Nikon Coolpix S60 review (white)

The S60's performs adequately, but lags in its class. It takes 0.6 second to focus and shoot in bright conditions and 1 second in dim light. Shot-to-shot time falls slightly below average at 2 seconds, but turning on the flash added only 0.2 second to the wait. In burst mode, it captured 1.3 frames per second, which isn't great, but I was able to get some impressive action shots all things considered. The only real downer is its 2.4-second time from power on to first shot.

Photo quality is mixed. The photos can be good to very good in well-lit conditions. On one hand, it exhibits accurate color and exposure. In outdoor shots, colors are very good and natural. Indoors, as with many cameras, the auto white balance produces overly warm results; I recommend either using the camera's manual white balance or the appropriate preset.

However, the lens isn't very good. In addition to overall soft photos, there's quite a bit of pincushion distortion, making the distortion control setting pretty much mandatory (though it's not the default). And while noise is acceptable and fairly typical for its class up to and including ISO 200, at ISO 400 it looks like Nikon simply throws a strong blur across the photo and it gets progressively worse from there. Video quality was typical of its class: 30fps VGA good for Web use, but not much else, and you can't zoom while shooting.

There's no denying the Nikon Coolpix S60 is a hot camera design. It would be great if the touch-screen interface was a little snappier in areas and a physical zoom rocker or at least moving the onscreen one higher on the display would be welcomed. Finicky snapshooters will definitely find menu navigation frustrating and the photos not up to par with its price; if you fall into that category, look at our list of best compact cameras for better options. But if you're itching for a stylish pocket/purse camera for casual use, the S60 is just that.

Shooting speed (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Time to first shot

Typical shot-to-shot time (flash)

Typical shot-to-shot time

Shutter lag (dim)

Shutter lag (typical)

Canon PowerShot SD880 IS

1.2 

3.2 

1.9 

0.8 

0.4 

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700

1.7 

2.4 

1.8 

0.9 

0.4 

Kodak EasyShare M1033

1.7 

2.4 

1.7 

0.9 

0.4 

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T300

1.9 

2.2 

1.7 

1 

0.5 

Nikon CoolPix S60

2.4 

2.2 

2 

1 

0.6