Nikon Coolpix S · on sale February 2012 · a retrospective

The Nikon Coolpix S3300: the $140 slim compact with a 6x zoom and a noisy sensor

Sold under one name, the Coolpix S3300, in the sources we read.

In 2012 Nikon gave its cheapest slim S-series camera a 16-megapixel sensor and a 6x stabilised zoom for about $140. Reviewers liked how small and easy it was, and split on whether the pictures were good enough.

Compiled from reviews by PhotographyBLOG and ePHOTOzine and Imaging Resource's launch overview · we have not tested a unit yet · no third full review could be read

Release date and launch price: launched February 2012; launch price about $140 · £99.99 to £129.99³²¹.

Meet the camera

It is a very thin pocket camera: PhotographyBLOG's specification list gives about 95 by 58 by 19.5 millimetres and 128 grams with battery and card, and it also lists a 2.7-inch screen, no viewfinder and a lens that retracts flush into the body.¹ ePHOTOzine called the body extremely compact and metal, with little grip beyond a dotted thumb rest, and thought the screen bright and clear in varying light.² PhotographyBLOG saw it slightly differently: a metal front, a plastic back and a plastic tripod socket, mostly polycarbonate to keep the weight down.¹

Prices differ by source and market. ePHOTOzine gave £99.99 at the February 2012 announcement,² PhotographyBLOG listed £129.99 or $139.99 as the introductory price and a street price of £85 by its December review,¹ and Imaging Resource put it at around US$140 with US sales starting in February 2012.³ The colour list also varies: PhotographyBLOG named eight (aqua, pink, purple, gold, red, black, silver and blue) while ePHOTOzine named seven, with green but without aqua and gold.¹²

Why this one was interesting

A longer lens and a stabiliser for the same money

ePHOTOzine's headline calls it an update to the S3100 now featuring a 6x lens and a 16-megapixel sensor, yet its opening paragraph says it replaced the S3200. PhotographyBLOG's review roundup shows the same split: it summarises ePHOTOzine as S3200, and digitalcamerainfo as a replacement for the S3100 at $140. We could not settle which is right.²¹ The same roundup summarises DigitalVersus as calling it basically the same thing as the S3100, with image stabilisation the main new feature.¹ Our own Coolpix S3000 retrospective covers the 2010 version of this idea: a 12-megapixel sensor and a 4x lens starting at 27 millimetres, for about $150.⁴

HD video that could zoom

ePHOTOzine noted that the 720p video allowed the optical zoom to be used while recording, and that the rear of the camera has a dedicated record button.² PhotographyBLOG's spec list gives Motion-JPEG files at about 30 frames per second, with a 33-second, 129 MB sample clip.¹

Smile and portrait tools

Both reviews list the Smart Portrait system, with smile timer, blink warning and skin softening, and ePHOTOzine added red-eye fix, 18 scene modes and a 99-point autofocus with subject tracking.¹² Imaging Resource counted 19 scene modes, so the number depends on who counts.³

Ten years earlier the pocket Nikon of the day was our Coolpix 2500, a 2-megapixel camera with a swivelling body from February 2002.⁴

What was lost

It is not a camera to learn photography on; PhotographyBLOG's conclusion says it is not the camera to learn the art on, with only a few effects and overrides, and the navigation buttons double as flash, timer, exposure compensation and macro controls.¹ The menu is deliberately simple, with three tabs and no quick menu.¹ There is no viewfinder, which Imaging Resource called out together with a screen it called a little smaller than average.³

The dark: its weak point

Both full reviews pointed at noise, and they started counting from slightly different places. PhotographyBLOG saw little to separate ISO 80 from ISO 100 (it said the camera barely needs ISO 80), then salt-and-pepper noise in dark areas and faint blue blotching at ISO 200, a yellow tint in the midtones and weakening edges at ISO 400, and problems that worsened through ISO 800 to 1600, where it called the pictures "bitty".¹ At ISO 3200 the camera cuts resolution to 5 megapixels (ePHOTOzine said 4); PhotographyBLOG said colour noise disappears, but suspected the noise reduction had drained the colour.¹ ePHOTOzine was harsher: poor noise performance from ISO 400 upwards, and image quality it called poor at ISO 200 and above (its test text, though, found no noise at ISO 80 and 100 and only a little at 200), though it thought the camera fine if the pictures only go on social networks.²

Night shots were not a strength either. PhotographyBLOG found the night scene mode chose an ISO too high for a tripod shot, and street-light colour casts confused auto white balance in both automatic and night modes.¹ We found no free photographs on Wikimedia Commons with the ISO recorded in their EXIF data, so this page has no low-light strip; the sample photos below are daylight pictures.

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The little wins

How it drew the picture

PhotographyBLOG scored image quality 3.5 out of 5 on 16-megapixel Fine files of about 6 MB.¹ It found good results at ISO 80 and 100 and in bright light, noticeable barrel distortion at wide angle and sharpness good enough that sharpening in software helped only slightly.¹ ePHOTOzine disagreed on the top line and called image quality poor at ISO 200 and above.² Imaging Resource, which we could read only as a launch overview, called the 16 megapixels plenty even for larger prints without naming sizes.³ The photographs below come from a small group of Commons contributors, so they show subject and light more than the range of the camera.

Photos taken with this camera, from Wikimedia Commons, credited under each picture.

Where it let you down

Both reviewers found the button symbols hard to read in the dark: ePHOTOzine said they are engraved rather than printed in a contrasting colour, and PhotographyBLOG noted the lack of contrast on the back icons.²¹ Continuous shooting is slow: PhotographyBLOG shot 9 frames in 10 seconds and then waited up to 23 seconds for the buffer to clear, and ePHOTOzine measured 1.2 frames per second and 2.8 seconds shot to shot, or 4.6 with flash.¹² PhotographyBLOG found some play in the lens, though not much, plus motion blur and purple banding on the screen in bright light, red-eye that the reduction mode helped only slightly (ePHOTOzine found its flash portraits free of red-eye), and paint rubbed off the shutter button against a bag zip.¹ Battery life was rated at 210 shots; ePHOTOzine got well beyond that on one charge.²

What the reviewers said in 2012

The timeline

• 31 January 2012Imaging Resource posts the overview.³
• 15 February 2012The date Imaging Resource's specification table lists as available.³
• 15 May 2012ePHOTOzine publishes its review.²
• 7 December 2012PhotographyBLOG publishes its review.¹

Should you buy one now?

Buy one if you want a very thin, simple CCD compact with a 6x zoom, you will mostly shoot in daylight at ISO 80 or 100 and you are happy to share small. It launched at about $140;³ what it sells for now is a question for the sold listings, not for us. Before you bid, check these:

• The battery. It uses an EN-EL19, rated for about 210 shots when new;¹³ a fresh one is on Amazon ↗.
• The card. It takes SD, SDHC and SDXC cards;¹ see our memory card guide.
• The lens. Check that it extends and retracts cleanly, and that the lens has no more than the slight play PhotographyBLOG found.¹
• The buttons and shutter. Reviewers found the markings hard to read in the dark, and PhotographyBLOG scratched the paint off the shutter button in its test.¹
• The settings. Keep ISO at 80 or 100 where you can.¹²

If you are wondering why cameras like this are being hunted down again, we tell that story once, in Pictures that never left the card.

See recent sold prices on eBay ↗Shop on eBay ↗EN-EL19 battery ↗

Sources

1. PhotographyBLOG, Nikon Coolpix S3300 review by Mark Goldstein (7 Dec 2012), including its specification list, image quality tests and review roundup
2. ePHOTOzine, Nikon Coolpix S3300 Digital Compact Camera Review by Daniel Bell (15 May 2012)
3. Imaging Resource, Nikon S3300 overview and specifications (posted 31 Jan 2012; no lab review on the page)
4. Digicam Atlas, our own Nikon Coolpix S3000 and Coolpix 2500 retrospectives (their data files cite DPReview, Imaging Resource and others)

Photographs are credited under each one, all via Wikimedia Commons. Links to eBay and Amazon are affiliate links.