Nikon Coolpix S600 10MP Digital Camera with 4x Wide Angle Optical Zoom with Vibration Reduction (Slate Black)

I chose this camera as I wanted a camera that could take good quality shots, was fast to start up, easy to use and small enough to carry around easily.
I think this camera is all of those things. I travel alot and find this nikon great for carrying around in a pocket / bag without taking up any real space.
I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 for two reasons.

1)It doesn't take AA batteries. My last camera did and I found that very useful when it ran out of juice in a foreign country or if I simply didn't have the charger with me. Simple solution though... buy a second battery, which I did relatively cheaply on Amazon.

2) I had the camera only a week or two when during a family wedding the camera had a bit of a melt down. I know these family things can be stressfull but ....
Basically every picture had dark black lines horizontally across the screen for a while and then after a few more photos the colour went funny and it wouldn't even focus.
In saying that, Amazon exchanged it immediately with no questions asked and the new one works fine.

In all, it's a good little camera, I love the "brushed steel" kind of look and I would recommend it with three suggestions.
1) buy a spare battery
2) buy a zip up bag for it (the screen scratches easily)
3) stay clear of family weddings

This handy little pocket camera is wonderful. I compared the pix from this camera with my Nikon D80 with a 28-300 lens. The pix were comparable. Of course, the S600 isn't as fast, but for the money it is a fabulous little camera. I ALWAYS have it in my pocket. Never know when you need a camera. It has the ability - in camera - to zoom in on a pix you have taken and then with the press of a button to crop and save the pix that you have enlarged. So you have both the original pix and the enlarged/cropped pix. Great feature. My only complaint is a small one. I would like it to be easier via the menu to format my memory card. But a small nuisance for an otherwise wonderful product. The screen is fairly viewable in bright light. This can be a problem with many cameras. But when I first looked at this camera, I asked the salesman to come outside with me so I could look at the screen in light. None of them are perfect, but this one was okay. I miss a viewfinder, but very few of the pocket cameras have this. Overall I am thrilled with this little beauty.

Just returned from a second vacation and had the opportunity to test the Scene mode in a variety of situations. Works great, especially the back light and the museum modes. Flash and red eye work great at providing wonderful natural colors. Compact size works great for slipping camera into pocket and taking on the go.

There are so many things that I like about this camera:
-small size. I didn't realize that it's smaller than the Sony W series of which I have owned a few. The Sony's are great, but the NIkon S600 is better if you want the smallest form factor with the best image quality. I also owned the Sony T200 and now I realized that Sony calling it ultra-slim is quite a joke since it really is bigger than the Nikon S cameras.
-Great image quality. I love the quality of the photos this little camera takes. I love vivid colors and I use the vivid settings all the time, and it gives me the right amount of color saturation and contrast to make my pics pop! The sharpness is also excellent.
-Great lens. The wide angle lens in this camera has excellent sharpness, consistently sharp from edge to edge, something you would expect from Nikon.
-Fast startup and autofocus times. I think this is as good as most other cameras, if not better.

There are some minor annoyances. The video, while quite excellent, loses sound a second before the video ends. This was true of the Nikon S510 which I formerly owned. I was hoping Nikon would have fixed it by now. I also wished you can go from viewing images to taking photos by half-pressing the shutter button like in other cameras like Sony and Canon, but no such luck. You have to press the play button to go from view mode to shooting mode.

While other brands give you more options for image parameters especially in the canons, bottom line for me is the excellent image quality and fast startup and autofocus performance of this camera. If you want the smallest form factor with the best image quality, then the Nikon Coolpix S600 is it!

This camera offers great bang for the buck. The shots you can take with it are absolutely fine - my wife is a pro photographer and loves this thing. You can carry it anywhere, take great photos, and then print them up nice and big without losing any quality.

If you are in the market for a relatively inexpensive point and shoot you should definitely add this camera to you list. I highly doubt you will be disappointed.