Nikon Coolpix S4 - the good and the bad
A few years ago I purchased my first Digital camera, Olympus C-2040 Zoom. Although the camera is only a 2.1 megapixel camera with 3x optical - it takes beautiful pictures and provides many features that allow you to control your shots. The biggest draw back to the camera is the media it uses - SmartMedia.
If you're new to digital devices, you probably don't even know what SmartMedia is. It originally was developed by Toshiba to replace floppy drives in 1995 (that didn't seem to happen) but was then picked up for use in digital cameras especially by Olymus and Fuji until they dropped it for SD and then later xD. Not only is the IO slow (no controller on the chip), but the maximum size you can get a SmartMedia card in is 128MB. What does all this mean - the wait time from one picture to the next is brutal.
So as I prepared to replace my slow but worthy camera, I made a list of what features I wanted to improve on:
- zoom: so many times 3x zoom just didn't get me close enough to take a decent shot; I decided to go for a digital camera with 10x or greater optical zoom (never pay attention to the digital zoom on a camera, you never want to use it)
- image stabilization: I like to shoot in low light, which requires a steady hand or tripod or both
- speed: fast startup (the Olympus takes a while before it is ready for you to take the first shot) and relatively quick shot to shot times
- media: SD or xD support
- LCD viewfinder: I wanted to make sure the LCD was at least 2.5" or bigger and bright
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Here are some features that my Olympus had that I should have paid more attention to:
- electronic viewfinder: there are times that the LCD washes out when shooting outdoors
- file formats: besides JPG the Olympus shot TIFF, and other cameras offer RAW
- manual controls: ability to drive the camera through aperature, shutter or ISO priority
- lcd viewfinder: how well can you see the viewfinder in the sunlight
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
After reading and researching many different models I was leaning towards the Sony Cybershot DSC-H2, a 6 megapixel 12x optical camera with Sony's Super SteadyShot® optical image stabilization system. My one big concern with this camera was the reviews always pointing out that they found high noise levels when shooting in low light.
In fact, I found in general from the reviews that no matter which Ultra-Zoom camera I chose there would be compromises to be made. I just wanted to be sure that I could live with them.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
How I wound up buying a Nikon Coolpix S4:
I becmae aware of this model because a friend of mine at work has one. He liked it very much and is quite the camera guy. The camera is a 6 megapixel 10x optical camera with a 2.5" lcd and very cool swivel design. It is also able to shoot video and though it's not a video camera replacement the results for such a small compact camera are impressive. Additionally, the camera was very fast (I should have done more testing against cameras in its class, since everything compared to my Olympus would seem fast).
Another friend at work has a Nikon compact digital camera that I helped her pick out and it is a very good performer and takes beautiful pictures (plus since in the 80's when I owned a Nikon F2 SLR until hard times forced me to sell it - I've been biased towards all things Nikon)
One night browsing across ebay I found a Coolpix S4 that was factory refurbished with a 1 year warranty - cost including shipping $170. I made an immediate decision and hit the buy now button. All my research and lists and looking and weighing done in by the little buy now button.
Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of things about this camera that I absolutely love. But the camera does come with a few downsides (which I'll explain below). What suprises me about this purchase is that I had a list of must haves that I didn't keep to, in addition to the fact that in previous purchasing or recommending situaltions I always went to a camera store and held the different models and talked to the experts. (note: if you want to talk to experts about cameras don't go to Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. go to Sammy's Camera or actual local camera shops. Besides giving you good advice some of them will try and be competitively priced with the Internet or provide better value in your purchase).
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Features that are missing from the Coolpix:
- image stabilization: I like the way this camera handles low light, but often I can't hold the camera still enough to keep it from shaking. The camera does have a feature where it informs you (image of a little red hand in the viewfinder) that the settings will require a tripod, and it will tell you that you're image is blurred once you've snapped the picture giving you an immediate option to review and choose to discard. Image stabilization really should have been a must have feature, not only for use with ultra-zoom cameras but for anyone who wants to shoot in low light without flash.
- electronic viewfinder: the last couple of days my wife and I have been in Death Valley mostly driving through and just being blown away by the beauty, strangeness, extremes that this National Park has to offer. The Nikon does not have an electronic viewfinder and when outside in the sun (thank God it's December and not July - temperatures ranged from 34 to 64) I couldn't see a thing on the LCD screen. It was like: I think that's where she is, click.
- manual controls: the Nikon provides a lot of different scene modes to assist you in finding the best settings for each shot. However, I find that some of those modes force flash or some other setting that I wouldn't choose myself.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Bottomline:
It is absolutely amazing how much camera you can get today for under $200. I am very happy with this camera and have been very impressed with the pictures I've been able to take even when I'm not too sure what I'm doing. I have run into some situations that have caused me to have to deal with the shortcomings of the camera - but expecting one camera to do everything well is a little naive. The next question to be answered: do I continue to look at the ultra-zoom compact cameras or should I really be moving up to digital slr for what I'm trying to do?
If you're new to digital devices, you probably don't even know what SmartMedia is. It originally was developed by Toshiba to replace floppy drives in 1995 (that didn't seem to happen) but was then picked up for use in digital cameras especially by Olymus and Fuji until they dropped it for SD and then later xD. Not only is the IO slow (no controller on the chip), but the maximum size you can get a SmartMedia card in is 128MB. What does all this mean - the wait time from one picture to the next is brutal.
So as I prepared to replace my slow but worthy camera, I made a list of what features I wanted to improve on:
- zoom: so many times 3x zoom just didn't get me close enough to take a decent shot; I decided to go for a digital camera with 10x or greater optical zoom (never pay attention to the digital zoom on a camera, you never want to use it)
- image stabilization: I like to shoot in low light, which requires a steady hand or tripod or both
- speed: fast startup (the Olympus takes a while before it is ready for you to take the first shot) and relatively quick shot to shot times
- media: SD or xD support
- LCD viewfinder: I wanted to make sure the LCD was at least 2.5" or bigger and bright
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Here are some features that my Olympus had that I should have paid more attention to:
- electronic viewfinder: there are times that the LCD washes out when shooting outdoors
- file formats: besides JPG the Olympus shot TIFF, and other cameras offer RAW
- manual controls: ability to drive the camera through aperature, shutter or ISO priority
- lcd viewfinder: how well can you see the viewfinder in the sunlight
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
After reading and researching many different models I was leaning towards the Sony Cybershot DSC-H2, a 6 megapixel 12x optical camera with Sony's Super SteadyShot® optical image stabilization system. My one big concern with this camera was the reviews always pointing out that they found high noise levels when shooting in low light.
In fact, I found in general from the reviews that no matter which Ultra-Zoom camera I chose there would be compromises to be made. I just wanted to be sure that I could live with them.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
How I wound up buying a Nikon Coolpix S4:
I becmae aware of this model because a friend of mine at work has one. He liked it very much and is quite the camera guy. The camera is a 6 megapixel 10x optical camera with a 2.5" lcd and very cool swivel design. It is also able to shoot video and though it's not a video camera replacement the results for such a small compact camera are impressive. Additionally, the camera was very fast (I should have done more testing against cameras in its class, since everything compared to my Olympus would seem fast).
Another friend at work has a Nikon compact digital camera that I helped her pick out and it is a very good performer and takes beautiful pictures (plus since in the 80's when I owned a Nikon F2 SLR until hard times forced me to sell it - I've been biased towards all things Nikon)
One night browsing across ebay I found a Coolpix S4 that was factory refurbished with a 1 year warranty - cost including shipping $170. I made an immediate decision and hit the buy now button. All my research and lists and looking and weighing done in by the little buy now button.
Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of things about this camera that I absolutely love. But the camera does come with a few downsides (which I'll explain below). What suprises me about this purchase is that I had a list of must haves that I didn't keep to, in addition to the fact that in previous purchasing or recommending situaltions I always went to a camera store and held the different models and talked to the experts. (note: if you want to talk to experts about cameras don't go to Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. go to Sammy's Camera or actual local camera shops. Besides giving you good advice some of them will try and be competitively priced with the Internet or provide better value in your purchase).
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Features that are missing from the Coolpix:
- image stabilization: I like the way this camera handles low light, but often I can't hold the camera still enough to keep it from shaking. The camera does have a feature where it informs you (image of a little red hand in the viewfinder) that the settings will require a tripod, and it will tell you that you're image is blurred once you've snapped the picture giving you an immediate option to review and choose to discard. Image stabilization really should have been a must have feature, not only for use with ultra-zoom cameras but for anyone who wants to shoot in low light without flash.
- electronic viewfinder: the last couple of days my wife and I have been in Death Valley mostly driving through and just being blown away by the beauty, strangeness, extremes that this National Park has to offer. The Nikon does not have an electronic viewfinder and when outside in the sun (thank God it's December and not July - temperatures ranged from 34 to 64) I couldn't see a thing on the LCD screen. It was like: I think that's where she is, click.
- manual controls: the Nikon provides a lot of different scene modes to assist you in finding the best settings for each shot. However, I find that some of those modes force flash or some other setting that I wouldn't choose myself.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Bottomline:
It is absolutely amazing how much camera you can get today for under $200. I am very happy with this camera and have been very impressed with the pictures I've been able to take even when I'm not too sure what I'm doing. I have run into some situations that have caused me to have to deal with the shortcomings of the camera - but expecting one camera to do everything well is a little naive. The next question to be answered: do I continue to look at the ultra-zoom compact cameras or should I really be moving up to digital slr for what I'm trying to do?
posted by D.R. Eisenbarth at 4:20 AM
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