Nikon has a new camera coming out called the "Coolpix S1," and it seems to be an interesting move for the company. I thought Nikon was all about professional SLR cameras and all that good stuff, and now they come out with this consumer level o­ne with a 19.7mm body? I certainly didn't expect something like this; it is interesting to see the company try new things out.

Nikon will release the "COOLPIX S1," a thin-style compact digital camera with 2.5" LCD monitor o­n April 15th. It is Open Price. Estimates put it at around 45,000 yen. Three color variations will be available: Metal Silver, Dolce Black and Cream White.

This design-conscious compact digital camera uses a 19.7mm thick aluminum body with optical zoom lens.  It has a 1/2.5 CCD with an effective 5.1MP resolution, and the lens has a focus distance of 35 ~ 105mm (35mm conversion) and 3x optical zoom. The recording media is SD memory card.

"Face Recognition AF," "Advanced Red Eye Reduction Function," and "D-Lighting" (a better name for the "Face Clear Function") are o­n the camera. "Face Recognition AF" is the same function as o­n the COOLPIX 7900/7600/5900 as announced in February, and this function will automatically recognize faces amd focus accordingly. Based o­n "FaceIt" organism recognition technology developed by Identix of the USA, the technology is designed to prevent situations where the camera would automatically focus o­n the background instead of the faces of the subjects.

"Advanced Red Eye Reduction Function," as its name implies, reduces red eye in pictures with use of the camera's flash and internal image processing. "D-Lighting" is the same correction functionality as was loaded o­n the COOLPIX 8800/8400. This function will correct lighting anomolies created by reflected light, strobe flashes, or parts of the picture that are dark from insufficient lighting.

Recording resolutions are 2592 x 1944, 2048 x 1536, 1024 x 768, and 640 x 480 pixels. The camera also supports the recording of video, and this can be at a maximum of 640 x 480 with 15 frames per second.

Power is supplied by the "EN-EL8" lithium ion battery. The size of the unit is 89.9 x 19.7 x 57.5mm (W x D x H), and the weight of the camera is 118g.

Inspired by:
http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/compact/2005/03/16/1191.html

Press Release:
http://www.nikon.co.jp/main/jpn/whatsnew/2005/s1_05.htm