Nikon Coolpix S630 Review

The Nikon Coolpix S630 is a 12 megapixel digital camera with a 7x optical zoom lens. This is more zoom that most small digital cameras offer. The Coolpix S630 offers image stabilisation and a 2.7 inch LCD screen.

The main attraction is likely to be the extra zoom offered for such a compact sized camera. Picture quality is good and you should find the Coolpix S630 easy to use.

Outdoor 1 (Medium Zoom)
As with many other Nikon digital cameras I have reviewed I can see the Coolpix S630 is capable of producing bright, colourful photos. In terms of sharpness and definition this camera sits somewhere in mid division for this shot. The glare from the sun takes the edge off the photo in places.

Outdoor 2 (No Zoom)
This photo would be roughly in line with expectations when it comes to sharpness. I would like to have seen a bit more detail and light shed on the darker and shadier areas of the scene.

Outdoor 3 (Maximum Zoom)
This is another bright photo. Nikon cameras seem to have the ability to produce pictures that are more vivid than most other brands manage without increasing the colour depth. If you blow this photo up to full size then you may start to notice purple fringing creeping in where the sun catches the edge of light coloured objects.

Outdoor 4 (Building)
Checking through my outdoor shots so far there is a tendency for sharpness to fade away a little as you move out towards the edge of the shot. Overall I would give 8 out of 10 for sharpness. I have used the landscape scene mode for all my scenic shots. I found this helps to give the best results for focusing with the Coolpix S630.

Outdoor Portrait
This is a shot where the camera has packed in a fair amount of colour. The skin tones look quite pink. Part of the reason for this is that the picture was taken on an extremely hot day, creating a very warm light.

Indoor Portrait with Flash
Here we have the opposite to the outdoor portrait where I would like to have seen more colour in the shot. I think this would have helped to perk up the photo as it has a dull look to it.

Indoor Portrait without Flash
The Coolpix S630 does quite well here. It keeps noise levels controlled. This suggests you should be able to take window light portraits with the Coolpix S630. This gives you an option instead of using flash for some indoor photos.

Colours
I like the colours produced for the outdoor photos. You should be able to produce plenty of vibrant looking scenic shots. Indoors my shots lacked colour.

Macro
This is a very standard shot for a digital camera with a smaller lens. You should be able to take decent close up shots, as long as you are not looking for professional quality photos.

Higher ISO
If you are shooting in darker conditions and you are either out of range for flash or flash is not permitted, using higher ISO settings is one way of capturing the shot. You will notice noise levels creeping up quite quickly. If conditions are quite bright this is not too much of a problem at ISO 400, but as you go higher noise levels increase across the photo.

Overall
The Coolpix S630 does a decent job without being anything to get too excited about. For me the most impressive feature was the brightness and colours of my outdoor shots.

The Coolpix S630 is on the slow side if you want to fire off more than one photo. A single shot was timed at 0.39 seconds and five at 30.35 seconds. With flash times were 0.48 seconds for a single shot and 32.47 seconds for five.

To turn the camera on and take the first shot tool 2.74 seconds. This is an average time.

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

The camera has quite a simple design. There is a slight curve to the camera adding a bit of extra interest.

57.5 x 96.5 x 25.5mm

140g

Lithium ion. Nikon suggests you should be able to take around 220 shots in between charges.

Nikon has built 44mb of memory into the Coolpix S630. This is enough for around 15 shots. It is also compatible with SD and SDHC memory cards.

Click here to save money on SD cards..

Nothing stands out as being especially difficult about this camera. Nikon has one of my favourite menu systems. It is uncluttered, easy to read and you should have no problem finding the settings you require.

Ease of use - colours - extra zoom for small size

Zoom has small number of steps - shutter lag for multiple shots

Another small, stylish camera offering extra zoom is the Olympus MJU 7000.

The Nikon Coolpix S630 does the job it sets out to do. The extra zoom it offers over other smaller cameras comes in handy and I like the fact the camera is easy to use.

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 S630