Customer Reviews

Nikon Coolpix P4 8.1MP Digital Camera with 3.5x Vibration Reduction Optical Zoom

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sure, it's not as stylish, light in the hand or has as many fancy options like you do in other digicams (Casio---great features but terrible optics) but what Nikon has here is an 8 megapixel camera that shoots dang good pics with almost full manual control and a Vibration Reduction system (which WORKS 'cause I took pics of cool signage the other day and did it from my car while driving in traffic and all the pics were sharp despite me going 30 mph and holding the camera with one hand out the window). It's many scene modes provide one with instant settings for when you don't have time to use the apeture priorty or apeture and shutter speed priorities. Macro mode provides extremely sharp detail. It also has a COPY mode that you use to take pics of newspaper articles or anything out of a mag or book. It shoots in b&w in this mode and the text is easily readable. It's AF system is excellent and fast. For the flash you have several options to choose from, including red eye reduction, which WORKS perfectly on portrait shots, and backlit.

I've also got a Canon Powershot S2 IS and wanted a camera I could stick in my pocket and I'm glad I chose this Nikon after looking at Casio, Pentax, Sony and Kodak.

The thing to remember about digital cameras when selecting one is to focus (pun intended) on the quality of the lens (Canon and Nikon are the best) and the image sensor and it's workings, again Canon and Nikon lead the field.

So if you're looking for a digital camera stick to Canon and Nikon and forget the rest of them no matter how cool sounding or looking their digicams are. What you want in the end is a good clean sharp pic to print and to send via e-mail and both Canon and Nikon provide just that.

The Coolpix P4 has a lot of things going for it: 8 megapixels; sharp 3.5x zoom with Vibration Reduction; good quality 2.5" LCD; good in-camera menus; and good battery options.

The VR should not be undervalued, even if this is a relatively short zoom for stabalization. It can aid in almost any situation, most notably low-light non-flash photos, and really enhances flash photography in low-light, so that we can see more of the background detail.

In-camera post processing is truly enhanced with the "D Lighting" control. Essentially, this features allows you to lighten the darker areas of a photograph while not lightening the middle or light areas. This can help bring out underexposed backgrounds with flash, or allow us to see the eyes under that ballcap. It doesn't work perfectly (it sometimes lightens the shadowing that makes detail stand out), but it's a very welcome feature.

The EN-EL5 battery is a bit larger than most cameras take, but it has good performance, and is reasonably priced. Additionally, you may use a Duracell CP-1 disposable battery. This is great! The problem with rechargable batteries are: 1) people forget to recharge them, and 2) they do loose their charge just sitting around. The CP-1 has a nearly 10 year shelf life, meaning it will be ready when you need it.

Then why not 5 stars? Because it's size will be a bit too large for some (but just right for some, too); it's zoom isn't class leading (Canon Powershot SD700 gets to 4x); it's battery charger could be smaller (e.g. SD700); etc. But for some, it will be as close to perfect as is on the market.

1-25-07
After my Nikon 4300 was stolen a year ago, I bought the Nikon P4 in April 2006. Bottom line: I get more photos that are acceptable with the P4 than with the 4300 but none is great. The 4300 occasionally produced superb shots with perfect color and incredible subtle detail.

* My main interest is in photographing wildflowers. The macro mode does not focus as close as with the 4300, there is less detail and what detail there is is not as sharp, even with the "Max Sharp" option turned on. The color generally is not as natural and finely graded even with post processing. However, the P4 does not blow out highlights as crudely as the 4300 did. I can take pictures of yellow flowers in fairly bright light and still see some details of all the petals and the center.

* The P4 only shoots in jpeg mode, with no raw option. That means that the 8 megapixel pictures are smoothed by the internal algorithm into a photo only a quarter of the size of the original. Three quarters of the information is discarded so much of the 8 megapixel power is lost.

* In P mode I usually set the white balance at Cloudy, the sharpness at Max and the exposure at +3. This gives more pictures that are closer to accurate.

* For photographing wildflowers I set the timer at 3 seconds so I can brace my hands against my chest or a rock and avoid the shake that comes with pushing the shutter button. VR on or off doesn't seem to make much difference in this situation. However, when the wind is blowing so that the flowers wave continuously, using VR Normal makes the difference between getting an adequate picture or a blurry mess. The 4300 could not take even adequate shots in any kind of breeze.

* The P4 seems optimized for taking photos five to ten feet away from the subject in good but not super bright light. My photo of water lilies taken from the top of a bank about 10 feet away on a partly cloudy afternoon was extraordinary -- sharp, with perfect color and detail.

* The 2.5" screen is excellent in all but very bright sunlight. 3" would be even better.

* For lack of a better alternative, for now I will continue to use my P4 but plan to upgrade at some point to a DSLR, probably the Nikon D80, which gets the best reviews of all the sub-$1,000 models.

A good solid digital camera that accomplishes what it sets out to do which is to take EXCELLENT photos. Forget the features in these types of cameras (I prefer to use my dSLR whenever possible, but lets face it, its rarely practical to take a 5 pound camera with your everywhere). I tend to be a Nikon-brand snob (except for the excellent Canon s50/60/70/80 series) because the lenses are superior and the shots terrific. This is a camera designed to pop into your pants pocket or your backpack or purse, and go...The results are excellent. THe software included average. Bypass the 100.00 pricier P3 (which is the exact same camera with totally useless WiFi built in driving up the price) and go for the P4. The Vibration Reduction works! Took many photos from a moving boat the other day and everything was sharp and clear. Great color saturation. Good wide to zoom range coverage. A bit chunky in your hand, which feels great -- you don't feel like you are holding a deck of cards and shooting from a box...Highly recommended.

I bought this camera earlier this summer (2006) to take on a trip to Sweden because I wanted lots of versatility but without the bulk of my 3-year-old Sony digital. There are tinier cameras out there, but after some research I didn't find any with all the functions and range of capabilities of the CoolPix P4 (and the Nikon name, I admit, was also a selling point). The vibration reduction proved itself extremely useful: I took lots of photos from a moving bicycle on a dirt road (using one hand!) and they came out beautifully. I was also doing genealogical research while on this trip, and found that by using the "museum" scene function together with the macro dial setting I could take crystal clear color photos of 150-year-old archival documents using available light; this worked even better than the b/w of the "copy" setting an earlier reviewer mentions. Outdoor photos in a range of light from dawn to dusk, especially if I made use of the scene functions, came out with true-to-life, rich color; indoors I could often go without flash in surprisingly low light, but if needed, the flash in automatic setting seemed well-balanced, not washed out. I've been very happy with the quality of photography and with the ease of use: It works fine as a point-and-shoot you can hand to a kind stranger to take your photo, but also has the bells and whistles to please a much more sophisticated shutterbug. If you want a compact camera that can give you SLR-worthy results, I highly recommend this one.

The camera works general good especially for times when bringing a larger camera is not feasible. I can put this camera in my pocket and use it at anytime. I love the movie mode I can shoot a movie until the storage space has run out, can't do that in my Nikon D50 SLR! With the 2GB memory card it equals to about 16 minutes. The video comes complete with sound and after burning to a DVD in the highest quality it looks clear and visible on a large 50" TV. I still like my Nikon D50 SLR better for taking regular photos though. For one reason the SLR will snap photos as quick as it possibly can with the shutter or flash as the only thing that will slow it down. The problem with the P4 when compared to the D50 is the D50 focus instantly where the P4 has a delay so when you're ready to take a photo the D50 takes it with no delay. This is really useful when the subjects are moving and you need to capture them in the frame before they move off. In many point and shoot cameras, that I've used, there is too long of a delay to take the photo and I've ended up with half a person or a blurred image and then that good shot is gone. The P4 has a slight delay because it needs time to focus it is worse when the camera flash is charging for low light situations. The two inch display is great, great for previewing images. The pictures I've taken so far have been sharp, rich in color and detailed. The vibration reduction is a good feature because I've noticed it is hard not to shake the camera just a little bit when pressing down the shutter button. I suppose there may not be a point and shoot camera without delay, but this one is better than most. A digital SLR is still the best camera, I think, not only for its fast shooting ability but also for its exceptional picture quality. So if you need a camera for portability and compactness then the Nikon Coolpix P4 is a great camera if you don't need such a small camera then go for a SLR camera which means: Single Lens Reflex, if you don't already know that means it basically means when you look though the eyepiece of the camera you are actual looking though the lens, you see exactly how the photo will fit and look. A camera such as Nikon's SLR D50 is one such example. If you have the money buy both, a point and shoot and SLR because each camera offers advantages over the other.

I've already played around with my Nikon P4 for 3 weeks now. The only drawbacks for this camera is that the noise level gets obvious at ISO 200 and the fastest ISO is only 400 (why?!?). Not even turning the noise reduction feature on was enough to clean up the shots taken at low light conditions. With other point & shoot cameras having ISO speeds of up to 1600 and 3200 with noise reduction built in, it often baffles me why Nikon's new release of point & shoot cams with VR comes with such a limited ISO range. 8.1MP image quality is a major plus. This cam takes great photos but blurred shots are still unavoidable even with VR-Normal ro VR-Active on. I called Nikon's technical support to see if maybe my camera's VR function was defective. I was told that if my handheld aim was TOO steady that the VR would blur the shots (what?!?) - I was also told to turn it off if the camera was on a tripod. Looks like Nikon's VR technology still has a lot of work for improvement. Overall, the camera is worth having as a secondary camera to my D-SLR.

I reviewed cameras exhaustively prior to purchasing the P4. I am very pleased with this pocket camera. It has some advanced features. I travel the world, often returning with SD cards loaded with hundreds of images. I rely on this camera for publishing photo albums and web pages upon my return to share with friends and family. The anti-shake technology seems to work great and the camera is very intutitive. Photo quality is excellent and I highly recommed this camera. Very minor complaints include: Wishing it was powered by AA Batteries since they're universally available just about everywhere I travel. Sometimes the dial on the top of the camera accidentally gets bumped onto 'video' mode when I take the camera out of my bag and I don't realize it until I snap a picture. So I have to train myself to check the dial before shooting a picture. The other cameras I looked at were the Panasonic Lumix and the Casio but many people said their products' photos can contain lots of 'noise' under low light levels. My P4 seems to do reasonably well - better than average - under low light levels although not perfect. I've shot some beautifuls sunsets! In summary - the P4 is a great choice!

this digital camera has excellent resolution,user friendly with tons of options.i have used other friends digital cameras for events and get togethers and their cameras photos did not come out as clear as my photos did with this camera.i believe that nikon and canon are two of the best optical digital cameras on the market.also the overwhelming options that this camera gives you would easily satisfy most photographers.i have to say i am very pleased with it.

This camera is great! It takes amazing pictures with incredible quality. The videos that it takes are equally impressive with great zoom and clarity. This camera is absolutely perfect for college or any recreational use and is very easy to use. I actually needed a head shot for an audition and i set the automatic timer to take a picture of myself and cropped it. When I picked up my pictures, the lady working said I needed a copyright release form because the pictures looked too professional. She finally gave them to me, but I guess that proves that the camera takes professional quality pictures!