Labs

A good portion of the rear of Nikon's Coolpix S1 is occupied by a 21/2" LCD screen. This is bright, detailed and great for framing pictures in all but the brightest conditions. The large screen leaves little room for buttons, so they're very small, but also poorly labelled. The compact 3x zoom lens is on one corner of the front panel, but the body ensures fingers don't stray into view.

Images are recorded by the 5.1-megapixel CCD at a maximum resolution of 2,592x1,944, which is fine for A4 prints. Nikon's auto-focus and exposure system works well, but it's sluggish in low light. It evaluated most scenes correctly, but there is no spot or centre balance option. Exposure and white balance can be adjusted manually. Although small, the lens feeds a decent image to the CCD, producing crisp photos. The S1 uses a cradle to recharge its battery and connect to a PC or your TV. This is neat, but we would prefer to be given the option to use a single cable for transferring images.

Although it's not that easy or comfortable to use, the S1 produces some of the best photos we've seen from an ultra-compact camera. It's just a shame Nikon gave it such a challenging body.