By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
At a friend's recent birthday party, which took place in a darkly lit dance club/bar, we decided to take photos of the event and of all the guests as a gift for the celebrant.
We thought long and hard about bringing a digital SLR and decided that even Nikon's diminutive D40 would be a bit clunky to maneuver in tight spaces. The thing is, we only needed snapshots but we wanted them to look good - we've been testing the Nikon CoolPix S210 for some time, liked its size and decided to give it a chance. We weren't disappointed.
More after the break.
In situations like indoor parties in busy locations, the last thing you want to be doing is fiddling with a camera while you miss out on all the action. A good point and shoot that can figure our the conditions, grab the best photos and not produce too many duds is ideal. It is even better if the said camera has built in stabilization, which the Coolpix S210 has as well.
We chose the party setting on the camera, enabled the VR image stabilization and had face recognition enabled. The best thing about this palm sized camera is that it is easy enough to use that you can pass it to anyone and just tell them to point and shoot and the camera does everything else. It isn't the fastest camera though, with one to two seconds time between shots depending on the image size.
Slim Achiever
The CoolPix S210 is an 8 megapixel point and shoot that is one of Nikon's smallest and lightest. In your pocket, it feels like it is barely there. Controls are reasonably easy and while it lacks a viewfinder, the bright 2.5 inch LCD more than compensates for this.
Slim and small, the S210 is a bit tricky to hold if you have large hands. Do use the included strap to make sure the camera is secure when it slips from your fingers. The small size, smooth Aluminium body and rounded edges make it a bit tricky to hold.
Still, its small size is less intrusive and less "official" looking than a DSLR which could just scare away people since who wouldn't mind posing for a snapshot from a smaller camera.
For the party situation, we decided to use flash after our experience of having messy blurred shots. Between a small camera that's held unsteady, low light and moving subjects its difficult to ensure you get a clear picture.
With the S210's party mode setting, the flash helped freeze the subject's movement and even better! Zero red eye! The movement and feel of the party was well captured and in the end, the celebrant was happy to have the photos to remember the event.
Conclusion
The Nikon S210 performed pretty flawlessly for a point and shoot. Response time could have been a lot faster but, for the S210's price ($149 at Aden Camera Downtown ) We liked the end results and the ease of use.
There were a few blurred shots but we credit that to photographer error and misfiring the camera in a dark, crowded room full of dancing people.