Nikon maintains a standard look
to the interfaces used on Coolpix cameras, and the S200 is
no exception. The user can set the camera to display a few
of the current settings on the periphery of the image, with
or without the assistance of a composition grid, or see the
image coming from the lens free of any superimposed information.
Whichever display style is used, the image the monitor yields
is clear and has a good contrast. Regrettably, however, the
camera never displays its selection of aperture and shutter
speed.
The menus of the Coolpix S200 use a mix of icons and text
for the options, making it fairly easy to remember each's
function. These are presented on a uniform colour background,
further improving legibility under most lighting. Moreover,
new users are supplied with short text help screens for all
functions by pressing the zoom control to the T
side.
Using the MODE menu, the Setup menu
of the Coolpix S200 can be accessed. this menu is the most
extensive, and is spread over 3 pages:
Menus: decides whether menus are displayed as text
or icons.
Quick Startup: On or Off. This function controls
whether or not the camera displays a start-up screen. When
set to Off, start-up is faster.
Welcome Screen serves to select the image displayed
on the monitor at start-up: Coolpix logo, an animated Coolpix
logo, or one of the photos currently in the camera's memory.
Date: serves to set the time and date on the Coolpix
S200. A sub-option allows selecting the time zone which
the user is in during a trip, which then adapts the clock
while still retaining the "home" time.
Monitor Settings offers options to control the
monitor:
Photo Info decides how and what is superimposed
on the monitor:
Show Info, constantly shows the basic camera
settings.
Auto Info, displays basic camera settings
for 5 seconds.
Hide Info, only indicates the active capture
mode.
Framing Grid, displays a composition grid
and the camera settings, the latter disappearing
after 5 seconds.
Brightness: allows adjusting the brightness
of the monitor over 5 levels.
Date Imprint: decides whether or not the time and
date and imprinted on images. The options are: Off (default),
Date, Date and Time and Date Counter, which stamps the image
with the number of days since a specified date (i.e.: Day
5).
Sound Settings controls the sounds produced by
the camera:
during operation,
Shutter release,
or during Playback.
Auto Off serves to select the delay after which
the camera automatically powers down: 30 seconds (default),
1, 5 or 30 minutes.
Format Memory/Format Card: serves to format the
memory card, or the internal memory.
Language decides the interface language: Czech,
Danish, German, English, Spanish, French, Indonesian, Italian,
Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Finnish,
Swedish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese,
Korean, Thai.
Interface has three sub-options:
USB serves to set the USB protocol: PTP, to
connect to a PictBridge compatible printer; or Mass
Storage, to connect to a computer.
Video Mode serves to set the AV out signal:
NTSC or PAL.
Auto Transfer: On or Off. The default is On,
which marks all images for automatic transfer when the
camera is connected to a computer running Nikon's software.
When this option is turned Off, only images that have
been selected for transfer are sent to the computer
when the OK button is pressed.
Reset All: resets all options to their defaults.
Firmware Version: displays the version number
of the firmware currently running on the camera (1.0 for
the camera reviewed here).
The Coolpix S200 is supplied with two printed manuals. One,
called the Quick Start Guide serves to introduce
a new user to the basic use of the camera, the other, simply
called the User Manual, is much more complete and explains
all the camera's functions and options very clearly.
Software
In North America, the Coolpix S200 includes 2 discs: one
contains PictureProject 1.7 the other the Reference
Manual for the software in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format,
and in a number of languages.
Picture Project presents images as thumbnails with
the image data on the right, and the folders on the left side
of the program's window. It can also be configured to show
a single large image and the thumbnail versions of other images
in the folder as a film strip above the large image.
Although Picture Project has a limited number of editing
tools, available when an image is selected and the Edit
button is selected on the upper right side, it can be used
to adjust image brightness, colour tone and sharpness.
Images can be converted to black and white or sepia, and
all changes made to an image are immediately reflected on-screen.
In addition, red-eye can be eliminated
automatically, images can be rotated, and a D-Lighting
filter that has a similar function to the one on the camera
can be used, making it possible to bring out details from
the shadow areas without affecting the highlights.
Panorama Maker 3.5 is specially designed to assemble
images captured with the camera's panorama mode, assembling
series of images into a nearly seamless panoramic photo.
Finally, QuickTime 7 serves to view movies captured
with the camera.
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Interface & Software
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