The New Nikon S630
The S630 is a little thicker than usual for Nikon’s S-series cameras. That extra depth is for the 7x zoom lens out front, but it doesn’t stop this camera from easily fitting in a pocket or small handbag. Available in five colors–black, blue, purple, silver, and red–it looks more stylish head-on than from the back where things get more functional. The right side swoops out a bit leaving a large thumb rest that was appreciated more and more while using the zoom ring around the shutter button on top of the camera.
Performance is on the slow side for the S630. It takes just shy of 4 seconds from power on to first shot. Its shot-to-shot time is 3.1 seconds; using the flash adds 0.3 second to that time. Shutter lag is OK at 0.5 second in bright conditions and 0.8 in dimly lit situations. In its regular continuous shooting mode at full resolution, the camera can capture 0.8 frames per second.
The S630’s photo quality is good. If you’re viewing photos primarily on a computer monitor, digital photo frame, or making prints up to 10×13 inches, you likely won’t be disappointed. Viewed at full size, however, offer-center subjects can look over-processed and soft, where you’ll also see an increase in purple fringing and ghosting. Center sharpness and fine detail are very good, though, as is color. Typical for its class, the lower ISOs are best on this camera, which is why it’s nice to see the inclusion of an ISO limiter in Auto mode for keeping sensitivity below ISO 200 or ISO 400. Noise suppression starts making things soft and smudgy at ISO 400, but you still can get a decent photo at ISO 800–good enough for small prints or Web use at least.
The good: Excellent design; 7x optical zoom in a compact body; ISO range limiter; good photo quality up to ISO 400.
The bad: Slow performance; photos can look over-processed, soft.
The bottom line: The Nikon Coolpix S630 puts a little extra zoom in your pocket, but you might not find the high-resolution photos it shoots out pleasurable.
CNET flashes the Nikon S630 a score of 7/10 while TestFreaks.com gives it a generous rating of 8.5/10. I agree the camera is totally worth the money for a photo enthusiast looking for design and quality.
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