Nikon Coolpix S610 review

When high-quality compact cameras are available for just £100, models that cost twice as much struggle to justify their existence.

The S610 certainly delivers in terms of style, and the 3in screen adds to the appearance. The lens's 4x zoom range starts at a wide-angle 28mm focal length, and highly effective optical stabilisation avoids blur at slow shutter speeds. The controls and menus are typical of a point-and-shoot camera, and are quick to navigate and adjust using a dial on the back of the camera. Even so, we would rather not have to delve into the menu to adjust key features such as ISO speed and shooting mode.

Previous Coolpix cameras have been slow to switch on, but the S610 addresses this in no uncertain terms: 1.2 seconds to power up and capture a photo is the fastest we've ever seen from a compact camera. Autofocus was extremely quick, but performance in other areas was less impressive. Instant reviews of shots were slow to appear, and until they had come and gone the shutter button was unresponsive. As a result, there was a total delay of 2.6 seconds between consecutive shots. The continuous mode ran at 1.1fps and lasted for 10 shots.

The S610 uses a ten-megapixel, 1/2.3in sensor, which camera manufacturers seem to love but people who care about image quality avoid. It was capable of sharp detail in bright conditions, but more challenging lighting generated excessive noise - and the resulting noise reduction processing trashed much of the fine detail. The S610 was worse than usual in this respect, as even at ISO 100 it couldn't distinguish between noise and subtle textures. Colours were less than ideal, too, with overexposed flash-lit shots and unreliable white balance.

The S610 has some attractive features, but Fujifilm's cheaper F100fd is better in almost every respect.

Author: Ben Pitt