Nikon Coolpix S9100 review

The Coolpix S8000 marked Nikon’s surprisingly late entry to the compact ultra-zoom market, but it struggled to compete with the more established ranges from Panasonic, Canon and Samsung.

One year and two revisions later, the S9100 is a much more credible contender. It retains the S8000’s elegant, contoured styling and superb 3in, 910,000-pixel screen, but the zoom range has almost doubled to 18x – the biggest ever to be squeezed into a compact-shaped camera.

Another big improvement is the switch from a 14-megapixel CCD sensor to a 12-megapixel back-illuminated CMOS. Excessive noise is a major problem for virtually all ultra-zoom cameras because of their tiny, excessively high-resolution sensors. This one’s slightly lower resolution and back-illuminated design (which uses an innovative sensor layout to increase sensitivity) both bode well for noise levels.

It’s an extremely responsive camera, taking just 1.6 seconds to fire up and capture a photo. We measured an average of 1.5 seconds between shots in normal use, while the continuous mode ran at a lightning-fast 10fps, albeit for just five frames. There’s an alternative continuous mode that goes slower and lasts longer, plus even faster modes up to 120fps at reduced resolutions. It can record slow-motion video clips too, with a range of options to offset capture frame rate against resolution. As we’ve stated many times before, we love a bit of slow-motion video, and this implementation is as good as it gets.

The menus were quick to navigate, with the five-way pad doubling as a wheel for making adjustments. We’d have liked to have seen more immediate access to ISO and white balance settings plus manual exposure options on the mode dial, but the camera is otherwise well populated with useful controls including a spot focus option that can be positioned anywhere in the frame. We also really appreciate the release catch for the pop-up flash, which meant it only fired when we actively requested it.

The video mode hits the spot with 1080p capture in AVC format, complete with fully functional optical zoom and autofocus (the latter is initially fixed while recording but there’s a menu option to enable continuous autofocus). Clips last for up to 29 minutes, with a countdown rather than elapsed time readout so it’s clear how much time is left. Picture and sound quality were both excellent, and lens motor noise barely registered on the soundtrack.

Handheld telephoto videos were quite wobbly, though, with the electronic stabilisation proving no match for the powerful optical stabilisation used for photo capture. The modest 15Mbit/s bit rate resulted in blocky artefacts in fast-moving scenes, but on balance we prefer this to the much higher bit rate used in some Canon cameras, which in turn limits recordings to around 15 minutes.

We stated earlier that back-illuminated sensors are more sensitive than conventional designs, but the reality is a little more complicated. The difference is in the way the sensor’s internal wiring is laid out, which means that more light reaches the individual pixel photosites rather than hitting the wiring and being wasted. However, there’s only so much light that can be measured for each pixel before it reaches saturation. As a result, back-illuminated sensors typically produce significantly less noise than conventional sensors for a given ISO speed, but their minimum ISO speed is usually higher: in this case, 160, whereas 80 or 100 is the norm.

Image stabilisation was effective at high zoom ratios – click to enlarge

What that means in practice is that, when there’s plenty of light, there’s little benefit to this type of sensor. The S9100’s photos taken in bright light at ISO 160 were a little less grainy and more natural-looking than shots taken with the 14-megapixel Panasonic DMC-TZ20, but the difference wasn’t huge. However, when low light or telephoto zoom settings demanded higher sensitivities of ISO 400 and up, the S9100 exhibited a vast improvement over the TZ20 and its ilk. Whereas the TZ20 relied on detail-smearing noise reduction to make these shots appear vaguely presentable, the S9100 retained plenty of detail while maintaining reasonably smooth colours.

The back-illuminated sensor produced far less noise at higher ISO settings than normal – click to enlarge

The Auto mode usually chose a sensible ISO speed for each shot, but it made a few bad calls that resulted in blur-inducing slow shutter speeds. None of the scene modes seemed particularly keen to venture up to ISO 1600, so we sometimes had to set the ISO speed manually for best results. We also found that the autofocus could be a little unreliable when trying to lock onto moving subjects. It’s a common problem for ultra-zoom cameras because focus is more selective at telephoto settings, but here it was more common than usual.

Other aspects of the S9100’s image quality didn’t disappoint. The lens produced impressively sharp details throughout its vast zoom range, except for a slight loss of corner sharpness at medium-to-long focal lengths. With a generous dose of digital sharpening on top of crisp focus and low noise, this camera excelled for detail. Exposures were balanced and the camera coped admirably with different types of light source to produce flattering colours throughout our tests.

It’s not often that we get to write this, but the S9100 comes very close to getting everything right. It’s small enough to carry everywhere, and the huge zoom range and capable video mode make it ideal for holidays. And unlike nearly all its direct competitors, image quality doesn’t fall apart in low light. The same is true of the Canon Ixus 1000 HS, but we’d happily pay a little more for the S9100’s bigger zoom, better screen and longer battery life.