Nikon Coolpix 4300

WHAT'S HOT: The Coolpix 4300 has what many buyers are looking for in a digital camera, namely a small body and (somewhat) sophisticated controls. Sporting a large grip on the right side, it's easy to operate with one hand (especially if you're right-handed). Yet it has exotic (and useful) functions like white-balance bracketing and noise reduction, as well as several other image-manipulation adjustments that you can make before taking a shot (for example, brightness, contrast, and sharpness).

In our lab tests, the 4300 scored the highest of any camera in recent memory. It distinguished red from orange better than most cameras, and all of its shots looked very sharp. Its wide range of apertures (f2.8 to f13.4) makes it very flexible: In a test photo that stressed depth of field, objects in the foreground looked just as sharp as those in the background. The camera focuses easily, quickly, and quietly--and the minimum focus of just 1.6 inches in macro mode means you can take a picture of just about anything.

WHAT'S NOT: Like many cameras, the Coolpix 4300 tries--and fails--to be easy for novices while allowing expert users quick access to advanced features. For example, just to change the resolution, you must press a button to enter the menus, and then press the thumbwheel control buttons at least 12 times. And that's only if you're using the camera's manual mode. If you're in automatic mode, the camera will not allow you to enter the menus at all, so you'll have to turn the dial on top of the camera to exit shooting mode and enter the setup mode, then press four buttons, and then turn the dial again to return to shooting mode.

If you turn the camera on while the lens cap is still in place, the camera will instruct you to remove it, but after you do so, you have to turn the camera off and back on again for it to work.

You can adjust aperture and shutter speed manually, but it's not easy or very useful on this camera. You must hold down one button with your left thumb and then press the thumbwheel on the back while watching the values on the screen. If you forget to push the first button and press the up-thumbwheel button, the settings disappear--you have to press two more times to get them back. While the camera takes advantage of a wide range of apertures in its full-automatic mode, in full-manual you can choose from only two values at a given focal length--for example, either f4.9 or f13.4, nothing in between. (You can, however, choose from several shutter speeds.) The 4300 does not offer aperture- or shutter-priority modes.

The battery lasted for 277 shots in our tests, a little over an hour and a half; that's about 20 percent less run time than the average of cameras we've reviewed.

WHAT ELSE: The battery charger is small, but the cord you have to use with it is 6 feet long, so it's larger than the charger. Like many Nikon digital cameras, the Coolpix 4300 lets you set exposure by choosing from 12 scene modes, including selections like Portrait, Museum, and Sunset. The scenes may help beginners get the correct exposure, but telling the difference between scenes often requires consulting the manual. And sometimes the scenes pick settings we wouldn't if we were in charge: Night Landscape on one shot implemented a 1/30-second shutter speed and f4.9 aperture, while Landscape resulted in a 1/4-second speed and f4.9, rather than the other way around as you might expect.

The camera's Best Shot mode, however, is somewhat useful: After you choose this mode and hold down the shutter release for as many as ten shots, the camera decides which one is sharpest and retains it, discarding the rest.

You can take QuickTime movies without sound; they look sharp and relatively smooth (for 15 frames per second).

UPSHOT: Novices and experts alike may find the Coolpix 4300's menus aggravating, but few cameras of this size take such nice pictures, or offer as many features.