Nikon coolpix s2 review

It has been a good summer for stylish, pocket-friendly, high-resolution cameras, and the Coolpix S2 is the latest to impress.

Like its competitors from Canon (the Ixus 50) and Fuji (the Finepix F10), the Coolpix S2 is sleek and has an attractive silver finish. It's slimmer than the F10, better looking than the Ixus 50, and is also splash-proof, although, as Nikon is keen to stress, not waterproof.

Situated next to the large, 2.5in LCD screen are buttons for all the camera's controls except image capture, which is on top, and power, which is activated by sliding the lens cover on and off. We're not great fans of sliding lens covers, but the system works successfully here, with one caveat: there's no lens barrel on the 3x optical zoom (35-105mm 35mm equivalent) Nikkor ED lens and, given its positioning in relation to your hands, it's all too easy for a stray index finger to slip over the lens and spoil a shot.

The Coolpix S2 is packed with features, although its meagre 12MB of built-in memory isn't complemented by a supplied SD card, so you'll have to buy your own. This is disappointing, given that the built-in memory is only enough to hold a handful of shots at the camera's full, 5 megapixel resolution.

On the positive side, Nikon has added some features that help produce excellent shots quite easily. The D-lighting function improves pictures taken with strong backlighting or insufficient flash by adding lighting and detail to dark areas of the image. We found this worked well on shots we took in a church that were lit only from behind by the large church windows.

Also worthy of note is the best-shot selector, which automatically selects the best exposure from 10 sequential shots, and the scene assist modes for four of the 16 scene modes. These allow you to select from a menu of options from within each scene mode, so that, for example, in portrait mode you can tell the camera whether your subject is in the centre of the frame or to the left, right, or close up. The scene modes are complemented by a fully automatic mode, but there's no manual control. You can, however, choose from a range of white-balance settings and flash modes. The Coolpix S2 also has three movie modes, a time-lapse mode and a voice recorder.

To connect it to a Mac and to charge it, you must place the camera in the supplied docking cradle. This is useful if you use a desktop Mac, but can be rather cumbersome if it's used on the move with a portable Mac. In addition, although iPhoto recognises the S2 in its cradle and allows you to copy images, you can't delete the camera's memory from iPhoto.

We were impressed with the results from the Nikon Coolpix S2. The D-Light function worked well and images were well defined, accurately coloured and free of noise. We would be more than happy to use it for holiday snaps. Most users won't miss the manual mode, or be concerned about the lack of a viewfinder, but we would like a memory card to be supplied as standard and an option to charge the camera without the cradle. Other than that, the Coolpix S2 can be heartily recommended.