Nikon Coolpix S7000 Review

April 10, 2015 | Amy Davies | Rating star Rating star Rating star Rating star

Introduction

The Nikon S7000 was introduced at the same time as a range of other new Nikon cameras in early February 2015. It features a back-illuminated 20 million pixel CMOS sensor and a 20x optical zoom which gives you an equivalent angle of view of 25-500mm in 35mm terms. There’s also full HD video recording, as well as inbuilt Wi-Fi and NFC support for connecting the camera to your smartphone or tablet. Other specifications include an EXPEED C2 processor, the ability to create panoramas, a range of scene modes, a three-inch 460k dot screen and the ability to charge the battery via a USB port. The Nikon Coolpix S7000 costs £199.99 / $279.99 and is available in black, white, pink or gold.

Ease of Use

The Nikon Coolpix S7000 is impressively slim for a camera which features a 20x optical zoom and you should find it slips into your pocket very easily. There’s nothing hugely revolutionary about the design of the camera, with Nikon going pretty much for a tried and tested button layout and construction.

There’s no finger grip on the front of the camera, but where your thumb sits at the back, it is slightly indented so the camera still feels pretty secure in your hand.

On top of the Nikon Coolpix S7000, you’ll find a on/off button, the shutter release and a mode dial. This dial allows you to switch between the various exposure modes the camera offers and saves you from having to delve into menu system. Here you’ll find automatic mode, scene modes, effects mode, a video clips mode and a couple of other specific modes, such as Smart Portrait and Backlighting.

Nikon Coolpix S7000
Front of the Nikon Coolpix S7000

Around the shutter release, you’ll find the zoom switch. This allows you to move the lens in and out, and feels pretty well constructed. You can reach the furthest reach of the telephoto optic pretty quickly. If you’ve got digital zoom switched on, the lens will pause ever so slightly before entering into the digital area. You can also use the zoom lever when you’re in playback to zoom into an image, or zoom out so you can quickly see all the photos on your memory card.

Flip to the back of the Nikon Coolpix S7000, and again here is a pretty standard layout. Just next to the thumb rest area is a dedicated video record button. It’s slightly indented into the body of the camera, making it difficult to accidentally press.

Just underneath this button you’ll find a playback button and a dedicated Wi-Fi button. Moving down further and you’ll find a four way navigational pad, with each of the keys dedicated to a specific function. Left controls timer mode, while up accesses flash options, down allows you to switch on or off macro focusing, while right allows you to adjust exposure compensation.

Nikon Coolpix S7000
Rear of the Nikon Coolpix S7000

The final two buttons are a Menu button for accessing the main menu and a button with a trash icon, which is used to delete photos when viewing them in playback.

Unusually for a compact camera like this, you can set the autofocus point manually. When you’re shooting in Auto mode, head to the Main Menu and under AF area mode choose “Manual”. After this has been selected, pressing the OK button in the centre of the four way navigational pad shows you the currently selected AF point - simply move to the point you want to use with the directional keys. Other AF area modes include Face Priority, Center, Subject Tracking and Target Finding AF.

There’s also a couple of other useful options which you can alter when using Auto mode from within the Menu, including White Balance, ISO sensitivity and Image Mode (which changes the resolution of the captured image).

Nikon Coolpix S7000
Top of the Nikon Coolpix S7000

It would be nice if there was a quick menu available to allow you to quickly change those settings, or other settings that are presented while using different shooting modes such as Effects mode, but sadly Nikon has decided not to include such a button.

When you’re in Effects mode, in order to choose between the different effects, you’ll need to enter the main Menu, which is a bit of a faff. It’s worth remembering also that as the camera doesn’t shoot in raw format, if you shoot with an Effect enabled, you’ll be stuck with that. If you like Effects, an alternative is to apply them after the image has been taken in playback. After hitting the Playback button, press the OK button and a number of different options for adding filter effects to your image. If you do this, both the original and the new, edited, photo will be saved.

On the side of the camera, underneath a small flap, you’ll find two ports - one for inserting an HDMI cable if you want to connect it to your TV to watch full HD movies, and another for the USB cable. There’s a supplied power supply unit which you can use to charge up the camera, or alternatively you can plug into a laptop or computer with a USB port - handy if you’re travelling and don’t always have access to a three pin plug socket.

Nikon Coolpix S7000
The Nikon Coolpix S7000 In-hand

Connecting the Nikon Coolpix S7000 to your phone or smart device is very easy. If you have a Wi-Fi only enabled device, you can press the dedicated button on the back of the camera, where it will display the name of the network you need to connect to from your phone or tablet. Once you have connected, simply launch the Nikon Mobile Utility App and you can control the camera from the app, or view the pictures you have already taken and download them for quick sharing on social networks, or via email. If the battery is low on your smart device, the app won’t allow you to remotely control the camera. Sadly you can’t change many settings when you’re remote shooting, but you can zoom the lens in and out. The NFC chip is found on the left hand side of the camera - if you have an NFC enabled device just touch it to this point on the camera to form a connection.

Focusing speeds in good light are pretty swift, and it’s also impressive how closely you can get to the subject by switching macro focusing on. As the light drops, focusing is a little slower, and very occasionally the camera will struggle to focus at all, but generally only if the light is very poor. Otherwise, general operation speeds of the camera are reasonable, but shot to shot time is a little slow, so if you’re taking lots of shots in succession you may find it a little frustrating to use.

The LCD screen is a fairly low resolution when compared with some of the other cameras currently on the market, and it’s also not touch sensitive - which is a shame. But on the plus side, it displays a a decent view and it doesn’t suffer too badly from glare or reflections, even if you’re using it in reasonably bright conditions - good news for those who want to take the camera on holiday.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 16 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 6Mb.

Directly from the Nikon Coolpix S7000, images are bright and punchy displaying a lovely amount of saturation without going over the top. Some Nikon cameras have had a tendency to produce cyan like colours when photographing skies, but luckily that doesn’t seem to be the case with the S7000 as bright blue skies are rendered very accurately.

The overall impression of detail is also good when looking at images taken in good light. If you zoom in to 100%, you can see some examples of image smoothing even for photos taken at ISO 100 - some areas of the image will have a painterly effect, but it’s certainly no worse than other cameras of its kind and cost point.

As you move up the sensitivity range, as you might expect, image quality starts to deteriorate. However, images are usable even at the highest ends of the scale if you’re printing or sharing at small sizes. You can set an ISO limit if you don’t want to go over a certain setting, which is useful.

You can’t change the Nikon Coolpix S7000’s metering setting, but the all-purpose mode it uses does a pretty good job so it shouldn’t be too problematic. Exposures are well balanced without requiring exposure compensation on all but very high contrast situations.

The camera’s automatic white balance setting does a decent job of producing accurate colours, and pleasingly it’s not too confused by artificial lights either.

Digital filters are quite fun to experiment with, but they won’t be to everybody’s tastes. That said, there’s quite a good range here and it’s worth experimenting to see if any are particularly appealing. You can also create panoramic images, which are a great deal of fun, but you can see where the image has been stitched together if you look closely, which is a shame.

At the far reach of the telephoto optic, detail is also well resolved - and optical image stabilisation does a good job of keeping blur to a minimum too.

Noise

The Nikon Coolpix S7000 has seven sensitivity settings ranging from ISO125 to ISO6400 at full resolution.

ISO 125 (100% Crop)

ISO 200 (100% Crop)

iso125.jpg iso200.jpg
   

ISO 400 (100% Crop)

ISO 800 (100% Crop)

iso400.jpg iso800.jpg
   

ISO 1600 (100% Crop)

ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

iso1600.jpg iso3200.jpg
   

ISO 6400 (100% Crop)

 
iso6400.jpg  

Focal Range

The Nikon Coolpix S7000’s 20x zoom lens achieves a maximum wide-angle focal length equivalent to 25mm, and is capable of a telephoto reach of 500mm (in 35mm-camera terms).

25mm

500mm

focal_range1.jpg focal_range2.jpg

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops - the right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images from the Nikon Coolpix S7000 are slightly soft at the default sharpening setting and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can alternatively change the in-camera sharpening level to suit your tastes.

Original (100% Crop)

Sharpened (100% Crop)

sharpen1.jpg sharpen1a.jpg
   
sharpen2.jpg sharpen2a.jpg

Macro

The Nikon Coolpix S7000’s lens will focus as close as 1cm from a subject, however depth of field becomes very shallow at this extremely close distance.

Macro

Macro (100% Crop)

macro1.jpg macro1a.jpg

Flash

The Nikon Coolpix S7000’s built-in flash has four settings: Auto, Auto with red-eye reduction, Fill flash & Slow sync. Whether the flash is set to standard Auto mode – or Auto with red-eye reduction – the camera successfully avoids any trace of red-eye.

Flash Off

Flash On

ISO 64 ISO 64

Special Effects

The Nikon Coolpix S7000 offers thirteen colour effects, all of which are previewed live. Your options are: Soft, Nostalgic sepia, High-contrast monochrome, High key, Low key, Selective colour, Pop, Super vivid, Painting, Toy camera effect 1, Toy camera effect 2, Cross process & Mirror.

Soft

Sepia
effects_01.jpg effects_02.jpg
   

Monochrome

High Key

effects_03.jpg effects_04.jpg
   

Low Key

Selective Color

effects_05.jpg effects_06.jpg
   

Pop

Vivid

effects_07.jpg effects_08.jpg
   

Painting

Toy Camera 1

effects_09.jpg effects_10.jpg
   

Toy Camera 2

Cross Process

effects_11.jpg effects_12.jpg
   

Mirror

 
effects_13.jpg  

Easy Panorama

Easy Panorama just requires you to pan the Nikon Coolpix S7000 whilst it captures and stitches the images into either a 180 or 360-degree panorama.

Easy Panorama
panorama.jpg

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Nikon Coolpix S7000 camera, which were all taken using the 16 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample Movie & Video

This is a sample movie at the highest quality setting of 1920x1080 pixels at 25 frames per second. Please note that this 21 second movie is 42.2Mb in size.

Product Images

Nikon Coolpix S7000

Front of the Nikon Coolpix S7000

 
Nikon Coolpix S7000

Front of the Nikon Coolpix S7000 / Lens Extended

 
Nikon Coolpix S7000

Side of the Nikon Coolpix S7000

 
Nikon Coolpix S7000

Side of the Nikon Coolpix S7000

 
Nikon Coolpix S7000

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix S7000

 
Nikon Coolpix S7000

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix S7000 / Image Displayed

 
Nikon Coolpix S7000

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix S7000 / Main Menu

 
Nikon Coolpix S7000

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix S7000 / Scene Menu

 
Nikon Coolpix S7000

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix S7000 / Settings Menu

 

Nikon Coolpix S7000

Top of the Nikon Coolpix S7000

 
Nikon Coolpix S7000

Bottom of the Nikon Coolpix S7000

 
Nikon Coolpix S7000

Side of the Nikon Coolpix S7000

 
Nikon Coolpix S7000
Side of the Nikon Coolpix S7000
 
Nikon Coolpix S7000
Front of the Nikon Coolpix S7000
 
Nikon Coolpix S7000
Front of the Nikon Coolpix S7000
 
Nikon Coolpix S7000
Memory Card Slot
 
Nikon Coolpix S7000
Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The Nikon Coolpix S7000 is a simple camera but it offers quite a few useful features which make it appealing, and with a 20x optical zoom, perhaps particularly to those who want a camera to take with them on holiday.

Although it doesn’t offer full manual control, at least you can change a few key settings (such as sensitivity), and handily, the autofocus point.

It’s also quite a fun camera to use, with a nice range of digital effects, the ability to create panoramas and other nifty features such as the ability to create a video comprised of short clips with an added soundtrack.

Slipping neatly into your pocket, the Nikon Coolpix S7000 also has a nice design while keeping a good amount of buttons to give you quick access to those settings that you can change. It’s a shame not to see a touch sensitive screen here though, as those who are buying this are likely to be pairing it with a smartphone.

Full HD video recording is pretty much standard on all cameras now, and likewise inbuilt Wi-Fi and NFC is starting to become another one of those features. Never the less it’s still nice to see both here, and the inbuilt Wi-Fi is useful when you want to control the camera remotely - such as when taking selfies.

The 20x optical zoom should cover most bases, giving you plenty of flexibility when you’re travelling or on holiday and definitely elevating the camera above the capabilities of the average smartphone. Otherwise, image quality is also pretty good with impressively vibrant colours and an overall impression of detail - it doesn’t cope too badly with low light too.

Overall, the Nikon Coolpix S7000 is a neat little all-round package offering a good range of features in a slim and attractive body. If you’re looking for a new holiday or family camera it’s definitely worthy of your attention.

4 stars

Ratings (out of 5)
Design 4
Features 4
Ease-of-use 4.5
Image quality 4
Value for money 4

Main Rivals

Listed below are some of the rivals of the Nikon Coolpix S7000.

Canon Powershot SX280 HS

The Canon PowerShot SX280 HS is a new travel-zoom camera for 2013, offering a 20x zoom lens and a 12 megapixel back-illuminated image sensor. Other key features of the Canon SX280 include built-in GPS and wi-fi connectivity, a 3 inch LCD screen, full 1080p HD movies with stereo sound, fast 14fps burst shooting, and a full range of manual and automated exposure modes. Read our in-depth Canon PowerShot SX280 HS in-depth review now...

Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR

The FinePix F900EXR is the range-topping camera from Fujifilm, sporting a 20x lens with a versatile focal range of 25-500mm. The 16 megapixel F900 EXR also features fast phase-detection autofocusing, wireless image transfer, GPS support, full 1080p movies, a high-contrast 3 inch LCD screen and 8fps continuous shooting. Read our in-depth Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR review now...

Nikon Coolpix S9900

The Coolpix S9900 is Nikon's new flagship travel-zoom compact camera for 2015. Featuring a 30x zoom lens with a focal range of 25-750mm, the Coolpix S9900 has a 16 megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor, high-resolution 3-inch vari-angle screen, 7.5fps burst shooting and boasts GPS tracking and both wi-fi and NFC connectivity. Read our in-depth Nikon Coolpix S9900 review now...

Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ57

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ57 (also known as the ZS45) is a new travel-zoom compact camera with a 16-megapixel sensor, 180-degree tiltable monitor and a 20x zoom lens. Read our Panasonic DMC-TZ57 review to find out if this is the travel-zoom camera for you...

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V is a new premium travel-zoom camera with a 30x zoom lens. The HX60V also features built-in wi-fi, NFC and GPS, full 1080p high-definition video with stereo sound, a 20 megapixel CMOS sensor, high-resolution 3-inch screen, manual shooting modes, 10fps continuous shooting, ISO range of 100-12800 and fast auto-focusing. Read our Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V review to find out if it's the best travel-zoom camera...

Specifications

Effective pixels 16.0 million (Image processing may reduce the number of effective pixels)
Image sensor 1/2.3-in. type CMOS, Total pixels: approx. 16.76 million
Lens NIKKOR lens with 20x optical zoom
Focal length 4.5 – 90.0 mm (angle of view equivalent to that of 25–500 mm lens in 35mm [135] format)
F-number f/3.4 – 6.5
Lens construction 12 elements in 10 groups (1 ED lens element)
Magnification Up to 4x (angle of view equivalent to that of approx. 2000 mm lens in 35mm [135] format)
Vibration reduction Lens-shift VR (still images), Lens shift and electronic VR (movies)
Autofocus Contrast-detect AF
Focus range [W]: Approx. 30 cm (1 ft) to infinity, [T]: Approx. 2 m (6 ft 7 in.) to infinity. Macro mode: Approx. 1 cm (0.4 in.) (at a wide-angle zoom position) to infinity. (All distances measured from center of front surface of lens)
AF-area mode Face priority, manual with 99 focus areas, center, subject tracking, target finding AF
Monitor 7.5 cm (3-in.) diagonal. Approx. 460k-dot, TFT LCD with anti-reflection coating and 5-level brightness adjustment.
Frame coverage Approx. 99% horizontal and vertical (compared to actual picture)
Frame coverage (playback mode) Approx. 99% horizontal and vertical (compared to actual picture)
Storage media SD, SDHC, SDXC, Internal memory (approx. 20 MB)
File system DCF and Exif 2.3 compliant
Storage file formats Still images: JPEG. Movies: MOV (Video: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, Audio: LPCM stereo)
Image size (pixels) 16M (High) [4608 x 3456 (Fine)]. 16M [4608 x 3456]. 8M [3264 x 2448]. 4M [2272 x 1704]. 2M [1600 x 1200]. VGA [640 x 480]. 16:9 [4608 x 2592]. 1:1 [3456 x 3456]
ISO sensitivity ISO 125 – 1600. ISO 3200, 6400 (available when using Auto mode)
Exposure metering Matrix, center-weighted (digital zoom less than 2x), spot (digital zoom 2x or more)
Exposure control Programmed auto exposure and exposure compensation (–2.0 – +2.0 EV in steps of 1/3 EV)
Shutter type Mechanical and CMOS electronic shutter
Shutter speed 1/1500 – 1s, 1/4000 s (maximum speed during high-speed continuous shooting) 4 s (Fireworks show scene mode)
Self-timer Can be selected from 10 s and 2 s
Aperture Electronically-controlled ND filter (–2 AV) selection
Aperture range 2 steps (f/3.4 and f/6.8 [W])
Built-in flash Yes
Flash range (approx.) [W]: 0.5–2.8 m (1 ft 8 in.–9 ft 2 in.) [T]: 2.0 m (6 ft 6 in.)
Flash control TTL auto flash with monitor preflashes
USB Micro-USB connector, Hi-Speed USB, (do not use any USB cable other than the UC-E21 for Micro-USB connector.) Supports Direct Print (PictBridge)
HDMI output HDMI micro connector (Type D)
Wi-Fi (Wireless LAN) standards IEEE 802.11b/g/n (standard wireless LAN protocol)
Wi-Fi (Wireless LAN) operating frequency 2412–2462 MHz (1–11 channels)
Wi-Fi (Wireless LAN) range (line of sight) Approx. 10 m (10 yd)
Wi-Fi (Wireless LAN) data rates (actual measured values) IEEE 802.11b: 5 Mbps. IEEE 802.11g: 15 Mbps. IEEE 802.11n: 15 Mbps
Wi-Fi (Wireless LAN) security OPEN/WPA2
Wi-Fi (Wireless LAN) access protocols Infrastructure
Supported languages Arabic, Bengali, Bulgarian, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Marathi, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese (European and Brazilian), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese
Power source One Rechargeable Li-ion Battery EN-EL19 (included), AC Adapter EH-62G (available separately)
Charging time Approx. 1 h 50 min (when using Charging AC Adapter EH-71P and when no charge remains)
Battery life Approx. 210 shots when using EN-EL19
Actual battery life for movie recording Approx. 40 min when using EN-EL19
Tripod socket 1/4 in. (ISO 1222)
Dimensions (W x H x D) Approx. 99.5 x 60.0 x 27.4 mm (4.0 x 2.4 x 1.1in.), (excluding projections)
Weight Approx. 161g (5.7 oz), (including battery and memory card)
Operating environment - temperature 0°C – 40°C (32°F – 104°F)
Operating environment - humidity 85% or less (no condensation)
Supplied accessories Rechargeable Li-ion Battery EN-EL19, Charging AC Adapter EH-71P, USB Cable UC-E21, Camera Strap

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