Customer Reviews

Nikon Coolpix S4 6MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I had this camera backordered through Amazon and received one of the first ones. I have used Nikon SLR cameras for roughly 25 years and have high standards and expectations for their products.

My initial reaction to the camera is that the lens is fantastic, but the overall design is lacking. It's as though it was rushed to market.

First the size. It's not small enough to be truly pocketable. I use my Contax U4R for that. The layout is also not as good as with the Contax, nor is it as intuitive. I find myself always putting my fingers on the wrong places, esepecially on the LCD screen. This is not a camera where everything feels naturally placed; then again, there's not a lot of room to work with here. I guess my preference would have been for Nikon to make the camera slightly larger and easier to handle, with a viewfinder and VR to boot. It wouldn't surprise me to see this same lens in exactly that type of product within three months time.

Besides those issues I do like the camera. The biggest limitation of "pocketable" cameras tends to be the limited zoom range. I was recently on a sailboat and a cruise ship, wanted to get photos of things I saw on shore, but didn't have the zoom range (with my Contax) to get close enough to the subject. The Coolpix S4 certainly solves this issue.

I find the images the camera produces to be quite sharp, without excessive edge enhancement. The camera also seems to focus without difficulty (for me), including situations in low light. I've been surprised at the quality of images from situations with relatively low light where I've switched off the flash.

The speed of operation with the camera is quite good; it starts quickly, is very responsive, and doesn't lag between shots.

Two caveats: first, I dislike the zooming system on the camera. Specifically, I would like the ability to defeat the digital zoom in the menu system. This camera doesn't allow that, so when you reach the limits of the optical zoom there is a "grey zone" where it's difficult to tell whether or not you're in optical or digital zoom mode. Though there is an indicator in the viewfinder the transition is a tricky one. Second, use AA lithiums with this camera. This is not really a "caveat" or limitation of the camera, but you will be amazed at the battery life you get using these batteries.

Why four out of five stars given the issues I've described? The Coolpix S4 is the only camera in this size range with a 10X zoom lens. Though it has its' limitations that lens truly distinguishes this camera, and sets it apart from the pack.

I took delivery of my S4 yesterday afternoon and put it through its paces. The quality of the camera and the lens are absolutely terrific. However, when shooting indoors: it won't focus or yield a non-blurred image when shooting indoors in available light. If you're willing to use a flash all the time, it's fine, except for the fact that you can't turn off the "in camera red-eye correction" which sometimes leaves people and animals with a white hole where the pupil should be. In other words, the camera takes out the red, but it doesn't always insert the black pupil! If you shut off the red eye correction, then you get the glowing red eyes people hate to see. Hey Nikon, make the in-camera red eye correction a "feature" that can be turned on or off, independent of the multiple flash red eye correction. Right now you either have to take both or neither. NOTE: This is also the case with the Nikon 7900 that I bought for my wife but returned a day later because she couldn't use it to do indoor snapshots of her beloved animals. As she said, "With white pupils, the animals looked like they has lost their souls." What a shame because it too is a wonderful design.

Outdoors there's an even more severe problem with the S4: I have more than a thousand pictures of yacht races and boats on a commercial website; all taken with a Nikon 8800 that I'm crazy about. Today I tried shooting boats with the S4 and it was a complete bust. It was a classic cloudy bright day with terrific glare off the water and sky; and it was nearly impossible to use the S4's LCD finder to compose my pictures. No matter what angle I tried, the glare on the screen was almost impossible to penetrate. What good is a 10x zoom if you can't aim the camera??? And before you ask, I did adjust the screen brightness from dim to very bright, and no matter which setting I used I ran into the same problem. On the other hand, when standing in some shade, I did a terrific telephoto shot of a parrot's head from about 10' away that when blown up to 11x14" showed every head feather clearly.

I returned the S4 to my long suffering camera store and bought a Canon SD550. I've already satisfied myself that it does fine indoors where focusing and available light shots don't seem to be a problem (although it too produces red eye, but not nearly as bad as the S4's); and the optical finder makes taking my yacht pictures a snap (no pun intended). An 11x14" enlargement of a dock shot was crystal clear, with bright realistic colors. Following the advice of some of the Canon 500 owners, I keep the resolution Extra Fine, and the color adjustment to Vivid, and in these modes it seems to be the equal of any film camera I've ever used.

Please Nikon, realize that doing away with the optical finder to make the screen 1/4" higher is a DUMB thing to do; unless you want to deliver the entire serious amateur and professional market for compact cameras to Canon. Please give us a revised S4 that has an optical finder, available light capabiilties equal to the Canon SD550, and either 2 separate redeye controls, or only the customary flashing light.

And while you're at it, why did you add your terrific Vibration Reduction mechanism (fabulous on the Nikon 8800), only to the movie mode of the S4? DOUBLE DUMB. The vibration reduction feature is really needed whenever you're using a 10X lens; please give it to the S4's successor for still pictures also.

Please understand, I've been using Nikons for more than 40 years and I love them. I love my 8800. But to cause me to return both an S4 and a 7900 in the same week means that you're now doing some things terribly wrong. Please get back on track as soon as you can!!!

I'm hearing a lot of FUD with this camera, and I can't understand why. The camera was designed as a simple digital point and click with a good optical zoom. Additionally, Nikon wanted to resurrect the swivel design that fans have been asking for ever since the last model was on the market. To this extent Nikon has delivered, albeit with some short comings. The device has a quick start up time, much quicker than I expected based on the interface. There is an automatic mode and a scene mode to accomidate the ease of use features (remember, easy camera... not a lot of manual control). Optical zoom is awesome, and as usual, Nikon delivered on the optics and photo quality. I've taken photos at night, in low-light, rain, etc. and I've had no problems that I don't normally have with non-SLR digitals. If you go through and take a little time, you'll find that the multiple scenes can be quite an advantage at times. Yes, I would prefer the option for manual controls, but again... I understand what this camera was designed for. I don't understand what people are saying with power conumption. With the batteries supplied, I got about 60 pictures (mostly indoors). With disposable lithiums, I got about 430 pictures before I had any issues... most of those using the flash.

So now let's talk about the tradeoffs. First off, there's no viewfinder. That's a minor annoyance, but not a show stopper (the LCD on the S4 is very nice). Next up we have the flash which can really wash out a picture. Okay, either use it judiciously or switch to a scene mode that takes care of that problem. Same with the speed of the shutter (if I remember to do so, I'll toss up some action pics from a professional baseball game... you can see the ball with no distortion). Now here is the biggie... shudder. Especially in low-light this can be an issue. What boggles my mind is that Nikon offers image-stabalization for this camera in movie mode, but not in image mode. Does that makes sense? I didn't think so either. And even Nikon has agreed that it was a stupid move. To their benefit, Nikon has acknowledged that they are going to fix the issue in the next firmware update (though when that will be is a mystery).

Stuff like that keeps me from giving it 5 stars.

The end result. People who want a simple camera with good resolution and a strong zoom will enjoy this camera. People who don't want a camera that is almost 100% automatic won't like this camera.

YMMV

Well, I've had my Nikon Coolpix s4 for a couple of weeks now, and have taken pictures from stills to sporting events to boating to trying to get close-ups of quick moving pets (ferrets) and haven't been disappointed in the least. The picture quality is excellent, particularly compared to my old Canon. The 10X optical zoom is without doubt, wonderful. You can't find that kind of zoom in any camera this size. And you can't find anything that will fit in your pocket with this kind of zoom. I just use the case that I bought for it.

It takes high-quality pictures, good for 16X20 prints without showing any pixelation, and accurately shows color as it was when I took the picture. The LCD works fine, in my opinion. No problems from dark, poorly lit rooms to bright Texas sunshine. Plus, I love the ability to swivel the lens. It makes it VERY easy, in my opinion to take pictures from alot of different angles while keeping the camera level, or putting the LCD where you can see it easily. Five stars, no doubt. I'd recommend to anyone.

The S4 is my second Nikon digital camera. Someone ganked my first one, a Coolpix 3100. I took that one to Costa Rica, Panama, back through Costa Rica and up into Nicaragua, taking somewhere around 3000 pictures along the way. I dropped it (in its case) into the ocean one time and thought it was surely done for, but it came back and served me faithfully for more than a year after getting back to the states before it went missing.

So I just got the S4 despite the lame reviews people have given it. I took it to the zoo today and filled my entire 1 gig card. After reviewing the pictures, I am pleased to say that I am quite happy with its performance. It functions almost exactly like my 3100 did, except it has the awesome addition of a 10x optical zoom and a few extra megapixels. The pictures seem at least as good of quality as my 3100, I think I'm being very critical though. The image sharpness is excellent and the focusing works quite well once you figure out which modes it needs to be set to for that particular subject.

The real advantage lies in the swivel lens though. Just being able to turn it however you need it makes lining up your shots so much easier. And being able to zoom as far as it does comes in handy more often than I had imagined. For example, the animals at the zoo are never really close enough to get the shot I wanted. The ability to zoom so far gets your picture right up in the animals face. And if you want to use the digital zoom, you can get a full frame of an animals eye or nostril, or whatever. It rocks!

I'm telling you, the other reviewers were way too critical and I imagine they just dont know how to use the cameras settings well enough to get good pictures. If you know how to operate a Nikon or you have the sense and intelligence to learn how, you are not going to find a more convenient little camera that can do all the things this one can. Super zoom, awesome macro mode, video with sound(nearly an hour w/ 1 gig), all in a tiny pocket sized package.

I bought the Nikon Coolpix S4 mainly because of the 10x Optical Zoom. I needed a new camera because my Olympus D-40's 3x zooming capabilities were no longer working. So, got my Nikon S4 a week before my vacation to Spain and bought a 1 GB SD card. Since I'm not to familiar with my new digital camera, I took along my Olympus D-40.

ADVANTAGES: ZOOM, ZOOM, ZOOM...the action shots were great, took pictures of Real Madrid Soccer Players from high up the bleachers and the pictures came up really close...outdoor shots were clear...the lcd screen was useful when framing a shot at times...the movie mode worked great...

DISADVANTAGES: its not as compact as it seems... the lcd screen was hard to see outdoors when its sunny, can't see where my subject was...took nightshots and there were white specks on the pictures, seems like floating circular specks as if there's watermarks on my lens (the manual mentioned it as dust particles in the air, i never had these problems using my Olympus D-40 at night)...also, when you turn the lens towards you to take your picture with a background view(the lens in line with the lcd), your face will be reverse on the shot (aaaaarrrgghhh, soo annoying) couldn't even compose your own picture... the biggest disappointment for me were taking pictures indoors, my museum pictures keep coming up blurry...there's an annoying red blurry signal because of low light that i can't get rid of...the action shots indoors was a total opposite shots outdoors...i tried to take a picture of someone popping champagne and it keeps coming up blurry ( i never had these problem with my Olympus D-40)...for me, my indoor shots i.e. inside museums and inside the house were all useless...even when i used the museum scene feature or party scene feature, didn't give me a great shot indoor...and i know my hands are not shaking as much because i was able to take awesome action shots at the Real Madrid Soccer match and the subjects were running...

I'm sooo glad I brought my Olympus D-40. Once I found out my Nikon Coolpix S4 doesn't work well indoors, I would use my Olympus D-40. I was able to take museum pictures and indoor shots with my Olympus D-40, problem solved. The only hassle was I was carrying 2 digital cameras when I'm suppose to be traveling light.

I wish there was a feature to turn off the shaking blurry signal. Nikon should have included anti-shake technology, built a better LCD screen that you can see when its bright outdoors and made the camera not too sensitive to low light. I would like to return it but I really like the 10x optical zoom feature in a small package.

I was attracted to the S4 due to the swivel design and the 10x zoom. THis will be my 3rd Nikon and will be an additional camera to the household. We already have a Sony and Canon. The 10x zoom gives clear and bright pictures if you can stabilize yourself while taking pictures. It's too bad that vibration reduction option is only for capturing movies. I don't have a problem with the LCD in bright sun, unlike the other reviewers here. I find that pictures have a wee bit more noise than my Canon A80, but about on par with my Sony S60. The templates included in the scene modes are really helpful. The face priority in portrait scene setting really does work!

I was very excited about the S4 and had it for about a week. Unfortunately, I ended up returning it due to the fact that that it really didn't take better pictures than my old 2.1 megapixel Olympus. I really wanted a compact camera with good optical zoom, but as you'll find in previous posts, the zoom hindered by the lack of image stabilization. I don't think I have shakey hands, but I kept getting blurred images. Also, because there is no optical viewfinder, I had severe difficulties taking photos of my dog in the yard on a bright day.....Then there's the shutter lag to deal with. This is the part that drove me the most batty! I tried several times to take a picture of my dog inside - which is fairly difficult as he doesn't like to sit still very often - and either missed the dog altogether or got a streaky image that didn't resemble anything.

All in all, I was disapointed with this camera. I am now looking at the canon powershot sd550 and the casio exilim ex-z750 which appears to have solved the issues that I have with the S4.

This camera has excellent features, including rapid start and the ability to magnify small parts of pictures with excellent resolution. The tilt lens makes it easy to handle and store. The most problematic issue is the inability to see the view screen in bright sunlight. There is no optical viewer, only the view screen. A shading mechanism would be helpful.

Zoom was the main reason for me to upgrade my camera to this one. Being a Nikon was the second reason.
It's the MOST POWERFULLL ZOOM in the market and this is very, VERY usefull to any picture you want to take. I mean REAL zoom, not that digital one that you can do on your computer and that you should NOT do with your camera, because it sacrifices quality of the original, which is a nonsense.

It's a very high quality and beautifull lenses.
I just criticize the way Nikon still uses the pre-defined (scene) options. They indicate the scene options as basic black icons, while other brands already shows a PICTURE of the expected result, so you REALLY have an idea on what each scene server for.
If that's not important to you (if you are a beginner, it IS, believe me), this camera is a MUST.

Sami Paskin