Nikon Coolpix S600

Opinion: Great for an all around point and shoot coolpix. I find it easy to use, and the size is perfect to just slip into a pocket. The zoom is great if your looking at taking pictures of things close up. i'm into nature stuff, so some closeups are great.

Opinion: A great camera, except...

Purchased (new) in July 2008, this camera lasted all of one month before a focusing mechanism failure. It's been sitting on a "parts hold" at Nikon USA service for one full month. Meanwhile, the camera, now superceded by the S610, is being closed out at Best Buy for less than $150. I wonder why??

Opinion: Compact form factor, easy-to-understand and -navigate menus. Exceptionally crisp images in good lighting. In poor lighting, digital noise is what you would expect for a small CCD chip crammed with 10 Mpixels. However, ultra-high ISO values are quite reasonable for a camera of this size. Memory write time is pretty quick, even at the highest quality image mode. Metering is exceptional, even in high-contrast settings. Exposure compensation, flash, macro modes are easily accessed via a "quick-menu" option. A 4X optical zoom is better than most; IS is excellent, and allows a good exposure in almost any lighting situation, especially when combined with automatic ISO adjustment.

Opinion: Looks great, feels great but image quality is not so great. Almost everything I took in auto mode had a minimum ISO of 400 so noise was always a problem. Having no histogram or post-shot ISO indication was a pain - I never knew what ISO the camera was choosing until I looked at the exif info. The face detection system worked well though and can recognise multiple faces in one shot with ease. There was a strange pinky/blue tinge to ALL my pix. I never found out what this was and have had to subsequently return the camera because of it. There is very little user control in most settings. Even in 'manual' mode, all you control is some ISO settings (not all), exposure compensation and white balance. The camera seemed to like using higher ISO settings even on bright sunny day - these looked fine on the display but when you look at them back home, they are noisy and sometimes stangely coloured!
The display was prone to streaking badly in certain light conditions and on sunny days, was barely bright enough(even with the brightness boost on) to see clearly. It was also very prone to fingerprints.
Dont even get me started on the D-Lighting. Nikon, have added just a single setting to this and it's so over the top that it will make you squrm. Just a touch of this effect would be enough, but the guys cranked it up to 11.

I wasn't expecting the quality of my D80 but I expected better from Nikon.
Still, way better than a Fuji F100FD though (which I also own)!!

Opinion: Looks great, feels great but image quality is not so great. Almost everything I took in auto mode had a minimum ISO of 400 so noise was always a problem. Having no histogram or post-shot ISO indication was a pain - I never knew what ISO the camera was choosing until I looked at the exif info. The face detection system worked well though and can recognise multiple faces in one shot with ease. There was a strange pinky/blue tinge to ALL my pix. I never found out what this was and have had to subsequently return the camera because of it. There is very little user control in most settings. Even in 'manual' mode, all you control is some ISO settings (not all), exposure compensation and white balance. The camera seemed to like using higher ISO settings even on bright sunny day - these looked fine on the display but when you look at them back home, they are noisy and sometimes stangely coloured!
The display was prone to streaking badly in certain light conditions and on sunny days, was barely bright enough(even with the brightness boost on) to see clearly. It was also very prone to fingerprints.
I wasn't expecting the quality of my D80 but I expected better from Nikon.
Still, way better than a Fuji F100FD though!!

Opinion: This in an outstanding camera. It is fast (there are faster cameras but this is more than adequate), accurate, and produces excellent images under difficult lighting situations. The lens is sharp with well controlled distortions. The metering is spot on accurate. The battery has plenty of power for a full day of shooting (you should always carry a spare just in case). Like most sub-compacts this little guy lack a viewfinder. The screen can be brightened up and I had no problems shooting on sunny days. Nikon removed some post-processing features from the camera that I miss. The red-eye correction tool is gone as well as the ability to convert an image to black-and-white. Black-and-white pictures must be shot that way. The high iso noise levels are simply amazing. This little guy at 1600 iso blows away the competition. I would like more control over image size and compression. I wish Nikon hadn't removed the "Panoramic assist" mode from the scene menu.
http://photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=839912

Opinion: huge screen. fast zoom, fast startup. Takes great video. Image stabilization is subtle and effective. Face recognition doesn't work on profiles, but is a neat feature for front facing subjects and the first time i've seen this feature. It is not active by default. Overall, a pretty fast camera. gorgeous gunmetal finish.

Opinion: Ok I pretty much agree with the other reviewer on this one. This is a very feature
packed nice size compact digital from Nikon and I am a huge Nikon SLR fan. But
they still got a lot of work ahead of them when it comes to a good all around point
and shoot and every point and shoot is lacking in some area or another. This one is
lacking in a lot of areas, but has some decent areas as well. A quick overview: Lets
start with the good!

Pros:
Nice size screen great compact camera
Good quality
Feature packed easy menu system and easy to navigate
Decent ISO use from 100-400 good
Outside pictures are good to excellent!
Very quick start up time.

Cons:
LCD is horrid in low light, shows too much grain and outside not that good in
direct sun light.
ISO above 400 useless way too much grain: Fuju F30-F31 hard to beat
Time between shots which is more important is not that good at all, this is more
important to me verses start up time. Takes too much time to process the image.
Movie mode on this camera is useless, my 4 year old Casio Z750 did a much better
job and was quicker much quicker at process photos between shots.
Speaker playback is hard to hear...
Returning it tomorrow... :(

Opinion: First I purchased the Ricoh R7, very poor picture quality.... Then I purchased this camera... Quite honestly, I am very disappointed with this as well. The images are just not crisp, perhaps I just expect too much from a compact camera. However, my mom has a clunky old Kodak easy share, and those shots are better... Go figure!!!