Update: New Responsiveness Tests on the Nikon Coolpix S8000

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Last month, we published our review of the Nikon S8000, the brand's first attempt at a compact digital camera with a 10x zoom.  After we put our review online, Nikon got in touch and asked if we could test another unit because of the problems we found with the responsiveness of the model we tested.  We agreed, and have updated the test, and there's good news for Nikon: the new results have allowed the S8000 to gain an extra star in its final rating.

It took our first S8000 five seconds to power up and get ready to go.  But then we found that it could actually take a photo just one second after you pressed the power button, but the focus was fixed leaving a blurry foreground.  To adjust the settings or use autofocus, you needed to wait the full five seconds.

This wasn't normal, and the second unit, which we have just finished testing in exactly the same conditions, was able to focus correctly before releasing the shutter if you hit the button as soon as you switched it on.

You still can't zoom in or out, though, or adjust any of the settings or advanced features.  For that, you have to wait for it to finish warming up, which can seem quite a long time, especially if you want to zoom in to 300 mm because you've just spotted a wild animal on the other side of the valley you really want to photo.  But the 'snapshot start' is good enough for most everyday situations, and means the S8000 climbs from a score of one star to four in our responsiveness tests, and move up from a three-star to a four-star rating overall.

Of course, we would still have rather have had a camera that was completely operational from the very first second, like the Canon Ixus 130 or plenty of SLRs.  But as long as you don't need to zoom, the S8000 doesn't actually take that long to start up.

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