Customer Reviews

Nikon Coolpix S6 6MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Wi-Fi Capable)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I was torn between several cameras but the Nikon is the best.

One thing that is overrated in cameras is the megapixels, they are just used as a marketing tool; anything over 5mp is fine for almost all photographers. What really matters is the shutters, lens, and properties. Here are some pros and cons of the camera:

+ The screen is bright, large, and detailed
+ The battery lasts quite a while
+ The camera itself is smaller
+ Transfers wirelessly to your computer
+ Buttons are easy and well designed
+ Picture quality is up to standard
+ NEVER get red eye with this camera, no need to edit afterward
+ Takes great pictures at night (lights, fireworks, ect)
+ Takes fantastic portraits because the camera automatically focuses on the face of the subject

- Sometimes the camera takes too long to take a picture, and if you have it on portrait mode it flashed 5-6 times before it snaps the photo
- The wireless transfers seem to take forever, sometimes I think it may be better to upload directly to the computer
- Every so often you will get a blurry picture (1 in 75 or so)

After much research on the S6, I decided to give the S6 a shot. The main features that attracted me were the large LCD screen, ease of use of the menu, and its light weight. The wireless feature was really a ho-hum.

After the purchase the LCD screen lived up to its billing, but without an additional glass eye-piece, the glare in bright daylight was quite concerning. It was difficult to see the picture and determine if flash would be necessary. You need flash in bright sunny conditions to get rid of the eye shadows.

However my disappointment was that the shutter failed after about 80 pictures. It kept giving me a "Shutter Initialization Failure". I learnt that the shutter had failed and it was time to return the camera. I have since exchanged the piece and highly recommend buying the extra warranty if you intend to buy this camera.

I was quite pleased, while the camera worked, with the ease of use of the menu and selecting the settings. The camera has about 6 canned settings for portrait, landscape etc., in addition there is red-eye elimination and flash that can be automatic or manual.

The digital zoom is quite lousy though; as the light weight of the camera makes eliminating handshake very hard and the digital zoom ends up extremely blurred.

The camera is made in Indonesia under NIKON design.

cheers

I bought an S6 just before my trip to Disneyworld. Excited as anyone would be, I took a bunch of shots outside my house and then looked at them. Not only were most of the pictures out of focus, but the flash would come on when in full zoom in broad daylight. I chalked it up to a defective camera and exchanged it for another at Best Buy. Now I had to leave for my vacation the next day and did not have any time to play with it other than charge the battery and take a couple indoor shots. Just in case, I brought my Nikon 5600 also.

Long story short, the focus problems still existed with the S6, the flash still came on for no reason, the camera would use a shutter speed more than 1/60 of a second in bright sunlight (some shots were 1/29th or something similar!). Pretty much all the photos need one or two sharpening passes in Photoshop to make them look decent, and it basically took worse pictures than my 5600 and my 4300. I would not recommend this camera until they work out the bugs in the firmware. The LCD display is great (3"), and the recycle time for the flash and saving pictures is great (<=1 second most of the time) but that is all I can say that is good.

I am going to send a cd of pictures to Nikon and see what they say. Maybe they just got a bad batch, but I got my camera from two different stores. If you do buy this camera, I hope you don't have the same problems as I did. I returned the S6 for a refund and am going to buy a D70s instead. The S6 is nowhere in the same league as the D70s, but I expected the S6, being 2 or three generations later than my 4300, to take better pictures.

I have no clue what people complaining about this camera are talking about. S6 is a great camera. It takes excelent photos and has tons of cool features. I use a 2Gb SD Mem for taking pictures and movie clips. And I never had any memory problem what so ever (even by taking tons of long movie clips). I push Easy Transfer button time to time and leting it to transfer everything in memory to my computer (in my web photo album). Comparing picture quality to my SLR D70s, this camera is a bit behind but come on. This is only a point and shoot camera. Compare apple with apple. So, no long USB connection, no memory problem and excelent quality. Five of Five for S6.

I ordered this camera as a replacement to the Nikon Coolpix 2100 that I had for over 2 years and absolutely loved!! I take a lot of pictures and wanted another Nikon since I believe them to be very user friendly as well as good quality cameras. I have no complaints with this camera. The large LCD screen is excellent and I have used it outside and had no problems with the sun being too bright (since this camera has no viewfinder). I printed the pictures already which came out very nice. I would definitely recommend this camera!

It was time to upgrade my 2.0 MP Canon PowerShot S200 which is more than three years old (ancient in a digital world) to a camera which takes higher quality pictures. The newer Canon cameras had a larger screen, but it was basically the same camera. After a month, I am still pleased that I purchased the Nikon CoolPix S6:

+ push button to switch between camera versus play modes (versus a toggle slide which is hard on the nails)
+ easy-to-navigate mode and menu options with flywheel like an iPod
+ no telescopic lens = no annoying zoom sound during focus, on/off, less wear-and-tear on the most vulnerable component

This is a good point and shoot that Nikon has come up with. The screen is HUGE and bright. The playback on this LCD is great. The camera itself is very light and very thin. It is the size of a credit card and about half the thickness of a cigarette pack. Taking photos is a snap and this camera starts up real quick. In general it performs like a champ.

Had a few issues with focusing correctly. SOmetimes the pictures would come out blurry, when they shouldn't have. The WIFI is a joke. I tried everything to set it up, BUT NO. It wouldn't work. I don't know anyone who has succeeded at this. if you are buying this camera for the WiFi -- DON'T.

OTHER THAN THAT - A SOLID SHOOTER.

UPDATE:
We've had this camera for about a year now, and are still as impressed as when we first got it. Our secret of photo shooting is to use the "action" setting. I've taken thousands of photographs of my wife running in marathons around the world. I just hold down the shutter button as she goes by, get a couple dozen photos and they all are crisp and clear. We use that same function when lighting is good, rather than using a flash and having an artificial look.

We have been able to take amazing night photos too by using either the night setting or landscape setting. The key is to use the self timer and have the camera sitting on a surface so that it does not move at all. The photo will be amazing.

I also like the ISO function. I have mine set to 400 instead of AUTO. It ends up taking much better photos in low light settings!

Would still recommend this camera. I hope it lasts for years to come :)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I enjoy the convenience of a point and shoot digital camera. My Minolta Dimage X (about 15% small in size than this camera) had reached the end of its useful life, having been around for about 5 years. The Minolta had a 3/4" screen on the back. (this one has a 2.5" screen- great colors)

The best feature I liked about my old camera was the fact that there was not a telescoping zoom lens. I don't like the fact that a part that needs to move so often has the possibility to get gummed up and dirty. Therefore, I was excited that this camera had an internal zoom.

Tonight I was at a Bulls game, in the 300 section (nose bleed), and was able to zoom in and get a individual photo of Kirk Hinrich. The 3x optical zoom is incredible, but more so incredible is the digital zoom. I was also able to zoom into the jumbotron, and it looked as crisp as if I was taking the photo directly.

Action shots are GREAT. Low light shots are GREAT!

It is exactly what I was looking for !

I purchased this camera after getting a junior mint stuck to the lense cover of my cannon. The cannon was bigger and bulkier, but came with more bells and whistles (color select, super awesome macro, 6x optical zoom). While this camera doesn't have all the fun extras the cannon did, it does have the small size, no extending lens to knock while shooting or get rained on (or junior mints stuck in) and the menu is easy enough to navigate that doing manual settings is almost do-able for a novice. in other words, there aren't so many extras clogging up the menu choices that you give up on what you were trying to do. While the macro on the cannon was better, the macro on the Nikon is good enough for the general point and shoot and the colors are FAR more saturated and in depth. The screen on the Nikon is also a lot larger. another cool feature is the battery. The Nikon uses a li-ion batter which you never have to remove from the camera housing. To charge the camera you simply plug it into the dock it comes w/, OR if traveling you can bring just the cable between the dock and the wall and use it to charge the camera. While the cannon was nice, I'm happy to have a cheaper smaller easier to use camera.

i got my camera back in february of 2007, and have been using it on and off. i also experienced the image stabilization problem, however, and the flash goes crazy sometimes. however the WORST problem happened today, when i was outside taking a picture like normal and the LCD screen just went completely black on me. any subsequent pictures i took all came out black, although i could view the previous pictures with no problem. i have since spent about three hours googling the problem and reading up on what others have to say, and it turns out nikon has this recurring problem with many of its models. most people have had to buy new cameras because the repairs cost about 180 dollars, unless you have a model which is covered under the service advisory that nikon put out regarding this issue. unfortunately, the s6 is NOT covered.

i gave this camera two stars because it was fine while it lasted. it wasn't the greatest, but it definitely screamed sleek and beautiful. i will not be make the mistake of buying another nikon camera again, however.