Nikon Coolpix 4500.. You can't go wrong!!

The Nikon Coolpix 4500 is the latest incarnation of the revolutionary 900 series, and has evolved as a forerunner in the 4-mega pixel digital camera arena. The feature laden Nikon Coolpix 4500, includes many of the utilities that make the photographic experience interesting, but more importantly, it also incorporates all the functions you need to shoot serious digital photography. To help you navigate through the many functions capable with the 4500, Nikon includes a 167 page, well-written manual along with a quick start chart in both English and Spanish versions to help you along in your quest to grasp just what the 4500 is capable of. In addition, Nikon packages the supplies the following in your 4500 kit:

Nikon quick View software
Arc Soft software
Nikon View Reference disk
Audio Video cable connector
USB cable connector
Lexar 8x 16MB starter compact Flash
Shoulder strap
Lens cap & retainer cord
Nikon En El 1 Battery & MH 53 charger & power cable

You will notice, as you take the camera out of Nikons’ impressive packaging, that it is a little smaller than it’s prior incarnation, the 995. The sturdy magnesium alloy body fits comfortably into smaller hands, though larger-handed users might take issue with the ergonomics of the 4500. Still incorporating the 210º forward 90º backward swivel lock design, the 4500 features a 4x optical Zoom Nikkor lens, equivalent to 38mm ��mm in 35 mm format. You will the find process of navigating the varied menus have been facilitated with the new Multi selector joystick, similar to those found on many laptops today.

Body Features

At first glance will notice the size of the monitor has changed for the smaller. It is now 1.5” from the 1.8” of models past. Oddly enough, that .3 inches, does make a difference. I would have liked to seen it remain unchanged. The monitor on/off, menu, quick review, lens/zoom control controls remain on the monitor underside. The zoom control is now a rocking lever instead of two separate controls. Gone from the 995 is the quality selector function, which is now controlled via joystick and menu. Function and mode buttons, carryover features, used in concert with the Command dial, access exposure compensation, histogram, Program, AE shutter or Aperture Priority settings, Manual, and Scene modes. New to the Coolpix 4500 are your choices of 16 Scene modes for common subject and shooting Situations including:
Portrait, Party/indoor, Night Portrait, Beach snow, Landscape, Sunset, Night Landscape, Museum, Fireworks, Close-up, Copy, Backlight, Multiple Exposure, Panorama Assist, Sports, Dusk/Dawn


In addition the Function button can be assigned to access (1) Continuous shooting mode (2) Quality i.e.: file format, compression ratios (3) White balance and (4) Metering i.e.: Matrix, Spot, Center Weighted, Spot AF Area. Regrettably, the active settings display of the 995 is gone. A backlit version would have been a nice addition to the 4500, but space and power consumption would have been an issue on this smaller model. The tripod mount is located on the Right underside of the 4500. I/O ports for audio/video as well as USB connections remain on the right below the Function dial, and are now horizontally arranged on the 4500, directly above the compact flash bay.

FLASH

Iso flash settings (100,200,400,800) button has moved to the left behind the improved pop-up flash. Redeye is no longer problematic with the new placement of the electronically released flash unit, as it was with prior 995 and 900 series models. The. (1) Auto flash (2) flash cancel (3) anytime flash (4) slow sync (5) red eye reduction flash modes remain unchanged. Flash ranges are a conservative 1.8 to 9.2 feet and will likely need to be supplemented with an external flash unit via the external sync port located behind the popup flash unit. Since there is no hot shoe, this will necessitate the use of a bracket to mount the external flash unit. Use of an external flash can be in concert with or exclusive of the built in flash. It is not capable of integrating into a external flash’s zoom head or AF assist lamp or red eye reduction of the following supported speed lights: SB-80DX, 50DX , SB30, 28DX, SB28, SB26, SB25, SB24, SB22, SB22s

LENS

Nikkor optics have long been at the frontlines of serious photojournalism and creative photography alike because they simply are of the highest quality available. The optics on the 4500 are no different. The lens’ 4x step less zoom insures you will make the most of the 38-155 mm focal reach. The 28 mm thread assures you can use any of you Coolpix lenses/accessories

OPTICAL VIEWINDER.

The real image optical zoomviewfinder in the 4500 now provides 80% instead of 85% coverage to the user. The viewfinder in the 4500 continues to include a dioptre adjustment, as well as LED indicators for visual confirmation of flash and AF status. Also included and visible through the viewfinder are parallax correction lines, new to the 4500.

LCD MONITOR

The LCD monitor on this Coolpix still provides 97% coverage and although smaller, it’s also brighter than it’s predecessor, the 995, and quite effective. The text on the menus stand out on a black background with white lettering changing to black lettering when highlighted by the green cursor. Those of us with less than perfect vision may want to spend some time scrolling through menus before making a buying decision though. The swivel design of this camera makes it possible to always have a view of your subject, be it above a crowd, eye level or lower. Glare is an issue with 4500 as it is with many digitals. That can be minimized with any of the aftermarket hoods available.

FUNCTION BUTTON

By default the function button functions as an exposure compensation button. In Playback mode, the function doubles as a record button to add 20 sec commentary/notes to your exposures. Other functions can be assigned in the setup menu.

MULTI SELECTOR JOYSTICK

The Multi selector joystick is a fast and efficient way to maneuver through the menus and selections. It clicks, to assure it is engaged, and is 5 way selectable to left, right, up, and down and in.

BATTERY

Charging the Nikon EN El1 lithium ion battery to full charge can be done in just under 2 hours. In the field you can substitute two CR5 (DL 245) non-rechargeable batteries, found anywhere. Kudos to Nikon for providing this option. As the battery is charged out of camera it will be necessary to take the camera off a tripod to charge batteries in the included MH 53 charger base. The camera is fairly conservative on power consumption drawing the battery dry after about 1.5 – 2 hours of continuous shooting with the monitor active. In addition the 4500 has a built in power off function that can be preset to further save battery at 30 sec., 1 min., 5 min. & 30 mins.

MEMORY CARD

The 4500 comes standard with a 16 MB Lexar Compact Flash II card. This is woefully small for a camera of this caliber. Nikon has sanctioned the use of the 512 MB and 1 GB IBM Microdrives and this would be an excellent upgrade to the 4500.

MENUS

Much has been written about the voluminous scrolling necessary to navigate through the varied functions of the 4500. It actually is pretty organized and logical in its layout. Languages selectable are Spanish, French & Japanese. There are 3 primary menus are Shooting, Setup, Playback:

· Shooting Menu (Record Functions)

Page 1 Shooting Menu

White Balance /A-WB Auto/white balance preset canc/daylight/incandescent/fluorescent/cloudy/
Metering /Matrix/Spot/Center Weighted/Spot AF
Continuous /single/Multi-Shot 16?Ultra HS/Movie
Best Shot Selector /on/off
Image Adjustment /AUTO/NORMAL/MORE CONTRAST/LESS CONTRAST
Saturation Control /+2 Maximum/+1Enhanced/) Normal/-1 Moderate/-2 Minimum/Black & White

Page 2 Shooting Menus

Image Quality/Hi/Fine/Normal/Basic
Image Size/ 2272x 1704 / 1600 x 1200 / 1280 x 960 /1024 x 768 /640 x 480 /2272 x 1520
User Setting /1/2/3
Image Sharpening /Auto /High /Normal /Off
Lens /Normal/ Wide Adapter /Telephoto 1/Telephoto 2/Fisheye 1/ Fisheye 2

Page 3 Shooting Menus

Exposure Options /AE Lock/0.0 Exp +/-
Focus Options AF Area Mode / S-AF Auto Focus Mode/ MF Focus Confirmation
Zoom Options/On Digital Tele/Digital Tele Off/Startup position/Last Position /Wide
Speed light Control/Pop Up/Auto Manual Variable Power/Values/Speed light Control/Internal Off/Int & Ext Active
Auto Bracketing/Off/3+ - On/WB Bracketing
Noise Reduction/on/off
Reset all/no/reset

Page 4 Shooting Menus


· Setup Menu

Page 1 Setup Menu

Monitor Options/ Display/Brightness
Controls Func/AE-L, AF-L
Auto Off /30 sec/1 min/5 min/30/m
Sequence numbers / on/off/reset
Shutter sound/on/off
CF Card Format/delete images/format
Date/date/time
Shot Confirmation/on/off
Info text/on/off
Video Mode/NTSC/PAL
Language/DE/EN/FR/JP/ES

Page 2 Setup Menus

Disable Delete/on/off
USB/PtP/Mass Storage

· Playback Menu

Page 1 Playback Menu

Delete/Selected Images/Erase All Images/Transfer/Print Set
Folders/Delete/All Folders
Slide Show/frame/Intvl/ (pause)
Perspective Control/(lines in monitor appear)
Small Picture/640x480 /320 x 240 /160 x 120 / 98 x72
Protect (exposure copy sheet appears)

Page 2 Playback Menus

Hide Image (exposure copy sheet appears)
Print Set (exposure copy sheet appears)
Auto Transfer/Selected Photos/All Photos

Menus are a way of life with Digital cameras. To whatever extent you can tolerate them; you have to be comfortable living with them in a camera of this caliber. A working familiarity of your camera comes from constant use and offers the user many viable options quickly at hand. If you are a casual user, it may become tedious to have to refer to the manual or guess your way around the 4500, or any sophisticated camera for that matter.

SOFTWARE
Uploading pictures to your computer is made simple via USB cable and the included Nikon View 5.0 Software. Simply connect your camera, turn it on, and your exposures are a mouse click away from uploading. There is no cumbersome scrolling through menus to see your digital photographs. It is that easy. Photo editing is made possible via the Arc Soft Photo Impression, included. I have yet to find image editing software to rival any of the Adobe Photoshop series and continue to use that medium, however, the Arc Soft Photo Impression will handle rudimentary editing and is fine for that purpose. I have not had the opportunity to work with the Video editor and cannot include my thoughts on that in this review.

Printing 8x10 photos with high detail is more the norm than exception with the 4500. Exposures are crisp and resplendent in color and detail and with the premium photo grade papers available, are indistinguishable from film to most eyes.

OPERATION

The Nikon Coolpix 4500 has gotten a lot of critical acclaim since being introduced in the summer of 2002. It is by far not the perfect camera. The automatic focus is not as fast as some other models on the market but still quite respectable. Shutter lag is apparent to a small degree, but here again, it is all relative to your application. I have experienced some missed opportunities as a result, but when you consider all the positive aspects of 4500, it is still quite acceptable. Lens distortion is kept to a minimum, and noise levels are well within reasonable tolerances for this class camera. Moving around this camera becomes second nature. You find yourself utilizing the features that will make your exposures “pop”. You will find the 4500 a worthy tool capable of documenting all the important moments in your child’s game. The 32 MB DRAM buffer facilitates rapid shooting modes when necessary Should you want to get into the action you can call up the Self-timer, which is engaged by a three or ten second shutter delay. Shutter Speeds vary from 1/2300 sec – 8 sec. Perhaps you want to take a shot of a lightning bolt across a darkened sky. You have Bulb capability to 5 minutes. Panoramic shots are made simple with the enclosed Arcsoft Photo Impressions and a good tripod. Perhaps you choose capture the world in 35 second movie clips with sound, or show off your great shots with a slide show on your television. Yes this is one really impressive camera.

SUMMARY

Negotiating your way around the 4500 does necessitate some quiet time with that 167-page manual. I cannot help but think that someone new to photography would likely experience a steep learning curve getting to know the intricacies of this camera. It would be a worthwhile endeavor for the beginner to utilize the 4500 as a learning tool as they can essentially experiment and review results immediately. A working knowledge of basic photographic principles for cameras of this caliber is highly recommended. Though not a professional caliber camera, the Nikon Coolpix 4500 is a serious photographers/prosumer camera with sophisticated features and functions.

As has been stated in so many reviews, you should plan on purchasing an extra 650mAH Nikon En- El 1 Battery, and larger compact flash card or IBM Microdrive. An ac adapter is available as an accessory. Should you feel the need to expand your horizons, Nikon offers a variety of accessories and lenses for the Coolpix 4500 to further enhance, what should be, a gratifying photographic experience.

Accessories:

· SL1 Coolight
· Hl-CP10 4500 monitor hood
· CS-E 4500 case
· EN-EL1 Battery
· EH-53 AC adapter
· MH-53C battery charger (automobile lighter)
· EC-AD1 PC-card adapter
· MC-EU1 Remote cable
· ES-E 28 Slide Copy adapter
· FC-E8 x0.21 Fisheye converter lens
· WC-E63x 0.63Wide angle converter lens
· WC-E24 x0.66 Wide Angle Converter lens
· TC-E2 x2.0 Telephoto converter lens
· TC-3ED x3.0 Telephoto converter lens
· SKE 900 Multi flash bracket
· A5 – E900 MULTI FLASH ADAPTER