Nikon COOLPIX S4 Digital Camera (6.4MP, 2816x2112, 10x Opt, 13.5MB Internal Memory, SD Slot)

Nikon Coolpix S4

COOLPIX S4 Digital Camera (6.4MP, 2816x2112, 10x Opt, 13.5MB Internal Memory, SD Slot) Review, by Richard Baguley March 15, 2006

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• Reviewed by: touristguy87

  Strengths: 10x zoom, size, speed, nifty lenscap

  Weaknesses: Very little manual control, not very configurable. The bare minimum.

  Overall: um, this is quite a decent camera, though I have only shot maybe 60 shots from it, from late this afternoon to this evening. The one shot I will post here is just setting it on a post at the Baltimore Inner Harbor and shooting it in normal mode. I want to try the landscape mode and see if the focus is any better. ...this is going to be tough. The camera has all that a shooter "needs". It is like a pencil. You want to draw a line, maybe sharpen it up a little, erase them? Sure, no problem. It'll give you nice, clean black lines, you can erase them with some effort but not much. You want color? Want broad strokes? Get a magic marker. Want a clean slate? Get a new piece of paper.So, why did I buy this camera...after going through an a345, coolpix 4800, a sp-310, sp500 s2, an fz5, a TZ1, and finally, exasperatingly, an a700? Even though this camera lacks so much in terms of features, and has the funky flip lens, and an image sensor that is nothing extraordinary, probably the same 6MP 1/2.5" square-pixel CCD sensor that is in the sp500 and a700?Well, this camera has a little secret. It has a 6.3-63mm F3.5 lens. Combined with a body that is barely bigger than the a700 and a345. Note, that is an F3.5/10x lens, not an F2.8/3.5 10x lens, or F2.8/4.1 10x or 6x, or even worse, an F2.8/5.1 3x lens. Note also that it is not a two-step lens, like the one in the coolpix 4800, so it doesn't suddenly jump from F2.8 to F5.6, say, just because it gets a little brighter. It's linear, at least from what I've seen so far.The problem with almost all the telescoping zoom lens cameras is that they chew up the aperture as the zoom increases, so, at the worst time, under increasing zoom, the camera slows down. That is like your girlfriend gaining weight every day from when you meet until you marry her. After a while she gets to the point where you can only deal with her in daylight when she has clothes on. This camera will happily shoot at F3.5 all the way out to 10x. Which means it shoots faster, in lower light, than any of those other cameras...with a body that is much lighter and smaller. It works with you as the sun goes down, instead of fighting you.So. That is what you get by giving up all those features. And the list of features that you give up is as long as your arm. But it is fast enough, and clean enough (I suspect the noise processing is a little heavy on this camera) to shoot at just about any ISO you want to shoot at, and ISO400 is clean except in incandescent light indoors...and the colors are standard Nikon colors, a little flat but true...unlike the TZ1 and to some extent the a700, the camera is clean and takes good pictures under almost all shooting conditions and. Unlike the TZ1 (which just sucks) and the A700 at ISO400, and the FZ5 under high zoom, or the sp500 in low light, or the cp4800 in anything other than moderate daylight, this camera takes quite decent photos almost all the time. The only thing I would say in terms of the photos is that they seem to have heavy noise-reduction. They're not really sharp at all. Just "ok". And guess what! There are no in camera settings to change this :)...but you have a decent photo-editor, right?It won't even show you the speed, it doesn't even have an option for horizontal & vertical framing lines...it's a butt-simple camera, in terms of options. It's like a Porsche with nothing but the minimum equipment that you need to drive it. At least they let you set the ISO, I'm sure they had a battle about that :)What you have here, folks, is basically a top of the line camera in terms of sheer "craftiness" combined with a bottom-end feature set in a point and shoot frame. If you can deal with that, you'll love this camera. Again I will be posting another photo same as this one but taken in landscape scene mode, to see if it is any sharper. I don't really expect that the auto-focus is all that good, at night, even if the light goes green.

• Reviewed by: tlenzenh

  Strengths: Very good close-up pictures, small size and still 10x optical zoom, can make great shots from different angles due to swivel design

  Weaknesses: weird and awkward to hold, can't hold it properly without touching the screen, no viewfinder except the LCD screen, weak LCD screen, no image stabilizer

  Overall: After my Sony DSC-P10 5mp/3x opt. I was after a camera with more opticla zoom. Bought this camera recently mainly because I was convinced that this is a great design - it is a camera that is small enough to still fit in your larger pocket and still provides 6 MP and 10x optical zoom. I tested the camera for one day in all different scenarios - inside, outside, sunlight, office light, nightshots with and without people, close-ups, etc.What I liked:Due to the swivel lens you can make great pictures from different angles cause you can always move the LCD screen in a position that you can see what you are making a photo of. The close-up pics are just awesome - you can get up to about 3cm close to an object such as a flower or so and the pics are very sharp.The size is really great given the features of the camera.What I didn't like:LCD screen is hard to see in daylight outside.You can't avoid touching the screen if you hold the camera properly. Very bad ergonomical design - hard and weird to hold, zoom buttons and some others not very userfriendly positioned.It is almost impossible to make sharp pictures when you zoom quite a bit cause there is no automatic image stabilizer.Nighttime images are looking not good cause the flash makes a strange light. Also I was not impressed at all with the landscape pics at daylight (which are the majority of pics I do). The old Sony DSC-P10 was much better although it was smaller and had only 3x optical zoom.Most pictures appeared to be more on the dark side for some reason, especially when it was cloudy outside. Tried different settings but still not impressive.Summary:I returned the camera to the dealer after 2 days cause I just really didn't enjoy using this camera.It seemed to be a great idea with the design and to be able packing 10x optical in such a small camera, but after all I got sick of the way I had to hold the camera (you never knew how to hold it cause you either can't see the LCD screen cause you need to hold the camera by touching the screen or you don't see the screen cause of the sunlight).Picture quality was not outstanding and I had expected much more from a camera of that price.I changed my camera to a Sony Cybershot DSCH1 which is unfortunately much bigger and definitely too big for any pocket (except if you are a Kangaroo).But - it is very good to hold with one hand, has the menu and zoom buttons very well positioned on the camera and it makes excellent pics.

• Reviewed by: randreed

  Strengths: Same swivel design as the Coolpix 950. High resolution and very fast!

  Weaknesses: No lens cover.

  Overall: When my Nikon Coolpix 950 finally died I was heartbroken because there was no comparable camera. I really use the swivel feature much more than I ever realized until I had to go without.The Nikon Coolpix S4 has completely renewed my love of digital photography. This camera is the PERFECT solution for those of us hwo need the flexibility this camera offers.I do wish that there was a lens cover like the 950 had, and I also wish that this camera was WiFi compatible for image transfer, but otherwise I love it.I see that several people have complaints about low-light levels, and I don't know what they are talking about. We use this camera in very low-light situations the same way we used the 950 and both cameras perform very well in those situations. If there is NO light there is a problem, but if there are only a few candles in the room it works great.

• Reviewed by: wanning

  Strengths: 10x optical zoom, swivel lens, 6 MP

  Weaknesses: no image stabilisation

  Overall: I love this camera when i saw it. because i have wanted to buy a camera with such a superb zoom. But i still have not bought it. May i ask: 1)Will the lens cover flap here and there when we are taking pictures? 2)Is it that we need to hold the camera still 2 seconds(which is very difficult) for the camera to shoot the image whenever we use the 10x optical zoom?

• Reviewed by: markn32

  Strengths: Swivel design, 10X optical zoom, smaller size, great price, and large LCD screen

  Weaknesses: AA batteries and no view finder

  Overall: After several years of waiting I have finally joined the digital camera revolution. I had been holding out because I wanted a smaller sized camera that had a good optical zoom (more than 4X). Unfortunately, all of the cameras on the market that had a decent zoom were gigantic. Well, not any more! It has arrived! Nikon's brilliant swivel design in its Coolpix S4 Digital Camera couples a powerful 10X optical zoom with a size that is small enough to fit into a pocket (coat pocket, for sure). I can't say enough about this design. I don't think you can find another camera that has 10X optical (and 4X digital) zoom capabilities that can fit into a pocket and all for a little over $300? Ridiculous! And with 6+ megapixels, picture quality is great. Like I've said, I've been waiting for years for the right digital camera to come along and this is it! This design can't be beat. Thank you Nikon engineers! Only cons are: It uses AA batteries. No big deal, just get some rechargeables. Also, some people have complained about no viewfinder. I have had no problems viewing the screen in different lighting. So far, I have been very happy with this camera. Highly recommend!