Nikon Coolpix S10 Concise Review,
Simon Joinson, February 2007

Review based on a production Coolpix S10. Firmware Version 1.0

Announced in August, the Coolpix S10 is the latest incarnation of Nikon's 'twisting body' camera design that can be traced all the way back to the original Coolpix 900 in 1998, though - like the S4 before it - this one manages to squeeze in a big 10x optical zoom. Design tweaks aside, the S10's biggest enhancement over its predecessor is the inclusion of CCD-shift image stabilization (or Vibration Reduction, 'VR' as Nikon calls it), pretty much an essential for a camera with a zoom this big. The maximum ISO has also been boosted to 800 and there are a couple of interesting new features. The big zoom market is a crowded one, and truly compact models such as this have rarely impressed when compared to their bulkier 'SLR-like' cousins. Let's find out if the Coolpix S10 has what it takes to offer the ultimate 'pocket' super zoom, starting as ever with the headline features:

Headline features

• 6.0million effective pixels
• 10x optical zoom (38-380mm equiv.)
• Swivel lens design
• Image-sensor shift VR
• Wide viewing angle 2.5" TFT screen
• Two-mode VR (Vibration Reduction) system (lens-shift)
• BSS (Best Shot Selector) identifies and saves the sharpest image automatically from up to ten sequential shots
• Exposure BSS mode
• 4cm macro
• Face-priority AF
• In-camera red-eye removal & 'D-Lighting'
• 15 Scene modes
• Pictmotion function
• 16MB internal memory + SD card storage

Key specifications

* Supplied accessories may differ in each country or area

If you're new to digital photography you may wish to read the Digital Photography Glossary before diving into this article (it may help you understand some of the terms used).

Conclusion / Recommendation / Ratings are based on the opinion of the reviewer, you should read the ENTIRE review before coming to your own conclusions. Images which can be viewed at a larger size have a small magnifying glass icon in the bottom right corner of the image, clicking on the image will display a larger (typically VGA) image in a new window. To navigate the review simply use the next / previous page buttons, to jump to a particular section either pick the section from the drop down or select it from the navigation bar at the top. DPReview calibrate their monitors using Color Vision OptiCal at the (fairly well accepted) PC normal gamma 2.2, this means that on our monitors we can make out the difference between all of the (computer generated) grayscale blocks below. We recommend to make the most of this review you should be able to see the difference (at least) between X,Y and Z and ideally A,B and C.

This article is Copyright 2007 and may NOT in part or in whole be reproduced in any electronic or printed medium without prior permission from the author.