Nikon Coolpix S50

ahphotography · Oct 25, 2007

I'm looking for an on the go small, thin but good quality camera. What do you think about the Coolpix S50? I've been looking at a few reviews and it has caught my eye

! Let me know what you think - or maybe you know of a better camera.

Thanks for your input!

AUZambo · Oct 26, 2007

I can't remember which Nikon we got, but my wife has one of the coolpix cameras and while it is a decent camera, I wish we had gotten something else...a couple of the things I'm not wild about:

1. It takes FOREVER to store the images to the card (possibly remedied by getting a bigger/faster card). After taking a picture it takes several seconds for the image to show up on the display, which means you cannot take consecutive shots close together. It's much worse when the flash is on because it waits 'til the flash (5 or more seconds) is recharged before displaying anything.

2. Focusing is not very good. Like most cameras, push half-way to focus and it'll display a little green dot letting you know the subject is in focus. If it can't focus it'll flash a red dot. I get the flashing red dot very frequently...even in well-lit situations.

It hasn't been a TERRIBLE camera...it's much better than the 1.3 megapixel camera we replaced! It also has more shooting modes than any of the cameras we considered and is pretty easy to use. If you already have the correct type of storage media (CF or SD card), take it to a store, put it in, and snap off a few shots testing speed, focusing, etc. Go back home and check out the images on your computer to see if it's good enough.