The Nikon Coolpix S9 as a pocket camera

I have been a Nikon camera user since 1970, but a year or two ago I gave up on Nikon for small pocket cameras. Sony seemed to be leading the way, and I bought one of their cameras. Pocket cameras take a lot of wear and tear. I thought I had prepared myself for that by buying what the Circuit City salesperson told me was a warranty that covered any problems for three years. We had previously had good luck with Circuit City and their extended warranties. Unfortunately as you can read in my "Why Circuit City is exactly what I don't need," post, the warranty turned out to be worthless.

I went to Best Buy with a coupon, and though the Sony pocket cameras were even better than the one that died on me, I opted for the Nikon S9 mainly because it was less expensive and could used SD memory cards that I already had. The newest Sony models required new batteries and new memory cards.

So far I have been pleased with the camera. There are a couple of features that I really like though one of them can be annoying. That feature is the "picture is blurred, do you really want to save it?" message. It works great except in low light situations. I think the Sony controls are a little easier to use, the S9 has the advantage of not needing a proprietary docking station. You could remove the memory cards from the Sonys but I usually used the docking station.

I know camera companies want to advance the state of the technology, but most of us would like to be able to use our memory and batteries if our camera dies.

One of the really interesting things is that the software that comes with the NIkon. It is heads and shoulders above previous versions. It even includes software from ArcSoft called Panorama Maker. The software works on both Mac and Windows platforms, but I believe works a little better on the Windows side.

You can check out a large panoramic picture I did at this link. I also did a Quicktime VR shot and used the same images and Windows version of Panorama Maker to create a Flash based panorama. I actually think the Windows version is a little better. I haven't been able to find a free Quicktime VR editor so I am stuck with the results.

The camera also comes with Nikon's PictureProject version1.7. I am still an iPhoto user but PictureProject seems to have most of the tools someone would need for personal photography.

We will see how the S9 survive the harsh environment of my pocket.