RIP: Nikon Coolpix S50

This is my old camera, you know, the the agoraphobic one that eventually died on me. I liked this camera, I really did. I liked it so much that even though this is the second Coolpix S50 that crapped out on me in less than a year (the first lasting a mere month before it died), I still think it's a good camera. Not good enough to buy again ... though, I'm not going to lie, I almost did (the Coolpix S52- since the S50 is now discontinued). I probably would have except, even new, it still rattled inside when you shook it.

I liked the design. It's small, slim, black, minimalistic, and a little bit retro looking. Even though it has 3x optical zoom, it doesn't have that telescoping lens in the middle- kind of reminded me of my very first camera. Too bad it the casing literally started to fall apart.



Speaking of design, the buttons were perfect. Even though it comes packed with features, the controls are simple, uncluttered (vs. my new Cyber-shot which has millions of little icons all over it), self explanatory, and very user friendly. I was able to use it right out of the box without having to read the manual, and without having to futz around with it to figure out the basics. I also liked how I could delete pics. with just a push of a button instead of having to go through menu, than delete, than choose the pics I want to delete, etc.

The big D-pad in the middle is a wheel and in playback mode, I could spin it and the thumbnail pics would show up and I could scroll through those to find the one I want- that was handy and nice.
My favorite feature was the 3" viewing screen- .5" bigger than most. The images showed up crystal clear and that extra .5" made a big difference.

So yeah, great design, horrible execution.