Nikon Coolpix S6700 Review

July 17, 2014 | Matt Grayson | Rating star Rating star Rating star Rating star

Introduction

The Nikon Coolpix S6700 is a small digital compact camera aimed at the budget conscious. It features a 10x optical zoom for getting in on the action, a 20 megapixel CCD sensor for capturing as much detail as possible, and a 3 inch screen for reviewing your masterpiece after taking it. There's also a Retouch menu if you feel your pictures need a little pick me up. Priced at around £120, the Nikon Coolpix S6700 comes in a choice of red or black.

Ease of Use

It's an interesting turn that the designers have taken with the Nikon Coolpix S6700. Looking at the front, you'd think they'd placed the lens incorrectly, as it sits towards the bottom of the face like a giant wheel on a watermill. Most of that is a silver bezel that doesn't affect the operability of the lens which is a 10x optical zoom.

Vibration Reduction (VR) has also been used in the lens system. VR is Nikon's image stabilising system. It uses a variety of features such as optical stabilisers and high ISO to allow the Nikon Coolpix S6700 to select a faster shutter speed which freezes the action. This in turn eliminates camera shake. Raising the ISO on the camera can reduce image quality as noise will enter the image the higher you go. You can reduce the need for this by steadying the camera on something before you take a shot, such as a wall, table or tripod. You can then select a lower ISO setting in the menu system to reduce noise and increase sharpness of the pictures.

On the top of the Nikon Coolpix S6700, there's only a small, sunken power button – which has a green ring around it to tell you when it's on – and the shutter release button with a large zoom ring wrapped round it. The larger zoom ring is generally a sign of cameras that are for the budget conscious as smaller rings cost more to fit so will be on more expensive cameras. However, there is an advantage if you have larger hands or limited movement, the larger zoom will be easier to operate.

Move onto the back of the Nikon Coolpix S6700 and the smaller buttons are used once again. They're arranged in a typical formation of four smaller control buttons around a navigation pad. Next to the thumb rest, there's a direct video record button meaning you can get those candid moments with motion.

Nikon Coolpix S6700 Nikon Coolpix S6700
Front Rear

The S6700 takes a lithium ion battery as its power source. The battery requires a dedicated charger which is included in the box alongside a UK three pin adapter and a USB cable. The latter also doubles as the charging lead which bridges the gap between camera and charging unit. This way of internal charging reduces the amount of equipment and accessories you have to carry. While we're looking in the box, there's also a wrist strap to attach it to you for safe keeping. In the top section of the box, you'll find a Quick Start Guide which looks very long but is in several languages which takes up most of the bulk. Interestingly, Nikon have provided a CD with ViewNX 2 on it. A CD is something we've started to get accustomed to be absent in the box with everything now available for download on the Nikon website. Notably, the full manual which is normally also on the CD is still missing and will require a visit to the Nikon website.

From a cold start, the S6700 will power up, focus and take a picture in around 2sec. That's slightly slower than the 1.5-1.8sec that we're now used to seeing on newer cameras. The Nikon Coolpix S6700 does have a continuous shooting mode in the Main menu. We managed to take seven images in a ten second period which gives an average of around 0.7fps (frames per second).

In order to take photographs in continuous shooting, you have to change the Nikon Coolpix S6700 into that mode in the Main menu. You can do this by pressing the Menu button on the back of the camera. The menu screen is split into three sections. The left section shows you whether you're in the Shooting menu, Video menu or Set-up menu. These sub menus essentially make it easier to navigate. By pressing left, you can flick through the tabs in order to move through the pages.

Nikon Coolpix S6700 Nikon Coolpix S6700
Front Top

In the Shooting menu, you can make changes such as the resolution, ISO, white-balance and various focusing modes. There are lots of options to change unlike the Video section which has only four. They cover the resolution, focus mode, VR and wind noise reduction. The final Set-up tab is larger, similar to the Shooting tab. Here you can go more indepth with what you change, such as the time & date, sound settings, language and card format.  The section in the centre shows the various options available to you in each tab, while on the right is the current setting in that option. You can press right on the navigation pad, or the OK button to enter each menu.

The colour scheme is a two-tone light and dark grey with contrasting font (white on dark grey, black on light grey) and has a yellow highlighter to show where you are.

On top of the Main menu, there's also a Mode menu which is accessed by pressing the green camera button on the back of the camera. It brings up the modes to the right of the screen and you use the navigation pad to scroll up or down for the mode you wish to select. On some of the options you'll see a little right arrow and if you press right when you see this, it takes you into a separate menu to select a different mode to be brought up there. It's a way of making the camera a little more user friendly.

Nikon Coolpix S6700 Nikon Coolpix S6700
Memory Card Slot Battery Compartment

Once you've taken some photographs, you may wish to see them on the back of the Nikon Coolpix S6700. It's most certainly best to wait until you get back to the computer before you start judging them properly as the resolution of the screen is nowhere near that of the picture so you'll not see a lot of information that will be present on a larger screen.

Just like pressing the green camera brings up a Mode button, pressing the blue arrow also brings up a Playback Mode menu. In this you have four options and they offer alternatives for sorting through your pictures for easier viewing.

In the main Playback menu, there's only two options for Playback and the aforementioned Set-up menu. Here you can perform some basic editing such as D-Lighting, red-eye correction, Quick or Glamour retouching. There's also options to create a slide-show, rotate the picture, copy the picture or add a voice memo.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 20 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 7Mb.

Noise

Low ISO settings are understandably good quality with no obvious noise becoming apparent. The Nikon Coolpix S6700 has an ISO 80 setting as well as ISO 100. That's only around a third of a stop difference and when it comes to the crunch, which won't make much difference to your exposure.

Things seem pretty quiet until ISO 200 where there seems to be a degree of sharpening in dark areas as though noise reduction is playing around with the settings. There  looks to be very small amounts of blue noise coming through, but we can't be sure. However, skipping to ISO 400 confirms that we were seeing it as bright blue spots begin to appear. Detail starts to dissipate in the darker areas, but midtones still look good.

At ISO 800, it looks as though the camera has got things under control as noise levels seem to go back to ISO 200 levels. Colours that are supposed to be on the picture aren't suppressed, though and edges look surprisingly sharp. At ISO 1600, the noise has returned but is still better than what we expect to see at this setting. The final setting is ISO 3200 and the S6700 uses a lower resolution in order to reduce on certain types of noise that are created by heat from neighbouring pixels. The further away from each other they are, the less they affect each other. Aside from some sporadic bright blue spots, the picture looks ok.

ISO 80 (100% Crop)

ISO 100 (100% Crop)

iso80.jpg iso100.jpg
   

ISO 200 (100% Crop)

ISO 400 (100% Crop)

iso200.jpg iso400.jpg
   

ISO 800 (100% Crop)

ISO 1600 (100% Crop)

iso800.jpg iso1600.jpg
   

ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

 
iso3200.jpg  

Focal Range

The Nikon Coolpix S6700 has a 10x optical zoom which starts at 25mm and zooms out to 250mm.

25mm

250mm

focal_range1.jpg focal_range2.jpg

Sharpening

Adding sharpening to the pictures after you've taken them via an editing suite is acceptable enough and the pictures look good. If the ISO is too high, the pictures will look worse, though so only add sharpening if the sensitivity is around ISO 100 or ISO 200.

Original (100% Crop)

Sharpened (100% Crop)

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

File Quality

There are two 20 megapixel settings on the Nikon Coolpix S6700. The one with the star is the Fine compression setting and the one without is the Normal compression. I Fine, a typical picture is around 7.5Mb while in Normal it's around 4.2Mb. The amount of pixels remains the same in these settings, but the camera will lose data as it saves to the memory card. This can result in fine detail areas with less detail, but the Normal setting does release a lot of extra space on the memory card.

Fine (7.57Mb) (100% Crop)

Normal (4.18Mb) (100% Crop)

quality_high.jpg quality_normal.jpg

Chromatic Aberrations

Chromatic aberration isn't forth coming on the Nikon Coolpix S6700. In fact, we had a hard time finding any at all.

Chromatic Aberrations 1 (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations 2 (100% Crop)

chromatic1.jpg chromatic2.jpg

Macro

Close focusing on the Nikon Coolpix S6700 is around 5cm at wide-angle which is by no means the best results that you can get even at this price point. Pictures are very sharp in the centre sweet spot, though. When image quality does drop off, it's not by too much either.

Macro

Macro (100% Crop)

macro1.jpg macro1a.jpg

Flash

There's an ever-so-small amount of vignetting that occurs in the corners of the frame. It doesn't matter where the zoom is or whether the flash is on or off, it appears. Using flash does make it more prominent, though.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (25mm)

Flash On - Wide Angle (25mm)

ISO 64 ISO 64
   

Flash Off - Telephoto (250mm)

Flash On - Telephoto (250mm)

ISO 64 ISO 64

We didn't have any problems with red-eye in our test shots, so we couldn't effectively test the red-eye reduction features of the S6700. Red-eye is handled via the red-eye reduction feature in the flash settings.

Flash On

Flash On (100% Crop)
flash_on.jpg flash_on1.jpg
   

Red Eye Reduction

Red Eye Reduction (100% Crop)

flash_redeye.jpg flash_redeye1.jpg

Night

There are two Night scene settings on the Nikon Coolpix S6700. You can select from either Hand-held or tripod. The latter lowers the ISO to increase the quality of the image as it can use a slower shutter speed. The camera did just that and went down to ISO 80 compared to the ISO 800 in Hand-held mode. It matches the settings in Auto mode, with the exception that it's limited to 1sec exposures, whereas the Night scene mode can go to 2sec to get a better exposure.

Night Scene Handheld Night Scene Handheld (100% Crop)
night_scene_handheld.jpg night_scene_handheld1.jpg
   
Night Scene Tripod Night Scene Tripod (100% Crop)
night_scene_tripod.jpg night_scene_tripod1.jpg
   
Night Program Auto Night Program Auto (100% Crop)
night_program_isoauto.jpg night_program_isoauto1.jpg
   
Night Program ISO80 Night Program ISO80 (100% Crop)
night_programiso80.jpg night_programiso801.jpg

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Nikon Coolpix S6700 camera, which were all taken using the 20 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 1280x720 pixels at 25 frames per second. Please note that this 53 second movie is 171Mb in size.

Product Images

Nikon Coolpix S6700

Front of the Nikon Coolpix S6700

 
Nikon Coolpix S6700

Front of the Nikon Coolpix S6700 / Lens Extended

 
Nikon Coolpix S6700

Side of the Nikon Coolpix S6700

 
Nikon Coolpix S6700

Side of the Nikon Coolpix S6700

 
Nikon Coolpix S6700

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix S6700

 
Nikon Coolpix S6700

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix S6700 / Image Displayed

 
Nikon Coolpix S6700

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix S6700 / Turned On

 
Nikon Coolpix S6700

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix S6700 / Shooting Mode

 
Nikon Coolpix S6700

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix S6700 / Main Menu

 

Nikon Coolpix S6700

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix S6700 / Main Menu

 
Nikon Coolpix S6700

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix S6700 / Main Menu

 
Nikon Coolpix S6700

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix S6700 / Main Menu

 
Nikon Coolpix S6700
Top of the Nikon Coolpix S6700
 
Nikon Coolpix S6700
Bottom of the Nikon Coolpix S6700
 
Nikon Coolpix S6700
Side of the Nikon Coolpix S6700
 
Nikon Coolpix S6700
Side of the Nikon Coolpix S6700
 
Nikon Coolpix S6700
Front of the Nikon Coolpix S6700
 
Nikon Coolpix S6700
Memory Card Slot
 
Nikon Coolpix S6700
Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The Nikon Coolpix S6700 is a decent enough little camera for the price that it's set at. We can't get carried away and say how wonderful it is, because it's not without faults. It's quite slow at starting up and the continuous shooting isn't the fastest for this price range. However, one area we are certainly happy with is the increase in noise control. The compact cameras that Nikon have been producing for the lower end of the market haven't been worthy of the brand name, but if the S6700 is anything to go by, it looks like we're seeing a turnaround.

Build quality is fairly standard. IThe Nikon Coolpix S6700 is primarily plastic with what looks like a metal front. The USB cover is made of rubber and the battery door has no lock on it. These aren't necessarily bad things, though. An area that the Nikon compacts have over close competitors is the ability to charge with minimal equipment. To charge the lithium ion battery, you just need the charging mains pack and the USB cable which you'll arguably take away with you anyway. It reduces the need for a charging pack that – with Canon especially – you fit the battery into after removing it from the camera.

Because of the cost, versatile zoom, compact recharging system and now the improved noise performance, the Nikon Coolpix S6700 looks to be a decent camera for taking abroad, on nights out and day events. The zoom will be able to bring many wonderful things much closer to you. The improved noise control will allow you to get decent pictures in darker conditions, such as evening entertainment or if you zoom out to distant areas. The digital filters will allow you to explore various creative ideas with your photos. You may even find that you start to think about the photograph you're going to take and the effect you want to apply once it's taken. Importantly the cost means that should the worst happen and the Nikon Coolpix S6700 gets broken, it won't break the bank to replace it.

4 stars

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

Main Rivals

Listed below are some of the rivals of the Nikon Coolpix S6700.

Canon IXUS 255 HS

The Canon IXUS 255 HS (also known as the PowerShot ELPH 330 HS) is a small and stylish new point-and-shoot compact camera. The IXUS 255 HS' stand-out features include a 12 megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor, 10x wide-angle zoom lens, full 1080p HD movie recording, 3 inch LCD screen and built-in wi-fi connectivity. Read our in-depth Canon IXUS 255 HS review to find out if this tiny camera is worth the £199.99 / $229.99 price-tag.

Canon IXUS 265 HS

The Canon IXUS 265 HS (also known as the PowerShot ELPH 340 HS) is a stylish point-and-shoot compact camera that offers a 16 megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor, 12x wide-angle zoom lens, full 1080p HD movie recording, 3 inch LCD screen and built-in wi-fi and NFC connectivity. Read our in-depth Canon IXUS 265 HS review to find out if this tiny camera is worth its £189.99 / $199.99 price-tag...

Fujifilm FinePix T400

The Fujifilm FinePix T400 compact camera offers a 10x zoom, 16 megapixel sensor, 3 inch LCD screen and 720p movies, all for a street price of just £70 / $90. Read our Fujifilm FinePix T400 review to find out if it's a genuine bargain or one to avoid...

Panasonic Lumix DMC-SZ9

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-SZ9 is a brand new travel-zoom compact camera. The stylish Panasonic SZ9 offers 16 megapixels, a 10x zoom lens (25-250mm), 3 inch LCD screen, built-in wi-fi connectivity, 10fps burst shooting and 1080p HD movies. Read our expert Panasonic DMC-SZ9 review now...

Samsung WB30F

The Samsung WB30F is a new travel-zoom camera that won't break the bank. The WB30F offers a wide-angle 10x zoom lens, 16.2 megapixel sensor, 720p video recording, 3 inch LCD screen and built-in wi-fi. Read our in-depth Samsung WB30F review to find out if it's worth the modest asking price....

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX200

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX200 is a slim and stylish compact camera with built-in wi-fi. The WX200 also features a 10x zoom lens, 18 megapixel Exmor R CMOS sensor, 10fps continuous shooting and Full HD movie recording. Priced at around £199, read our Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX200 review to find out if it's worth checking out...

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Nikon Coolpix S6700 from around the web.

ephotozine.com »

The Nikon Coolpix S6700 was announced in January 2014 and is a compact camera with 10x optical zoom. It also has a 20.1 megapixel sensor, retouch menu and a range of digital filters which can be used on your pictures before and after shooting. It is available in red and black for around £141.
Read the full review »

stuff.tv »

It's hard for a budget camera to justify itself in the face of increasingly powerful phone cameras, but the little £150 Nikon Coolpix S6700 has a good stab at it with an impressively big optical zoom.
Read the full review »

Specifications

Product name COOLPIX S6700
Type Compact digital camera
Effective pixels 20.1 million
Image sensor 1/2.3-in. type CCD; total pixels: approx. 20.48 million
Lens NIKKOR lens with 10x optical zoom
Focal length 4.5-45.0mm (angle of view equivalent to that of 25-250 mm lens in 35mm [135] format)
F-number f/3.5-6.5
Lens construction 10 elements in 9 groups
Magnification Up to 4x (angle of view equivalent to that of approx. 1000 mm lens in 35mm [135] format)
Vibration reduction Lens shift (still pictures). Lens shift and electronic VR (movies)
Motion blur reduction Motion detection (still pictures)
Autofocus Contrast-detect AF
Focus range [W]: Approx. 50 cm (1 ft 8 in.) to infinity, [T]: Approx. 1.5 m (5 ft) to infinity. Macro mode: Approx. 5 cm (2 in.) to infinity (wide-angle position). (All distances measured from center of front surface of lens)
AF-area mode Face priority, center, manual with 99 focus areas, subject tracking, target finding AF
Monitor 7.5 cm (3-in.), approx. 230k-dot, TFT LCD with anti-reflection coating and 5-level brightness adjustment
Frame coverage Approx. 98% horizontal and 98% vertical (compared to actual image)
Frame coverage (playback mode) Approx. 98% horizontal and 98% vertical (compared to actual image)
Media Internal memory (approx. 25 MB), SD/SDHC/SDXC memory card
File system DCF, Exif 2.3, and DPOF compliant
Storage file formats Still pictures: JPEG. Sound files (Voice Memo): WAV. Movies: AVI (Motion-JPEG compliant)
Image size (pixels) 20M (High) [5152 x 3864(fine)]. 20M [5152 x 3864]. 10M [3648 x 2736]. 4M [2272 x 1704]. 2M [1600 x 1200]. VGA [640 x 480]. 16:9 (14M) [5120 x 2880]. 1:1 [3864 x 3864]
Shooting modes Scene auto selector, Scene (Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Night portrait, Party/indoor, Beach, Snow, Sunset, Dusk/dawn, Night landscape, Close-up, Food, Museum, Fireworks show, Black and white copy, Backlighting, Panorama assist, Pet portrait), Special effects, Smart portrait, Auto
Release mode Single (default setting), Continuous (the frame rate for continuous shooting is about 1.1 fps and the maximum number of continuous shots is about 6), BSS (Best Shot Selector), Multi-shot 16
Movie - file format 720/30p: 1280 x 720/16:9, 720/25p: 1280 x 720/16:9, 480/30p: 640 x 480/4:3, 480/25p: 640 x 480/4:3, 240/30p: 320 x 240/4:3, 240/25p: 320 x 240/4:3
ISO sensitivity ISO 80-1600. ISO 3200 (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 CCD electronic shutter
Shutter speed 1/2000-1 s. 4 s (when scene mode is set to Fireworks show)
Aperture Electronically-controlled ND filter (-3.3 AV) selection
Aperture range 2 steps (f/3.5 and f/11.1 [W])
Self-timer Can be selected from 10 s and 2 s
Flash range (approx.) (ISO sensitivity Auto) [W]: 0.5-3.5 m (1 ft 8 in.-11 ft). [T]: 1.5-2.0 m (5 ft-6 ft 6 in.)
Flash control TTL auto flash with monitor preflashes
USB Hi-Speed USB
Data transfer protocol MTP, PTP
Video output Can be selected from NTSC and PAL
I/O terminal Audio/video (A/V) output; digital I/O (USB)
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 sources One Rechargeable Li-ion Battery EN-EL19 (included). AC Adapter EH-62G (available separately)
Charging time Approx. 2 h 40 min (when using Charging AC Adapter EH-70P and when no charge remains)
Battery life1 Approx. 230 shots when using EN-EL19
Movie recording (actual battery life for recording)2 Approx. 50 min when using EN-EL19
Tripod socket 1/4 in. (ISO 1222)
Dimensions (W x H x D) Approx. 95.3 x 58.2 x 21.4 mm (3.8 x 2.3 x 0.9 in.) (excluding projections)
Weight Approx. 137 g (4.9 oz) (with battery and SD memory card)
Operating environment - temperature 0°C-40°C (32°F-104°F)
Operating environment - humidity 85% or less (no condensation)
Supplied accessories Camera Strap, Rechargeable Li-ion Battery EN-EL19, Charging AC Adapter EH-70P, USB Cable UC-E6

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