Introduction

Ease of Use

With a large bulky zoom lens on the front and a pop-up flash, the Coolpix S9500 is reminiscent of old 35mm compact cameras. However, if this was a 35mm compact camera, the 22x zoom lens would stretch from a wide 25mm to an eyewatering 550mm. That size zoom lens was unheard of back in the day when 35mm compacts ruled the roost.

The image goes through the lens onto an 18 megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor. The main difference between CCD and CMOS is that CCD yields a sharper image but a CMOS is more fuel efficient meaning your battery will last longer. The back-illuminated system describes the design of the CMOS. On a standard sensor, the pixels are surrounded by micro-circuitry which takes the information to the processor. The circuitry partially blocks the pixels meaning less light is collected. A back-illuminated sensor has the circuitry on the reverse so if you were to look at it mounted in a camera, it looks like it's on backwards. The lack of circuitry on the front means that more light can be collected theoretically making the sensor perform better in low light.

On the top of the Coolpix S9500 Nikon have opted for a more traditional command dial for switching through the various modes that the camera has to offer. There are eight modes: Auto, Effects, Smart Portrait, Backlighting, Night Portrait, Night Landscape, Scenes and Scene Auto Selector. The latter is an option that will analyse the frame when you compose and select the correct scene mode for that composition. The Effects are accessed by pressing the menu button when the mode is selected on the dial. The options are Soft, Nostalgic sepia, High-contrast monochrome, High Key, Low Key and Selective Colour.

The shutter release button is flush with the zoom rocker that wraps around it. A small power button sits between the shutter button and the stereo speakers. Note that this particular model does have built-in GPS like its predecessor, the S9300 - you can save money if you don't want the GPS by choosing the S9400 model. If you've never used a GPS system with a camera before, it works by corresponding the time and date of the camera with where the GPS says it was at that time. You can then upload these pictures to Google Maps.

Front	Rear

In the GPS menu, there are plenty of options. There are 6 initial options in the menu and these can be drilled into to expand your options. In GPS options, you can switch GPS on and update the profile. Points of interest can be added and you can also record logs of GPS data in 6, 12 and 24 hour periods. Synschronize lets you manually synchronise the camera's clock, while the last option is something that can provide useful if out walking. It places a compass on the screen so you can keep track of the direction you're travelling in.

For the travelling photographer, storage of the pictures can be problematic. Do you get several smaller cards in case of card corruption, or get just one big card in case you lose one? The S9500 has built-in wifi, so you don't need to worry. Once you're in a free wifi zone, the camera will send your pictures to a place of your choosing such as your computer or smartphone - you can also control the camera directly from your smart device using the Wireless Mobile Utility app, with the abilty to set the zoom and timer. The camera also works with Eye-Fi memory cards.

On the back of the Coolpix S9500, Nikon have added a wheel to the pad for speedy navigation through the menu system. It's not overly sensitive and does require some extra rotating than what should be necessary but it still gets the job done faster than pressing a button. Satisfyingly there's the usual medley of options on the navigation pad for flash options, macro, self timer and exposure compensation. A direct video button will start recording Full 1080p HD film whenever you press the button regardless of the mode you're in at the time.

Being reasonably thick, the build quality of the Coolpix S9500 looks to a higher standard that we suspect it really is. We're not implying that Nikon have cut corners but when it comes to stepped products such as the Nikon L, S and P ranges of digital compacts, you do tend to get what you pay for. This S series camera is in the middle of the ranges so has a good build but isn't as good as the P series.

Front	Top

However, it's worth noting that people buying the S9500 aren't going to be as bothered about top lens quality as long as it takes good pictures. They won't care about a quiet focusing motor or lens operation because they won't be taking pictures of wildlife at 5am in a misty meadow. The people who buy this camera will be going on holidays with the family and want to document as much as possible. The build is perfectly sufficient for that. It's a camera that will be carried around all day so the lighter materials used, the better for the photographer.

There are some nuggets of niceness though. The lens barrel has minimal play in it and the battery door has a lock on it which is nice. However, the door is quite flimsy despite this. The covers protecting the HDMI and USB ports are made of rubber and hang off the camera. A plastic hinged version would've been nicer but is unlikely on a camera at this level.

The Coolpix S9500's main menu will vary dependent on the mode you have the camera set to on the command dial. In auto there's lots of features and the S9500 sticks to the traditional Nikon colours of a black background with a grey menu and yellow highlight bar. Everything is pretty easy to work through. The menu is set into three sections for shooting, movie and set-up. Pressing right will go into the highlighted tab whereas pressing left will go back to the tabs for faster navigation.

We took numerous shots in the shutter lag test and the results were a little disappointing. An average delay from pressing the shutter button to the camera taking a picture once the camera is focused is around 0.08 seconds, but the Nikon Coolpix S9500 took 0.12 seconds. On the rare occasion that this happens, we generally give the camera a chance by testing it for longer than usual in case of user error. After all, this test has human reflexes to take into consideration. But the S9500 gave similar results right through.

Memory Card Slot	Battery Compartment

Start-up time from pressing the power button to the Coolpix S9500 focusing and taking a picture is just over 3 seconds. That's a little slower than we're used to seeing too, the average being around 2.5 seconds.

The burst mode is on the command dial and after the disappointingly slow performance in the timing tests, we were blown away by comparison. The camera has a burst rate of 7.5fps for 5 frames. It does this precisely: our test started at 0.86 seconds and finished at 1.86 seconds. However, this is offset by the extra 20 seconds or so that it took to download all the pictures to the memory card - which is a shame. Pictures taken in burst are displayed on the camera as a sort of slideshow. You have to press the OK button to play them then scroll through with left and right.

In playback, the Coolpix S9500 shows basic information about the picture such as the file number, date/time and position in the line of pictures on the card. Pressing OK will change the display to a smaller thumbnail and more information such as shutter speed, aperture, ISO and even a histogram. Playback can be accessed from power off by holding the playback button down. In the menu area, there's a few different editing options such as D-Lighting, an auto quick retouch option and the filter effects. These can't be used on the burst images.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 18 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 6.5Mb.

The Nikon Coolpix S9500 produced images of good quality during the review period. Images are noise free at ISO 125-400, with limited noise and colour desaturation starting to appear at ISO 800. ISO 1600 exhibits quite visible noise, smearing of fine detail and colour desaturation, and the fastest settings of ISO 3200 is even noisier and best avoided altogether.

The Nikon Coolpix S9500 dealt quite well with chromatic aberrations, with purple fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and adequate exposure. The night photograph was poor, with the maximum shutter speed of 4 seconds limiting what you can capture after-dark. Image stabilisation is a feature that works very well when hand-holding the camera in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto end of the zoom range.

Macro performance is fine, allowing you to focus as close as 4cm away from the subject. The images were a little soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpening setting and ideally require further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you can change the in-camera setting if you don't like the default results.

Noise

There are 6 ISO settings available on the Nikon Coolpix S9500. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.

ISO 125 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)
ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)
ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The Nikon Coolpix S9500's 22x zoom lens offers a very versatile focal range, as demonstrated by the examples below.

25mm	550mm

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 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.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

File Quality

The Nikon Coolpix S9500 has 2 different image quality settings available, with Fine 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.

18M Fine (7.33Mb) (100% Crop)	18M Normal (3.68Mb) (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The Nikon Coolpix S9500 handled chromatic aberrations fairly well during the review, with some purple fringing present around the edges of objects in certain high-contrast situations, as shown in the examples below.

Chromatic Aberrations 1 (100% Crop)	Chromatic Aberrations 2 (100% Crop)

Macro

The Nikon Coolpix S9500 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.

Macro	Macro (100% Crop)

Flash

The flash settings on the Nikon Coolpix S9500 are Auto, Auto/Red-eye Reduction, Off, On and Slow Sync./Red-eye Reduction. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

Forced Off - Wide Angle (25mm)	Forced On - Wide Angle (25mm)
Forced Off - Telephoto (550mm)	Forced On - Telephoto (550mm)

And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the On or the Auto/Red-eye Reduction settings caused any significant red-eye.

On	On (100% Crop)
Auto/Red-eye Reduction	Auto/Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The Nikon Coolpix S9500's maximum shutter speed is 4 seconds in the Fireworks scene mode, which is not great news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 1 second at ISO 800.

Night	Night (100% Crop)

Vibration Reduction

Vibration Reduction is Nikon's name for anti-shake, which in the S9500 works via a lens-shift mechanism. To test this, we took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the same settings. The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the second with it turned on. Here are some 100% crops of the images to show the results. As you can see, with anti shake turned on, the images are much sharper than with anti shake turned off.

Shutter Speed / Focal Length	Anti Shake Off (100% Crop)	Anti Shake On (100% Crop)
1/25th / 25mm
1/6th / 550mm

Special Effects

The Nikon Coolpix S9500 offers a number of special effects that you can preview before taking the shot.

Off	Soft
Nostalgic Sepia	High-contrast Monochrome
High Key	Low Key
Selective Color

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Nikon Coolpix S9500 camera, which were all taken using the 18 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample Movie & Video

Product Images

Front of the Nikon Coolpix S9500

Front of the Nikon Coolpix S9500

Front of the Nikon Coolpix S9500 / Pop-up Flash

Side of the Nikon Coolpix S9500

Side of the Nikon Coolpix S9500

Side of the Nikon Coolpix S9500

Side of the Nikon Coolpix S9500

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix S9500

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix S9500 / Image Displayed

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix S9500 / Turned On

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix S9500 / Main Menu

Rear of the Nikon Coolpix S9500 / GPS Menu

Top of the Nikon Coolpix S9500

Bottom of the Nikon Coolpix S9500

Side of the Nikon Coolpix S9500

Side of the Nikon Coolpix S9500

Front of the Nikon Coolpix S9500

Front of the Nikon Coolpix S9500

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The Coolpix S9500 is Nikon's best travel-zoom camera, adding wi-fi connectivity, GPS tracking and a bigger 22x zoom lens when compared to the slightly cheaper S9400 model, all at a competitive price that undercuts its main rivals.

If you want a long zoom and decent image quality in an easy-to-use package, then the S9500 certainly fits the bill. If you want any manual features beyond a smattering of creative effects and the ability to control the likes of white balance and ISO, then look elsewhere. The Nikon Coolpix S9500 gives a slick performance, both in terms of its attractive design and handling, while the 22x, 25-550mm zoom is wide and long enough for most photographic situations that you'll encounter.

The added wi-fi and GPS functionality are nice-to-have features that are good enough to warrant choosing the S9500 over its cheaper S9400 sibling. Leaving the GPS on all the time does negatively affect the battery life, though, while the wi-fi options aren't as comprehensive as on some competitors models. Still, we like both features enough to recommend the S9500, especially at this price-point.

Ultimately the Nikon Coolpix S9500 offers a versatile zoom lens, good image quality and performance, and enough interesting features to be deserving of your consideration, especially if you don't mind the lack of manual control.

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

Main Rivals

Listed below are some of the rivals of the Nikon Coolpix S9500.

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Nikon Coolpix S9500 from around the web.

Specifications

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