DPInterface Nikon Coolpix S3 Review
Brad Soo - January 12th, 2006

Nikon's third ultra-thin digital camera, the Coolpix S3 adds an extra megapixel and is extremely similar to the S1, featuring the same lens, 2.5 inch LCD, In-Camera Red-eye fix and D-Lighting functions. So is the Coolpix S3 worth that extra megapixel? Let's find out.

Size and Weight

The Nikon Coolpix S3 has the same dimensions as the 5 megapixel Coolpix S1, that's 118 g empty and 89.9 x 57.5 x 19.7 mm.

Open up the Box

Besides the Nikon Coolpix S3, you'll also find these in the box:

  • Rechargeable EN-EL8 lithium-ion battery
  • AC adapter
  • USB and A/V cables
  • Wrist strap
  • Camera dock (Coolstation cradle)
  • User's manual
  • CD-ROM (PictureProject)

Storage and Power

The Coolpix S3 includes a useless 12 MB of internal memory so I would recommend getting at least a 512 MB card. The Coolpix S3 doesn't seem to utilize the advantage of high-speed cards.

With Nikon's EN-EL8 li-ion battery, you can get about 190 shots out of the Coolpix S3 (CIPA Standard) which is down 10 shots from the S1; so you'd probably want to get an extra battery pack. The Nikon Coolpix S3 displays an icon which shows relatively how much juice remains. My usage of the S3 shows that battery life is average.

Extras

While the Coolpix S3 doesn't support conversion lenses or external flash units, there may be some accessories of interest:

  • Waterproof case
  • Battery charger

Camera Tour

The Nikon Coolpix S3 is available in silver, white, black or...

...maroon; black being the default color.

The Nikon Coolpix S3 has the same 3x internal optical zoom lens as the Coolpix S1. This is a 35 mm - 105 mm (35 mm equivalent) f3.0 - f5.4 lens. It's fairly fast at wide-angle but rather slow at telephoto compared to other ultra-thin cameras.

On the right of the lens is the AF-assist beam/self-timer lamp. On the left is the flash which has a range of 0.3 to 2.5 m at wide-angle and that goes down to 1.4 m at telephoto.

The Nikon Coolpix S3 features a large 2.5 inch LCD which is standard on most ultra-thin cameras nowadays. Sure it's big but it only has 110,000 pixels. The LCD is just all right outdoors and visible in low-light.

All the buttons of the Coolpix S3 are on the right. The zoom controller moves the lens when shooting and magnifies photos in playback. The telephoto button brings up more information in most of the menus.

The MENU button, well, brings up the menu. Next is the 5-way controller:

  • Up - Flash setting (Auto, auto with red-eye reduction, off, on, slow-sync)
  • Down - Macro
  • Left - Self-timer

The OK button acts as a confirm button, activates D-Lighting and also a "start transfer" button

The playback button sets the Coolpix S3 from shooting to playback mode or starts the camera up in playback without having to go through shooting mode first. Finally, there's the delete button which deletes photos (single erase) in playback mode or delete the last photo taken when in shooting mode.

The mode switch at the bottom has 3 options: Shooting mode, scene modes and movie recording. The scene modes on the Nikon Coolpix S3 include:

  • Scene assist: Portrait (With Nikon's face priority AF option), landscape, sports and night portrait.
  • Party/indoor
  • Beach/snow
  • Sunset
  • Dusk/dawn
  • Night landscape
  • Close-up
  • Museum
  • Fireworks
  • Copy
  • Backlight
  • Panorama
  • Underwater
  • Voice recording (Up to 5 hours)

Nikon Face Priority Auto Focus feature focuses on faces with much accuracy. A Best Shot Selector function takes up to 10 continuous shots and saves the sharpest photo.

On the top of the Nikon Coolpix S3, there is a speaker, microphone, power button and shutter button. The Secure Digital card slot is located at the side while the battery compartment is located at the bottom, both compartments are protected by sturdy doors.

Shooting

Though the Coolpix S3 is a point-and-shoot, you can also choose to change:

  • White balance (Auto, 5 presets, custom)
  • ISO (50, 100, 200, 400)

The Nikon Coolpix S3 can go as close as 4 cm to a subject in macro mode. You'd probably want to turn off the flash though.

Also, the Coolpix S3 features two continuous shooting modes. The first two took 16 photos at around 1.6 FPS while "Multi-shot 16" takes 16 small photos which join up to make one full resolution photo (Ala collage).

Recording

The Nikon Coolpix S3 can take VGA movies with sound at 15 FPS till the memory card fills up. Using the time-lapse movie feature, you can take up to 1800 frames (between 30 seconds to 30 minutes) and make a silent 30 FPS movie. You can also record sound with photos you've taken (using sound memos).

In addition, you can choose the autofocus mode used when recording movies: single (fixed) and continuous (always focusing). I would recommend using single autofocus as the microphone records autofocus sound. If you wish, there's also digital zoom available when recording.

Movie quality was below average (choppy too!) and quite noisy.

Performance

The Nikon Coolpix S3 starts up in under 1.5 seconds (startup screen off) and takes under a second to focus. Shot-to-shot was average; clocking around 2 seconds (slightly longer if the flash is used). Flash recharge time took 9 seconds.

The only thing I wasn't impressed with was the buffer clearing - The camera displays the buffer clearing process (with an hourglass icon) after every shot and things get stuck for a while. The lens took almost 2 seconds to reach telephoto - common for ultra-thin cameras. The powering down process was instant.

Image Quality

Let's see the Nikon Coolpix S3's image quality as ISO speed increases (I'm trying to find a good subject for image quality tests so for now, please bear with me):


ISO 50 (f3.7, 1/2 sec)


ISO 100 (f3.7, 1/3 sec)


ISO 200 (f3.7, 1/4 sec)


ISO 400 (f3.7, 1/8 sec)

Both the ISO 50 and ISO 100 crops have very little noise but quite a bit of chromatic aberration (Color fringing). White balance is more accurate in the ISO 200 crop and color fringing levels have dropped quite a bit while noise is going up. The ISO 400 crop is the sharpest and has the most accurate white balance though noise has gone up. Even with the noise, I still got a good A4 print from that photo. The increased sharpness and significant decrease of color fringing in the last crop is worthy of note.

As far as I can see, the Nikon Coolpix S3 is can shoot at its maximum ISO speed with below average noise and fair amount of sharpness. At lower ISO speeds, the softness of photos that most ultra-thin cameras have is most evident. Image quality was overall good though at times, there were some not so good photos.

The Nikon Coolpix S3's D-Lighting feature makes images brighter without using the flash at the cost of increased noise.

Playback

The Nikon Coolpix S3 can playback still photos and movies with sound (Thanks to the built-in speaker). It can also perform functions such as DPOF print set, slideshow, delete, protect, etc. The "small pic" function creates a VGA-sized (or smaller) copy of a photo which is great for e-mailing or posting on the web while the "copy" function transfers photos between the memory card and internal memory. This makes the internal memory useful as a photo album.

Conclusion

The Nikon Coolpix S3 features the standard ultra-thin camera features; 6 effective megapixels, a 2.5 inch LCD and 3x optical zoom. Nikon has added some distinctive features though, such as D-Lighting, Face Priority AF and In-Camera Red-eye Fix.

Still, one thing could be improved - Image quality. There've been several soft photos, lots of red-eye in people photos and depth of field was sometimes just insufficient. The Coolpix S3 also has (probably) the smallest shutter speed range I've seen - 2 seconds to 1/350 of a second. Battery life also has dropped a little and is going towards "below average".

What's hot:

  • Stylish and thin (Though most of these ultra-thin cameras look more or less the same)
  • 2.5 inch LCD
  • Battery level indicator
  • Many scene modes
  • Unique D-Lighting and Face Priority AF
  • Built-in help and tutorials

What's not:

  • Weak flash
  • LCD lacks resolution
  • No manual controls
  • Buffer clearing not fast
  • Some soft photos and redeye
  • Small shutter speed range
  • Movie mode doesn't impress me

Recommended Accessories

~Extra EN-EL8 lithium-ion battery pack
~512 MB Secure Digital card

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