8 out of 8 people found this review helpful.
My 2 cents about the 4300
Date of Review: Jul 18, 2003
The Bottom Line: For the price, you get great pictures with excellent color, especially in well-lit areas. For action photos and low-light settings, you might want to look for an alternative.
This is my first digital camera. Until now, I've been using a 120 format Yashika and a Nikon FM. For a while I was torn between getting a film/slide scanner and getting a digital camera. I chose the camera for the convenience and savings in film processing.
In many situations, this camera takes beautiful pictures. The autofocus is usually sharp, the colors are gorgeous. I won't go into all the features of this camera, because other reviews have got that covered. For what I paid, $375 (Apr 2003) I don't think I could have gotten a better camera.
That being said, I would like to point out several items with which I am dissatisfied.
1. Shutter lag. This camera takes a looong time beteen pressing the shutter release and capturing the picture. For landscapes, inaninmate objects, etc. that not a problem. But you can forget about taking action photos, people walking around, animals, or anything moving unpredictably. I find myself mentally calculating trajectories, and then composing the shot based upon the prediction. This results in a lot of lousy photos. For example, I recently took a trip to Guatemala, where I took may pictures of Mayans in village markets, a very colorful and interesting setting. These were candid photos of everday life. Let's just say that I found the garbage-can feature very useful to save CF space. Same problem with shooting animals in the jungle. I got alot of backs-of-heads and empty branches.
2. Manual focus. Since this isn't an SLR, I shouldn't expect much in this area. But since Nikon included the feature, I'll criticize it. It's a pain in the neck. It is very difficult to know when the subject is in focus, especially with large apertures. You just can't tell from the display, though I've read reviews which say otherwise.
3. No indication of how much space is left on the CF card. I can't figure our how to tell I'm running out of space until I've run out of space. I bought a 500MB card for this camera and was shooting along when I was suddenly surprised to be out of space. I had to quickly review the photos on the disk and delete a bunch to make space. I did like the menu system for reviewing photos, however.
4. The case is plastic and looks a little cheesy. Nikon should take a lesson from Canon's powershot series.
5. Viewscreen placement. My personal preference is for the view screen to be on top. I find it easier to compose photos that way, and for taking candid photos, it's unbeatable. You don't need to raise the camera up to face level when the view screen is on top.
6. Viewscreen size. There's certainly room on this camera for a bigger screen. Sure would be nice.
7. Lowlight focusing. The autofocus doesn't really work in low light. I get mostly blurry photos when the subject is not well lit.
I have no other significant issues with this camera, and am still convinced that I got the best camera for the money. I 'm back in the market for a slide scanner though, and won't be retiring my SLR just yet.
