Best shot selector fires off up to 10 frames and then saves the sharpest image, while multi-shot 16 compiles a sequence of 16 shots and puts them all in a grid on one photo. There are 15 scene modes, with nothing out of the ordinary, as well as 'easy auto', Nikon's automatic scene-recognition mode. Uniquely, with some of the scene modes, you get an on-screen slider for modifying results -- for example, boosting or reducing colour in 'macro' or exposure in 'portrait'. The latter mode also uses Nikon's new 'skin softening' component for smoothing skin tones.
Slow performance, good photos
The S70's performance is below average for an ultra-compact of this price. It takes 2 seconds to wake up and shoot. Subsequent shots will leave you waiting an average of 2.1 seconds between them, jumping to 2.7 seconds if you use the flash. Shutter lag is noticeable in good lighting conditions, at 0.6 seconds. In dim lighting, it takes 1 second to focus and capture. The S70 has a full-resolution continuous-shooting speed of 0.4 frames per second. With these numbers, it's definitely more suited to portraits and landscapes than shooting anything in motion.
The S70's photo quality is very good for a snapshot camera, but it's disappointing if you're going strictly by price. Snapping photos below ISO 200 will deliver the best images, producing reasonably sharp photos with good fine detail. Its photos are still fairly good at ISO 400, but, at ISO 800 and higher, there's noticeable colour shifting, which is a shame, since detail is still decent. The camera lets you limit the auto ISO range to either between 80 and 200 or 80 and 400. If you're in daylight or bright conditions, we recommend locking it down to between 80 and 200. Again, it performs well up to ISO 400, but it's at its best below ISO 200. It can shoot at full resolution up to and including a sensitivity of ISO 1,600, but the results don't look good in low-light conditions.
The camera's colours aren't terribly accurate, but are nonetheless pleasing and reasonably natural. Exposure is generally okay, although clipped highlights are common, as they are with most compact cameras. The white-balance presets work well, but the auto white balance leans toward warm. For a 28mm-equivalent wideangle lens, the S70 has no discernible barrel or pincushion distortion at the camera's widest or longest lens positions, respectively. Chromatic aberration in high-contrast areas of photos is a fairly regular occurrence. The blue/purple fringe is easily seen in prints of 8 by 10 inches or larger, but, if you're viewing pictures at smaller sizes on a computer screen, or printing at sizes below 8 by 10 inches, you'll probably never notice.
Video quality is very good and on a par with other cameras in the S70's class. You can, however, only use the digital zoom while recording.
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
 |
Time to first shot | |
Typical shot-to-shot time (flash) | |
Typical shot-to-shot time | |
Shutter lag (dim) | |
Shutter lag (typical) |
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Conclusion
The Nikon Coolpix S70 will certainly turn heads with its flashy design, slick touchscreen interface, and internal wideangle 5x zoom lens. If you're after £230 worth of photo quality and performance though, you might find that those aspects of the S70 fall short of the rest of the package.
Additional editing by Charles Kloet
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