Focus, click, blow up

These days, tools for sharing photos and videos are increasingly being seen in digital cameras. Now Nikon's packed a projector in their latest addition to the Coolpix lineup, the S1000pj.

Features
The S1000pj sports a compact design and weighs just 155 gm. It has a 12.1 MP sensor and a 5x zoom lens. At 28 mm, the lens is wide for capturing landscapes but the aperture (F 3.9) is relatively small.

The projector window is at the centre of the face. There's a switch on top to shift into projection, and a slider to adjust the focus. The zoom lever encircling the shutter release button is at the right end next to the power button.

The rear panel has a 2.7-inch LCD and a control panel at the bottom with a 5-way d-pad and buttons for menu, delete, playback and scene selection.

Modes
There are 16 preset scenes and an auto scene selection mode. White balance, ISO sensitivity, colour options and focusing are set to auto by default, but you're free to experiment.

The S1000pj captures videos at VGA resolution (640 x 480) but doesn't allow optical zoom while shooting. Images can be enhanced using inbuilt functions such as Quick Retouch, D-lighting and Skin Softening.

Performance
During daytime, the camera excels in outdoor performance. The preset scenes work really well and the macro performance is excellent —you can go as close as 3 cm to the subject.

The indoor performance is also good, but we faced the problem of oversaturated colours. In terms of noise, results are decent up to ISO 200 but noise starts creeping in after ISO 400.

Projection
Now the most interesting bit — the inbuilt 10 lumen projector. Its throw distance ranges from 26 cm to 2 m. You get a crisp 5-inch display at 26 cm and a massive 40-inch screen at 2 m. At a throw distance of 1.3 m, we found the 25-inch display ideal. At 2 m, the brightness wasn't satisfactory, but the display on the 40-inch screen looked awesome.

Verdict
The Nikon S1000pj is good but not excellent. Its USP is the inbuilt projector for which it commands ₹28,950. The massive 40-inch projection looks cool but the camera's image quality isn't great.

We were unhappy with the 640 x 480 pixel video resolution and the lack of optical zoom while recording. Had the camera excelled in picture quality and the video resolution been at least 720p, we'd have given it a perfect 10. http://tech2.in.com/go/108782 .

What we like
Useful preset scenes
Good projection quality
IR remote control

What we don't
Over-exposed shots in bright sunlight
Slightly over-saturated colours
VGA videos.