I recently sold my Nikon Coolpix 8700, and was looking for a new camera that gave me picture quality equal to or better, and was a much smaller camera. I like taking pictures, but I'm not a photo guy. I basically want to aim, press the button and let the magic happen. Taking a chance I decided to try this camera, and I wasn't disappointed.It's got a lot of options to go beyond just auto mode if I want to dive into that. My main thing was the picture quality though and the quality of photos is excellent. My wife has a Canon A700 that takes decent pictures so we did a comparison just using the auto settings. A picture of our dog in the house with all the lights off in one room, a picture with one light on, and a picture with all the lights on. I figure if the low light pictures are good, then I'll be pretty happy with the daytime pictures.
While both cameras did a good job, our preference was the Nikon's photos. The colors were closer to what we expected they should look like, and to our eyes appeared more natural. There wasn't any noticeable noise in the photos, and the quality is very, very good.
The size of the camera is great. Shorter than my Blackjack cell phone, and about 2.5 times as thick. Definitely a camera that I could carry in the pocket of my jeans, or a jacket and not feel weighed down.
I love the automatic scene selection. The camera decides by itself the perfect setting for the perfect picture id say about 90% of the time it makes the right choice. It is possible to confuse it if the picture has a lot of different things going on.
For instance if you are outside it will automatically switch to the outside setting and if u go inside it will automatically change to the inside setting without you having to do a thing.
One time when i was in the bar it got it wrong though. It changed it to night time setting automatically instead of party setting so it was a little blurry. No prob though, i deleted that picture and set it on what i wanted. C'mon, the camera cant know everything. Im hugely impressed at what it does know.
In general though I also love the automatic setting. Its foolproof. You simply cannot take a bad picture on the automatic setting. All of my pictures are clear and crisp.
OMG the editing! You can edit your pictures while they are still in your camera! I LOVE IT. You can turn a crappy picture into gold, the editing is limitless. You can take a picture of like 10 people at once then go and edit each face out to make portraits!
It zooms in great and the zoom does not mess with the quality of the picture, no graininess whatsoever.
Ive got lots of friends with similar type cameras and have seen their pictures and i swear up and down theirs compared to mine are complete crap.
Do not get anything else if you are looking for a "git r done" camera. Its so versatile. If your a serious photographer that wants something small and cute this camera is perfect. But if your like me and wanted something to carry in your purse to make memories wherever you are, its also perfect.
Its fast, and easy. Hardly any delay. I love smile finder too! It also has a ten second timer so everyone can be in the picture.
This is my first digital camera and im not embarressed to say i was worried about being able to run it. The owners manual is clear and easy to read. I highly recommend not just a thumb through but to actually sit down and read it. After you do that, its a breeze to run it : )
I have zero complaints. Its perfect for everyone! I give it an A+ hands down, everyone should own one!
LOVE IT!I have had this camera for approx. 4 months. I am so happy with it in every way but one. After about a month, the camera read "lens error" and would freeze open. I assumed this was an isolated incident, but it is now happening with more frequency. I contacted nikon, who told me that this is not a warranty issue. I have searched the internet and have found that this is a surprisingly common issue. I really would have expected a company like nikon to stand behind their products. I would be very leary to buy another one based on this, which is really sad, as I do love the quality and features of this camera!Got this camera for a month, did a wedding and a few travels with it, overall among the best sub-compacts but not perfect.
Good points:
Manual mode: surprisingly useable, I usually leave it on this mode, click the side of the thumbwheel to switch from ISO to shutter to aperture, turn the wheel to set each in turn, a little exposure scale shows up to guide selection. Easy to select ISO up to 12800 (hardly useable, very grainy, 3200 is practical maximum).
High ISO: 3200 fairly smooth, 800 to 1600 very decent, I ended up not using flash for any of the wedding (inside) pictures.
Bad:
Night flash mode good but not tyro-friendly, lent to a friend for pictures and most of them turned out blurry, she did not have a steady hand. Regular flash rather ugly, not what I'm used to with Nikon
Pictures show perfect on the camera screen but a bit dark on my computer monitor; not sure which is "wrong", or whether there is some automatic D-Lighting during playback, anyway annoying.
Overall good camera, would buy it again, but need to dig into it a bit, the pictures on my computer did not turn out as good as I expected based on what I saw on screen.First off, I have to say that this is possibly the best ultracompact camera to buy at this price range. It's full of great features and can make amazing quality pictures. The different shooting options are fun to play around with and are actually usable in their respective situations. It also has a very high ISO capability something I was looking for in a camera this small. Also, the shutter/aperture priority settings are really neat and fun to play around with.
Now, some things that get a little annoying. First, I have to say the menu system was tough to get used to. It took a couple of minutes of going in and out of different picture stuffed menus to find what I wanted. Not to mention the fact that there's a lag between exiting a menu and taking a picture and zooming and taking a picture. And like some other point-and-shoots, the lens tend to cause the purple streak to form at the sides of a picture.
Obviously taking snapshot photos at 14MP will cause the camera to slow down a little that's a lot of data that has to be stored in a memory card, but to take that first shot, it takes well over four seconds to load up the camera, something not too appealing to a couple of people who want a camera with lightning fast power on.
All in all, the Nikon Coolpix S710 is a great buy for any experienced, beginner and multi-use camera user. It's fun to play around with all the different options, and it's great when it actually is in use. All I want to wait for now is a Nikon ultracompact that can record 720p HD movies.
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