Nikon Coolpix S9 Review
Review Date: November 30th 2006
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using
the 6M High mode, which gives an average image size of around
2.5Mb.
Noise
There are 4 ISO settings available on the Nikon Coolpix S9
which you can select at any time if the camera is in the normal
shooting mode. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise
levels for each ISO setting. There is no discernible noise
at the slowest settings of ISO 64 and 100. Some noise is apparent
at ISO 200 and by ISO 400 it's very obvious but still fairly
usable for small prints.
Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality
50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening
applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little
soft at the default sharpening setting and benefit from some
further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. Unfortunately
you can't change the in-camera sharpening level.
File Quality
The Nikon Coolpix S9 has 2 different image quality settings
available, with High being the highest quality option. Here
are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various
options, with the file size shown in brackets.
Chromatic Aberrations
The Nikon Coolpix S9 handled chromatic aberrations well during
the review, with limited purple fringing present around the
edges of objects in certain high-contrast situations, particularly
in the corners of the photograph. The test images also revealed
that the S9 is not very sharp in the corners at the 38mm wide-angle
lens setting, and is noticeable vignetting.
Macro
The Nikon Coolpix S9 offers a Macro setting that allows you
to focus on a subject that is 4cms away from the camera when
the lens is set to wide-angle. The first image shows how close
you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card).
The second image is a 100% crop.
Flash
The flash settings on the Nikon Coolpix S9 are Auto, Auto
with Red-eye Reduction (In-Camera Red-Eye Fix), Flash cancel,
Anytime flash and Slow sync. These shots of a magnolia coloured
wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m. As you can see, there
is noticeable vignetting at the wide-angle lens setting.
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Auto Flash - Telephoto (114mm) |
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And here are some self-portraits. As you can see, both the
Flash On setting and the Red-Eye Reduction option caused a
tiny amount of red-eye (or to be more accurate, purple-eye).
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Flash On (100% Crop) |
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Flash - Red-Eye Reduction (100%
Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Nikon Coolpix S9's maximum shutter speed is just 2 seconds,
which is not good news if you're seriously interested in night
photography. Also you can't set the aperture or ISO speed
in the Night Landscape scene mode, and the S9 always seems
to set a large aperture and fast ISO speed to get the fastest
shutter speed possible, which isn't well suited to landscape
photos. The shot below was taken in the Night Landscape mode
using a shutter speed of 1 seconds at f/4.3 at ISO 400. Here
is a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like
(pretty terrible!).
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Night Shot (100% Crop) |
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D-Lighting
D-Lighting lightens under-exposed parts of the image whilst
ensuring that correctly exposed parts remain the same (and
are not also lightened). This basically balances the shadows
and highlights in a high-contrast image, for example a scene
that includes deep black shadows and a bright white sky. D-Lighting
is selected by pressing the One Touch Portrait button when
an image is played back, so it is applied after the image
has been recorded. The Nikon Coolpix S9 processes a copy of
the image (which takes around 5 seconds) so that some areas
of the photograph are lightened and some are left as they
are. Here are some examples which show the effects of using
the D-Lighting feature, showing that it works well, although
there is extra noise in the images that have had D-Lighting
applied to them.
Overall Image Quality
The Nikon Coolpix S9 produced images of average quality during
the review period. The 6 megapixel images were a little soft
straight out of the camera at the default sharpening setting
and ideally require some further sharpening in an application
like Adobe Photoshop. The Nikon Coolpix S9 dealt quite well
with chromatic aberrations, with limited purple fringing appearing
only in high contrast situations. Macro performance is about
average, allowing you to focus as close as 4cms away from
the subject. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with
a tiny amount of red-eye and slight under-exposure. The night
photograph was a weak point, with the maximum shutter speed
of 2 seconds ruling out most photography after dark. The D-Lighting
feature works very well with the right images, balancing out
the shadow and highlight areas nicely, although at the expense
of introducing extra noise. The Nikon Coolpix S9 handled noise
quite well. The 1/2.5 inch, 6 megapixel sensor used in the
Nikon Coolpix S9 produces noise-free images at ISO 64 and
ISO 100, although ISO 200 is quite noisy and ISO 400 is only
really usable for smaller prints. The lens is perhaps the
weak-point of this camera, displaying noticeable vignetting
and softness at the 38mm wide-angle setting (which isn't really
that wide).
 PhotographyBLOG
is a member of the DIWA
organisation. Our test results for the Nikon Coolpix S9 have
been submitted to DIWA
for comparison with test results for different samples of
the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
member sites.
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