Over the past couple of years, Nikon has been amping up the style of its Coolpix point-and-shoot cameras to compete with the likes of Canon and Sony for consumers who buy just as much for looks as for performance. The 5-ounce Nikon Coolpix S51c fits squarely in that category, with a sleek silver-and-chrome faceplate that immediately catches the eye.

The front of that $280 camera is slightly thicker on the right side, where a built-in Wi-Fi radio is housed. The back is devoted nearly entirely to the 3-inch, antireflective, liquid-crystal display screen, which makes quite a statement, though it might not be one many will like. Despite a relatively bright luminance, there’s no painless way to quickly adjust the display in sun and other glaring light. Instead, you have to dig through a cumbersome menu on the screen, fighting the glare as you do. And while navigating the controls on many cameras is relatively simple, that Nikon gives

you only a cramped, half-inch area to the right of the screen to work the buttons.

Bungled Buttons

On the upper right, a tiny zoom control rocks left and right. Below that are two small buttons to adjust picture mode and playback. A thumb dial lets you adjust flash, exposure compensation, and the self-timer. Finally, there are minuscule menu and delete buttons.

The knock on that design is no petty gripe. With the S51c, you’ll need to use assorted combinations of these buttons and the setup menu whether you’re doing anything beyond simple point-and-shoot photography, whether it’s adjusting scenes or turning on the red-eye fix. that is one case where a touch-sensitive screen that removes the buttons altogether might serve Nikon well.

The tiny-button phenomenon continues on top of the camera. On the left are two, one for detecting up to five faces in a frame and…

Orginal post by Top Tech News