Design
While it may be the lowest entry into Nikon's compact range for 2009, the S220 certainly doesn't look it. Unlike low-end cameras from other brands (we're thinking of the Canon PowerShot A480 here), the S220 exudes a particular sophistication that is from either great design work or a complete denial of its asking price and specifications.
The S220 from the back. We promise it looks sexier than this in real life. (Credit: Nikon)
Our review unit was silver, though the camera does come in a strange looking queasy green, magenta, blue and purple. To give you an idea of just how small it is, grab your nearest business card. It's just a smidgen smaller on either side, and weighs 100g without a battery and memory card. Svelte is the keyword here, with the lens unit hardly protruding at all when folded back into the body, plus the smooth buttons at the back just nudging out of the surface. The layout is nothing new from what is standard on other Nikon cameras, with most controls being fairly easy to understand on first glance.
Features
There's nothing too out of the ordinary on the S220, a standard 10-megapixel sensor, image stabilisation (though it is electronic, not mechanical), and a 3x optical zoom. There's a 2.5-inch LCD screen as well, though it won't be winning many fans over with its relatively low resolution. It uses SD cards and a rechargeable, slim Li-ion battery which Nikon quotes as being able to take 180 shots on a full charge.
The camera is able to achieve a maximum ISO of 2000, though as is usual, we don't see why on a compact with such a tiny sensor. The S220 also has a staggering amount of scene modes — 16 at last count.
Performance and image quality
The S220 took just under two seconds to start and in general use was quite speedy in terms of shutter lag and shot-to-shot time. In continuous mode the camera managed around 1.5 shots per second.
As for the colours, they're rather punchy and vivid indeed, more over-saturated than is perhaps necessary. At full magnification pictures were decidedly soft, except around areas that were selected to be in focus. The sensor also lost an amount of detail in shadowed areas. Noise over ISO 800 was definitely prominent and you would struggle to get a printable shot at anything over a standard 4x6 here.
Lens quality obviously wasn't high up on Nikon's priority list when they were designing this camera, as it exhibited a fair amount of distortion at both ends of the zoom spectrum, and several other optical issues in usage. There's an in-built distortion control setting, which you can see in action below, but we would have much preferred to see higher quality glass rather than in-camera settings to reduce it.
With distortion control off (left) and on (right), you can see the camera struggles with barrel distortion without the in-camera setting. (Credit: CBSi)
One major gripe we had was with the rather lacklustre screen, which exhibited light flaring and at times struggled to keep up with the action as its refresh rate was relatively low. On a camera of this price, even though it is technically the bottom of the Coolpix range, we would have appreciated a slightly higher resolution screen.
Conclusion
The sub-AU$300 compact camera space is filled with the 3x zoom, 10-megapixel crowd. All the specifications start to look the same, so every camera in this price point needs something unique to set it apart — in the case of the S220 it's the incredibly small size and good looks. Unfortunately, the images it produces aren't without problems as we've mentioned above, so take this into consideration before handing over your cash.
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