Nikon COOLPIX S570

Full Review

The Nikon Coolpix S570 is a stylish compact digital camera that packs in a decent number of features. Its low price and decent performance made it one of the most atttractive options for budget conscious buyers but who don't want to sacrifice on image quality.

Features & Design

Weighing 120g, the S570 is the lightest camera in this test and it’s also among the smallest in our comparison. It has a 28mm wide angle lens with 5x optical zoom and it employs four way non-optical VR image stabilization. The 2.7-inch LCD display with most controls are located at back. The buttons layout design is quite friendly and using the camera was fairly easy. The menu interface was simple to figure out and navigate, even first time users won't find any problem.  The camera came with the auto scene selector and also had a Smart Portrait System and Best Shot Selector to make shooting simpler without the need to play too much with the settings.

Performance

The Nikon S570 unfortunately showed slow interval times between successive shots and this was a downer. Focusing in low light also took longer than the Sony and Fuji cameras. The auto focus worked well outdoors though. Colors looked vivid but far from accurate. Image quality suffered beyond ISO 200 though. Noise was still suppressed but the loss in details and the presence of artifacts spoiled the whole image quality. In short, it did not handle low light as well as the Fujifilm F200 and Sony cameras. Its VR Image Stabilization at the tele-end had some impact but once again not as much as the optically stabilized ones. The videos recorded in VGA resolution also looked grainy and were barely average.

At Rs. 10,450, the Nikon S570, is a simple, compact camera loaded with good features that offered above average performance.

Bottom Line

Well designed and compact, the Nikon took decent images with great colors, lack of IS is disappointing for a camera that offers 5x zoom.