Nikon Coolpix S80 Review

The Nikon Coolpix S80 has a number of plus points. These include stylish looks, a very slim design that means the Coolpix S80 can fit into just about any pocket and a large 3.5 inch, touch controlled LCD screen. Standard features include 14 megapixels and a 5x zoom lens.

Nikon offer a choice of colours to suit most people's taste. This camera comes in red, black, silver, blue, pink and gold.

The main attraction is the large touch controlled LCD screen. The Coolpix S80 also sports a highly attractive, slimline design.

Ease of Use 7
Features 8
Movie Mode 8
Build Quality9
Colours 8

Photo Quality 7
Style 9
Lowlight 8
Macro 7
Value for Money 7

Megapixels:
Zoom:
LCD Screen:
Dimensions:
Weight:

14
5x
3.5 inches
62.6 x 98.8 x 16.5mm
133g

Macro:
HD Movies:
Manual Controls:
Batteries:
Memory Cards:

7cm
Yes
No
Lithium-ion Rechargeable
SD/SDHC/SDXC

Looking through the features on offer this is a fairly standard pocket camera aside from the touch controlled LCD screen. It has 14 megapixels and a 5x zoom lens. Other features include image stabilisation and as is now becoming the norm on cameras in this price bracket it has the ability to shoot High Definition movies.

There is a macro mode that allows you to get within 7cm on your subject. This is slightly further away than a lot of similar cameras can manage.

As with other Nikon digital cameras an emphasis has been placed on features that can help you to improve the quality of your portrait photos. Features specifically related to portrait photos include a smile shutter to automatically fire off a shot if the camera detects someone is smiling, a warning if someone is blinking when a photo is taken and a blink proof feature. The blink proof feature fires off two photos and keeps one where nobody in the picture has blinked. There is also a skin softening setting for more flattering portrait photos.

A feature that appears to be unique to Nikon is a Best Shot Selector. In this mode the camera will fire off up to 10 shots retaining only the picture it considers to be the sharpest.

Although the Coolpix S80 operates as a simple point and shoot camera you do have access to a number of built in scene modes. These include special settings for portrait, landscape and sports and night portraits.

The Coolpix S80 is a camera with a single button. This is the shutter button on top of the camera. Every other control is set via the touch controlled LCD screen. This even includes zooming in and out. In fact you also have the option to take a picture by touching the LCD screen if you prefer to use that method instead of pressing the shutter button.

There is no on / off button. To turn the camera on you slide back the lens cover.

I found the LCD screen to lack sensitivity. This can be very frustrating if you are trying to change a setting and you are getting no response. I have read a number of user reviews and this problem has been reported a number of times.

The LCD screen does have a couple of plus points. To start with as there are no other controls on the back of the camera it has enough space to be a large 3.5 inches in size. The quality of the screen is excellent when it comes to viewing scenes and photos you have already taken. In fact it is one of the best quality LCD screens I have seen in terms of clarity.

The camera body is very slim indeed. To make room for the sliding lens cover the bottom of the camera is not as wide as the rest of the camera body. This means you have to be very careful how you put down the camera. Otherwise you are likely to find the camera overbalancing and falling over.

Based on my tests the Coolpix S80 is on the slow side to turn on and take the first photo, but once it is up and running I had no real problems with shutter lag delaying picture taking.

There are not a great number of features to get to grips with. There are only seven options on the main menu and 17 in the set up section.

Outdoor Scenic Shot 1

As soon as I saw this photo I was concerned about the corners looking darker than the rest of the photo. This is a problem that used to blight a fair few digital cameras, but it is not something I see very often now. To my eye this is a significant problem. Levels of detail showing in the lightest areas of the shot are quite good with the Coolpix S80 appearing to handle sun glare well.

Outdoor Scenic Shot 2

When the lens is zoomed out the Coolpix S80 performs better than a lot of small digital cameras. This mainly relates to the sharpness of the photo. Part of the reason for this is that the lens is not a wide angle lens. By avoiding pushing technology to its limits Nikon have been rewarded by a bit of extra overall quality.

Outdoor Scenic Shot 3

The quality of this picture is below what I would expect to see from a renowned company like Nikon. There is a degree of haze that becomes quickly apparent if you increase the size of the photo. This clearly takes the edge off the definition of the shot.

Outdoor Building

This is another example of clarity being lost away from the centre. The problem seems to be caused where parts of a scene are more distant than others. This is a much better effort than the previous test shot, but even then quality is no better than average.

Outdoor Portrait

Although the overall look of this photo is about right in terms of colours the skin tones look too pink. They certainly do not have a natural look to them. In fact they take on a tinge of orange in some places.

Indoor Portrait With Flash

There is not a great deal of difference between the photos taken with and without flash. This is because the Coolpix S80 does a very good job of controlling the amount of light it needs to light a photo and doesn't just emit a strong blast of light regardless of the conditions.

Indoor Portrait Without Flash

This photo has a warm look to it. The level of definition is impressive and the Coolpix S80 has focused sharply on the eyes. As with the out two other portrait test shots the level of pink showing in the skin tones is overdone for my tastes.

Macro

In macro mode the Coolpix S80 is found wanting compared to some of the best pocket cameras. For a start you are not able to get in quite as close to your subject as other cameras can. Even then the shot lacks the sharp definition that the better cameras produce.

Colours

The Coolpix S80 has a fairly light touch when it comes to the colour it injects into the shots it takes. You can see this if you look at the skies in some of the scenic shots. The blue skies are not as vivid as most digital cameras produce. This is not necessarily a weakness. It depends on how strong you like the colours of your pictures to be. I was concerned by the lack of colour accuracy in the skin tones of all three of the portrait test shots.

Noise

Areas of the sky take on a hazy look once you decide to make larger prints. This is also true for shady areas of a photo.

Picture Quality Summary

The darkness appearing in the corners of the majority of my test shots is a concern. There are some picture quality problems that you can find a way to work around, but this is much harder when you are using a simple point and shoot camera. Overall the picture quality is mid rank.

Single Shot
Five Shots
Single Shot With Flash
Five Shots With Flash
Turn on Time

0.29 seconds
13.22 seconds
0.54 seconds
15.97 seconds
3.92 seconds

Shutter Lag Table

In theory being able to control the Coolpix S80 completely through the LCD screen should make this camera very easy to use, especially when couple to a fairly small set of features. The unresponsive screen tends to scupper ease of use and left me feeling somewhat frustrated every time I used this camera.

Ease of Use - Clarity of LCD screen - Small size - Very stylish looks

Dark corners to photos - LCD screen unresponsive

I like the idea of the Nikon Coolpix S80. It is an extremely slim and stylish digital camera. The fact that the LCD screen can control every single function also sets this camera apart from the majority of touch controlled compact digital cameras. Overall picture quality is very mid division though. The problems of the dark corners and the unresponsive LCD screen means that there are other touch controlled digital cameras I would suggest buying ahead of this one.

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April 2011