Nikon Coolpix S6

Reviewed May 2006

Test Photos

STILL LIFE PHOTO

This subject is photographed in a room that has a mix of fluorescent and incandescent light, but which is not brightly lit. The camera's flash is used to add fill light. The backdrop is 1.95 m (6.5 ft) from the camera.

With the sensitivity set to Auto, thereby allowing the S6 to increase it if needed to capture a bright image, the camera stuck to 50 ISO, and captured a relatively dark image. Therefore, an exposure compensation of +0.7 EV is used with the image presented here, forcing a slight increase in sensitivity.

ZOOM PHOTO

Now we zoom in on a specific area. The intent is to test the sharpness of the image at the zoom's maximum setting. The camera remains at the same distance as with the preceding photo.

An exposure compensation of +0.7 EV is maintained with the zoom shot presented here, causing the camera to boost sensitivity to 200 ISO. The resulting image shows little noise, and has vivid colours.

The image sharpness on the other hand is a touch soft, possibly as a result of the compression.

A well-dressed moth serves as our subject for the macro shot. The Coolpix S6 is able to capture a subject positioned 4 cm (1.6 inch) from the front element of the lens. When the macro mode is active, a flower icon is displayed on the monitor, and the macro focal length range is indicated by the icon changing colour from yellow to green, allowing the zoom to be used up 12.2 mm, effectively eliminating most of the barrel distortion that can be seen in macro mode when the zoom is at the wide angle end.

BUILDING PHOTO

This image is our outdoor test. The architecture of the building, in particular the angled girders, immediately show the presence of jaggies. The shadowed entrance can also often reveal the quality of the exposure.

The building shot was captured on a sunny but slightly hazy day that diffused the sunlight and created a very even lighting, helping the metering, which is entirely under the camera's control, capture a very well exposed image.

As can be seen here, the S6 is not particularly prone to barrel distortion at the wide angle end of the zoom, and the image reveals no chromatic aberration.

ZOOM PHOTO

Zooming in on the entrance of the building, the shadowed entrance takes on a greater importance for the metering and can cause an overexposure of sections that are directly lit. the full op

NIGHT PHOTO

Since this camera offers a Night Scene mode, a photo taken at night is included here.

While the Coolpix S6 has a Night Landscape Mode as part of its Scene modes, its maximum exposure time is 2 seconds — a very short exposure — and the mode forces the CCD sensitivity to 50 ISO, the least light-sensitive setting of the CCD, to avoid noise. The result is that even with a subject such as the one presented here, an urban scene, the camera yields a very dark image. The only alternative is to use the Auto Shooting Mode which also has a maximum exposure time of 2 seconds, and set the sensitivity to Auto, which causes the camera to gain up to 200 ISO.

It is worth noting, however, that the S6 has some difficulty focusing in a very dark environment, and that a number of shots were captured to obtain this one.

Still, the resulting image is much brighter than what can be obtained with the Night Landscape mode, and does not contain too much noise. The S6 automatically applies noise reduction to any long exposure, and the process tends to soften the image sharpness noticeably. Nevertheless, if the image is printed out to a maximum size of 4 x 6 inch (10 x 15 cm), the sharpness of the print is quite acceptable.