Nikon Coolpix S500 Review - Performance and Image Quality
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In the performance category, the S500 lags behind the competition in most ways. The typical shot-to-shot times are pretty disappointing at about 2.8 seconds between shots. This figure is about 1 second higher than many of the S500's competitors. The continuous shooting speeds of the S500 fairs a bit better at about 2.8 frames per second. These shooting speeds are without the flash enabled; with the flash on the S500 will be a bit slower. Although this Nikon is not as speedy as some of its competitors, it more than makes up for it in other ways. One of these ways is the great image quality.
The image quality of this camera is great, but there is a catch. You must keep the ISO setting below 100 in order to get the crystal clear pictures that most people are looking for. As the ISO setting goes up in the S500, the image quality drops drastically. At the maximum setting of ISO 2000, images appear extremely noisy and grainy (see the photo sample). Keeping the ISO setting at 100 and below will keep your images looking great with this camera.
The vibration reduction feature in the S500 seems to work well. It does a good job at reducing blurriness due to camera shake.
The overall image quality is great if ISO levels are kept low. The automatic focus, BSS, VR, and the face AF work really well in this camera. What this means is that this camera is extremely easy to use, and it does not require a lot of manual adjustments in order to get a good quality shot. This makes it a great camera for someone who is looking for an easy to use point-and-shoot camera which pretty much runs itself; all you have to do is push the button.
Summary
Overall, I like this camera because of its ease of use and its good looks. It seems to be a very durable camera, and it is definitely good-looking with its stainless steel body. It has great features which allow for customization of a shot, such as in-camera editing and red-eye editing. Every function of this camera is easy to do because of the way Nikon has set up the features to work automatically for the user.
At around $250, I would definitely recommend this camera to people who are looking for a camera that produces great quality photos, has great features, and is easy to use. If you are looking for a speedy camera to take a lot of action shots or a camera that takes good shots in dim lighting, than you may want to look elsewhere because those are not the strong points of this camera.
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