Nikon S10 Performance

Overall somewhat slow speed for a consumer camera.

The Nikon Coolpix S10's performance ranged from average to somewhat slow, depending on the task at hand. Start-up time is reasonable considering the long lens, but not fast. Shutter lag at wide angle and telephoto settings is fair, at telephoto zoom it's on the slow side of average, but "prefocus" times (half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before the final exposure) are better, with a shutter delay of only 0.075 second. Shot-to-shot cycle times are quite slow, at about 3.12 seconds for large/fine JPEGs, and the camera captures frames continuously at this rate. Times are a little better for the lowest resolution setting, at 1.94 seconds. Continuous-mode speed is on the slower side, at a bit over one frame/second, though the camera seems to capture frames continuously at this rate for as long as the memory has space. The flash recycles at about 3.5 seconds after a full-power shot, however. Connected to a computer, download speeds are fast, so you won't feel a need for a separate card reader. Bottom line, the Coolpix S10 is a bit sluggish overall, and most likely not quite up to the challenge for capturing action shots, but should handle most average conditions fairly well.

Battery
Modest battery life with the included LiIon rechargeable battery.

The Nikon Coolpix S10 uses a custom rechargeable LiIon battery for power, and a charger is included with the camera. Because battery life is only fair, I strongly recommend picking up a spare battery and keeping it freshly charged and on-hand for extended outings.

The table above shows the number of shots the camera is capable of (on a fully-charged rechargeable battery), based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))

Storage
The Coolpix S10 accepts SD/MMC memory cards, though no card is included; 16MB RAM is built into the camera.

We strongly recommend buying a large capacity SD/MMC memory card at least a 512MB card, preferably a 1 or 2GB one, to give yourself extra space for extended outings. (Check the shopping link above, cards are really cheap these days, so no reason to skimp.)