Nikon Coolpix S630

By Leonard Goh
Apr 20, 2009

The Nikon Coolpix S630 was announced as part of Nikon's lineup for the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) tradeshow held in Las Vegas earlier this year. The new shooter had its optical zoom range upgraded to 7x over the 4x seen on its predecessor, the Coolpix S620. Other than that, the rest of the upgrades are incremental with most of the functions remaining the same. The snapper's performance was decent and on par with its competitors, but the image quality could have been better.

Design

The S630's design is pretty interesting as its aesthetics lend a better grip to the camera. While most point-and-shoots have a flat body, the Nikon's chassis is slightly curved back on the right. This provides a good hold on the snapper, with the ribbed thumbrest giving additional grip.

Beside the 2.7-inch LCD is a four-way clickable scroll wheel which also controls self-timer, flash, focusing modes and exposure compensation. We've always been fans of scroll wheels as we find them more intuitive for navigating long menu lists. The circular pad is surrounded by four other buttons, which let you toggle between different shooting modes, control playback, access the main menu, and delete images. They are easily accessible with the thumb and make one-handed operation a breeze.

However, we have one minor gripe with the S630's design. The mini-USB and A/V out connector ports are protected by a cover on the side of the shooter. This cover couldn't be opened fully and was an obstruction when we tried to plug the camera to our computer for transferring files.

Tags: Camera, scroll wheel, retail company, compensation, mini-USB

User Discussion

 

• Most Popular

• Upcoming

What's Hot