One of the most compact and attractive Nikon cameras around, the new S500 pulls off the trick of being lightweight yet impressively sturdy.

With a smaller surface area than a credit card and slimmer than a match box, the S500 is fashioned from stainless steel with the odd plastic button and compartment cover.

Cute looks aside, there’s more on offer beneath the casing than its standard seven-megapixel resolution, 2.5in screen and 3x optical zoom (35-105mm in 35mm film terms) combination would suggest.

This includes Vibration Reduction (VR) to prevent in part the blurring effect of wobbly hands – a feature more commonly found on its Digital SLR lenses, plus light sensitivity up to ISO2000, which, if not quite the best in its class for low light snaps (see Fuji’s F31fd) then comes reassuringly close.

The Nikon Coolpix S500 is also swift in operation, powering up for the first shot in just under a second, the lens barrel typically extending from storage flush with the body to its maximum wide angle setting.

Once it’s locked focus with a half press of the shutter button – a tad sluggish at an additional second – there’s no noticeable delay when the button’s fully depressed to take the shot. Top quality seven-megapixel Jpeg images are committed to memory in less than two seconds.

While there’s no mode wheel atop the camera, a press of the dedicated button at the rear brings up a bright, clear iPod-like virtual dial on the screen that contains the main shooting options. These include video and voice recording alongside fully auto stills, that aforementioned high ISO option, and 15 pre-optimised scene modes for a variety of common subjects and conditions.

With only the ability to manually adjust white balance, light sensitivity and focus area, the S500 is pretty much point-and-shoot all the way. If we’ve a moan it’s that the lever for operating the zoom could be larger and there’s an audible buzz as it ratchets through its range. Inevitably, there’s no removable SD card included – just a so-so 26MB capacity to fall back on.

Reviewing the S500’s pictures on a computer, daylight images reveal a nice even handling of exposure, slightly cool yet naturalistic colours, and the level of sharpness you’d expect from a budget compact – meaning that it can be improved in the image- editing software of your choice, but otherwise won’t disappoint.

Though pixel fringing is again in evidence – a line of differently coloured pixels between areas of high contrast – this is not uncommon and the S500 handles it better than most. However, some of our shots of blue skies took on a distinctly purplish hue.

Very possibly Nikon’s most attractive compact snapshot so far, there’s little to criticise here save for the fact that focusing could be even swifter and it’s around £50 dearer than those with similar key features.

Vista compatible: N/A