Nikon Coolpix S220 Review

The Nikon Coolpix S220 is a simple pocket camera. It is very easy to use. Basic specification details include 10 megapixels and a 3x optical zoom lens.

The Coolpix S220 is one of the smallest and most lightweight digital cameras available form a known brand. It is also a relatively inexpensive pocket camera.

Outdoor 1 (Medium Zoom)
In terms of overall picture quality this picture sits somewhere in mid division. There are a lot of megapixels packed on to the sensor and if you make large prints you can start to see some jagged looking pixels in the sky. There is also a touch of purple fringing in places, but again this will not be an issue if you plan to stick to smaller, snapshot size prints.

Outdoor 2 (No Zoom)
In terms of focusing this photo is on the soft side. As with the first photo this will not be a major issue if you print up to 7 x 5 inches. If you make larger prints of distant scenes you may start to notice a lack of overall sharpness in the shot.

Outdoor 3 (Maximum Zoom)
The Coolpix S220 finds zooming in a bit easier. This gives this shot a sharper feel than the wide angle shot where the zoom is not used at all.

Outdoor 4 (Building)
Compared with one or two other cameras in this price range the brickwork does not stand out quite as clearly. The colour and brightness in the shots so far is impressive.

Outdoor Portrait
With the subject closer any focusing issues are resolved and you are left with a much sharper image. The colours look natural

Indoor Portrait with Flash
This photo works well too. The lighting levels are about right and the light is also evenly distributed. The main benefit of the flash not being too powerful is that there is plenty of colour retained in the skin tones.

Indoor Portrait without Flash
The Coolpix S220 produces a good shot with less than perfect light. Although the picture is not quite pin sharp the colours and brightness of the shot work well.

Colours
As I have mentioned above I like the colours the Coolpix S220 produces. Scenic shots in particular are bright and have a vivid feel to them.

Macro
For close up shots you can focus from 10cm away from the subject. The quality of my test shot is not that great. Combined with the distance you need to be away from the subject for the camera to be able to focus it must be said there are a lot better cameras out there for close up shots.

ISO 400 and above
As ever if you push the ISO rating up to ISO 400 picture quality starts to fall. Once you go above that level the loss of quality becomes very obvious.

Overall
As long as you are not planning to blow up your prints to a large size the Coolpix S220 does a decent job. As ever with Nikon digital cameras the pictures the camera produces are bright and colourful.

Without flash the Coolpix S220 is quite rapid taking a single shot in 0.25 seconds. Five shots took 13.92 seconds. Turning the flash on, makes a big difference to the speed of the camera. It slows the camera right down to 1.69 seconds for a single shot. It does not make much difference to the time taken for five shots at 14.43 seconds.

Turning the camera on and taking the first shot took 2.57 seconds. This is a fast time.

You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.

As I mentioned above the small, compact size of the Coolpix S220 is one of the main attractions. It has a silver circle sitting around the lens and has a fairly standard rectangular shape.

55.5 x 89.5 x 18mm

100g

Lithium ion (EN-EL10). Nikon supplies a battery and charger with the Coolpix S220. They suggest you should be able to take around 180 shots in between charges.

Nikon has built enough memory (44mb) into the camera to store around 20 photos. The Coolpix S220 is also compatible with SD and SDHC cards.

Click here to save money on SD cards..

Simple. The camera is not overburdened with features. The design of the menu system is good and I found it easy to read.

Ease of use - colours - brightness - size - fast turn on time

Noisy pictures at higher ISO settings.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC FS6 is slightly larger in size, but is still small enough to slip into a pocket. It is available at a similar price and offers great value for money.

The Nikon Coolpix S220 has a lot going for it. If I was being picky I would say picture quality could be that bit better, but there is only so much you can expect from such a small camera at this lower price.

Front View

Back View

Top View

Sample Menu

Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, please make sure you double check the feature set and specification at the point of purchase.

Nikon Coolpix S220