Nikon Coolpix S9100, Excellent image quality. Impressive light performance. Fast. Huge, 18x optical zoom lens. Large, high-res LCD.If you’re seeking for a compress camera that’s outrageous upon zoom, a 12.1-megapixel Nikon Coolpix S9100 ($329.95 direct) has we covered—it packs a whopping 18x visual wizz in to a pocket-size body. It lacks a small of a competitors’ features, similar to a adorned UI, or GPS, though if we wish to get closer to a action, a S9100 delivers where it counts. This camera is incredibly fast, packs a high-res LCD, as well as captures glorious photos as well as videos even in low light, so it’s a ultimate Editors’ Choice superzoom digital camera.
Nikon Coolpix S9100 Design
The S9100 wants to be taken seriously, as well as opts for veteran looks over gimmicky or full of color attributes. It comes in black, red, or silver—my exam section was black. It qualifies as pocket-sized, though usually hardly during 2.5 by 4.2 by 1.4 inches (HWD). The front right has a tiny grip—basically usually a straight bar—that looks similar to a pattern develop though is meant to give we a improved hold. Like many higher-end cameras, a S9100′s peep contingency be manually popped up to be used. The behind of a camera has a honeyed small spinning ring upon it so we can fast zephyr by menus. The symbol blueprint doesn’t wandering from what you’d see upon many compress cameras—there’s a citation desk pad underneath a corkscrew wheel, dedicated Playback as well as Movie Recording buttons, as well as a mode dial as well as wizz trigger.
The S9100 wants to be taken seriously, as well as opts for veteran looks over gimmicky or full of color attributes. It comes in black, red, or silver—my exam section was black. It qualifies as pocket-sized, though usually hardly during 2.5 by 4.2 by 1.4 inches (HWD). The front right has a tiny grip—basically usually a straight bar—that looks similar to a pattern develop though is meant to give we a improved hold. Like many higher-end cameras, a S9100′s peep contingency be manually popped up to be used. The behind of a camera has a honeyed small spinning ring upon it so we can fast zephyr by menus. The symbol blueprint doesn’t wandering from what you’d see upon many compress cameras—there’s a citation desk pad underneath a corkscrew wheel, dedicated Playback as well as Movie Recording buttons, as well as a mode dial as well as wizz trigger.
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a camera a S9100′s distance that can suggest some-more zoom. Last year we reviewed a handful of a many appropriate compress superzoom cameras, as well as a Canon PowerShot SX210 IS ($349.99, 3.5 stars) offering a many appropriate lens specs: a 14x visual wizz lens spans 28-392mm (35mm equivalent). The S9100 beats it upon both ends with an 18x visual wizz lens that spans 25-450mm. With this camera, we get a many appropriate of both worlds—a wide-angle lens and an considerable telephoto lens. Like many of a competitors, a analogous orifice ranges from f/3.5-f/5.9.
The 3-inch LCD upon a behind of camera is a single of a many appropriate upon a market. Most compress cameras fill their displays with 230,000 dots, as well as a couple of go up to a crook 460,000. The S9100 firmly packs in 921,000 dots, as well as a outcome is an LCD that looks similar to it belongs upon a D-SLR camera; images demeanour splendid as well as colorful, as well as content is razor pointy as well as easy to read.
The user interface is a same as each alternative Nikon compress camera we’ve seen in a past couple of years—straightforward, though text-based as well as boring. Don’t design full of color graphics, discerning menus, or outline of modes. But a high-resolution LCD does have a drab UI demeanour some-more tasteful as well as simpler to navigate than many low-res LCDs.
The S9100 is in all elementary to operate. There’s entirely involuntary shooting, as well as a stage mode for many sharpened situations. There’s additionally a dedicated mode for breathtaking photos—just appropriate a camera left to right, as well as it will combine mixed photos in to a single master scenery shot. You can manually carry out a ISO sensitivity, white balance, concentration area, as well as more, though unfortunately, as is usual with compress cameras, there’s no approach to carry out shiver speed or aperture.
Unlike a small of a superzoom competitors, a S9100 does not enclose a GPS. Though this isn’t unequivocally a knock, it’s value observant that if you’re seeking for a versatile transport camera there have been a couple of superzoom options out there that supplement a GPS for geotagging photos, similar to a Canon PowerShot SX230 HS ($349.99, 4 stars), a Sony Cyber-shot HXV5 ($349.99, 4 stars) or a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 ($399.99, 4 stars).
Nikon Coolpix S9100 Performance
The S9100 is an comprehensive speed demon. The camera powers up as well as shoots in an normal of 1.56 seconds. When powered on, it averages usually 0.50 seconds of shiver lag, as well as usually a 1.58-second wait for for in in between shots. In comparison, a Sony Cyber-shot HX5V pales: it powers up as well as shoots in a poky 2.33 seconds, matches a S9100 upon shiver lag, though ups a wait for for to 1.80 seconds in in between shots.
In a Personal Computer Mag labs we operate Imatest to objectively weigh design quality, as well as a formula from a S9100 were plain opposite a board. In conditions of sharpness, a S9100 offering a center-weighted normal of 1,767 lines per design height—nearly matching to a Sony HX5V, that offering a core weighted normal of 1,796. Neither is a fantastic number, though it’s a good outcome for a compress camera.
The camera’s design sensor offers glorious low-light performance. If we wish to fire in bad lighting conditions though regulating a flash, we need to jack up a ISO attraction to catch some-more light. But a aloft we go, a some-more sound we speak up in to your shots. If Imatest detects some-more than 1.5 percent sound in an image, it will expected be visibly grainy or noisy. The Sony HXV5 was means to keep sound next 1.5 percent up to as well as together with ISO 1600, that is utterly good, though a S9100 dialed all a approach up to ISO 3200 prior to apropos producing visibly loud images. The S9100 will offer we simply in sub-optimal lighting conditions.
You have a lot of options for recording high-definition video with a S9100—1080 during thirty frames per second as well as 720 during thirty as well as 60 fps. (60 frames per second is really rare, upon anything alternative than a dedicated camcorder.) You even have a preference to emanate low-resolution (320 by 240) delayed suit video, capturing 240 frames per second. Videos have been prisoner as .MOV files that can be uploaded in to YouTube as well as Facebook readily.
The S9100 allows we to operate a hulk wizz whilst recording video, though when zooming in as well as out you’ll constraint pointed sound from a lens motor. It can additionally autofocus whilst it’s recording, as well as in my tests, we didn’t listen to any sound whilst it did so. There’s a built-in stereo microphone, so prisoner audio sounds good too. You can fool around videos behind upon your HDTV by joining a wire to a S9100′s built-in mini-HDMI port. Files can be eliminated to your mechanism around a camera’s exclusive USB port. The camera writes to SD, SDHC, as well as SDXC mental recall cards.
The Nikon Coolpix S9100 is an top-notch preference for a compress superzoom camera. The $330 shooter offers a single of a greatest visual wizz lenses we can find in a compress camera, along with glorious design quality, good video constraint options, as well as an implausible LCD during a satisfactory price. Though a built-in GPS would a be good addition, a S9100 still simply earns a Editors’ Choice.
Nikon Coolpix S9100 Specifications
- Type : Compact
- Megapixels : 12.1 MP
- Media Format : Secure Digital Extended Capacity
- 35-mm Equivalent (Wide) : 25
- 35-mm Equivalent (Telephoto) : 450
- Optical Zoom : eighteen x
- LCD distance : 3 inches
- HD Video Capture : Yes
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