Nikon Coolpix S200
For point-and-shoot cameras, size can mean almost everythingIf a camera is just half an ounce too heavy or half an inch too thick, it'll be too uncomfortable to carry aroundSmaller doesn't automatically mean better, howeverThe 7-megapixel Nikon Coolpix S200 is one of the smallest cameras we've seen in a long time, though it isn't necessarily better than the competition
This ultraslim, metal camera cuts one of the smallest profiles we've seen yetAt barely three quarters of an inch thick, the S200 is only a hair larger than the popular Motorola Razr phoneIt weighs only 4.5 ounces, so you'll barely even feel it in your pocketThis small design has its drawbacks, though; the camera's various controls, especially its zoom rocker, are small, flat buttons that can feel awkward to large-thumbed users
Such a thin body doesn't leave much room for a lensThe S200's slender form sports a diminutive 38mm-to-114mm-equivalent 3x lens, hardly ideal for telephoto or wide-angle shotsYou can still take plenty of pictures with the camera, but you'll have a hard time capturing vast landscapes or a tight headshot from the other side of a room with it
Besides the mediocre lens, the S200 sports little more than the most standard features you would expect to find on a pocket cameraA modest 2.5-inch LCD screen dominates most of the camera's back panelIts 7-megapixel sensor can reach up to ISO 1,000 sensitivity and offers Nikon's electronic Vibration Reduction, an ISO-and-shutter-speed-boosting feature for shooting with the zoom or in low lightElectronic VR isn't quite as effective as Nikon's optical Vibration Reduction, found on the S200's stainless steel brother, the Coolpix S500The S200 also features Nikon's Face-Priority AF, a face-detecting feature that finds subjects' faces and uses them to determine focusThat way you shouldn't end up with a portrait that's focused on the plant behind Aunt Martha instead of on her faceFace detection is usually found on more high-end shooters, and sometimes determines exposure as well as focus, but Nikon has so far stuck with AF only and includes it in almost all of its snapshot cameras
An inordinately long low-light shutter lag holds back the S200's otherwise acceptable performanceWhile the camera took only 0.6 second for our high-contrast shutter lag target, it took a startling 2.6 seconds with our low-contrast targetThis long wait seriously hinders the camera's usefulness when shooting in low lightOtherwise, it performed sluggishly in our lab testsAfter taking 1.7 seconds to start up and capture its first JPEG, the S200 could fire off a new shot every 1.9 seconds with the flash turned offWith the flash enabled, that time increased to 3.2 secondsBurst mode snapped 10 full-resolution shots in 10.2 seconds for a rate of about 1 frame per second
Images from the S200 aren't as sharp as we'd expect from a 7-megapixel cameraFiner details, such as smaller text or the texture of fabrics, just aren't as crisp as they could beWe saw some ISO-related noise, even at the camera's lowest ISO setting of ISO 50, though it was minor and visible only on monitors and not in printsThis remained about the same at ISO 100, though Nikon's noise reduction eats up a tiny bit of sharpness in the processAt ISO 200, noise increases a little bit and a tad more sharpness is lost, but you should still be able to get nice printsThe same can be said for ISO 400, which has a similar slight increase in noise and decrease in sharpness along with a minor loss of overall dynamic rangeAt ISO 800, noise increases precipitously, becoming a covering of white speckles, while a large amount of shadow detail goes by the waysideThis only becomes worse at ISO 1,000We suggest staying below ISO 800
Thanks to the S200's disappointing lens, most photos appear at least slightly distortedBoth wide-angle and telephoto shots develop a small amount of barrel and pincushion distortion, respectivelyStrangely enough, we found that the most distortion appears in the middle of the lens, between the wide-angle and zoom extremes
To its credit, the S200 does some things rightFor example, its automatic white balance does a very nice job of neutralizing colors in incandescent and fluorescent lighting, and its tungsten preset was able to cope with our tough tungsten studio lightsPlus, the camera did a decent job of balancing flash with ambient light sources
The Nikon Coolpix S200 suffers from a bad case of style over substanceIts ultraslim, attractive metal body looks great sliding into your pocketWhen you slide it out of your pocket and start shooting, though, its image-quality issues and slow low-light performance severely tarnish the pretty camera's shine