cm, though. As you can see on the right, you can combine the optical zoom with a digital zoom to get really up close to objects by cropping out detail from your photo by using all of those Megapixels.
This isn't a fast camera, though: you'll need to wait nearly three seconds for it to switch on, and four in between two shots if you're using the S710 at its highest resolution. It seems that the software inside just can't handle the huge number of pixels. The autofocus performs a lot better, and finds the subject in under a second on most occasions.
It wouldn't be fair on Nikon to not mention the amazing burst mode, which flies along at twelve frames per second, although it does cause the camera to hang for around fifteen seconds afterwards as it records all of those shots onto the memory card.
Image Quality
It seems that having a 14.5 Megapixel sensor really is an advantage when it comes to the quality of your photos. The S710 manages speeds that push the limit of what a digital compact is capable of, and reach the dizzy heights of 12800 ISO as long as you are prepared to fall to 3 Megapixels. Up to 800 ISO, chromatic aberration is under control, and prints at slower speed look fine on A4 paper.
Above that, blurriness becomes more of a problem, but nothing out of the ordinary. Nevertheless, the quality is still nothing on that of the Fujifilm F100fd or the Sony W300, which both deliver great results at very high ISO numbers. By using lower resolutions, it's also possible to take shots at 6400 and even 12800 ISO, which are just about acceptable for printing on 4 x 6'' stock. There's no noise or distortion--but no details, either.
Rather surprisingly, the white balance went from very cold to very warm across the film speed range, as you can see here.
The lens itself is classic Nikon stuff: crystal clear in the center with a little light blurring around the edges of the frame. Distortion is under control, and when purple fringing does occur, it isn't much of a blight.
Unfortunately, there's been little innovation on the video front, with no sign of HD, just plain old 640 x 480 with no optical zoom. Sound quality is acceptable and, while the optical stabilization is acceptable, it works a lot less well than on some of the S710's direct competitors, like the Canon PowerShot SD990 IS.
| Nikon Coolpix S710 | |
|---|---|
| Pluses | Minuses |
|
|
| Apart from its 14.7 Megapixel sensor and three inch LCD screen, there's not a lot to like about the Nikon S710: it's slow, with no HD video, and its macro mode doesn't get any closer than 10-cm. |  |
should have classified the cameras to at least price and/or final rating. i got discouraged to read.
should have classified the cameras to at least price and/or final rating. i got discouraged to read.
When you say classified, what do you mean? Do you mean the pages should go in order of price, or in order of rating? Such as the cheap ones at the beginning and the expensive ones at the end OR the best cameras at the top and the worst cameras at the bottom?
i meant group them by chosen price ranges/brackets or any feature you think is relevant since comparison between cameras is just difficult with the present format wherein it is only possible to compare models of a certain brand.
It would have been nice if all the cameras were given scores (yes I know this is very subjective, but so are all the comments and pro/con sections). Idealy they would be given su scores as well (i.e. a still picture score, a video score, a asthetics score, a usablity score, maybe some others) and then the cameras could be sorted by those scores with links, maybey a short blurb at each camera in the sorted list. Another thing that would be very usefull to myself and I assume other readers is a features table that allows us to compare all the cameras.