The 2.5-inch (6.3 cm) monitor
of the Coolpix S500 has excellent definition, which makes
the camera's interface that much more pleasant to use. Whether
composing an image or reviewing one, the user is given the
option of selecting the amount of information superimposed
on the monitor, and in the capture modes, a composition grid
is available. Regrettably, the S500 does not indicate the
aperture or shutter speed it selects when the shutter release
is pressed halfway, even when used in the
mode.
Two types of menus exist on the Coolpix S500: the ones that
are displayed when the MODE button is pressed,
which present options using icons exclusively; and the ones
that are displayed when the MENU button is
pressed, and which use a combination of icons and text. Both
these menus are presented on a uniform colour background,
further increasing their legibility. Moreover, the Coolpix
S500 can be set to display a short explanation of each function
and option when the zoom control is pressed to the T
side. When the camera is set to Auto, High
Sensitivity or Playback, the last
option in the menu accesses the Setup menu.
The Setup menu is composed of three screens:
Menus: decides whether menus are displayed as text
or icons.
Quick Startup: to turn on or off the startup image
and sound produced by the camera (see the next option).
Welcome Screen serves to select the image displayed
on the monitor: the Coolpix logo, an animated Coolpix logo,
or choose one image from those that are in memory (images
captured with the 16:9 format cannot be used).
Date: serves to set the time and date on the Coolpix
S500. A sub-option allows selecting the local time zone,
and a destination time zone so the camera can keep dates
and times accurate while it is used during a trip.
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 the date, or the
date and time at which an image was captured is permanently
printed on the image. 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).
VR (Vibration Reduction) offers two modes:
On (default): the optical stabilization
system operates continuously, the camera detecting panning
movements so as to dampen vertical camera shake but
not horizontal movement.
Response Priority: lessens the time
required to capture a picture by stabilizing the shot
only at the precise moment of capture.
Off: turn Off the VR system, necessary
when the camera is mounted on a tripod.
AFAssist: controls the AF assist lamp,
which helps the auto focus when the ambient light is insufficient
for the contrast detection system to operate reliably.
Sound Settings controls the sound produced by the
camera when it is operated, or the shutter sound, or the
Playback volume.
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.
The Coolpix S500 is supplied with a Quick Start Guide
and a User's Manual. The Quick Start Guide
is an introduction to the S500, allowing the user to quickly
use the camera. The User's Manual goes into greater detail,
allowing the owner or the S500 to take maximum advantage of
the camera.
Software
In North America, the Coolpix S500's kit 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
mode.
side. When the camera is set to Auto, High
Sensitivity or Playback, the last
option in the menu accesses the Setup menu.
The Setup menu is composed of three screens:
