By Lori Grunin, CNET.com
18/06/2008
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/digitalcameras/0,39005881,42624121p,00.htm

It's a dilemma when you have to choose between style and functionality. In the world of imaging, you get to choose only one, as with Nikon's Coolpix S210. A sleek fashion statement this may be, but as with its slightly more expensive and marginally slimmer-than-thou competitor, the Casio Exilim EX-S880, the performance and photo quality tradeoffs you get for high style and a low price may not be quite worth it.

Design

With its supermodel-slim body and classy chassis--clad in jewel tones of brushed metallic blue, plum, bronze or basic black--the Nikon Coolpix S210 will certainly make a style statement when you whip it out of whatever tiny pocket you've slipped it into.

The S210 uses the typical Nikon menu scheme, though better implemented than in the annoying Coolpix S600. A Mode button pops you into selecting among Auto, Hi ISO (auto ISO up to 1,600, compared with ISO 800 for normal auto ISO), Scene, Voice Recording, Movie, and Setup modes. Menu calls up frequently accessed shooting options: Image resolution, white balance, ISO sensitivity (Auto, Manual--64 through 2,000), and color effects.

Features

You'll also find the AF area mode options in the Menu, which include Center, Manual Spot, Auto, and Face Priority, as well as the various drive mode options: Single, continuous, Best Shot Selector (BSS), Multi-shot 16 (16 successive shots in a single frame), Interval Timer, and Time Lapse in movie-capture mode. The BSS can be quite useful--it shoots up to 10 photos as you hold the shutter down, then saves the sharpest of the bunch.

But you really don't want to shoot at higher than ISO 400 with this camera, so forget the Hi ISO mode. As with the S600, the face-priority AF is too slow as well as too erratic to take seriously and, as with most snapshot models, the auto area AF invariably picks the wrong subject. We recommend that you eschew all the fancy AF modes and instead use center AF, focus, and recompose. For selecting the appropriate subject, you're still faster than the camera. There's also D-Lighting which can apply tonal corrections in-camera for those inevitably underexposed shots, but this feature works best on models that have better high ISO performance; it unavoidably exacerbates noise. The camera lacks optical image stabilization; electronic stabilizers are generally poor substitutes.

The LCD fares pretty well. At 2.5 inches, it's a bit tiny for a fashionista camera and a bit smaller than the EX-S880, but about as big as you could fit on this model, and typical for the price. If you boost the brightness, it's adequately viewable in direct sunlight, though that will eat into the camera's 220-shot Lithium-ion battery life (CIPA rating). But it's has a nice, wide viewing angle that delivers good overhead shooting and group viewing experience.

Performance

Unfortunately, the S210's performance is fairly sluggish. It wakes up and shoots in a reasonable amount of time--2 seconds--but its normal single and sequential (not burst) shooting performance trails both competitors and what we consider generally acceptable. It takes 0.9 second to focus and shoot under optimal conditions and 1.5 seconds in sub-optimal circumstances; most snapshot cameras have gotten those times closer to 0.5 and 1 second, respectively. Firing two shots in a row takes 3.1 seconds and 3.4 seconds with flash, both of which are close to bottom-of-class performance. Oddly, continuous-shooting performance does fine, bursting at a rate of about 1.5 frames per second.

Image Quality

If it weren't for the poor lens and 8-megapixel sensor, the S210 would probably have delivered much better photo quality. The 3x 38-114mm-equivalent F3.1-5.9 lens has a typical range and reach for its price class, but it's probably one of the worst we've seen with respect to sharpness.

As a result, you really don't want to print these photos at larger than 8 x 10 inches--even at that size the artifacts are obvious--and you certainly don't want to crop into anything but the center. That kind of defeats the purpose of having a high-resolution 8-megapixel sensor in the camera.

On the upside, it renders pleasing, bright colors, and its exposures look pretty good. The VGA-resolution, 30fps movies are also respectable (it writes AVI files at a bit rate of about 1MB per minute of video), but the inability to zoom while capturing severely limits the usefulness of the movie feature.

Aside from its good looks, the Nikon Coolpix S210 has price on its side: If you want the skinniest camera you can get on the cheap, this one's right down there. But if you also want decent photo quality and performance, look at the marginally more expensive but older Canon Digital IXUS 70--it's not as pretty or slim, but it's small, fast and delivers better photos. Or stretch your budget a little further for the equally tiny and attractive but better-performing and optically stabilized Canon Digital IXUS 80 IS.