Nikon is well known for producing
high-quality digital cameras, most of them being point-and-shoots. Their
collection is large, currently with 13 point-and-shoot cameras to choose from.
Certainly, they like to give consumers choice. One area where Nikon lacks
however, is that they haven't had a near-DSLR quality point-and-shoot for
years, except the P5000 which was announced earlier this year. Canon holds the
title there, as they have numerous high-quality P-n-S cameras to choose from.
What Nikon does excel at though, is
creating the sexiest digital cameras on the market. Yes, I said sexy, and so
did Nikon. There is a reason they have Kate Moss modelling off the S-series in
their commercials. There's no denying the fact that it's a classy camera, and
compact as well. It will fit into a purse, pocket, cleavage.. anywhere.
We first took a look at the S6 last
October which is where this cameras style evolved from. Despite its small
frame, it has curves in the right places, easy to hold onto and lots of things
to love. Yes I am still talking about a camera.
The S50c as I mentioned, is part of
Nikon's style series. First and foremost, cameras in this series have to look
good. Second, they are not known for offering professionals a slew of options
to deal with, but is made easy to use by anyone who wants to take some quick
photos and look good while doing so.
Found here is a 2.5" sensor
capable of capturing 7.2 megapixels, aka 3072x2304. This is fantastic for
printing, although it's probably overkill for most people to begin with. The
lens is a 3x Zoom-Nikkor with a focal range of 6.3-18.9mm with an aperture of
f/3.3-4.2. If digital mode is used, zoom is increased 4x, but the results are
less than ideal.
One huge gripe I have with Nikon's
point-and-shoots is that there is no viewfinder, instead they have a very large
3.0" LCD screen. This is fine when conditions are right, but I took this
camera to a park a few weeks ago and couldn't even see what was going on in the
screen because of the sun. I am sure I am not alone here, it's impossible. If
you are out in the sun, you can't see what's on the screen, it's common sense.
That said, I'd love to see a viewfinder on a smaller Nikon point-in-shoot in
the future.
The P5000 has a viewfinder, but it's closer to a DSLR with a fixed
lens than a point-and-shoot.That rant aside, the screen has a nice 230,000-dot
resolution, similar to what's found on their D-series. The S50c has a larger
screen than what's available on those though. The camera has 13MB worth of
internal memory and accepts SD cards for expansion. It accepts SDHC cards as
well, in case you want to grab a card with a very high density.
ISO is the new megapixel. As the
megapixel race is slowing down, the ISO rates are going up. The S50c offers a
range of ISO 100 all the way up to 1600. Given the fact that this is a small
camera in a modest price-range, I would not expect to see amazing results with
anything above ISO 400.
Also included is vibration
reduction, which when activated, will drain the battery far quicker. However,
VR is an amazing technology that is an absolute joy to use if you are
travelling without a tripod. The VR is built straight into the lens, not the
body, a plus.
The rated battery life is 130 shots
on a single battery charge. After the initial charge, I had the camera die on
me after about 100 shots, so I didn't quite make their rated spec. From any
viewpoint, 130 pictures per battery charge is horrible, but not uncommon of
such small cameras. This is a side-effect of having a custom battery in such a
small frame. If the camera utilized AA batteries, the shots/charge ratio would
be at least five-fold.
Now that we have covered all the
bases, lets now take a look at image quality, color and also our final thoughts.
View orginal artical here- Camera
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