Customer Reviews

Nikon Coolpix 4600 4MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

Everything about this camera is great, the picture quality is excellent, it's small, it's not too heavy, that is until you start taking pictures with the flash, it's a catastrophe. If you take a picture with a flash it will take about 2-3 seconds to write to the memory card, then the screen will turn off while the flash recharges for another 5-8 seconds. Too many people here glossed over that particular fact and it's really a deal breaker, because for the same price you can buy a Canon elph, one of their S series cameras like the SD200 and the picture quality is better, it uses rechargable batteries not AA's and it doesn't have this ridiculous flash lag. The flash lag on this nikon 4600 is totally unacceptable, if you add up the numbers you're looking at 7-11 seconds per picture, and if you choose not to use the flash then you won't have a usable picture, because the picture won't come out dark it will come out blurry, which makes no sense but that's what happens. This camera was a gift and I feel bad i gave it to someone, my regular camera is a Kodak DX7440 and it shoots pictures instantaneously with no flash lag it costs about 50 dollars more.

The color, size, and weight are wonderful, but the camera takes a horrible 3-5 seconds to write a picture to the memory card (in where the display turns off and then back on). In addition, the preset modes (night, backlight, indoor, party, ect) are hard to use and I find I must take test pictures using every mode to discover which works the best in the lighting situation. Also, the camera has a HORRIBLE shutter lag of 3-4 seconds, causing even the most steady-handed person to blurr pictures. My suggestion is save your money and buy a Canon or Kodak.

I researched cameras and found fairly good reviews for this one, but I soon discovered that I would have been better off with my old 1 MP Kodak. The flash is weak and I have to lighten nearly all indoor photos. As others have mentioned, this camera has a long recycle time between photos and you do miss a lot of photos. I also have a problem with the quality of the photos; a lot of them are slightly blurry and I have to use my photo editing software to sharpen them. Everyone once in a while, the camera seems to decide that it's had enough and just stops. I have to move the dial to a different setting and then back to the regular setting so that it will work again. I wish I had spent my money on something else.

This is my first digital camera after many years of analog photography. I learned to take pictures on a Bolsey B2. This was a 35 mm that was fully manual. The camera may deserve 5 stars, but I do not have a frame of reference to do this. I do not value real small cameras, but I accept that I cannot fight the popular market demands.
I found it very easy to get started taking pictures. I am working my way through the manual. The manual is really brief, but complete and understandable. While there is an automatic mode, one can get best performance by selecting shooting situations from menus. While I have purchased, and plan to use rechargeable batteries, I appreciated the fact that the disposable alkalines held up while I went through my early learning phases.
The software that came with the camera offered some brightness and color control in addition to more basic editing features. It is easy to work with. Again, I lack the experience to be critical.
I realize that experienced digital enthusiasts may want to skip this review, but I hope to encourage other novices to give this camera very serious consideration. The literature is very clear and easy to follow (if you have good eyesight or a magnifier).

I did quite a bit of research before buying this camera, and I am still disappointed. The lag time is too long for the price paid. Also, after owning the camera only about 3 months, I begin getting lens errors. They persistantly increased and then I began having picture quality problems. The camera is basically worthless now, and it is not even a year old.

I bought one of these cameras for a friend of mine as a gift. I bought it only after doing a lot of research and reading a lot of interviews and the reviews were all just stellar. No one mentioned any drawbacks! Well the buyer needs to know a few things about this camera.

First of all, I will say that it can take good pictures and it is of a very handy size (maybe even too small). But there is one very big draw back to this camera: it takes a very, very long time to take a picture. Now I'm not just talking about flash photography here, which, as one other reviewer recently mentioned, is extremely slow (10 or 11 seconds between pictures) due to the slow write and recharge times. The slowness I am talking about is for normal everyday (non-flash) photos and this camera takes a very long (read that as unacceptable) time to focus and take a picture. I have missed so many good pictures waiting for this camera to focus and actually take the photo that I would recommend that you seriously look at other alternatives prior to buying this camera.
I regret buying this camera and giving it to a close friend prior to actually using it myself and determining that it had these problems. I will say that it can take beautiful pictures and even half decent video clips (with no sound) but what you are taking a picture of better be "still life" in nature and you better not be in a hurry to take it.
Please note that I am not a Nikon basher as I have a Nikon D-100 digital SLR and it is the best camera in the world. Of course it cost about $1,000 but it was worth every penny. Just think very carefully before buying a Nikon 4600.

The camera is very small and compact, so it can fit into any bag, but this is also something that could become a bit of a hinderance or even a downright frustration to people with larger hands. The buttons are small and can be difficult to press, and the aesthetics can be a bit unnatural. It may not feel right or natural when holding it in your hand because of the small size. It is very slick to the eye, and it takes quality 4 megapixel photos.

Although the quality of the pictures is very impressive (when uploading the pictures on the computer, I found the detail to be amazing), the speed of the camera is very slow and pictures tend to come out blurry without the use of a flash, two things that I found very frustrating when trying to take pictures at a family member's wedding. You could imagine my frustration when I was at my cousin's wedding, a once in a lifetime event, and I was prohibited from using flash. I had to take the pictures without using the flash and every single one indoors came out blurry, so right into the trash can it went. I went through their entire wedding without getting one useful photo except when I got outside. Outside, flash is not necessary and you can take good pictures then without it.

On a different note, the flash is incredibly powerful (just use it wisely because after you take one picture with flash, you won't be taking another for a good ten seconds or so, more on this later), in complete darkness, I was able to take a picture with accurate colors, a picture so good that people I showed it to didn't even know it was taken in pitch black darkness.

Once we got to the wedding reception, I was allowed to use flash, finally, I could get some decent pictures. When taking pictures with the flash, the actual light flash occurs for a good five or so seconds, and flashes several times, it is a very obvious flash, one that actually embarrassed me during the wedding when I couldn't use flash and thought it was turned off, but it wasn't. That leads me to another note, when I turned the flash to off, it seemed to stay that way for one picture, then for the next, it seemed to go back to auto, turning the flash on when I didn't want it on.

Besides the five or so second flash delay, there is another delay after you take the picture. The screen goes black for about eight or more seconds, (HIGHLY FRUSTRATING when you're trying to capture once in a lifetime moments, of course the perfect photo opt occurs during the camera's downtime which appears to be forever!) then you have to switch to the playback mode to preview the picture, yet another delay. At this rate, you can capture only two or three flash pictures (the flash is absolutely necessary unless you are outdoors or the cam is on a tripod, and who brings a tripod along everywhere they go, that defeats the purpose of having a tiny portable camera, also, if you do have a tripod and lug it around, chances are, you're a pro, and then you wouldn't be looking for a low budget point and shoot like this one) every minute. Many, many moments can go by unphotographed. They didn't stop the wedding so I could get the perfect shot. I needed my camera to be up and ready to go, and sadly, it wasn't. I guess I'll have to get a more expensive camera to get the kind of quality I demand.

Also, this thing can eat up some batteries. I heard that most digital cameras have this problem, though. I found I could make them last a little longer though with the old roll the batteries trick. Works every time :), well at least until your batteries really are dead and it's time to get some new ones.

In conclusion, this camera takes great pictures, but you have to wait forever to capture them. It is so slow, it's frustrating, but the pictures you can manage to take have awesome detail. It all depends on what you're using the camera for I guess.
I do not beleive these are problems specific to this unit, but instead are specific to the brand, or even the entire genre of less expensive, lower end point and shoot digital cameras. When searching for a camera, I found that most of the less expensive cameras (under $300 or $400 dollars) had reviews that mentioned the same problem of the slow speeds.

Hope this is helpful to someone.

well, heres what i wanted. a small camera, very small camera (i have a gateway dv-s20, it's smaller than deck decks of cards). i wanted something that would take great closeup shots. i wanted something that took at least 3 megapixels. i wanted something that had auto flash and auto focus capabilites. something with an optical zoom.
most of all, i wanted something around $200.

this is what i came up with.
whats good about it:
good battery life (i use it everyday and i'm on the included batteries still)
small, very pocketable
easy as pie to use
flash doesn't destroy every picture
takes nice closeup shots
bright display
picture review navigation is easy to use
picture review incorporates zoom and cut and resize functions
zoom is great and easy to use
awesome in low light conditions
cool red reduction flash
many many built in photo types (scene, portrait...all have several types within)
press the button half way to autofocus and see if it will need a flash
self timer is easy to use
BSS - best shot selector helps you take great pics
quick startup time
built in shutdown after set time

things i don't like:
indoor lighting makes the lcd look junky (pictures turn out ok, but the lcd screen shows off a bunch of random colored fragments - covered in manual, nothing to worry about)
i can't cut any of the pictures off of the internal memory (meaning, you can't cut or delete pics from the internal memory using windows explorer because they are copy protected, this means you have to go and manually delete them on the camera)
the flash isn't all that great when it's really dark and you want to shoot of pic of something more than 10 feet away (understandable)
the flash takes longer than expected to refresh sometimes up to 7 seconds - with scene-underwater because it's the brightest flash)
port on side for usb connector seems flimsy
BSS does not support a flash
action shot 16 doesn't use a flash
it's easy to blur a shot sometimes if you don't have the correct settings
a little heavier than expected
small internal memory (14mb)
no audio recorded with movies (who cares though, it's a camera, not a camcorder)
all in all, you should read the manual to get the most out of this one. it's excellent for anyone.

*** to get rid of the lag after taking a pic with the flash, press the play button, then press it again. presto! screen doesn't go black anymore!

This would be a great camera if you have time to wait between shots. I had a Sony Cybershot (DSC-P71) that is getting old (3-4 years) and dosn't take the quality pictures it used to. We own several Nikons that we are very happy with including a D-70 and a Coolpix 8700 so I wanted to try a Nikon "pocket" camera to replace my Sony. I was very dissapointed in the speed of the pictures. Besides the picture actually taking several seconds to focus and decide when it's ready to take the picture, it actually shuts down for 10 or so seconds to re-charge the flash. I gave up and decided to return it after only 2 hours. I will buy another Sony for my "pocket" camera they have a much faster turnover time between pictures.

It's pretty small which I though might annoy me but it doesn't bother me now. There is a bit of a lag between photo taking but if you get a faster memory card instead of the cheapest compatible one you would have way less lag time. Get the ultra II SanDisk it's fast and good. It's not a SLR and some people think it should perform like one. For $135 it's a good camera.