Nikon Coolpix S225 review

This ultra-compact is available exclusively from Jessops, although it’s only the silver finish that separates this model from the Coolpix S220, which comes in a choice of five other colours.

Weighing just 100g, it’s one of the tiniest cameras we’ve ever seen, although Casio’s S12 is even slimmer. The aluminium shell looks smart, but the 2.5in screen’s meagre 150,000-dot resolution and pasty colour reproduction are disappointing.

With just seven photographic options in the menu, it’s easy and quick to navigate. The Mode button accesses a clutch of scene presets, with pride of place going to smile-detection. As usual, it won’t recognise gentle smiles but is quite happy to capture terrifyingly toothy grimaces. Still, there’s at least a few minutes’ fun to be had here.

Performance is on the slow side, taking three seconds to switch on and shoot, and 3.3 seconds between subsequent shots. That won’t bother most people too much, but those who like to capture three or four shots of a subject and pick the best one later will find it frustrating.

With its 3x zoom range and no optical image stabilisation, this camera doesn’t have the highest aspirations for image quality. The 10-megapixel sensor captured a fair amount of detail in our outdoor tests, but subtle textures were indistinct and focus trailed off towards the edges of the frame. Wide-angle shots and telephoto shots suffered from radial distortion. A Distortion Control option in the menu digitally corrected this, but added another second to the time between quick-fire shots. The camera picked sensible settings in dim lighting, but this sensor isn’t cut out for high ISO shooting, producing grubby pictures with smeared details. Flash-lit shots often suffered from the same problems.

If camera size is paramount, this is a reasonable low-cost option, but Panasonic’s LS85 costs less and takes pictures quicker with better results.