Buy ! Manufacturer: Nikon

General

Product Type - Digital camera - Compact

Color - Cool blue

Weight - 4.2 oz

Width - 3.5 in

Depth - 0.7 in

Height - 2.2 in

Main Features

Resolution - 8 megapixels

Sensor resolution - 8 megapixels

Optical Sensor Type - CCD

Effective Sensor Resolution - 8,000,000 pixels

Total Pixels - 8,150,000 pixels

Optical Sensor Size - 1/2.5 in

Light Sensitivity -

ISO 64, ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400, ISO 800, ISO 1600, ISO 2000, ISO auto (64-800), ISO auto (64-1600)

Digital Zoom - 4 x

Shooting Modes - Frame movie mode

Shooting Programs

Copy, Museum, Sunset, Close-up, Dawn/dusk, Fireworks, Landscape, Back light, Beach/snow, Sports mode, Party/indoor, Portrait mode, Night portrait, Night landscape, Panorama assist

Special effects - Cool, Sepia, Vivid, Portrait, Black & White

Exposure Modes - Program, Automatic

Exposure Compensation - ±2 EV range, in 1/3 EV steps

White Balance - Presets, Automatic

White Balance Presets - Flash, Cloudy, Daylight, Fluorescent, Incandescent

Digital video format - AVI

Still Image Format - JPEG

Continuous Shooting Speed - 1.2 frames per second

Color support - Color

Face Detection - Yes

TV Tuner - None

Memory / Storage

Integrated Memory - 52 MB

Floppy Drive - None

Digital Storage Media - None

Image Storage

JPEG 3264 x 2448, JPEG 2592 x 1944, JPEG 2048 x 1536, JPEG 1024 x 768, JPEG 640 x 480, JPEG 1920 x 1080

Supported Flash Memory - MultiMediaCard, SD Memory Card

Lens System

Type - Zoom lens - 6.3 mm - 18.9 mm - F/3.1-5.9

Focal Length - 6.3 mm - 18.9 mm

Lens Construction - 5 group(s) / 6 element(s)

Additional Features

Self Timer - Yes

Self Timer Delay - 2 sec, 10 sec

Additional Features

DPOF support, Audio recording, Cropping an image, In-camera red-eye fix, Digital image rotation, Face-priority AF function, Digital image stabilization, Camera orientation detection

Camera Flash

Type - Built-in flash

Flash Modes - Auto mode, Fill-in mode, Slow synchro, Flash OFF mode, Red-eye reduction

Red Eye Reduction - Yes

Features - AF illuminator

Viewfinder

Viewfinder Type - None

Display

Type - LCD display - TFT active matrix - 2.5 in - Color

Mounting - Built-in

Resolution - 230,000 pixels

Digital Player (Recorder)

Type - None

Microphone

Type - Microphone - Built-in

Connections

Connector Type - 1 x USB, 1 x Composite video/audio output

Expansion Slot(s) - 1 x SD Memory Card

Lens Systems

Auto Focus - TTL contrast detection

Type - Zoom lens

Focal length - 6.3 mm - 18.9 mm

Focal Length Equivalent to 35mm Camera - 38 - 114 mm

Focus adjustment - Automatic

Auto Focus Points (Zones) - 99

Min Focus Range - 23.6 in

Macro Focus Range - 10cm

Lens Aperture - F/3.1-5.9

Optical Zoom - 3 x

Zoom Adjustment - Motorized drive

Lens construction - 5 : 6

Miscellaneous

Carrying Case - None

Cables Included - 1 x USB cable, 1 x A/V cable

Included Accessories - Carrying strap

Power

Power Device - Battery charger - External

Battery

Supported Battery - 1 x Nikon EN-EL10 Li-ion rechargeable battery ( Included )

Software

Type - Drivers & Utilities

With its supermodel-slim body and classy chassis--clad in jewel tones of brushed metallic blue, plum, bronze, and basic black--the Nikon Coolpix S210 will certainly make a style statement when you whip it out of whatever tiny pocket you've slipped it into. But as with its slightly more expensive and marginally slimmer-than-thou competitor, the Casio Exilim EX-S880, the performance and photo-quality trade-offs you make for high style and low price may not quite be worth it.

It's not only pretty, the design is also pretty functional. Though the buttons, zoom, and four-way-navigation-plus-OK switch are relatively flat, they're clearly labeled, fairly large, and provide good tactile feedback.

Only the shutter button feels a bit small, especially when shooting vertically--my finger kept sliding down to the narrow end.

The S210 uses the typical Nikon menu scheme, though better implemented than in the annoying Coolpix S600. A Mode button pops you into selecting among auto, Hi ISO (auto ISO up to 1600, compared with ISO 800 for normal auto ISO), Scene, Voice recording, Movie, and Setup modes. Menu calls up frequently accessed shooting options: image resolution, white balance, ISO sensitivity (Auto plus manual 64 through 2000), and color effects.

You'll also find the AF area mode options here, which include Center, Manual spot, Auto, and Face Priority, as well as the various drive-mode options: single, continuous, Best Shot Selector, Multi-shot 16 (16 successive shots in a single frame), Interval Timer, and Time-Lapse in movie-capture mode. The BSS can be quite useful--it shoots up to 10 photos as you hold the shutter down, then saves the sharpest of the bunch.

But you really don't want to shoot at higher than ISO 400 with this camera, so forget the high ISO mode. As with the S600, the face-priority AF is too slow, as well as too erratic, to take seriously, and as with most snapshot models, the auto area AF invariably picks the wrong subject. As usual, I recommend that you eschew all the fancy AF modes and instead use center AF, focus, and recompose. For selecting the appropriate subject, you're still faster than the camera. There's also D-Lighting, which can apply tonal corrections in-camera for those inevitable underexposed shots, but this feature works best on models that have better high-ISO performance; it unavoidably exacerbates noise. The camera lacks optical image stabilization, and electronic stabilizers are generally poor substitutes.

Unfortunately, the S210's performance is fairly sluggish. It wakes up and shoots in a reasonable amount of time--2 seconds--but its normal single and sequential (not burst) shooting performance trails both competitors and what we consider generally acceptable. It takes 0.9 second to focus and shoot under optimal conditions and 1.5 seconds in suboptimal circumstances; most snapshot cameras have gotten those times closer to 0.5 and 1 second, respectively. Firing two shots in a row takes 3.1 seconds, 3.4 seconds with flash, both of which are close to bottom-of-class performance. Oddly, continuous-shooting performance does OK, bursting at a rate of about 1.5 frames per second.

The LCD fares pretty well. At 2.5 inches, it's a bit small for a fashionista camera and a tiny bit smaller than the EX-S880's, but about as big as you could fit on this model and typical for the price. If you boost the brightness, it's adequately viewable in direct sunlight, though that will eat into the camera's 220 shot battery life (CIPA rating). But it's got a nice, wide viewing angle that delivers a good overhead shooting and group viewing experience.

If it weren't for the poor lens and 8-megapixel sensor, the S600 would probably have much better photo quality. The 3x 38-114mm-equivalent f3.1-5.9 lens has a typical range and reach for its price class, but it's probably one of the worst we've seen with respect to sharpness.

It looks as if there's a relatively sharp zone in the middle, but detail outside that zone is a blurry, smeary mess, with frequent fringing on high-contrast edges.

As a result, you really don't want to print these photos at larger than 8 inches by 10 inches--even at that size the artifacts are obvious--and you certainly don't want to crop into anything but the center. That kind of defeats the purpose of having the high-resolution 8-megapixel sensor in the camera.

In one respect, the S210's noise profile is fairly typical for a snapshot camera. It's solid up to ISO 100, OK but visibly softer at ISO 200, and detail pretty much disappears by ISO 400. Oddly, at even higher ISOs, flat colors develop areas that look like pixel dropouts.

On the upside, it renders pleasing, bright colors, and its exposures look pretty good. The VGA-resolution, 30fps movies are also good (it writes AVI files at a bit rate of about 1MB per minute of video), but the inability to zoom while capturing severely limits the usefulness of the movie feature.

Aside from its good looks, the Nikon Coolpix S210 has price on its side: if you want the skinniest camera you can get on the cheap, this one's right down there. But if you also want decent photo quality and performance, look at the marginally more expensive but older Canon PowerShot SD1000--it's not as pretty or slim, but it's small, fast ,and delivers better photos. Or stretch your budget a little further for the also tiny and attractive, but better performing and optically stabilized, Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS.

Shooting speed (in frames per second)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Time to first shot

Typical shot-to-shot time (flash)

Typical shot-to-shot time

Shutter lag (dim)

Shutter lag (typical)

Canon PowerShot SD1000

1

2.4

1.5

0.9

0.5

Casio Exilim EX-S880

1.5

2.8

1.8

1.1

0.5

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W120

1.8

2.7

1.3

1

0.5

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LS80

3.2

4.4

2.2

1.2

0.7

Nikon Coolpix S210

2

3.4

3.1

1.5

0.9

Labels: camera, Nikon Coolpix, Nikon Corp., photograph, shot

• Open the picture file folder and select View, Thumbnails.
• Select all the pictures by clicking the first picture once, holding the Shift key, and clicking the last picture once.
• Right-click the first photo, and select Rename from the drop-down menu.
• Windows XP will highlight the filename for the first photo, enabling you to rename it.
• Type in the new name, for example, SummerVacation_1, and hit Enter.

Windows then applies the name with a sequential number to each picture in the folder.

When renaming, you may get this pop-up warning:

If so, click No, and insert the file type as a suffix to your new name. For example, if you see .jpgSummerPic, change SummerPic to SummerPic.jpg. at the end of the photo you are renaming

Labels: digital camera, digital photo, digital photography

Labels: digital camera, fungus, lens, professional cleaning, temperate climate

Labels: alkaline, batteries, digital camera, lithium aa

This is a just an addition to Aimee Baldridge's educative and valuable article published here on the subject. I agree with everything she has written and want just to add a few more lines from my 15 year old experience as a serious amateur in the field of photography and lens maintenance.

Digital cameras have the same optic mulicoated lenses as 35mm, 6x45, and large format cameras. Some SLR manufacturers continue today with SLR lenses for SLR shaped bodies which have digital CCD inside instead of the film at the rear nodal plane. Digital lenses however as a general have smaller diameters to suit the smaller equivalent format in comparison to the 35mm format, and compact digitals have even smaller lenses fitted.

Now to the tips.

1. Early check and prevention. Lens fungus as Aimee has said, love humidity and darkness. Therefore open your camera and check periodically (if possible front to back as in case of detachable SLR lenses) to notice one or more minute clustures of wavy lines branching out from a central dot like a spider's web. This most common lens eater is the oligodendral asci whose spores come and settle on the outer surface of your lens's prime element in the beginning. (OK. Your camera lens's outer surface!). Wipe it off very gently with absolutely no pressure using a very soft lens tissue paper and a lens cleaner. Do not use an ordinary rag and water! Never use a chamoise leather piece! If you are successful you have saved your lens. If not then get hold of an electronic flash gun and fire it repeatedly on the lens. The flashlight falling on the fungus shall kill its spread and arrest it temporarily. Take your camera to a camera repair shop and hope for the best. Even if the fungus has attacked inner elements, which you can not reach (and should not reach if you are not known to repair lenses) the flashlight will stop all fungal activity in your entire lens. Every time you store your camera for a good period of rest fire an electronic flash on the lens before packing.

2. Preventive storage of cameras, lenses and ( for non digital cameras, the negatives and transparencies). Aimee has very correctly advised the use of dessicants/dehydrants in form of silica gell bags in your camera cases. Photographers all over the world pack these in SLR bodies, lens cases and in camera bags and cases when doing outdoor work. When you are back in your home, have a strong wall mounted wooden/plyboard showcase with glass doors (sliding on rails if possible) with a wired socket inside for mounting a 0 watt clear electric bulb using 110/220 volts direct current and have that bulb switched on always. Your cost of electricity consumed will be very very small in comparison to the cost of repairing (or God forbid losing permanently) a fungus eaten lens in you expensive camera. Store your entire camera system in here and forget lens fungus. Your negatives and slides that are also commonly damaged by fungii shall also stay safe in here with guarantee.

3. General lens care. Keep your fingertips away from your camera lens and view finder. Educate yourself to remember this common human carelessness that also invites fungus spores other than smudges. Use soft lens tissues and specialised lens cleaning detergents to clean your fingerprints. Use a blower (not a blower brush) to blow away the occasional dust spec. Never blow air on you lens from your mouth. You could blow in a good amount of vaporised mucous from your mouth to ask bacteria and fungus spores to come in and colonise! Never try to vaporise the lens surface with hot breath to wipe the surface afterwards. These are not your ordinary daily wear opticals. Where possible use plastic or metal lens caps or hoods. Avoid taking your camera to seacoasts and waterfalls where a high degree of humidity persists. If at all shooting there, clean your lens in the manner described above after returning to normal environments.

This is my own regimen. I would like folks that read this to comment in these columns.

Thanks.

• One is that you’re moving the camera when taking the shot. Any movement is exaggerated when you’re zoomed in, so try using a tripod or stand very still, take a deep breath, hold it, take the photo and then breathe out.

• The other problem is that you might be using digital zoom, which isn’t a true zoom, and the results are more likely to be fuzzy simply because the camera is enlarging the pixels to make the images bigger, rather than really zooming in on the subject. I always turn off digital zoom, and doing that might help. You won’t be able to zoom in so close, but you might get clearer shots,

Labels: blurred, digital camera, digital photos, fuzziness, zoomed

Labels: chip reader, digital camera, digital photos