Yes I will admit that carrying around a big DSLR camera is a bit of a drag sometimes, and there are other times I really don't want to take my camera to a certain environment, say the beach. For all the 'other' times I want a camera, which is almost all the time, I picked up a small Nikon Coolpix S600.
Why a Coolpix? Well I'm a Nikon fan, duh, but my interest in photography started with my original Coolpix 2100. I could take some pretty decent shots with that.
After using a DSLR for a while you do become a bit of a picture snob, that is you look at shots from a point & shoot and start to pick out the small little issues, i.e. quality, clarity, etc. But you soon get over that and realize that the smaller cameras can take some good shots. Scott Beale played around with the Fuji FinePix and discovered the same thing.
However I wanted to get as good a point and shoot as I could, while still keeping the form-factor small. The S600 has a glass Nikkor lens and uses the same VR technology that many of the high-end Nikon lenses use. The sensor is 10.0 MP and can shoot as high has 3200 ISO. Toting around the S600 for the past few weeks has shown me that the camera can take some great shots in the right situations.
Ultimately it's about knowing the camera's limitations. One of which is speed, as in a fast shutter. Using a DSLR like the D300 for too long you expect things to be fast, and there isn't really a fast point-and-shoot on the market. Trying to take 'action' shots of my son never quite works out. Shooting still-life, landscapes and a variety of other stable subjects works great. Here are a selection of shots from the S600 this past weekend.
If you look at the large version of this photo, the sharpness of the whiskers on my face is amazing, although somewhat disturbing on another level :-)
Shooting at night it's always good to have a stable platform. Yes a tripod can be overkill for a point-and-shoot, but what else can you prop the camera on? For this shot I just set the camera on a sign. Not bad.
The Macro function is easy to use, but I haven't tested it too much, the same goes for the high ISO. I'll play a bit more and post a follow-up.
So far I've been very happy with the Coolpix S600. I planed to turn it over to my wife so she could always have a camera, but I don't want to give it up. I might need to buy another.
