Customer Reviews

Nikon Coolpix S610c 10MP Wi-Fi Digital Camera with 4x Optical Vibration Reduction (VR) Zoom (Midnight Black)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I took about 150 shots with my new Coolpix S610, and then I learned how fragile the viewing screen is. My initial experience was great:
- Fast set-up right out of the box.
- Long-lasting battery
- Easy-to-follow screen settings and icons
- Large, bright screen
But then when I was stepping off an escalator, my camera brushed against the handrail and the screen was damaged. I didn't notice a problem at first, but the damage soon appeared: wavy lines on the screen, yellow color, and an ugly black spot the size of a coin. The camera still takes pictures but the viewing screen is messed up.

So learn from my mistake, and be very careful wth the screen on this camera. Don't let anything press against it or bump it!

Just got my 610c and it's good, not great.

Things I like:
- WiFi feature is pretty cool. Not exactly sure how much I'll use it but it's nice to be able to share pictures and have online backup on an extended trip, provided you can find a compatible hotspot.
- Picture quality is good. I've been a Canon user for years and I think the Canon Digic processor produces better pictures, but the Nikon is very good.
- Fast start up time
- Decent battery life, even with WiFi (plus some smart power features like wifi upload when you plug it in)
- Nice, large LCD viewfinder
- Good, intuitive UI
- Smile mode works well

Things I don't like:
- The shutterspeed seems slow, especially in red-eye mode. I find a lot of pics in redeye mode have the people with eyes closed. My Canons never did this.
- All the scene modes are a bit bewildering... I think it will take some time to figure out which modes work best in which situations.
- Proprietary connector for PC, looks like mini-USB, but isn't

Nikon Coolpix S610 10MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Vibration Reduction (VR) Zoom (Deep Red)

Just upgraded from the Coolpix 3100 3mp.
Took this on a recent trip and the camera worked wonderfully. I was nervous about a rechargeable battery, but that lasted a little longer than it states. The camera is very fast from picture to picture and goes quickly from playback to shooting with a touch of the button. 10mp takes a very nice picture. A very nice point and shoot.

The only unperfect thing is the night shooting mode. You have to hold the camera perfectly still or the shot is blurry.
A gorillapod takes care of that for those outside night-time shots. It's worth the extra 2 seconds.

I own a few nikon dslr's (d200/300/700) and went shopping for a p&S when my spouse's sony dscT1 went bad after 4 years or so.

I went to circuit city and compared all the cameras

My technique was to zoom into the fire alarms located at the I-beams within the building

I didnt use flash and compared the new 13/14mp canon down to a fuzi finepix 20

my price range was 200-400 dollars

my gut was leaning towards the fuji and olympus cameras but the bottom line was the image quality of my test shots. too bad I had to make these decisions using the lcd on the cameras themselves.

to wrap it up, along with the salesmans unwillingly nod of agreement...the nikon had the best image quality with least amount of noise when zoomed in on the final image.


other considerations:

simple...my wife wanted very few buttons and easy to use

didnt pay attention to the auto smile detector or other settings built in...just wanted to point and shoot with good quality.

this camera had like 4 buttons, menu, delete, zoom/wide, and the up/down arrows with center button. EZ

bottom line...simple to use and great image quality

I got this camera and I really wanted to like it. Despite the problems outlined below, I tried to use it for several weeks, taking it everwhere with me. I'm not a photo professional, but it appears to me that it does take nice pictures and produces reasonable quality video. Unfortunately, I ended up returning it for the following reasons:

* When you are in a menu, pressing the shutter release does not return the camera to picture taking mode. Instead, you have to navigate out of the menus! This is a very serious problem. Also, you have to remember whether you are in the "Mode" menu or the "Menu" menu. You cannot exit the Mode menu by pressing the "Menu" button, nor can you exit the "Menu" menu by pressing the "Mode" button. I missed several good shots because of this fiddling.

* The camera takes forever to get picture ready. It takes several seconds between pressing the power button to when you can take your first picture - but its also deceptive. When you turn it on, the LCD immediately begins to show what the camera sees, but you must wait for the rest of the display to load before you can take a shot/access menus/go into movie mode/whatever. I would turn it on and frantically try to take a picture to no avail. I missed several shots because of this. I would absolutely recommend against this camera if you are trying to take pictures of children. You WILL miss shots waiting for it to boot.

* The software on the camera crashes. Several times, my camera rebooted itself. It would become unresponsive, the screen would go dark, and it would shut itself off. It would come back to life after I pressed the power button a few times.

* There is no way battery status indicator! Keep you battery charged or cross your fingers.

If the camera only suffered from one or two of these problems, I could live with it. I hate the hassle of returning electronics. But when you combine all of these problems in one camera, its a disaster.

This is my 2nd digital camera. It's performance is flawless. The feature I like the most is the automatic scene selection so the lens can have the best possible setting.
It's physical size is also a plus. Just put it in your pocket and you're good to go.
The lithium rechargeable battery is great.
This camera will shoot pictures, record video and its a voice recorder also.
$235 was about the right price for this precission camera from NIKON.

This is a great camera. It gives high quality pictures in a compact size. It's easy to download pictures to share on the computer. It's easy to use from the startup. There's no need to read the manual to get started at the beginning. Overall, it's one of the best small point and shoot cameras that I've ever owned.

I love this camera. I purchased it as an early Christmas present for myself. I took it on a trip to Washington D.C. and took many pictures. The power up time is very fast and I am pleased with the time between taking pictures. I have experimented with most of the different settings and have found most of them to be useful. I am also very pleased with the quality of pictures it takes at night and in low light. I would highly recommend this product.

I bought this for my daughter. This is an excellent camera with easy to use extensive features and excellent picture quality. Ideal camera for any point and shoot needs.

I give this a one star rating because I am extremely disappointed in this product. I bought his camera because in the past I have had a great Nikon point and shoot, but after 6 months of use with the s610, and reading other reviews, I see I am not alone in my problems. I had the Nikon 5900 camera, which was the best camera I have ever owned, of any brand. Of course that model is 5 years old (I have been through another Nikon and a Canon since), and so extinct, but I am disappointed in the apparent decline of Nikon quality. I have learned my lesson.

1) The biggest problem is the camera's inability to take pictures in normal (tungsten) lighting. Even flipping the white balance to manual (and pre-setting it), the picture looks yellow. The only way I have been able to get somewhat normal looking pictures, inside at night, is to put the white balance to daylight. I have tried the other WB settings to no avail (they either come out yellow or bleached blue). Many of the comments I have seen on reviewers with this same problem have said operator error, well, I have manually adjusted this camera with all the settings and am convinced that this is a Nikon or s610 problem! This is a big problem for me, as I don't get to choose what time of day my kids do cute things. Daytime photos (with lots of natural light) are better. This could be a flash problem because the flash is also very weak on this camera, so that could be it.

2) Taking pictures in lower light with flash is a hit or miss process. The flash ONLY lights up where the focus is, and is weak at best. Also, indoors I must have the flash on all the time. We have many windows in our house with plenty of natural light, and I should not have to force flash in the daytime to get crisp clear pictures on a 10MP camera. (without the flash the pictures are very grainy- disappointment in a 10MP camera)

3) No matter what ISO setting I set the camera to, I am getting a lot of noise. This is also disappointing in a 10MP camera, and the noise problem is why I chucked my Cannon elf (5MP) for this camera. Grainy pictures should not be happening in the middle of the day, with flash. The VR stabilizer is a joke.(also one of the reasons for my purchasing this model)

4) The "face priority" is also a joke. It either does not recognize the face, or if it does, it takes FOREVER to lock in and take the picture, by which time my subjects faces (5, 3 & 1 year old) are not even looking at the camera anymore, and we have to start all over again. If you don't have the face priority on, you must use the manual focus, or make sure that the auto flash is picking up what you want to focus on. Again, this hogs your time, and by the time you set all that, the picture is over. Exactly why I did NOT buy and SLR, because I do not want to have to manually set the camera for each shot.

5) Even though the LCD screen is big and clear, it does not accurately reflect the picture taken. Sometimes the picture looks crisp on my LCD, and upon downloading it to my computer or printing it off, the picture is a tad fuzzy. This is a BIG disappointment in 10 MP camera! So, I end up paparazzi-ing my kids, just to make sure that one out of the 5 shots I take will actually be clear when printed.

If I wanted to have to manually adjust my camera each time I take a shot (and miss the shot since my subjects are almost always small children) I would have purchased a SLR. This is not really a point and shoot, as it should be ready to go, and take good pictures in automatic mode with minimal adjustments. Not a good price for the quality, especially a 10MP!!