Digital Trends

 

Ho-hum. That’s all I can say about the styling of the P4. The metal and plastic case looks like just about every digital camera on the shelf. Still it feels substantial, is nicely compact, measuring 3.6 x 2.4 x 1.2 (WHD, in inches) and tips the scales at 7 ounces with battery and card. When powered down, it easily fits in your pocket. The lens extends from the body about an inch and a half when you power up and a built-in lens cover protects it when it retreats into its cocoon.

 

The Coolpix P4 has a Nikkor 3.5x optical zoom with a range of 36-126mm, slightly better than the usual 3x 35-105mm. That little bit extra is nice but the $349 Canon Powershot A700 has a 6x zoom. On the down side the Canon has “only” 6MP resolution and no Vibration Reduction. Panasonic’s DMC-FX01 ($349) has OIS and a 3.6x zoom but has less resolution (6MP) so there really isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison out there.

 

Speaking of VR--which is emblazoned on the front of camera--Nikon’s version is optical image stabilization that physically adjusts the lens to help eliminate shaky images. Panasonic is the leader in this technology with digicams like the DMC-FZ7. Canon, Sony and Kodak also use this advanced technology for their ultra zooms. We’re big fans of OIS compared to the more common electronic image stabilization or anti-shake as found in the Casio Exilim EX-Z1000. It simply works better. There are three options for the Coolpix P4: VR off, VR Active and plain old VR Normal. In VR Normal the system reduces vertical shake when the P4 is panned horizontally and only horizontal shake when panned vertically. VR Active is used for severe shaking such as shooting from a car or boat and doesn’t work when panning. That said keep the camera in VR Normal for most occasions since it’ll help you take non-blurry shots in available light. And if you want to save some battery power, turn it off.

 

The front of the camera has an AF Assist Lamp—one of my favorite features—and a tiny speaker for video clips (640 x 480 at 30 frames per second is the maximum resolution).

 

Nikon engineers must have taken the day off when they designed the top of the camera. Instead of placing the mode dial on the far right, it’s in the center, making it rather awkward for adjustments. The dial has the usual settings such as Auto, Program, Aperture Priority, Scene (16 of them), Movie, Setup, resolution, ISO and white balance. There are many options to choose from and the onscreen menus are easy to follow but that dial is simply in the wrong place. Other controls on top include an on/off button, a VR key to change settings and the shutter. Like other new cameras, the on/off button is very tiny, so make sure you don’t trim your nails too closely.

 

The left side of the Coolpix P4 has a speaker while the right features a mini USB-A/V out port. The bottom has a compartment for an SD card and the supplied lithium ion battery which is rated a poor 200 shots per charge using the CIPA standard. Although the P4 has 23MB of internal memory, this only saves a few shots so budget $50 for a 1GB high-speed card.

 

Like many other 2006 digicams, the P4 only has a 2.5-inch LCD to frame your shots. The screen is rated only 150K pixels but it worked well, even in direct sunlight. The brightness of the screen is easily adjustable. Nikon engineers took the day off here too by placing the wide/tele key in an awkward spot rather than a ring on the shutter. I found it annoying but others may think it’s quibbling (hey, quibbling is what I do for a living!) The rest of the key layout is the basic four-way controller with OK key as well as others for Menu, playback and delete.

 

The Coolpix P4 comes with everything you need to get going other than the SD card. These items include the battery, charger, cables, wrist strap, a good 136-page Owner’s Manual and a CD ROM with PictureProject V.1.6 for editing as well as ArcSoft’s Panorama Maker. It’s a good package for folks who want to dip their toes in photo editing as it’s very simple to make adjustments, import images, make prints and so on.

 

After charging the battery and loading a 2GB high-speed card, it was time to take some photographs.

 
Image Courtesy of Nikon