Nikon COOLPIX S570

The Nikon COOLPIX S570 has nothing to write home about for its looks. With the dimensions of 92 x 56.5 x 21.5 mm and at 120g (without the battery), the S570 is definitely compact. But somehow, I was not too pleased with the looks of the COOLPIX S570. The plastic quality feels a bit cheap and the overall finish of the camera has nothing too appealing about it. The S570 comes in five different colors – black, blue, red, pink and silver.

Since the s570 doesn’t look too different from most cameras out there, the button placement of the COOLPIX is just the same as any other camera. The top side dominated by the shutter release button, with the zoom lever surrounding it and the power button. The facing side of the camera has a 2.7 – inch TFT screen, with anti–reflection coating, and adjacent to the screen are the controls for scene selection, album, 4-way navigation control with the ‘OK’ button between the menu and the delete button.

Recently we came across a few cameras which didn’t have any macros assigned to the 4-way navigation wheel. The S570 follows the standard shortcuts on the navigation console with flash, self timer, macro and exposure settings.

While conducting the test and taking test shots with the Nikon S570, the thing I complained about was the TFT screen. The screen on the S570 is not at all good, and the images look over exposed and the colors look faded. Also the brightness setting in the menu doesn’t help to improve the screen quality any better.

It looks like the makers were not able to design the User Interface (UI) in time and ended up giving the S570 an ugly and unconventional UI. It may be simple and good for any run of the mill point and shoot but in the end, it still looks ugly. There are not many details on the screen while shooting a picture. The S570 shows the shutter speed and the aperture, though there is no option to adjust the same. Along with the aperture and shutter speed, the camera shows at what resolution the picture is being taken in and what ISO setting along with battery and flash.

When it comes to performance, the COOLPIX is good. Though there are not many options to play around with as Nikon itself announced the camera for the point and shoot category, the results are completely satisfying from a camera of this stature. The S570 features a CCD sensor capable of taking images at 12 megapixel and a zoom strength of 5x optical.


The COOLPIX S570 performed amazingly well on our ISO test. With excellent white balance and very good detailing even at ISO 1600, the S570 did amaze me, as such good performance from a camera from this category was not expected.  A bit of noise is visible on ISO 1600 but with great detailing, good color and sharpness intact, the S570 impressed us with its performance on high ISO levels.


The macro mode does take time to auto focus on the particular object that you are trying to shoot and the macro range is not-great. The camera fails to take a proper macro shot from the distance of less than 3 inches. The Vibration Reduction or as we call it the optical image stabilization is enabled on macro mode and it does its job just fine.

The S570 delivers a very good image quality. The colors are saturated, but not much. The images still hold the sharpness and clarity and the white balance is very nice. Turn to Page 4 for more images taken from the Nikon COOLPIX S570.

 
In the end, the S570 may not be a very good looking camera or a camera with some over the top features, but the S570 makes its mark when it comes to performance. If you’re looking for a camera which looks good and adds to your fashion statement, look elsewhere. But if you want a camera solely for its strong performance, consider the Nikon COOLPIX S570.

Specs
•    Dimensions (WxHxD): 92 x 56.5 x 21.5 mm
•    Weight: 120g (no batt)
•    LCD Display: 2.7" 230,000 dots with anti-reflection coating.
•    Sensor: CCD
•    Resolution: 12 megapixels
•    Aperture range: F2.7 – F6.6
•    Shutter Speed: N/A
•    Optical Zoom: 5x
•    ISO sensitivity: Auto, 60, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200
•    Flash: Auto, Auto, Flash On, Slow Syncro, Flash Off
•    Self Timer: 2 or 10 sec
•    Movie recording: VGA
•    Storage: SD / SDHC card with 47 mb internal memory
•    MRP: Rs 14,250 / MOP : Rs 13,500