Check out the Dell Store on CNETNikon Coolpix S9
Manufacturer: Nikon Inc. Part number: 25554
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Accessories
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- Nikon's Coolpix S9 has an attractive price, but its feature set and image quality could be better.
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CNET editors' review
Nikon Coolpix S9 price range: $269.99
- Reviewed by: Philip Ryan
- Reviewed on: 10/18/2006
The good: Relatively low price for an ultracompact; attractive design; easy to use.
The bad: No manual exposure controls; sensitivity tops out at ISO 400; noisy images at ISO 200 and ISO 400.
The bottom line: Nikon's Coolpix S9 has an attractive price, but its feature set and image quality could be better.
The two main differences are in the cameras' LCD screens and lenses. The S5's LCD screen has 230,000 pixels, while the S9's has just 153,600 pixels. This difference makes the S9's LCD appear slightly more coarse than the S5's screen; you may notice that diagonal lines and curves appear jagged. Though this has almost nothing to do with the cameras' actual captured images, it's a slight knock against the newer S9. The S5's lens covers a range from 35mm to 105mm, with an aperture range of f/3 to f/5.4. The S9's lens covers a range from 38mm to 114mm, with an aperture range of f/3.5 to f/4.3. This means that the S9 can't achieve quite as wide an angle of view as the S5, but it does reach slightly further with its zoom. (Though most people won't notice much of a difference, since it's less than 10mm on either end.) The difference in aperture at the telephoto (a.k.a., far) end of the two zooms is more important, though still minor. The S9 lets in more light, which means you could potentially use a slightly faster shutter speed when zoomed all the way, under the same lighting conditions. This time, the edge goes to the S9, as it has more potential to positively affect your actual images.
The S9's design dispenses with the click wheel that Nikon includes on its S5, S6, and S7c. It's a shame, since the wheel provides quick navigation through Nikon's sleek, intuitive menu system. As with most slim, ultracompact cameras, one-handed shooting isn't really possible. The best you can do is to use two hands when changing settings, and then switch to one hand while pressing the shutter. Of course, if you want steady shots, two-handed shooting is always a good idea. The camera's button layout is comfortable to use, but we found the placement of the zoom rocker (to the right of the shutter button) unfortunate, since it's easy to nudge while you're waiting to press the shutter.
As usual with ultracompacts, which are geared toward snapshooters, the Coolpix S9's feature set is simple. You won't find manual exposure controls, though there are 15 scene modes that configure the camera for various shooting conditions. Nikon includes exposure compensation, up to plus or minus 2 EV, so you can tweak exposures when shooting difficult scenes.
If you're shooting a tricky scene and you don't want to use a flash, you may want to consider Nikon's Best Shot Selector (BSS) mode, of which there are four versions. The first shoots up to 10 exposures, then selects the one with the least blur. The other three versions are grouped together under a separate heading in the BSS submenu called Exposure BSS; they're called Highlight BSS, Shadow BSS, and Histogram BSS. All three capture five shots each time the shutter is pressed. From the five, Highlight BSS selects the shot with the least areas of overexposure; Shadow BSS selects the one with the least areas of underexposure; and Histogram BSS selects the one with the best balance of the two.
While the S9 includes a manual white balance feature, in addition to the usual assortment of presets and auto choices, Nikon renamed this feature "Preset white balance." When you see it, don't get confused-- even though we were at first. The camera also includes three continuous shooting modes: one is a regular burst mode, that continues to capture images as you hold down the shutter button; a second captures 16 images and arranges them in a grid as part of one 2,816x2,112 pixel image; the third captures up to 1,800 images at intervals of 30 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, or 10 minutes. Like almost all cameras on the market today, you can also choose from a handful of color modes, including black and white.
The Coolpix S9 was neither the fastest nor the slowest ultracompact we've seen. It took 2.6 seconds to power up and capture its first image, 2.7 seconds between subsequent images without flash, and 3 seconds between images with the flash turned on. Shutter lag measured a speedy 0.7 second in our high-contrast test, which mimics bright shooting conditions, and 1.7 seconds in our low-contrast test, meant to mimic dim shooting conditions.
Though the S9's manual says that the camera can capture up to 5 frames at a time in its standard burst mode, we found that as long as you hold the shutter button, the camera keeps capturing images, although the speed slows down after the first five images. (This is probably because the camera must wait for the buffer to clear enough room to capture the next image.) Nikon quotes a speed of 1.7 frames per second based on its stated five frames. We were able to capture 42 VGA-sized images in 32.8 seconds, for an average of about 1.28 frames per second, and 42 highest-quality 6-megapixel images in 34.8 seconds, for an average of about 1.21 frames per second.
The Coolpix S9 produced pleasing images with accurate-looking and adequately saturated colors, though the images weren't quite as sharp as we've seen from some other ultracompacts, such as Sony's T series. We saw small amounts of barrel distortion at the lens' widest setting and even smaller amounts of pincushion distortion at its longest telephoto setting, though you'll likely not see it in your photos unless you're shooting an object with lots of straight lines--for example,a modern high-rise building with lots of glass windows. The automatic white balance served up very slightly warm images with our lab's tungsten lights, though still well within the usable range; some might even like the warm effect. The tungsten preset was more neutral, but had a minor greenish cast. The manual, or Preset, white balance we created gave us the most neutral results.
Strangely, Nikon includes only center-weighted, rather than matrix, metering in the S9. In our tests, it seemed to weigh the very center of the image more heavily than some similar metering systems we've seen. When we tested the camera's ability to balance fill flash, the S9 struggled when the lamp in our test scene was turned to the highest of its three brightness settings, and it didn't provide enough flash to illuminate the entire scene. When we lowered the lamp to its lowest setting, the camera did better, making us think that it gave too much weight to the object in the center of our image, which caught just enough light from the lamp to confuse a metering system that apparently doesn't take into account a large portion of a scene.
Nikon manages to keep noise under control throughout the S9's sensitivity range, but we noted that the camera's sensitivity maxes out at ISO 400, which is far below what you'll find in a lot of ultracompact cameras. At very least, we'd have expected the camera to reach ISO 800, though ISO 1,600 would've been better if Nikon wants to remain competitive. At its lowest setting of ISO 64, we saw very little noise, which likely won't be noticeable in prints, though you'll probably notice it when viewing on a monitor. At ISO 100, noise grew slightly. By ISO 200, noise was very noticeable on monitors. Though Nikon's noise-reduction algorithms help minimize noise in prints, they also rob much of an image's finer detail. ISO 400 showed plenty of noise, though again, not-so-detailed prints should be OK at smaller sizes. In addition to sacrificing finer details at this highest setting, darker portions of our images, such as the face of a plush ape in our test scene, plunged even deeper into darkness, obscuring detail in shadows as well as smoothing the noise reduction.
Overall, Nikon's Coolpix S9 is a decent ultracompact, but its lack of high ISO or image stabilization, as well as substandard noise performance make us think twice. If you're looking for a snapshot camera, you may be better served with something such as Canon's SD600 or SD630. Or, perhaps take a step up to Nikon's Coolpix S7c. Sony's T-series cameras, such as the Cyber Shot DSC-T9, have also done well in our tests, but tend to be a bit pricey compared to this Nikon.
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
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Typical shot-to-shot time | |
Time to first shot | |
Shutter lag (typical) |
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
User reviews
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Terrible Camera
by corymellis on February 24, 2007
Pros: Small and sleek
Cons: Very difficult to take good quality pictures
Summary: Had an old Nikon Coolpix 5600 and loved it. So when it got old decided to update to a newer coolpix camera. Bad choice. As the other reviewers have said, ...
Summary: Had an old Nikon Coolpix 5600 and loved it. So when it got old decided to update to a newer coolpix camera. Bad choice. As the other reviewers have said, this camera takes very poor images the majority of the time. I have been nothing but disappointed since purchasing it. Save your money, but something else.
3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Don't EVER buy this camera!
by evita_32 on July 10, 2007
Pros: Sleek design , small size.
Cons: Horrible overexposed flash , bad pictures
Summary: I am so angry with my Nikon Coolpix S9!
It takes horrible pictures and the flash is way to bright! Without the flash the pictures get blurry, and I find ...Summary: I am so angry with my Nikon Coolpix S9!
It takes horrible pictures and the flash is way to bright! Without the flash the pictures get blurry, and I find the camera does only work in bright daylight!
Please don't ever buy this poor excuse for a camera...2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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This camera varys in certain areas
by Exodiara on July 17, 2007
Pros: It is really good for the outdoors
Cons: Waiting time when indoors. It takes 5 seconds to get a good picture,
Summary: This was a good camera. I wouldn't call it awesome, but not horrible. I would prefer my mobile phone's camera over this, mainly because of the focus. We ...
Summary: This was a good camera. I wouldn't call it awesome, but not horrible. I would prefer my mobile phone's camera over this, mainly because of the focus. We take lots of photos, especially the outdoors, so it was okay. But when we took it inside, not as great as the outside.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Unable to take pictures in FOCUS!!!
by abelveny on February 1, 2007
Pros: Cute, compact
Cons: Features too confusing... cannot take a picture in focus.
Summary: I got my Nikon Coolpix S9 for Christmas and was elated at the fact that I had a small digital to carry around with me. Previously, I had been using ...
Summary: I got my Nikon Coolpix S9 for Christmas and was elated at the fact that I had a small digital to carry around with me. Previously, I had been using my professional Finepix S7000... which takes amazing pictures. I didn't do much research on the Nikon before I bought it.. which was a big mistake. After taking the first 3 pictures I noticed that NONE of them were in focus. The AE indicator would signal green on the screen.. but the image would still come out blurry. I tried all sorts of different scenes and modes but nothing came out NORMAL. Either blurry, too dark, too blown out, etc. I just wanted to take a normal picture of my son between 3 - 5 feet away and it turn out.
I would not recommend this camera to anyone and I have just returned it. I am getting the canon SD600. If this camera doesn't take better pictures don't be surprised if you look up and see me on top of a building
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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This camera is freakin awesome
by Delorean2006 on October 16, 2006
Pros: Amazing Pictures and ease of use
Cons: Battery does not come charged
Summary: This camera is awesome the picture quality is great. The only problem with it is that the battery only lasts 1 minute when you first get it. Overall awesome and ...
Summary: This camera is awesome the picture quality is great. The only problem with it is that the battery only lasts 1 minute when you first get it. Overall awesome and worth it.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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one major problem
by DonnaRo on November 20, 2008
Pros: sleek design, large display, pics are good for the most part
Cons: the lense cover broke and freezes camera use! should come with a case -the lense cover would not have broke- I never had the time to learn all features-too time consuming to learn-
Summary: This is a sharp camera, loved the look. It does take great pic's but not all pic's are equal. It seems if you move the camera slightly the ...
Summary: This is a sharp camera, loved the look. It does take great pic's but not all pic's are equal. It seems if you move the camera slightly the pic goes out of focus and if you have already zoomed, you need to go out of shoot mode to get rid of the blurry focus. Its just a tidius to use. AND THEN......I threw it in my purse and forgot for a couple of days...the little 1/4"circle that automatically covers the lense is off track or something preventing use...A message appears the makes the display all white and says lense cover error. I try to push it open and even if successful, the message does not go away. Then miraculously it will work fine. So I take it along to an event-
and there it is "lense cover error" Iv'e missed several great shots. wouldn't buy a nikon in this price range again. -
Very dissapointing and frustrated
by xcutesht on February 3, 2008
Pros: very bright flash makes you look pale, lots of red eye at night pictures, very blurry photos, lots of orbs
Cons: deisgn and screen is nice
Summary: omg i bought this camera & this turns our to be the suckiest camera i have ever used. My old camera (DSC-S40) was way better than this and it was ...
Summary: omg i bought this camera & this turns our to be the suckiest camera i have ever used. My old camera (DSC-S40) was way better than this and it was 4.1 megapixels. But I reccomend that way better than this camera. It dissapoints me because whenever I try to take point and shoot photos most of them come out blurry.
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AWFUL - does not focus
by nikoncoolpixs9 on January 1, 2008
Pros: Its nice and small
Cons: DOES NOT FOCUS
Summary: I am in my twenties and wanted a small camera to take pictures on days/nights out. Nothing fancy. Unfortunately I ended up with the Nikon Coolpix S9 as a ...
Summary: I am in my twenties and wanted a small camera to take pictures on days/nights out. Nothing fancy. Unfortunately I ended up with the Nikon Coolpix S9 as a Christmas present last year and it is AWFUL.
In order to take a photo, you have to press the button half way down, wait for a little square in the middle of the screen to turn green (which means you're in focus) then push all the way down to take the photo. Absoloute pain in the a*se if you ever want to actually be in the picture as you have to explain this technicality to whoever is taking the photo for you.
The camera would be annoying but tolerable if this was the only issue. The main problem is that the thing just WILL NOT FOCUS. i.e. the little square in the middle of the screen never goes green and is always red (meaning bad - no focus). Note - yes I do have a steady hand. This is true for all different light settings, and even when you have the clearest, most simple shot of someone standing in front of you. Result? Every time you want to take a picture, you end up having to push the button half way down from various different angles, zoom levels and distances etc several times before the square in the middle goes green (IF it goes green at all, which more often than not it won't). Again, REAL pain if you've just asked a stranger to take a photo of you.
The only positive thing I can find about this camera is that it looks nice, and is nice and small (handbag sized). Also, it tends to take nice close-up pictures (of flowers/butterflies).
Bottom line - if you want a simple, easy to use camera to take pictures of family/friends/days out then this is NOT FOR YOU. This camera takes awful pictures that are 75% of the time blurred as it just won't focus. -
ok...sometimes
by jae_mixed on August 2, 2007
Pros: brilliant pictures with good lighting, nice LDC display, fairly user friendly interface, good choice of scenes
Cons: takes horrible pictures at night time or with high ISO's, very hard to get a non-blurry foto with slightly poor lighting, flash tends to make things very very white
Summary: Although it looks nice and slim and beautiful, turn down the lights and it takes fairly poor fotos. you can't take fotos indoor without flash, even with lights on ...
Summary: Although it looks nice and slim and beautiful, turn down the lights and it takes fairly poor fotos. you can't take fotos indoor without flash, even with lights on without the foto turning out blurry, and you can't take fotos with flash in poor lighting, because you'll turn out looking as pale as a ghost.
overall, ok...sometimes -
Good! Great Camera from the look!
by horselover7 on July 20, 2007
Pros: everything
Cons: nothing I can think of
Summary: I had the nikon coolpix s1 but, the megapixels and all that I didn't like. But, from looking at the reviews this is camera is really good. That is ...
Summary: I had the nikon coolpix s1 but, the megapixels and all that I didn't like. But, from looking at the reviews this is camera is really good. That is why I got it today! And when I learn more about it I will update you on it. Howdy! Howdy all!
God Bless,
Horselover7Updated
I got my camera. Love the LCD Screen. The colors on it are marvelous! I have had some blurry pictures but, mostly good comments from me using it. Like the slim camera of this one compared to the S1 which I used to have. All I can say it is good. As long as you buys things with it then it is great or with out it is still good!
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Nikon Inc.
- Part number: 25554
- Description: A high-quality compact digital camera that packs 6.1 megapixels and a range of easy-to-use functions into a slim, sophisticated wave-surface body, the COOLPIX S9 has the style and capability to let anyone shoot with greater confidence. Featuring a 1/2.5-inch CCD that offers enhanced precision and 6.1-effective Megapixel image resolution, the COOLPIX S9 captures true-to-life color and delivers sharp, fine detail. And because it features a 3x Zoom-Nikkor ED lens with a 38-114mm range (35mm equivalent), it gives users broad compositional freedom to shoot anything from expansive scenery to tight portraits. The lens of the COOLPIX S9 also features an ingenious "right-angled" design, which allows it to operate throughout its entire focal range without ever protruding from the surprisingly slim body with its wave-surface design that's as attractive to the eye as it is comfortable in the hand. And as the COOLPIX S9 has the advantage of a generous 153.600-dot, 2.5-inch LCD, it not only allows simple composition, but also enables high-quality playback anywhere and supports smoother menu navigation. With a new Stop-motion movie function, the COOLPIX S9 brings a whole new dimension of fun to compact digital photography. As its name suggests, it's a function that makes it a cinch for users to create their very own stop-motion animated films. Users simply take a shot of the models they wish to animate, move the models, then shoot again - it really is that simple! The COOLPIX S9 also makes it especially easy to get great-looking results in challenging conditions with a handy One-touch portrait button that provides direct access to three unique in-camera Nikon image innovations - Face Priority AF that automatically detects and achieves sharp focus on people's faces wherever they are in the frame, In-Camera Red-Eye Fix that can automatically overcome the red-eye effect sometimes caused by flash, and Nikon's D-Lighting that can rescue underexposed images or shots with too much back light. What's more, the COOLPIX S9 offers 15 Scene modes that can produce great-looking shots in a wide range of common conditions, with 4 of the modes also offering Scene assist to promote more pleasing composition. The COOLPIX S9 features a handy Date Counter too, which visually records the countdown of days to a special occasion or number of days since an event, as well as a Time zone function that allows the setting of hometown and new city time zones for easy image sorting after traveling. The COOLPIX S9 also comes complete with Nikon's unique PictureProject software. Not only does PictureProject offer a broad range of powerful features for image editing, organizing and sharing, but it also has an interface that makes it extremely easy for virtually anyone to use. PictureProject is also compatible with a range of plug-ins, allowing users to extend their capabilities as the COOLPIX S9 adds to their photographic confidence and enjoyment.
General
- Product Type Digital camera
- Width 3.6 in
- Depth 0.8 in
- Height 2.3 in
- Weight 4.1 oz
Main Features
- Resolution 6 megapixels
- Color Support Color
- Optical Sensor Type CCD
- Total Pixels 6,360,000 pixels
- Effective Sensor Resolution 6,000,000 pixels
- Digital Zoom 4 x
- Shooting Modes Frame movie mode
- Shooting Programs Copy, Museum, Sunset, Close-up, Dawn/dusk, Fireworks, Landscape, Back light, Beach/snow, Sports mode, Party/indoor, Portrait mode, Night portrait, Night landscape, Panorama assist
- Exposure Modes Program, Automatic
- Face Detection Yes
- White Balance Presets, Automatic
- Digital Video Format QuickTime
- Still Image Format JPEG
- TV Tuner None
- Video Capture QuickTime - 640 x 480, QuickTime - 320 x 240, QuickTime - 160 x 120, QuickTime - 320 x 240
Memory / Storage
- Supported Flash Memory SD Memory Card
- Integrated Memory 24 MB
- Floppy Drive None
- Image Storage Fine JPEG 2816 x 2112, Normal JPEG 2816 x 2112, JPEG 2048 x 1536, JPEG 1024 x 768, JPEG 640 x 480
Camera Flash
- Camera Flash Built-in flash
- Flash Modes Auto mode, Forced mode, Fill-in mode, Slow synchro, Flash OFF mode, Auto mode with red-eye reduction
- Red Eye Reduction Yes
- Effective Flash Range 10 in - 10.5 ft
Lens System
- Type Zoom lens - 6.4 mm - 19.2 mm - F/3.5-4.3
- Special Functions Zoom
- Focal Length 6.4 mm - 19.2 mm
- Focal Length Equivalent to 35mm Camera 38 - 114 mm
- Focus Adjustment Automatic
- Min Focus Range 9.8 in
- Macro Focus Range 4cm
- Lens Aperture F/3.5-4.3
- Optical Zoom 3 x
- Zoom Adjustment Motorized drive
- Lens Construction 10 group(s) / 13 element(s)
Additional Features
- Self Timer Yes
- Self Timer Delay 3 sec, 10 sec
- Additional Features Blur warning, Audio recording, Auto power save, Date/time stamp, Cropping an image, In-camera red-eye fix, Interval shooting mode, Face-priority AF function, Display brightness control
Viewfinder
- Viewfinder Type None
Display
- Type LCD display - TFT active matrix - 2.5 in - Color
- Display Format 153,600 pixels
Digital Player (Recorder)
- Type None
Connections
- Connector Type 1 x USB, 1 x Composite video/audio output
- Expansion Slot(s) 1 x SD Memory Card
Software
- Software Drivers & Utilities, Nikon PictureProject
System Requirements for PC Connection
- Operating System Support MS Windows ME, MS Windows XP, MS Windows 2000, MS Windows 98 SE, Apple Mac OS X 10.1.5 or later
- Peripheral Devices USB port, CD-ROM drive, SVGA monitor
Miscellaneous
- Included Accessories Strap
- Cables Included 1 x USB cable, 1 x A/V cable
Power
- Power Device Battery charger - External
Battery
- Supported Battery Nikon EN-EL8
- Supported Battery 1 x Nikon EN-EL8 Li-ion rechargeable battery ( Included )
CNET Labs' Benchmarks
- Labs information All values are expressed in seconds. Please visit our labs information page for information on how digital cameras are tested.
- CNET Labs Flash shot to shot time 3.0
- CNET Labs Shot to shot time typical 2.7
- CNET Labs Shutter lag bright 0.7
- CNET Labs Shutter lag dim 1.7
- CNET Labs Typical burst speed 1.2
- CNET Labs Wake up time 2.6
Accessories
Manufacturer info
- Nikon Inc.
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Nikon Inc. products on Shopper.com
-
- Website: http://www.nikonusa.com/
- Address:
1300 Walt Whitman Rd.
Melville, NY 11747 - Phone: 516/547-4200
- Fax: 631-547-4025
