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Nikon COOLPIX S4 Digital Camera (6.4MP, 2816x2112, 10x Opt, 13.5MB Internal Memory, SD Slot - MPN: 25533)
Description: The Nikon Coolpix S4 gives you 6.0 effective megapixels for stunning prints up to 16 x 20 inches. The high quality 10x optical zoom Nikkor glass lens lets you zoom in and capture incredibly sharp, clear images plus a 4x digital zoom for a t.... Read More Description: The Nikon Coolpix S4 gives you 6.0 effective megapixels for stunning prints up to 16 x 20 inches. The high quality 10x optical zoom Nikkor glass lens lets you zoom in and capture incredibly sharp, clear images plus a 4x digital zoom for a total zoom of 40x. The incredible, bright 2.5 inch LCD makes composing pictures and sharing them with your friends and family much easier. Versatile, swivel design is excellent for capturing those low angle and above-the-head pictures. Nikon's Exclusive Feature System turns pictures into photographs. Featuring: In-Camera Red-Eye Fix to remove red-eye in the camera, Face Priority AF to automatically focus on faces for great portraits, and D-Lighting for in camera repair of dark images. 16 Scene Modes for great Portraits, Panoramas, Landscapes, etc., 4 of the Scene Modes come with Scene Assist to guide you in taking better pictures, automatically. Adjustable GUI (Graphic User Interface) with Help Button allows you to choose between the traditional menu item view or the all new icon view. Press the help (?) button and it will instantly display an explanation for all main menu functions on the LCD. Minimize |
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| Date Reviewed: 10/26/2005 |
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Strengths: Swivel design, 10x optical zoom, great image quality, 2.5-inch LCD display, AA batteries, almost instant camera startup, Best Shot Selector
Weaknesses: No image stabilization for still pictures, only average (for compact point & shoot cameras) low-light performance, and LCD can be difficult to see from some angles in bright sunlight
Summary: 2005-11-09 17:25:20 This camera truly is one-of-a-kind. There is no other 10x zoom swivel camera sold today that can fit in a jacket pocket. (It's not compact enough, however, to fit comfortably in most shirt pockets.)
The swivel design allows you to take pictures from angles that are just not possible or very difficult for non-swivel cameras...you can position the camera above people's heads and are still able to compose your shot through the LCD, as well as take pictures at waist or ground level without having to crouch or lie on the ground, respectively.
The 10x optical zoom gets you closer to your subject than any other compact point & shoot camera. You won't want to go back to the typical 3x zoom once you've used this.
Combine the 2 qualities above with the camera's excellent image quality (most pictures are clear and sharp but not over-sharpened) and you can get some incredible pictures with this camera. (Note: I make this statement about the image quality as compared to other point & shoot cameras, not any of the prosumer or DSLR cameras.)
The biggest negative about this camera is the lack of image stabilization/vibration reduction. Because of this, you'll need to find a way to hold the camera very still when you are using the highest levels of the optical zoom. Nikon tries to get around this problem with the Best Shot Selector feature, which takes multiple pictures almost simultaneously and chooses the clearest one; in bright light this works well, but in low light it doesn't help much, because the feature forces the flash to stay off.
For me, the positives far outweigh the few negatives for this camera and after looking at several other point & shoot compact cameras in the $220 to $350 price range with at least 5 megapixels, I couldn't find any other camera I wanted to keep anywhere as much as I wanted to keep this one.
Even though it has a few weaknesses, I gave this 5 stars because of all the strengths and because you won't find another camera at this size and price that can do what this camera does.
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| Date Reviewed: 11/06/2005 |
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Strengths: You can do with it all what u think you can do with it.
Weaknesses: it is not able to land on the moon...!,seriously..i can't get a good night shot with 10X zoom.
Summary: Everything is great, the auto mode is great, and the camera's mind of it's own is able to do things in good way, u don't have to think about so manythings to work out a good picture,
The scenes are more than great, i have a young daughter,she moves all time suddenly,i do the Macro mode to shoot her,fast shutter time, and inredible result with 10X zoom that you always get it focused,with very beautiful Quality,and it works in very poor light and able to focus using this little red lamp.
Other scenes are just superb,You simply love holding it, it doesn't feel bad holding it...you gonna love holding it and feel confidence of it in your hands.
the only problem i had is that i wasnt able at all to have a good night shot with 10X zoom,as i have to hold still the camera for about two seconds.
But the pictures at night are awesome, and you gonna love them.
Nikon...thank you
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| Date Reviewed: 07/20/2006 |
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Strengths: 10x zoom, size, speed, nifty lenscap
Weaknesses: Very little manual control, not very configurable. The bare minimum.
Summary: 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.
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| Date Reviewed: 11/01/2005 |
- spray
from IA
- Member Since:
Jun 2005
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Strengths: 10x opt. zoom; the lens is 270 degree adjustable
Weaknesses: not very easy to hold
Summary: I bought this nikon S4 because of its 10x optial zoom and special design of the lens. The speed of operation with the camera is quite good; it starts quickly, is very responsive, and doesn't lag between shots (I hate the lag of nikon 4100). I used the camera both indoors and outdoors, and I'm pretty satisfied with the picture quality.
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| Date Reviewed: 11/06/2005 |
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Strengths: x10 zoom in your pocket! Great pictures!
Weaknesses: NA
Summary: Obviously this is not a camera "for the ladies." This camera is like a James Bond wet dream. X10 high quality zoom in your pocket. Amazing pictures. Even though its 400 ISO is nice and sensitive, and with low noise, some clueless consumers expect to take x10 zoom pictures at night with no flash in the dark!
This camera gives you that x10 zoom which allows you to take THE picture you want. Obviously this amount of power comes with issues...don't expect a x10 zoom to behave like a x3 zoom. For example, at x10 the image may shake, but with a little light the picture usually still comes out super sharp. That is because the camera in essence uses the 1/200th of a second (or whatever) fast "strobe" to freeze the action. Maybe IS would have been better, but since there is simply no alternative in today's offerings, this is it.
I love this camera. In low light it produces some great low light sensitive pictures. Macros are to die for. Pictures are full of color. This camera should not be called an S as it has nothing to do with S1, S2, or S3 Nikons. Its name should be Nikon Pocket X10 Spy camera.
Get a tight fitting camera case for it, put it on your belt and you will have a goes anywhere 7 ounce x10 zoom in your pocket!
Look at the huge piece of glass Nikon put on it for you! The quality of some of its pictures is just amazing!
90% of People (35/39) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 10/30/2005 |
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Strengths: swivel feature, 10X zoom
Weaknesses: low light capabilities; hunger for battery power
Summary: Although my wife and I had a reflex film Nikon camera before this one, we realized that we only needed a good compact superzoom automatic camera. That's why I chose the S4. So far we are happy with it. In the low light inside Galleria Borghese, I took lots of forbidden pictures by avoiding the use of the flash, and instead using the museum auto setting, placing the camera on some hard surface, swiveling the lens to get the shot I wanted, and pressing the button.
89% of People (16/18) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 10/17/2005 |
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Strengths: Large LCD, long battery life, good pictures, good zoom, etc.
Weaknesses: Small sensor size as all other digital cameras. I wish it had more wide angle not like all other digital cameras.
Summary: I have used Coolpix S1 before and this is better camera than S1.
Yes it's bigger than S1, but the 10x Optical zoom and more features. I also like D lighting feature from Camera too. The swirvel design makes good when I took a pictures with my wife. (I love this swirvel design.) I can make any angle shots and still can see my big LCD screen.
Overall, I think it's another good camera by Nikon.
87% of People (27/31) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 11/27/2005 |
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Strengths: Swivel design, 10X optical zoom, smaller size, great price, and large LCD screen
Weaknesses: AA batteries and no view finder
Summary: 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!
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| Date Reviewed: 12/08/2005 |
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Strengths: Same swivel design as the Coolpix 950.
High resolution and very fast!
Weaknesses: No lens cover.
Summary: 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.
81% of People (13/16) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 11/23/2005 |
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Strengths: Fast startup, incredible color quality, 10X optical zoom is awesome!
Weaknesses: NO image stabilization, forget long night shots with zoom
Summary: Best buy in it's class. Flexability of swival zoom allows shots you wouldn't normally get. Auto mode handles almost everything. Fast startup and operation. Did have a problem with freezing during long zoom night shots; had to power camera off and on to restart. Still, a great camera and I would purchase again in a minute.
75% of People (6/8) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 11/15/2005 |
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Strengths: 1-best zoom of any compact
2-user friendly menus are idiot proof
3-easily overide user controls for expert manual taken shots
4-doubles as a pretty fair camcorder
5-battery life is very good
Weaknesses: monitor is very large and functions fantasticly indoors. outdoor shots though require planning and a little shade to frame the shot. sunlight washing out the lcd screen is common with compact cameras
Summary: The best thing about it, is u don't have to think alot of manual controls,you want a fast shutter u chose a mode with fast shutter,you want a slow one,check mode with slow one,great camera quality,and simply worth the money and better than most of it's category
add a 2gig memory card{2500 pics or a 1hrs video} to the camera is advisable, camera only has 16mb {24pics}internal memory.
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| Date Reviewed: 11/06/2005 |
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Strengths: Everything u want to do away from playing with manual controls
Weaknesses: no manual controls
Summary: The best thing about it, is u don't have to think alot of manual controls,you want a fast shutter u chose a mode with fast shutter,you want a slow one,check mode with slow one,great camera quality,and simply worth the money and better than most of it's category.
75% of People (6/8) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 10/13/2005 |
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Strengths: The Quick Start Guide was very vsefule for a first time digital camera user.
The operating instructions were easy to understand.
Weaknesses: None that I can find so far.
Summary: The camera is every thing that the PriceGraber wrightup said it was. After purchasing this camera, I've had two people order one also. I have one persone at work, who just purchased another brand, tell me that he wishes he had purchased the Coolpix S4. The 6 PIX, with a 10X zoom glass lens is more than most camera have, at a much higher cost. This camera is an excelient deal.
70% of People (14/20) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 12/19/2005 |
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 Love it or hate it 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
Summary: 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.
64% of People (9/14) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 10/26/2005 |
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 I am a Nikon Fan, BUT... Strengths: Quick Start up time. Sleek.
Weaknesses: SLOOOOW. Big LCD is Horrible Quality. Auto in camera Red Eye fix does not work. 10x Zoom is good IF you have 100% perfect light, otherwise it is useless.
Summary: I have been a long time Nikon Shooter. I currently shoot with the D100 which I would not trade for anything. I purchased this camera as a gift for my brother-in-law. I figured, 'It's a Nikon.'. Wrong. Worst quality Digital Camera I have ever used. I sent it right back. I am going to purchase the Canon SD-500 instead.
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