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DPInterface Nikon Coolpix S7 Review
Brad Soo - March 17th, 2007
The Nikon Coolpix S7 is one of the cameras announced with a bunch of other Nikon ultra-compacts. The camera offers 7 megapixels, a large LCD and an internal zoom lens. With everyone coming up with a "me too" camera like this, how does the S7 perform amongst the tough competition?
Nikon S-series comparison
Here's a comparison chart feature all four of the Nikon S-series launched this year:
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*As of March 14th, 2006
Size and Weight
(165.1) 96.1 x 45.1 x 23.9 mm (105 g) - Canon PowerShot SD40 Digital ELPH
(172.6) 89.5 x 58.0 x 25.1 mm (150 g) - Canon PowerShot SD800 IS Digital ELPH
(179.0) 91.2 x 59.6 x 28.2 mm (165 g) - Canon PowerShot SD900 Ti Digital ELPH
(172.2) 94.5 x 60.4 x 17.3 mm (127 g) - Casio Exilim S770
(172.8) 92.0 x 58.4 x 22.4 mm (139 g) - Casio Exilim Z1000
(177.2) 92.7 x 56.7 x 27.8 mm (155 g) - Fujifilm FinePix F30
(163.6) 90.0 x 55.0 x 18.6 mm (130 g) - Fujifilm FinePix Z3
(177.0) 93.0 x 61.0 x 23.0 mm (130 g) - HP Photosmart R827
(183.6) 96.0 x 62.0 x 25.6 mm (170 g) - HP Photosmart R967
(189.7) 111.0 x 55.5 x 23.2 mm (160 g) - Kodak EasyShare V610
(171.2) 101.0 x 49.8 x 20.4 mm (124 g) - Kodak EasyShare V705
(181.5) 100.5 x 60.0 x 21.0 mm (135 g) - Nikon Coolpix S7
(191.5) 110.5 x 60.0 x 21.0 mm (140 g) - Nikon Coolpix S7c
(172.0) 93.0 x 59.0 x 20.0 mm (135 g) - Nikon Coolpix S8
(168.9) 90.5 x 58.0 x 20.4 mm (115 g) - Nikon Coolpix S9
(174.3) 96.0 x 54.0 x 24.3 mm (120 g) - Olympus Stylus 750
(169.4) 94.1 x 51.1 x 24.2 mm (125 g) - Panasonic Lumix FX3
(169.4) 94.1 x 51.1 x 24.2 mm (132 g) - Panasonic Lumix FX07
(179.9) 97.7 x 57.1 x 25.1 mm (151 g) - Panasonic Lumix FX50
(166.0) 88.5 x 54.5 x 23.0 mm (125 g) - Pentax Optio A20
(173.0) 95.0 x 58.5 x 19.5 mm (135 g) - Pentax Optio T20
(169.0) 94.5 x 57.0 x 17.5 mm (142 g) - Samsung NV3
(174.8) 95.0 x 56.5 x 23.3 mm (130 g) - Sony Cyber-shot T50
(169.0) 89.0 x 57.0 x 23.0 mm (127 g) - Sony Cyber-shot W70
The Nikon Coolpix S7 is a small camera, and not being the smallest, it gives you a large 3 inch LCD.
Open up the Box
This is what's included with the Nikon S7 in the box:
- Rechargeable EN-EL8 lithium-ion battery
- Battery charger
- Wrist strap
- Camera dock
- USB cable
- A/V cable
- User's manual
- CD-ROM
Storage and Power
The Nikon Coolpix S7 has only 14 MB of internal memory, which is really silly they bothered to include any in the first place. I'd recommend at least a 1 GB Secure Digital card to start with. The camera doesn't take advantage of high-speed cards.
270 shots - Canon PowerShot SD800 IS Digital ELPH
230 shots - Canon PowerShot SD900 Ti Digital ELPH
200 shots - Casio Exilim S770
360 shots - Casio Exilim Z1000
580 shots - Fujifilm FinePix F30
170 shots - Fujifilm FinePix Z3
240 shots - HP Photosmart R827
160 shots - HP Photosmart R967
135 shots - Kodak EasyShare V610
150 shots - Kodak EasyShare V705
200 shots - Nikon Coolpix S7
200 shots - Nikon Coolpix S7c
210 shots - Nikon Coolpix S8
190 shots - Nikon Coolpix S9
190 shots - Olympus Stylus 750
320 shots - Panasonic Lumix FX3
320 shots - Panasonic Lumix FX07
300 shots - Panasonic Lumix FX50
150 shots - Pentax Optio A20
130 shots - Pentax Optio T20
200 shots - Samsung NV3
400 shots - Sony Cyber-shot T50
360 shots - Sony Cyber-shot W70
The Nikon Coolpix S7 takes 200 shots per charge (CIPA Standard) and that's below average. Picking up an extra battery is crucial for extended shooting.
Extras
There's only a leather case available for the Nikon Coolpix S7 as an accessory.
Camera Tour
The Coolpix S7 looks just like your standard ultra-thin camera, with Nikon's wave design thrown in. The camera is well built, with the except of the tripod mount.
The Nikon Coolpix S7 has an internal lens equivalent to 35 - 105 mm with an aperture range of f2.8 - f5.0. This one is different from the previous Coolpix cameras and is slightly brighter. The S7 touts its Vibration Reduction (VR) feature all over the place but turns out to be electronic as I found out, not the "real" optical image stabilizer. What a sad (and very misleading) marketing ploy.
The flash unit has a range of 30 cm to 7.5 m at wide-angle and 30 cm to 4.0 m, which is above average. The AF-assist/self-timer lamp is located next to the lens, on the other side.
The Nikon Coolpix S7 has a 3.0 inch LCD which consists of 230,000 pixels. The LCD has good low-light and outdoor visibility.
An indicator light and four buttons are nested to the right of the LCD above the directional controller. The top most button moves you around shooting and playback while the one below it brings up a graphical display of the sub-modes you can select. Below that is the MENU button and delete photo button.
The modes on the S7 when shooting are auto, high sensitivity, scene modes, voice recording, movie mode and setup. The directional controller doesn't have too many quick functions but here they are:
- Up - Flash setting (Auto, red-eye reduction, off, on, slow-sync)
- Down - Focus setting (Auto, macro, landscape)
- Left - Self-timer (Off, 3 seconds, 10 seconds)
- Center - Confirm/Direct transfer/Vibration Reduction (electronic)
Over here there's some speaker and microphone holes. There are three small buttons to the right. The first one activates the One Touch Portrait function which uses the portrait scene mode along with Face Priority AF and red-eye reduction. Nikon's face detection (which is software based, I believe) didn't work quite as well as on competition and that button is so tiny, I had to jam it down quite a bit before it could work.
Next is the power on/off and shutter buttons which are on the small side as well. On the far right end, there's a really tiny zoom lever - you can't operate this one easily without digging in using your nail. You can also see the S7's stylish "wave design" here.
There seems to be nothing on the sides of the Coolpix S7.
Over here, there's the memory card and battery slot covered with a fair sturdy cover. Beside that is a plastic tripod mount and connector port.
Shooting
The Nikon Coolpix S7 shows very little shooting info - no live histogram, no exposure data, what you see above is what you'll get.
The little amount of control you'll get in the Coolpix S7 include:
- White balance (Auto, custom, 5 presets)
- Exposure compensation
- ISO sensitivity (50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600)
- AF point selection
The Coolpix S7 includes an array of scene modes: Portrait, landscape, sports, night portrait, night landscape, indoor, beach, snow, party, sunset, dusk, dawn, close up, museum, fireworks, copy, backlight and panorama assist. The two Best Shot Selector modes take up to 10 shots in a row, picking the sharpest and best exposed ones respectively.
A time lapse photography feature takes up to 1800 shots at a selectable preset interval from 30 seconds to 60 minutes. The Coolpix S7 has a good 4 cm macro mode.
Recording
The Nikon Coolpix S7 records VGA movies with sound at 30 FPS till the memory card fills up. To record longer movies, you can lower the resolution down to QVGA (320 x 240) or QQVGA (160 x 120) and 30 FPS or 15 FPS. Exposure is automatically adjusted while optical zoom is non-operational. You can choose between single or continuous focus - the latter keeps focusing in movie mode but the AF noise may be recorded.
Movie quality was about average with good video compression and audio. Unfortunately, there seems to be some synchronization issues between what you see and hear.
Performance
The Nikon Coolpix S7 starts up quickly in about 1.3 seconds. The camera normally takes about 1/4 to 1/2 second to focus. Low-light focusing was below average since the camera couldn't focus most of the time. Shutter lag is about average - there are other cameras which do much better.
Shot-to-shot speed - 1 shot every 2.2 seconds, slightly below average
Flash recharge time using a fully charged battery - 8 seconds
Optical zoom from wide-angle to telephoto - 2 seconds, few stops in between (only eight).
In continuous shooting, the Coolpix S7 can shoot full resolution photos at 1.4 FPS up to 5 frames. The LCD refreshes many times but only to show the last shot taken which makes it difficult to catch fast moving subjects. The S7 powers down quickly within 2 seconds with no lens to retract. Overall, the S7's performance is nothing to write home about - ranging from below average to just average.
Image Quality
Checking out the Nikon S7's image quality:
ISO 50 (f5.0, 1/213 sec)
ISO 100 (f14.1, 1/60 sec)
ISO 200 (f14.1, 1/115 sec)
ISO 400 (f14.1, 1/188 sec)
ISO 800 (f14.1, 1/383 sec)
ISO 1600 (f14.1, 1/500 sec)
The photos look clean at ISO 50 and ISO 100. Noise goes up slightly at ISO 200 and again at ISO 400, though they still are acceptable for mid-size viewing. At ISO 800, image quality is turning sour and I'm not sure if you'd want to shoot at ISO 1600 at all. Chromatic aberration (color fringing) is slightly visible.
The S7's has some issues softness, corner blurriness, barrel distortion and redeye. Overall image quality was sub-par with other cameras.
Photo gallery
Check out the Nikon Coolpix S7 photo gallery.
Playback
In playback, the Nikon Coolpix S7 can playback stills and movies (With sound) as well as: Protect image, print marking, sound memo, slideshow, resize and trimming. You can also magnify still photos by 10x and take a look around using the 4 arrow buttons. The D-Lighting function can be applied to images taken to brighten them up and also the electronic VR system which just does some sharpening. The S7 shows you barely any info about your photos - the screen above is all you'll get.
Conclusion
The Nikon Coolpix S7 is yet another slim and stylish compact camera with a non-extending lens and big LCD. As with most other cameras of its class, it has no manual controls but is abundant with scene modes. Despite the fancy looking features, the S7 doesn't live up to its advertised hype. My main grudge is the misleading (and gimmicky) boasting of "Vibration Reduction" mode, which in reality is electronic sharpening, not a real optical or CCD shift system. Then the camera performs poorly in terms of speed, build and practical design (tiny buttons), battery life and image quality leaves something to be desired. I'm sorry, but I just cannot give the Coolpix S7 my vote - there are much better cameras out there for the same price.
Camera rating upon 10 (more about this): [Category: Ultra-compact]
- 5.5 - Body/Exterior
- 6.5 - Bundle, batteries and memory
- 6.0 - Lens
- 6.0 - Feature set
- 5.0 - Controls and operation
- 5.5 - Performance
- 6.0 - Image quality
- 5.8 - Overall rating
What's hot:
- Stylish design
- Many scene modes and Best Shot mode
- Large LCD with good visibility and resolution
- Nice movie mode
What's not:
- Below average battery life
- So-called "VR" is actually electronic (not optical)
- Limited continuous shooting, so-so camera performance
- Plastic tripod mount, tiny buttons
- No manual controls, exposure info or histograms to be seen
- Image quality not that good: Redeye, corner softness and color fringing
- No movie optical zoom, audio-video sync issues
Recommended Accessories
- Extra rechargeable EN-EL8 lithium-ion battery
- 1 GB Secure Digital card
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