Quick Take
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Pros
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Cons
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Bottom Line
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| For a low-cost camera, the Coolpix S6300 seems to perform pretty well overall. Its color accuracy and brightness in images are impressive. The 10x zoom lens is a nice feature, and its response times and various burst modes are pretty good. It does have a few drawbacks, including some soft focus problems and sluggish performance at start-up. Still, if your needs as a photographer match this little point-n-shoot camera's strengths, the S6300 will give you good performance levels for the price.. Read more in our Full Conclusion. |
Nikon
recently announced nine new Coolpix cameras, four of which are members
of their super slim S-series. The S6300 costs about $150 less than the
flagship S9300,
but other than the zoom length and GPS capabilities, the two cameras
are very similar. So, if you don't need an 18x zoom lens or GPS, and you
can live with a smaller LCD screen; you might consider the S6300, which
is only $30 more than the S4300, but has a number of very important
upgrades including a BSI CMOS sensor. CMOS sensors are generally
considered more powerful than their CCD counterparts because they shoot
full 1080p HD videos, are faster, and handle extreme lightning
conditions much more like film.The S6300 is a sub-$200 camera with a fast, high-quality sensor, and a long 10x optical zoom. It's really easy to use, and most of its options are aimed at beginners. Even better, many retailers have dropped the price on this model by 10% or more ahead of the 2012 holiday season.
Nikon Coolpix S6300 Features:
- 16.0-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor
- 2.7" LCD screen
- 10x Wide-Angle Optical Zoom-NIKKOR Glass Lens (25-250mm)
- Full HD (1080p) movie recording with stereo sound and
- High-speed continuous shooting
- Easy Panorama Mode (180 or 360 degrees)
- Creative Effects, such as:
- Low Key
- High Key
- Nostalgic Sepia
- Selective Color
- Easy to use exposure options
- Li-ion battery pack (good for up to 230 shots)
- SD/SDHC/SDXC card slot
The
Nikon Coolpix S6300 launched with MSRP of $199.95, and comes in Red,
Black, Silver and Blue. See our buy box, or the button at the top right
of this page to see the best online pricing.
Additional Product View:
Specifications
The Nikon Coolpix S6300 is a nice little camera, offering decent
operational speeds and good color accuracy. This camera does have a few
drawbacks -- after all, it's not a Nikon dSLR model -- but it's tough to
argue with the sub-$200 price.
Bottom Line - Even though there are a
lot of things to like about the Coolpix S6300, when one of the primary
drawbacks is soft image quality, it's a tough hurdle to overcome; even
for an inexpensive camera. Still, there are enough other nice features
with the S6300 that it will work well for some types of beginner-level
photographers. The 10x optical zoom lens, easy-to-use features, and
bright, realistic colors in images all are great features for beginners.
As long as you aren't expecting perfect print quality, the S6300 will
give you some nice results. This nice all-around camera would work well
for the photographer who simply wants to shoot bright photos with little
worry about settings, and who plans to only share the photos on
Facebook or via e-mail, rather than making mid- to large-sized prints.
The Coolpix
S6300 will produce some great-looking photographs, as long as you don't
attempt to make really large prints. This model has some issues with a
slight focus softness, which means that large prints likely won't be as
sharp as you'd like to see. As long as you stick with small-sized
prints, however, you probably won't notice the softness. This
undoubtedly will represent a significant source of frustration for many
photographers, as some of them will likely select the S6300 based on its
16-megapixels of resolution, expecting to have plenty of resolution to
make large prints.
This unit is squarely aimed
at beginners, as it has extremely limited manual-control features. You
can set the white balance, exposure valuation, and ISO manually, but
there aren't a lot of other options for manually controlling the shot.
Consequently, this Nikon model is very easy to use. The S6300's movie
mode is not complicated either, as you just press the movie button on
the back to start and stop the video recording, which can be shot at a
few different resolutions, up to full 1080p HD.
One
of the best features of the Coolpix S6300 is its 10x optical zoom lens,
which moves through its zoom range pretty quickly for a low-priced
model. This camera doesn't start-up as quickly as I'd like to see, but
it does respond pretty fast between shots and when using the autofocus
-- as long as you aren't using the flash, that is.
The
S6300's ability to work quickly shouldn't be too surprising,
considering how many different high-speed continuous shooting modes it
makes available. Shooting at up to 120 frames per second, even at a
limited resolution, can give you some unique photography options that
you typically won't find in a beginner camera. You also can shoot at a
few different burst modes at full 16-megapixel resolution.
It
has a few different special-effect modes that you can use too, such as
high-contrast monochrome, nostalgic sepia, and selective color. There's
an easy-to-use panoramic mode that allows you to shoot scenes of either
180 degrees or 360 degrees. The photos created in panorama mode aren't
always perfect, but it's a fun mode to use.
All
of these are handy features that allow you to shoot good-looking
photos. In fact, the color accuracy and brightness from the S6300's
images are among the best I've seen for a camera in this price range.
It's just unfortunate that the S6300 doesn't have a sharper focus for
large prints.
The layout of this camera is
really easy to use, and I liked the size and positioning of the buttons
on the back of the camera. Having a spin ring as part of the four-way
button is really handy and should be part of every camera, especially
those that don't have a mode dial (which includes the S6300). Because
you have to select all of this camera's commands through on-screen
menus, you'll appreciate having the spin ring.
Unfortunately,
everything about the S6300's layout isn't perfect. Although having a
large panel of control buttons on the back of the camera is nice, it
does limit the size of the LCD, which measures only 2.7 inches
diagonally and which has limited resolution. You may even notice a few
problems with glare on the display screen when using this camera
outdoors. The LCD is a disappointing aspect of this model
It's
difficult to shoot extreme close-ups, as the minimum focusing distance
for the lens, even in macro mode, is about 4 inches. This is surprising
for a Nikon camera, since they are known for offering excellent macro
capabilities on their point-n-shoot cameras.
The
position of the built-in flash unit on the S6300 is also problematic.
It's located near the upper right corner of the front of the camera,
which means you could block the flash unit with fingers from your left
hand when holding the camera during normal operation. With the location
of the flash, you may see some slight shadows in your images too, as the
light from the flash may be blocked a bit by the lens when it extends
away from the camera body. You can see this in a few of our sample
photos shot at different ISO settings where there's occasionally a
slight shadow in the lower right corner of the image.
Having
said that about the flash, when you can avoid a shadow from the lens,
your flash photos really will look pretty nice -- outside of the soft
focus problem, that is. The S6300's ability to create vibrant colors
will be evident in your indoor photos shot with the flash. If you choose
to bump up the ISO in your low light photos, rather than use the flash,
the results will be acceptable up to ISO 400 and ISO 800. The noise in
the images becomes pretty significant at ISO 1600 and ISO 3200, however,
so you may want to avoid these settings unless you have no other
options.
Although this may sound like a very
minor problem, another design issue is the power button along the top
panel of the camera. Rather than being slightly raised, the power button
is actually depressed below the level of the top panel. This design
ensures that you won't accidentally turn on the camera, but it also
makes it very difficult to turn on the camera when you're in a hurry.
Futilely stabbing for the power button with your finger while your child
is doing something cute -- coupled with the S6300's slow start-up
performance -- almost certainly will cause you to miss a few spontaneous
photos, which will be frustrating. I'd prefer a larger power button
that's easier to turn on in a hurry versus one that likely won't be
turned on accidentally.
Somewhat surprisingly
for a budget-priced camera, Nikon has included a few
better-than-expected features with the S6300. This might not sound like
an important thing, but Nikon provided a 5-foot USB cable with this
camera, which is really handy when trying to download photos or when
charging the camera. It gives you quite a bit of flexibility for
positioning the camera and the computer, which is really nice on a
cramped desk. Most low-priced models have only a 2-foot USB cable, which
limits your options space-wise when connecting to a computer. In
addition, this camera has an HDMI slot, making it easier to display your
HD movies at their prime resolution; no HDMI or AV cable is included
however.
The S6300 is a colorful camera, which
also should appeal to beginners. This unit is available in solid blue,
red, black, or silver on the front panel and blue or black on the back
panel. The lens fully retracts inside the camera, which is a nice
feature, as the lens glass is protected when carrying the camera inside a
pocket.
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