Review on Nikon COOLPIX S6500 Wi-Fi Digital Camera with 12x Zoom in Red by April Smith

Good value for money with a very small handy compact camera Compared to other Sony cameras, the WX-350 has some notable advantages : very small and light and very good battery life. That should be enough for many, but otherwise the WX-350 is just average. In terms of shooting performance, the Fuji F850 and Panasonic ZS-15 are noticeably faster, while the similarly sized Nikon S6500 is slow. As is so often the case with small digital cameras, the lenses are not particularly fast. Sony starts at f/3.5 and closes to f/6.5 at full zoom. The ZS-15 ranges from f/3.3 to f5.9, Nikon from f/3.1-6.5 and Fuji from f/3.5-5.3. First and foremost as a camera, the Fuji is my choice, especially when shooting in M mode or 8MP mode, which allows the EXR processor to do its job. For video, however, the battery life is not enough for field use in cold weather, as is the case with the Nikon S6500. Fuji also has the most visible and pleasing LCD, Panasonic has the weakest, which is the only thing I could consider to be some sort of shortcoming of the ZS-15. However, the Panasonic focuses faster than the WX-350, works better in low light (neither of these cameras are good in this regard) and the Panasonic has a full set of PASM controls to work with. While Panasonic's battery life isn't great for video (260 CIPA rating for stills), with the LCD dimmed to the max and using larger (1200mAh vs. 895mAh OEM) secondary batteries, I was able to express over an hour and fifteen minutes of video recordings from it in between changing batteries. While the WX-350 offers lightness, small size and very impressive battery life, the rest of the camera is wonderfully adequate, not good enough to beat the Fuji F850EXR as a 20x travel zoom, but not good enough to match the older Panasonic to beat. 16x ZS-15 in terms of high speed shooting, video or general photo quality. What about Nikon COOLPIX S6500? Well, for the money (about $100 at the time of writing) it's a great value. It's very small, easy to use and sells for around half the similar Sony WX-350 form factor with more zoom and an upgraded LCD. While the recording performance isn't lightning fast, the battery life is good enough for stills but not video. Thanks to good optical stabilization and a very useful 12x zoom, this is the type of camera you can take anywhere without the bulk and weight. It's by no means a class leader, but it doesn't have top-notch prices either. For a dollar in a handy little camera, this is a pretty neat and fun little camera. Copyright 2014 Randy Wakeman. All rights reserved.