Physical Tour

On the top right is a small round focusing light. Next to the focusing light is a circular cut-out in the metal, banded by chrome, for the lens. The lens cover automatically slides shut when the camera is powered off and then slides open quickly when it powers on. Below the lens on the left are raised white letters with the name of the product. Above the product name, right next to the lens, is the small rectangular flash in an oval cut-out. Aside from the Nikon logo in black on the right side of the front of the camera, the rest of the face plate is blank silver.

**Back
**The back of the cameras are dominated by the large LCD screens – the 2.5-inch in the S5’s case and the 3-inch on the S6. On the right side of the camera, there’s a small wedge-shaped indentation that serves as a thumb rest. To the left of the thumb rest is a rounded rectangular playback button; below that is a mode button and below that are a menu button and a trash button adjacent to each other. Dominating the bottom right is the jog dial, which Nikon calls a Rotary Multi Selector.

**Left
**The left side of the camera is slightly raised glossy chrome, bulging a bit more in the S6’s case to accommodate the WiFi antenna. The left side of the S6 is also branded with the WiFi logo.

**Right
**The right side of the S5/S6 is smooth polished chrome with a raised chrome lug nut in the middle.

**Top
**On the left side of the top of the S5/S6 is a long oval button, which is the camera’s new "One-Touch Portrait" button. This button accesses a new feature which combines Face-Priority AF and In-Camera Red-Eye fix to help optimize portraits.

The top of the camera slopes back to the middle as part of the wave design. In the middle is a speaker, which is a series of four dots on the S5 and four ovals on the S6. On the right side of the S5/S6’s top in chrome are a small indented on/off button, a shutter button and an indented switch for zooming.

**Bottom
**The bottom of the camera has a sliding door on the right side for the optional SD memory card and battery and a tripod mount.

Components

**Viewfinder
**Once again, probably for design reasons, there’s no optical viewfinder on the S5/S6. Optical viewfinders on stylish slim cameras like these have become a thing of the past.

**LCD Screen
**The LCD screens on the two models are top-notch. The S5 has a 2.5-inch TFT LCD monitor with 230,000 pixels of resolution. The S6 has a 3-inch TFT LCD also with 230,000 pixels of resolution. Though there are fewer pixels per unit of space overall in the larger screen it’s not noticeably different in clarity from the S5. Both screens have brightness adjustment and nice wide viewing angles which Nikon rates at 170 degrees. Both screens were some of the best we’ve seen in these types of cameras. It’s nice that Nikon backs up the large sizes with significant pixels, unlike some of its competitors.

When using the new Pictmotion "In-Camera Creative Slideshow Entertainment," as Nikon calls the technology for playing back images, the strengths of the screens are clearly apparent. There has been some discussion about larger screens serving as miniature photo albums. With most embarrassingly bad low-resolution screens, that sort of talk is a lot of hot hair. With the Nikon’s new brilliant new screens, they might not be just blowing smoke.

**Flash
**The rectangular flash on the front of the camera is right next to the lens, which puts the camera at high risk of producing red-eye. The flash has a reported range of 1’– 8’ 6" /0.3-2.6m (W), 1’ – 4’ 7"/0.3–1.4m/(T). We’ll look at whether this is accurate in a follow up review. Flash modes include Auto, Auto with Red-Eye Reduction (In-Camera Red-Eye Fix), Flash cancel, Anytime flash and Slow sync. We’ll also examine, in a follow-up full review, the effectiveness of Nikon’s Red-Eye fix since the close proximity of lens to flash will likely cause frequent red-eye.

**Zoom Lens
**

The S5 and S6 use a 3x Zoom-Nikkor ED lens with a focal equivalent to 35-105 mm in 35mm format. Aperture on the lens ranges from f/3.0 – f/5.4. It’s nice to see that just because it’s a slim stylish camera, Nikon has not skimped on the quality of the lens. The slight bulge on the left side of the camera is able to house the entire lens even when zoomed out so there’s no protrusion. It’s a neat trick and a plus to the user who can now have the benefits of Nikon ED glass in a slim package.

Normal focal distance ranges from 1’ to infinity and 1.6" to infinity in Macro mode. The lens includes 12 elements in 10 groups. Digital zoom is up to 4x.

Design / Layout

**Model Design / Appearance
**As mentioned previously, the design of these two new models is about as good as the slim, rectangular style is going to get. Kudos to the Nikon engineers who were able to squeeze that nice 3x zoom lens into such a thin body. Not only is it a plus image-wise, it gives these models their pleasing wave-like flow, with the thinner right side of the camera serving as a decent hand grip. (You don’t know how many times a flat, slim rectangular style camera will slip out of our hands.) Additionally, someone had the wherewithal to include the wedged-shaped thumb rest on the back of the camera. A small addition, but a nice touch nonetheless for both ergonomics and aesthetics.

Points also go to the designer who decided to do away with right angles on these models. Having all the metal plates on the camera slightly curved further enhances the overall flow of the design. The slightly thicker left side of the S6 for the WiFi antenna is barely noticeable.

The choice of metals in the construction is also good. The exterior combines a range of metals and textures to give it some pizzazz. Included in the exterior, according to Nikon, is glossy aluminum on the main body with elements of acrylic, stainless steel, silicone paneling and chrome.

**Size / Portability
**The S5/S6 is small but not nearly the smallest or lightest of the slim stylish cameras on the market. Dimensions are approximately 3.7 x 2.3 x 0.8 inches (w x h x d) on the S5 and 3.9 x 2.4 x 0.8 on the S6, which has the WiFi antenna.

The beauty of slim cameras is, of course, that they fit perfectly in the pocket. Nikon loaned us an S6 for a couple of hours during PMA and after placing it in my pocket to walk back to the press room, I almost forgot it was there. It probably wouldn’t feel so comfortable in a tight pair of jeans, but that’s asking a lot. The weight of the camera is slightly above average for slim models at 4.8 ounces for the S5 without a battery and 4.9 ounces for the S6 without a battery. Some might argue differently, but the extra weight in the S5 and S6 gives it better balance than some of their flimsy rivals.

**Handling Ability
**We’ve never really liked holding these slim models, mostly because we could never figure out the best place to put our fingers. With so little surface area we’ve even accidentally gotten our fingers in the shot. The S5 and S6 have partially solved that problem through the wave-like design and the wedge thumb grip. We’ve still not gotten totally used to this design, but these new models from Nikon are a definite improvement.

**Control Button / Dial Positioning / Size
**Like the Coolpix P3/P4, which we looked at in another PMA First Impression review, button layout is kept simple on the S5 and S6. Where we griped about it on the P3/P4 as being too simple for such a high performance model, the basic layout of controls on the S5 and S6 seems to fit the target audience of young, trendy party kids who don’t necessarily want a lot of manual control.

The new Rotary Multi Selector is a smart addition. It helps you blaze through a ton of images in playback mode very quickly. The multi-selector is also great for wheeling through menus or just spinning around absently for a good fidgeting toy. But we’ve seen the iPod dial, we’ve played with the iPod dial and this is no iPod dial, though the comparison has been made.

The zoom switch, obviously placed inconspicuously for style reasons, could be an unfortunate choice. Having to squeeze your fingers into the little hole to adjust the zoom seems to cause the camera to shake slightly, which can increase blur. We’ll look at this design issue more in-depth in a follow-up full review.

**Menus
**A new GUI on the S5 and S6 makes moving around menus on these new cameras easier than before. Unfortunately though, because so many features are packed into a camera with so few buttons, you’ll be spending a lot of time using the menus on the S5/S6 if you want to change anything. For instance, through trial and error we realized that accessing some of the scene modes requires pressing the menu button twice. In the playback menu, a circular icon with symbols for different settings does improve things but it’s still too easy to get lost in the menus.

The new GUI though is pleasing to look at, with black and gray selections highlighted in yellow as you scroll through using the jog dial. An onscreen icon with a cursor tracks where you are when scrolling through with the dial. Fonts on the menus are clear to read though sometimes it’s difficult to discern what all the icons mean. Fortunately, functions can be selected either by name or icon, depending on the user’s preference.

**Ease of Use
**Aside from the slight difficulty of navigating through various sets of menus, the jog dial and the new GUI make the camera relatively easy to use. Some choices, such as having to press the menu or mode button twice in certain instances are not intuitive, but that’s the price you pay by eliminating exterior buttons. Having the zoom on an indented switch also seems to be a choice of form over function. Small buttons on the camera are also hard for man-sized fingers – like ours – to use. It’s nice to have them small, but do they really need to be that small?

Modes

**Auto Mode
**The preset auto mode is pretty much the only game in town in this fully automatic style camera. Under the default auto setting, all the camera’s functionality (shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance etc.) is taken care of for you. There is some manual control within the menus including adjusting ISO from 50 to 400, some white balance presets, exposure and color options, but this camera is designed for the type of person who doesn’t really want to think about such things.

**Movie Mode
**Movie modes are standard Nikon movie options including TV Quality Mode, which records at 640 x 480 at 30 frames per second. It can also record at 320 x 240 at 30 frames per second in smaller movie mode and in an even smaller movie mode setting at 160 x 120 at 15 frames per second. There’s also a Pictmotion movie mode for the slide show feature that records at 320 x 240 at 15 frames per second. Without sound, the S5/S6 can also capture time-lapse movies at 30 frames per second. According to the Nikon spec sheet, Electronic VR (Vibration Reduction) is available in the movie mode though not for the still mode. VR is available for still images in the P3 and P4 models. In the movie mode, auto focus can be selected as either Single AF or Full-Time AF.

**Drive / Burst Mode
**The S5/S6 features a single-shot capture mode and a continuous mode that records approximately 2.2 frames per second. In its Multi-shot 16 mode, it can capture approximately 2 frames per second at the maximum 6 MP image size. These numbers are Nikon’s supplied numbers and actual future testing may reveal a different story. The S5/S6 also has an interval timer setting. Another capture mode is Best Shot selector where the camera takes a series of images and then picks the one it judges to have the sharpest focus. With Best Shot selector, the camera takes a series of shots and picks the one with the best exposure. The S5/S6 also has a self-timer, at intervals of three and ten seconds.

**Playback Mode
**The main feature in the S5/S6’s new playback mode is the new Pictmotion mode, which Nikon calls an "In-Camera Creative Slideshow Entertainment." In the end, it’s really just a glorified slide show, but admittedly, a good one at that. The function allows the user to select images and movie files and then pick a style for displaying them in slide show playback (cross fades, panning etc.). The user can choose from either five pre-installed music files (Pachelbel's Canon and Scarborough Fair are two that we tried out) or load an MP3 music file of their choice to suit the images. The camera then analyzes all the elements and produces a slide show with pace and transitions determined by the music and style. Playback takes place on the camera’s LCDs (3-inch for the S6 and 2.5-inch for the S5). It’s nothing more than what you would get on Apple’s iPhoto or any one of a number of slide show programs for a computer, but it’s pretty impressive for a compact digital camera.

While scrolling through images in playback mode is quick using the new Rotary Multi Selector – Nikon claims you can speed through ten pictures in a second – our one complaint is that it takes about a half second for each image to fully res up as you scroll through. It would be nice to see an option for full resolution scrolling even if you sacrifice speed.

Auto Image Rotation, available on some competing models, is new to the Coolpix line with the S5/S6 and extremely beneficial if you don’t like tilting the camera, or your neck, during playback. Nikon still offers their usual unique suite of playback technology—D-Lighting for brightening dark image areas, In-Camera Red-Eye Fix, and in-camera cropping.

**Custom Image Presets
**In the scene mode setting, there are four modes with Scene Assist – Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Night Portrait. Scene Assist is a selection option that helps the user compose pictures with the help of framing guides displayed on the monitor. There are also 11 advanced Scene Modes – Party/Indoor, Beach/Snow, Sunset, Dusk/Dawn, Night landscape, Close up, Museum, Firework show, Copy, Back light and Panorama assist. There’s also a Voice Recording mode, BSS (Best Shot Selector) and Exposure BSS.

Control Options

**Manual Control Options
**As expected in a camera that chooses style over image control, there are few manual options on the S5/S6 aside from basic adjustments for image size, ISO, flash and exposure.

**Focus
***Auto Focus
*Auto focus is pretty quick on the S5/S6, but the real gem in the system is its Face-Priority AF. Face Priority is a technology that Nikon has pioneered in its compact cameras where a yellow smiley face appears on the screen and then locks into a yellow box when it detects a face. The only apparent blip in the software is that since it detects the presence of two eyes, it cannot lock in a profile, only a face that is looking straight at the camera. The new One-Touch Portrait button on the top of the S5/S6 combines two Nikon technologies, Face Priority AF and In-Camera Red-Eye Fix, to help users improve their portraits.

A blur warning setting on the camera will alert the user if the image they are about to take might be blurred because of poor lighting or a slow shutter speed.

*Manual Focus
*There is no manual focus on the S5/S6, but there is a feature called AF Area Mode that allows the user to select either a center yellow focusing box or slide the box around the middle section of the image to select a focusing point that is slightly off center.

**Metering
**There did not appear to be any adjustments for metering on the S5/S6, which is not unusual for a camera in its class. It utilizes Nikon’s 256-segment multi-pattern metering as its default.

**Exposure
**Exposure compensation can be adjusted from -2 to +2 EV in 1/3 intervals, which is the standard range for compacts and point-and-shoots alike.

**White Balance
**White balance is either automatic or selected by the user from a list of five presets: Daylight, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Cloudy or Flash. Interestingly, there are more White Balance settings on the S5/S6 than on its more Performance-oriented big brothers – the Coolpix P3 and P4.

**ISO
**ISO on the S5/S6 is between 50 and 400, which is fairly typical for point-and-shoot models. We’re looking forward to the day when all point-and-shoots will offer at least 800 ISO, since consumers would really benefit from this feature. It’s a trend with several manufacturers this year, so that day may come soon.

**Aperture
**Aperture on the S5/S6 ranges from f/3.0 to f/5.4 but is not adjustable, which is again fairly typical for a camera in its class.

**Shutter Speed
**Shutter speed in the auto mode on the S5/S6 ranges from 8 seconds to 1/2000th of a second but is not manually controllable.

Image Parameters

**Picture Quality / Size Options
**Picture quality on the S5/S6 comes in five settings. At full resolution, users can capture images at High 6M (2816) or Normal 6M (2816). Smaller sizes capture parameters include Normal (2048), "PC" size, where images are captured at 1024 x 768 pixels and "TV" size at 640 x 480 pixels. At the maximum 6M size, users should expect to be able to print as large as 8.5 x 11-inch images with decent quality.

**Picture Effects Mode
**We’ve never seen much of a use for Picture Effects modes, like putting little hearts and flowers in your in-camera images and Nikon, thankfully, seems to agree with us. They have not included those sorts of effects in these models. Instead, Nikon sticks with basic color modes: Standard Color, Vivid, Black-and-White, Sepia and the slightly more uncommon Cyanotype.

Connectivity / Extras

**Connectivity
***Software
*The Nikon Coolpix S5/S6 ships with Nikon’s PictureProject software that assists in transferring images from camera to computer, organizes photos and offers different designs. The software also offers several slide shows with sound for display on a TV or computer and can create movie presentations with music. For the S6, PictureProject assists with the camera’s WiFi capability.

*Jacks, Ports, Plugs
*The only port on the S5/S6 is its charger port, which also hooks it into the Nikon COOLSTATION Dock. The COOLSTATION MV-14 for the S5 includes USB and Audio Video connectivity for transferring images to a computer. Via the COOLSTATION MV-15, the S6 connects by USB and by IEEE 802.11b/g using the camera’s WiFi feature. The dock also has Audio Video output.

While both these docks come with the cameras, it’s a little annoying to have classy, small cameras that require you to lug around a big plastic dock if you want to connect to your computer or printer. Thankfully, the COOLSTATION dock is at least smaller and more lightweight than most.
*Direct Print Options
*When using the COOLSTATION dock, S5/S6 users can directly print their images on any PictBridge-enabled printer. The S6 can also zap images wirelessly to Pict Bridge Printers but they need to purchase a separate device – the Nikon Wireless Print Adaptor (PD-10) for $49.95 – to do it, which is annoying and an added cost.

*Battery
*Using a Li-ion Battery EN-EL8, users can take about 210 shots on the S5 and 200 shots on the S6, according to CIPA.

*Memory
*The S5/S6 includes 23 MB of internal memory which won’t get you very far in terms of pictures, but it’s a nice fallback when you don’t have a memory card on hand.

**Other Features
***WiFi –* Like the P3 in the current lineup, the S6 has WiFi capabilities up to 30 meters on 802.11b/g. The WiFi feature and the larger screen come at an extra $100 cost to the S6 buyer.

Overall Impressions

**Value
**These models are on the higher end, price-wise, for slim, stylish cameras but come with some added features not available in competing brands. For instance, the upgraded S6 model has WiFi, which is not available in any competing cameras in the slim class. In addition to their decent 6 MP sensors, both cameras have high-resolution, large LCDs, excellent designs and high-end construction, the interesting new Pictmotion slideshow feature and Nikon’s suite of exclusive features such as Face Priority AF, D-Lighting, In-Camera Red-Eye Fix, a speedy new jog dial, a new One-Touch Portrait Mode, a new GUI and Best Shot Selector. So while the Coolpix S5 and S6 cost a little more than other models in their class, you are getting some significant features for the price.

**Who It’s For
***Point-and-Shooters – *These are great for those in the point-and-shoot crowd who want a slim, attractive camera that takes solid pictures and has an advanced feature set. If price is not a concern, this is your go-to camera

Budget Consumers – While rich in features and a good value for the money, consumers on a budget should check out Nikon’s Coolpix L-series cameras instead.

Gadget Freaks – There are a few features on here for the Gadget Freak such as the WiFi in the S6, the new jog dial, Face-Priority AF and the Pictmotion slide show, but there’s nothing to really knock the socks off of the technophiles in your family.

Manual Control Freaks – Manual Control freaks should turn elsewhere. These models have limited manual control.

Pros / Serious Hobbyists – Though they’re about average in megapixel counts, pros and hobbyist might like these models as a slip-in-the-pocket on-the-go model. We’d however recommend the new P3/P4 for that purpose, since they have a much more advanced feature set.

Conclusion

**Conclusion
**Just when you thought flat slim cameras were immune to innovation, Nikon has enlivened the category by creating an attractive new pair of slim cams – the Coolpix S5 and S6. The unique wave design of these models – while based on function to accommodate the larger lenses – add some sparkle to the boring old rectangle design that was starting to look dated. Features on these two 6 MP cameras are impressive with Nikon’s suite of automatic functions such as Face Priority AF, In-Camera Red-Eye Fix and D-Lighting. Add in the new Pictmotion slide show feature, which is a pretty sophisticated for a camera like this, and Nikon may have a winner on its hands.

On the downside, these cameras have very limited manual capabilities, tiny buttons and multiple menus for accessing certain features. They’re probably not going to win any photo contests in terms of quality images – we’ll see later in testing in a full review – but 6 megapixels is really all you need to print out a decent quality 8 x 10-inch print. The WiFi feature on the S6 still seems like a bit of a gimmick and it’s annoying that they make you pay an extra $50 for the Wireless Print Adaptor. However, the cameras make up for such deficiencies with their excellent, large, high-resolution screens, which are great for reviewing images or playing a slide show back using Pictmotion. On the whole, their style is impeccable, but testing is needed to see if these cameras have all this and brains too.