Nikon Coolpix S6

Reviewed May 2006

Characteristics

The Coolpix S6 is equipped with an internal Nikkor zoom lens — no part of the lens protrudes from the camera — with a focal length of 5.8 to 17.4 mm, equivalent to a 35 to 105 mm lens on a 35 mm format camera.

The lens has apertures that start at f3.0 when the zoom is at the widest angle, becoming f5.4 when it reaches the telephoto end; and is composed of 12 elements in 10 groups. A 4X digital zoom is also available, engaged after a short 2-second pause when the optical zoom is at its maximum and the T side of the zoom control remains pressed.

Photos captured with the Coolpix S6 can be recorded at any one of 4 images size. A choice for the amount of compression applied to the images, however, is only available at the highest image resolution, 6M. All other image sizes use a fixed compression level:

• 6M High: 2816 x 2112 pixels
• 6M Normal: 2816 x 2112 pixels
• 3M Normal: 2048 x 1536 pixels
• PC: 1024 x 768 pixels
• TV: 640 x 480 pixels

The selection of the image size is made in the camera's menu, or when the S6 is set to one of the Scene modes, by pressing the MENU button and selecting the icon.

With the Coolpix S6, the Auto shooting mode provides a number of user settings, in addition to the selection for the image size and quality. As the case with all the menus of the S6, an access to the camera's Setup menu appears as the first option, but by default, the first highlighted option is the Image Mode, and not the Setup option:

• Setup: provides access to the Setup menu. (See the Interface and Software section of the review for more detail.)
• Image Mode: serves to choose the image resolution and quality (as explained above).
• White Balance provides 7 settings: Auto, White Balance Preset (to set the white balance under ambient light conditions), Daylight, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Cloudy, and Flash.
• Exp. +/-: allows adjusting the exposure over a range of ±2 EV in 1/3 EV increments.

• Continuous:
  • Single: captures one image each time the shutter release is pressed.
  • Continuous: captures images at 2.2 frames per second using the 6M* image size and quality until the buffer is full.
  • Multi-Shot 16: captures sixteen 704 x 528 pixel images at approximately 2 frames per second and stores them contiguously into a single 2816 x 2112 pixel image (6M Normal).
  • Interval Timer Shooting: is able to capture images at a preset interval of 30 seconds, 1, 5, 10, 30 or 60 minutes, while either retaining the exposure parameters if desired for up to 1800 images, or until the memory card is full.

• BSS (Best Shot Selector) provides three options:
  • BSS Off.
  • BSS On: the camera captures up to 10 images while the shutter release is pressed, but only records the sharpest image — based on contrast — of those that were captured.
  • AE Exposure BSS: works as above, but offers the choice to record:
    • Highlight BSS: the picture with the smallest area of overexposure.
    • Shadow BSS: the picture with the smallest area of underexposure.
    • Histogram BSS: the image with the least over- or underexposure.

• Sensitivity decides the CCD sensitivity, and is only available with the Auto Shooting mode: 50, 100, 200, 400 ISO or Auto, which lets the camera choose the appropriate sensitivity between 50 and 200 ISO.
• Colour Options: Standard (default), Vivid (increases saturation), Black and White, Sepia (brown tone image), Cyanotype (blue tone image)
• AF Area Mode: serves to select whether auto focus takes place at the Centre of the frame, or Manual which allows moving the focus point to any one of 99 positions in the frame.

A menu is also available when the S6 is set to the Movie Mode. As with the Auto mode menu, the first option is an access to the Setup menu, but the camera automatically defaults to the second option, Movie Options, when the menu is called up:

• Setup: access to the setup options.
• Movie Options decides the type of movie to be recorded: TV Movie 640, Small Size 320, Small Size 320, Pictmotion 320, Smaller Movie 160, or Time-Lapse Movie (see the Ergonomics section of the review for more details).
• Auto Focus Mode: Single (S-AF) or continuous (C-AF).
• Electronic VR: an electronic Vibration Reduction system that smoothes out camera shake electronically. (Not available when the time-lapse movie mode is used.)

• Setup: (See the Interface and Software section of the review for more details).
• Print Set: serves to select photos for printing on PictBridge compatible or DPOF-compatible devices.

• Slide Show: presents images in sequence, each staying on screen for 3 seconds. The slide show can be looped if desired, and the Multi selector can be used to skip to the next image or fast-forward the show.
• Delete (standard playback only): to erase one, or all images in memory, or those previously tagged for erasure.
• Protect: to prevent images from being accidentally deleted.
• Transfer Marking: to mark photos for automatic transfer when the camera is connected to a computer running Nikon's software.

• Small Pic (standard playback only) is to create a small size copy of an image in any of three sizes: 640 x 480, 320 x 240, or 160 x 120 pixels.
• Copy (standard playback only): serves to copy all, or selected images from the internal memory (see further) to a memory card, or vice versa.

A couple of other functions are available when the Coolpix S6 is in the Playback mode. First, a 20-second sound bite can be added to an image by pressing the shutter release while the image is displayed full-screen, and the recorded sound is played back the same way. Second, if the image has been magnified on the screen using the zoom control, the magnified section can be saved a new, smaller-size image.

One of the features of the Coolpix S6 is that it is able to connect wirelessly to a computer using its built-in IEEE 802.11b/g transmitter. For the camera to be able to connect wirelessly, however, either to a network — called an infrastructure network as the camera connects through a wireless access point — or to a computer — called a Ad-hoc or peer-to-peer network since the camera connects directly to a wireless capable computer — it must be loaded with one or more profiles. To this end, Nikon supplies a program called "Wireless Camera Setup Utility 1.1" as part of the software bundled with the S6.

The program allows the user to describe the network, and then save the connection profile to the S6 while it is connected via USB. Then, when the Wireless mode is selected on the camera, it displays the profile selection screen and once the appropriate profile is selected the camera automatically connects to it. A profile must be created for each network to which the camera is connected.

Once the connected, the Wireless menu is displayed on the monitor:

• Easy Transfer (PM): is to transfer all new pictures and Pictmotion movies (Windows only).
• Easy Trans. (no PM): serves to transfer all new images, but not Pictmotion movies.
• Shooting Date: transfers all photos captured on a selected date.
• Selected Images: transfers images that have been previously marked for wireless transfer ().
• Shoot and Transfer serves to shoot image which are then immediately transferred to a computer.

• Marked Images: automatically transfers all images marked with .
• PC Mode: allows transferring images using drag and drop, or if installed on the computer, using the Transfer function of Picture Project, the software Nikon supplies with the camera.

The Coolpix S6 is powered by a small Lithium ion battery (EN-EL8) that is housed underneath the camera. The battery can be recharged by plugging the camera directly to the AC adapter, or by connecting the AC adapter to the MV-15 Cool-Station (see further) and placing the S6 on it. A fully exhausted battery recharges in approximately 2 hours.

An SD memory card slot is provided next to the battery, but, at least in North America, the Nikon Coolpix S6 is not retailed with a memory card. Instead, it is equipped with an internal memory of approximately 20 MB, which in view of the 6-megapixel image size of the camera, is a bit limiting.

The chart below provides the approximate number of photos that can be recorded using the internal memory, and an optional 512 MB SD card:

In addition, the camera's battery can also be recharged while S6 is docked.

Finally, the Cool-Station can be used to connect the camera directly to a PictBridge compliant printer, and print photos.