Nikon Coolpix 4500 is just that... Cool!

Anyone who has read a handful of my reviews will know that I'm a gadget freak... so even though I have a good collection of fairly recent digital cameras in the house (Nikon Coolpix 995, Coolpix 5000, Canon Powershot S40, and Canon Powershot S330). The announcement and release of the Coolpix 4500 was too good to pass up... another gadget for my collection.

Unlike my other cameras, it was extremely difficult to get a Coolpix 4500. I wound up buying it from State Street Direct at the retail price of $699. This was difficult to swallow since I bought my other digital cameras at hundreds less than their suggested retail prices (995 $325 in Dec 2001, S40 for $425 in Spring 2002, S330 for $325 in Spring 2002, Coolpix 5000 for $600-700... I forget that price).

The Short Take

The 4500 is basically the update for the 9xx line of Nikon cameras... but it is a major update for the line. The 4500 loses the boxy look of the older 9xx series camera and gains more aesthetic curves, a smaller overall size, a higher gee-whiz factor, and comes back to the all metal body (magnesium alloy). The 4500 retains the split body design that made the 9xx series so popular. On top of all that, you get a much refined feature set and a booty kicking 4 MegaPixel camera with 4x optical zoom... that's right... 4x optical zoom! Nikon learned from the innovations made by other camera makers like Canon and Sony to produce this killer camera.

Although the camera costs $699 MSRP... this still falls short of the Canon's G2 typical $799 price tag (although this is bound to fall to $699 soon). The 4500 is still more expensive than the average 4 MegaPixel camera but the features of the camera make this one of the 4 MegaPixel cameras to own... if not the only one to own.

The major downsides to the camera is still the relatively bulky size versus other digital cameras in the market even though the camera is noticably smaller than the Coolpix 995 it replaces. This is not going to git in your shirt pocket... compared to the S40, which could if the shirt pocket were big enough. The battery life may be considered a bit short however.

Overall, this is the 4 Megapixel camera to get... especially if you want high quality photos with excellent colour reproduction and an extensive camera feature set... that I haven't even come close to mastering yet!

Pros:

1) Magnesium Alloy body for the whole camera
2) 4 MegaPixel goodness
3) 4x optical zoom
4) Compact Flash media
5) Extensive feature set for taking and manipulating photos
6) Easy to use
7) Sleek styling
8) Automatic pop-up flash
9) Swivel body!
10) Nikon quality
11) Standard EN-EL1 battery used in all the high end Nikon consumer digital cameras even the 995 model
12) Accessories!
13) Can use 2CR5 battery if you're hard up for power!

Cons:

1) Overall camera is still large versus other 4 MegaPixel cameras
2) Battery life is so-so
3) Only a 16MB Compact Flash card comes with the unit!
4) Urmmm... you can buy a CoolPix 5000 on the street for nearly $700... maybe that a pro?

Something different

This camera has too many features and details to include for the scope of this review... you can www.nikon.com for the lists of feature sets and details. Other review sites like www.dpreview.com and www.imaging-resource.com have extensive previews on pre-production models as well. You can also read Howard_Creech's excellent review for feature sets and how he found the use of these features.

As for me, I'm not a photographer... so I wouldn't know much about the high-level/advanced feature sets of the camera. What I can tell you is the basic details about the camera and how I found the 4500 in my use.

The 4500 has dimensions of 5.1 x 2.9 x 2.0 inches with a weight of 13.2 oz. This is noticably smaller than the 995 model with dimensions of 5.2 x 3.2 x 2.5 inches and a weight of 15.9 oz. Compare this to the S40 which is 4.4 x 2.3 x 1.7 inches and 11.4 oz. The CoolPix 5000 is 4.0 x 3.2 x 2.7 inches and 12.6 oz. Whew... the 4500 is more of a jacket pocket camera than a shirt/pants pocket camera. The 4500 uses a 1.5" LCD with a much faster refresh rate than the 995. The display is easy to read and seems to have a anti-glare coating on it. The camera itself has multiple updates to it.

The 4500 is still easy to grip and handle with one hand and has a cleaner, slicker look to it than the 995 model... again the use of curves make the camera more aesthetically pleasing to look at and use. The use of a Magnesium alloy for the body gives a solid feel to the camera. The 4500 retains a split body design where the lens and viewfinder (and the flash mode/ISO mode button) are on one side of the camera while the controls and LCD are on the other side of the camera. You still have a swivel lock that can be engaged so you can't swivel the camera lens beyond 90 degree point. There is also less clutter on the control side of the 4500. You now have 4 buttons, a 4 way joystick, 2 way zoom rocker, a silver control dial, a mode button, a programmable function button, a new power switch, and the shutter. All the ports on the 995 are still on the 4500 (DC-IN, A/V out, digitial I/O, and the Nikon speedlight sync terminal).

Updated features to the 4500 includes 16 scene modes, the automatic pop-up flash that is hidden in the camera when not in use (this is way cool how Nikon implemented this!), 5 picture quality modes. two picture formats (TIFF and JPEG), 4 JPEG compression modes, multiple ISO settings, multiple continuous picture capture modes, tons of playback options, short movie capture mode with audio!, and still more features.

The 4500 is extremely easy to use as a point and shoot camera. Just set the camera to Auto mode and fire away. You don't have to adjust a thing... point at target, press shutter, and you get a great picture.

Wait... there's more! The 4500 allows extensive user control over pictures as well. You can make changes over the shutter speed and the aperture and even bulb exposure. There are even 16 preset scene modes for you to selct from as well. There is control for colour saturation, picture contrast, metering, white balance, image sharpening, exposure and focus options, and more! Playback options also allow a wide range of features including fairly extensive information on photos that include the exposure information, the focus length, the metering mode, and more. You can also have a histogram displayed for exposure monitoring with shots.

Shots and Colours

The 4500 takes excellent photos with a minimum of difficulty. At the highest quality settings of 4 MegaPixels (i.e. 2272 x 1704 pixels) with no compression, I could easily print 8x10 and 8.5x11 photos without a loss in detail and with accurate and vibrant colour reproduction. The use of a 4x optical zoom was also much appreciated compared to the 3x zoom on most of my other cameras. The red/purple haze that appeared on the 995 until medium to low light conditions is corrected in the 4500. I personally didn't find any colour problems to note of on the 4500 photos. I don't utilize the digital zoom so I can't comment on that.

Minor Problems

The 4500 is still a large camera overall... It is noticably bigger than the Canon S40 4 MegaPixel camera so it is not a pocket camera like the Canon Powershot S200 or S330. It does fit into a decent sized jacket pocket and has a good weight to it.

Canon only includes a 16MB CompactFlash card into the package... this is fairly useless. I would recommend buying at least a 128MB card for use.

Battery life seemed a bit short... but a little longer than my 995. I used the battery from my 995 (since it is the same battery type) and got about 200 shots from the 4500. The battery is a third party brand and has been in use for over 7 months now... so that could make a difference from a fresh EN-EL1 Lithium-Ion battery.

Bonus features

The 4500 has a great deal of expandability... with the ability to add on lens and the speedlight bracket. I can only say that I've heard good things about the majority of Nikon accessories for their other lines of digital cameras. I have no personal experience with these types of accessories.

Final Thoughts

What are you waiting for!? You want a 4 MegaPixel camera... buy this one... if you can't spend the money yet then start saving for one! Some of my friends with a G2 are envious of this camera.... heck some of my friends with a CoolPix 5000 are envious of the 4500! This camera is extremely hard to beat!