Jul 19, 2004 05:34 PM
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(Updated Jul 19, 2004 05:38 PM)
Intro
Though, I would call myself a photography enthusiast, purchasing a digital camera was never in my horizon, considering the price tag. Surprisingly, I got a Nikon Coolpix 4300 digital camera as wedding gift and needless to say, I was excited. Thanks to her two sisters who are settled in US.
The Numbers
4 Mega Pixels, 3x Optical zoom, 4x Digital Zoom, built in flash, 1.5 inch color LCD display, optical view finder, 16 MB compact flash memory storage, Rechargeable lithium ion battery with charger, USB cable, video cable
Target users
This camera boasts of a plenty of features and hence appeals for a wide range of users. Are you a novice and you wanna use the digicam for taking point-and-shoot pictures. Well, there is the AUTOMATIC mode, in which all settings are fully controlled by the digicam. Are you a seasoned photographer and know about the nuances of digicams. Well, there is the MANUAL mode, in which all the available options are thrown open to you. And if you consider yourself to be between a novice and an expert, there is a SCENE mode, which provides 12 preset scene modes which includes portrait, closeup, landscape and others. In addition to this, there is a MOVIE mode in which silent movies upto 30 seconds can be recorded.
Beauty and the brain
It's got a smoothly contoured all plastic body and with its 4 MegaPixels, it provides stunningly clear pictures. I've heard people tell that it isn't flat enough to fit into your pocket. But for the features it provides, I guess it's OK. 3X optical zoom lets you to zoom free without any reduction in the picture quality. That's a terrific feature. The cam also comes with a 4X digital zoom. But, it is safe to ignore it because digital zoom is a simple technique of blowing up a picture digitally which results in loss of picture resolution. It comes with both an optical view finder and a LCD monitor for composing images. Although the LCD monitor provides more accurate framing than the view finder, it significantly reduces the battery life.
Addiction factor
I would like to mention about two factors that makes the digicam an addiction. First, is the rechargeable Lithium ion battery and the recharger. Find that your battery is drained off, put it in the recharger, plug it in the mains and leave it for an hour. It's ready for use again. If that was not enough, there is also a 8 V DC input socket. Second feature is the memory card. The digicam comes with a 16 MB memory card and I additionally got a 128 MB card. You could store upto 90 pictures in BASIC format with a 16 MB card. Once it is full, transfer the pictures to your computer and format the card. The card is again ready for use. Both these features put together makes your digicam usable over and over again.
It comes with a USB cable for transferring the pictures to your computer. Just connect this cord to your computer and hit the TRANSFER button. All the pictures are transferred to your computer in a jiffy. Additionally, it also comes with a video cable. Using this, you can connect the cam to your TV set and instantly view the pictures in your TV screen. Recorded movies also can be viewed like this. Isn't this feature cool.
For the experts
Now, let's get on to more serious stuff. The following configurable features are available in the MANUAL mode. This stuff is more for the advanced users. I had to do quite a bit of reading for this. Trouble here is that most of these features are almost hidden and would required a thorough reading of the user manual.
Exposure compensation adjustment - Brightens or darkens the image within a scale of -2 to +2. Varying this internally modifies aperture and shutter speed.
Metering modes- offers 4 modes (256-Segment Matrix, Center-Weighted, Spot, and Spot AF Area)
Aperture - controls the amount of light that gets into it.
Shutter Speed - can be varied from 1/1000th of a second to 8 seconds.
Macro mode - Can take close-up shots starting from 1.6 inches.
White Balance adjustment - offers five preset modes, an auto mode and a custom setting.
Focus mode - Infinity (for long range shots), Macro (for close ups), Automatic (camera decides for you)
Flash modes - offers 5 modes (Auto, Red Eye reduction, Anytime flash, flash cancel and slow sync modes)
Best shot selector mode
Image quality - Fine, Basic and Normal, in the decreasing order of quality
Folders - Lets you create folders, rename them, delete them
Auto off - Automatically shuts down the camera after a period of inactivity
Date - Set the internal clock
Language - Choose the language menu
Conclusion
I could go on and on about the features of this digicam. It's automatic mode and SCENE mode lets even a novice take excellent pictures which otherwise would have been very challenging. At the same time, the hidden high-end featues provides the much required flexibility for advanced users. Are you still wondering what my verdict. Go for it. Grab it. Highly recommended.
