Nikon COOLPIX S50c review

Full of features, but a touch slow for our liking

The Nikon S50c is a bit of a design conundrum, as it actually looks like two different cameras depending on which way it’s facing. From the front, it looks very much like a traditional COOLPIX, slightly understated, but to be frank, a bit boring. On the reverse lies its alter ego – a funky 3-inch screen, a unique thumbwheel and some rather nice chrome detailing. It’s a bit like Spider-Man on the back and Peter Parker on the front.

The build quality is a typical Nikon high-quality offering, but as a camera that’ll see more pockets than Steve Davis, we’re a bit worried that the high gloss painted plastics may start to look a bit tired with extended use. The camera does feel very compact and is in fact one of the slimmest on test.

Turn on the Nikon and it’s a bit like trying to get your 15-year-old son up for school – you get the feeling that it really just can’t be bothered. Apart from the Kodak, it was the slowest on test to get ready. In real-world use, that can mean the difference between capturing your mates on the jet ski, or having a nice picture of some empty water – we can only hope that they’re on a pedalo, as then you might be in with a chance. Nikon, it really is just not quick enough given the price point!

The S50c did intrigue us as we unpacked it from its box due to the word printed neatly on one of its chrome side cheeks: ‘WiFi’. Now we’re not talking about an all-in-one camera that’s also a web surfing pocket PC, we’re talking about a system that allows you to take your pictures and then upload them wirelessly to Nikon Connect. From here, you can either have automatic notification to friends or family that you have new pictures available, or you can email them to yourself as a backup. So no more lost holiday snaps, right? Well not exactly. The idea is a good one, but unless you have free wi-fi access when you’re away on holiday, it’s probably one of these brilliant features that, in reality, exist before their time.

It would be fair to say that the whole handling experience of the S50c is a bit of a chore. It’s the lethargic way the camera goes about things that’s a bit frustrating and we suspect that packing in all that specification has its price and, in this case, it is speed.

The Nikon redeems itself somewhat in the image-quality department. When you start to capture your photographs, you realise that the images are up there with the top cameras in this test. A slight negative here though is that it does display a degree of barrel distortion that’s more noticeable than on some of the others. However, it was really only visible at the widest angles. The built-in lens Vibration Reduction (VR) works perfectly and again you have no excuses for images that are less than pin sharp.

The S50c does have its strengths and offers a feature list that would get Bill Gates foaming at the mouth. But we wonder if Nikon has maybe done too much cramming in of specification, as the slow operation hinders this otherwise excellent camera.