NIKON COOLPIX S1000PJ

Digital Camera

NIKON COOLPIX S1000PJ

Verdict: A nice way to share photos but Nikon should have focused more on the image quality.

More and more digital cameras now come with tools for sharing photos and videos. Automatic slideshows with background music and transition effects are common. Thus you can hook the camera up to a TV and show off your photos in style. Nikon has gone way beyond this and packed a projector into their latest addition to the Coolpix lineup, the S1000pj. At first it was hard to digest this fact but yes, it’s indeed path-breaking and a first in the market.

The projector

First, the most interesting bit—the built-in 10 lumen projector. Switch it on in the dark and everyone’s jaw will drop. Ours did when we first saw it in action. The package includes a stand to angle the camera slightly backwards so that the screen doesn’t get cut when the camera is placed on a flat surface. Going by the specifications the ideal throw distance ranges from 26 cm to 2 meters. You get a 5 inch display at 26 cm and a massive 40-inch screen at 2 meters. The display surface can be your home theater screen or any empty patch of wall. How about the ground while you’re standing with people around you or the ceiling while you’re lying down? We tried all sorts of antics and it was great fun!

The image was crisp and bright at 5 inches but that’s too small. At a throw distance of 1.3 meters we found the roughly 25-inch display ideal—a satisfactory combination of screen size, color integrity and brightness, but you need a really dark room. At the maximum recommended throw distance of 2 meters, the photos just weren't bright enough. However, the huge 40-inch photos were still impressive.

Camera features

Despite having a projector squeezed in, the S1000pj is fairly compact and weighs just 155 grams—it’s neither too large nor too heavy. The black shell with matte finish lends a good look to the device. The S1000pj is equipped with a 12.1-megapixel sensor and a 5x zoom lens that resides within the body. At 28 mm it’s nice and wide for capturing landscapes and big groups of people. And with 5x optical zoom it’s a notch above many compact cameras that offer only a 3x or 4x zoom lens. The projector window is at the center of the face below the flash. There’s a switch for turning it on and off, and a slider for adjusting the focus. The rear panel is clean with a large 2.7-inch LCD and a tiny control panel at the bottom right corner. The panel layout is pretty standard with a 5-way D-pad and buttons for menu, delete, playback mode and scene selection. We liked the one-touch access to flash settings, self timer, macro mode and exposure compensation via the D-pad—a very useful set. But a programmable hotkey or button for adjusting the ISO value would have been nice.

The camera comes with a tiny remote control that lets you control slideshows while projecting them, and also acts as a wireless shutter release with zoom controls. There's no need to scurry into the frame right before the timer runs out if you want to be in a group shot. IR sensors on both the front and rear are a very nice touch.

Usability

The interface of the S1000pj is designed such that anyone can use it. There aren’t many menu levels and everything is labeled with appropriate icons. Navigating the menus is quite straightforward and easy. If you’re not familiar with the settings that have to be used in various lighting conditions, the camera has 16 preset scene modes including sport, twilight, fireworks, food, and so on. You can also let the camera decide which one to use. The auto mode is much like the program mode in most digital cameras. White balance, ISO sensitivity, color options and focusing are all set to auto by default, but you’re free to tinker with them. ISO speed ranges from 80 to 6400, but shooting at ISO 3600 or 6400 is possible only up to a resolution of 2048 x 1536 which is 3.2 megapixels. Focusing can be set to automatic, center of the frame, face detection, or manual. All other settings are grouped under the Setup menu. These include vibration reduction or IS, digital zoom, sound settings, date imprint, and blink warning.

The S1000pj doesn’t have anything to boast about when it comes to shooting videos. It captures videos only at VGA resolution (640x480) and doesn’t allow zooming  while shooting.

Performance

The camera excels in outdoor performance during daytime. Details were excellent but colors were a bit oversaturated. The blue sky looked good in photos but in reality it wasn’t as blue as it should be. Likewise, oversaturation looked good in certain photos where the scene had contrasting colors. But in certain photos colors appeared quite unnatural. The camera also takes a hit in very bright light. With bright sky in the background, objects in the foreground had washed out colors. This indicates that it falters when metering in very bright light. We had to tone down the EV a little more than a whole stop to get the correct exposure.

The preset scenes work really well. Skies looked better in dusk/dawn mode than using auto mode. We also noticed the flash firing in bright sunlight to expose subjects against bright skies. The macro performance is excellent in terms of colors and details, and you can go as close as 3 cm to the subject. Indoor performance was also very good, but we faced the problem of oversaturated colors again, which was annoying. With the flash firing, skin tones had a pinkish tone. This can be corrected with an image editing program but the camera should have done a better job. Coming to noise performance, photos are decent up to ISO 200 but noise starts creeping in at ISO 400. At ISO 3200 and 6400, colors and details go for a toss—Nikon shouldn’t have bothered including them.

Final words

Our overall impression is good but not excellent—we give it 4 out of 5. The S1000pj's USP is its built-in projector for which it commands a price higher than most top-end compact cameras. Projecting photos is really cool and not just a gimmick, but the camera let us down when it comes to image quality. At this price, you'd better get the best of everything, unless you’re happy with just the projector. We were also unhappy with the video resolution and inability to zoom while recording. Had these been taken care of, the S1000pj would have received a perfect score.   

- anad.tuliani@chip.in