Nikon Coolpix S600 review

The face-priority AF is too slow, as well as too erratic, to take seriously. As with most snapshot models, the auto area AF invariably picks the wrong subject; for example, in a photo of two people sitting on a bench, the camera chose to focus on the bench. As usual, we recommend that you eschew all the fancy AF modes and instead use centre AF focus and recompose. For selecting the appropriate subject, you're still faster than the camera.

Shooting speed (in frames per second)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Time to first shot

Flash shot-to-shot time

Typical shot-to-shot time

Shutter lag (dim light)

Shutter lag (typical)

Canon Digital IXUS 80 IS

1

3.5

2.1

0.7

0.4

Kodak EasyShare V1253

2

1.6

1.2

0.8

0.4

Nikon Coolpix S600

0.8

2.5

2.2

1.1

0.4

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T70

1.5

3

1.3

1.2

0.4

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W130

1.8

2.8

1.4

1

0.4

The S600 has a nice, wide, optically stabilised f/2.7-5.8, 28mm-to-112mm 4x zoom lens, but while shooting you may get frustrated by the lack of the telephoto reach you get with models like Panasonic's Lumix TZ series or, to a lesser extent, some of Sony's W series models. On the upside, the camera has a nice 69mm (2.7-inch) LCD that boasts a relatively wide viewing angle and is easy to see even in direct sunlight.