13 out of 13 people found this review helpful.
Decent Camera for the price
Date of Review: Feb 1, 2008
The Bottom Line: Great for absolute beginners, but there are other cameras with better image quality in the price point with equal ease of use.
Currently in the market, this camera places in the budget category as far as digital cameras go. The low price and the high Mega Pixel rating makes this camera a very attractive choice. This camera has many features including Vibration Reduction, Movie Capture, 5X optical Zoom, and various manual settings from macro, timed flash to exposure levels. This camera also features a large LCD display for the price range however the resolution of the display is not very good.
The storage media of the camera uses standard SD (secure digital) cards and can use high speed SD cards. The camera can be powered by alkaline, NIMH, or Lithium batteries, and the energy efficiency is very high. You can take 100+ pictures with the flash on easily with one charge of rechargeable 2500mAh NiMH batteries. You can take even more on one set of lithiums. This is quite a contrast to the older generation coolpix cameras where a set of NiMH batteries might last for 10 pictures with the flash on.
The image quality of the camera is to be desired however. The high level of noise generated by the 7.2MP CCD makes a lot of low lighted photos grainy. The graininess is noticeable even in sun lit locations, though to a lesser extent. In order to compensate for the graininess, you have to reduce the picture size to "hide" the image noise in programs like photoshop.
The response of the camera also is something that is desired. The response time is an improvement over the previous generation, but it can get frustrating to take a picture and there can be up to a several second delay for the auto-focus to catch up. Even if you queue the auto-focus, the shutter is still delayed by 1/2 second leading to missed shots in action shots. The Flash on the camera is also very weak and dissipates within a couple of feet away.
Other features of the camera include easy USB interface to the computer, and an user intuitive control that allows beginners to start taking photos. However this makes this camera frustrating for photographers as this lacks all kinds of manual override such as manual focus.
