Pros: Light, Compact, 2 year Warranty, Great Pictures, many different picture modes, Ease of use!
Cons: Blurred pictures without flash, auto-focus for movie mode makes annoying clicking sound!
The Bottom Line: The camera is a great buy. It has many features you would never think a camera would, and it is very simple to operate and very compact.
damanger's Full Review: Nikon COOLPIX 4100 Digital Camera
I was in great need for a new camera. With an upcoming wedding and a honeymoon to the Caribbean, I need a camera that would take great pictures and be light, and easy to carry when I was on my travels.
I looked at many models, like the Sony DSC-P73 4.1 Megapixel camera, but quickly eliminated it, because the shape of the camera was hard to hold, and it was quite bulky in both size and weight. I finally settled on my Nikon Camera, for several reasons, but mostly because I got a great deal.
For someone who can't read the box up and close, the Nikon Camera series, always comes with a 2 year manufacturers warranty, opposed to one year for most other camera manufacturers. It always comes with 2 NiMH batteries plus charger, photo-editing software,16MB internal memory, instruction booklet and video (on Photo CD). It was highly praised by the sales rep I bought it from.
When I tested out the camera, I was actually surprised at how easy it was. As my wife read through the manual, I just fooled around with the different features, like movie mode. The movie mode is neat, takes a medium quality video, but there are a few drawbacks. First, I was using a 256MB SD ram memory card, and I only got 7 minutes of video with that. It is really a memory hog. Also, the more annoying thing, is that the sound quality is poor, and is made worse by a clicking noise, as the cameras focuses in and out to get the best possible image. Once you are used to it, you barely notice it. Don't expect to make any home movies, but it is nice for short tidbits.
One of the more interesting features I found, was panoramic view. You can take a 3-D image, of a room, but taking several consecutive images and lining them up. It was helpful at my sister's wedding, where we needed to take a single picture of the entire head table. A single normal picture would not have sufficed. Besides the normal extremes, that feature really serves no use.
Now, the camera came with two NiMH batteries. Their life is about 2-3 hours. Now, if while your NiMH are charging, you decide to use regular batteries, be warned, their life is like 15-20 minutes. That is pretty sad, if you ask me. My solution, was to buy an extra set of NiMH and always have a set in the charger.
Now the picture quality is great. I tried all the different quality pictures, and sizes. I could find none that would give a bad picture, except one. While I was at the church at my sister's wedding, we were not allowed to use the flash. So I took all the pictures in auto-focus mode, with no flash, and all the pictures turned out blurry. I was very unpleased. I went to the Nikon website to find out that was a problem with the entire Nikon Coolpix series cameras, when the flash was not used. I was a little relieved, but was still scratching my head as to why it would do that.
Another thing I noticed, was that the camera takes a long time to write a picture to the memory card. So, taking pictures in concession is difficult. What I did find, though, was if I used my internal memory, I could snap picture after picture, as it took a fraction of the time to write it to the internal memory.
The software "Picture Project" is actually really easy to use. I am very computer Knowledgeable, but even I hate having to read manuals to find out how programs work. Downloading the pictures off of the memory card and adjusting things like red eye, surprisingly, were very easy. I never even had to read the manual.
There are many different modes, like evening, sports, daytime features, I know I will rarely use, as I sit on automatic mode the whole time.
There was one other feature, that sold this camera for me. When I was looking at Digital Cameras, like the Sony's and Canon's, one of the drawbacks, was their confusing menu screens. Even changing the simplest setting was quite difficult. When I was fooling around with this Nikon Camera, I found the menu's were easy to understand, as the letters are large and bright, instead of black background with light gray lettering.
One last note, for the best pictures, if you hold the button down halfway, your flash will ready itself, and you are more likely to take a more accurate picture, per say, if you were taking a photo of something moving, (like a bride down the aisle at a church, or a child who keeps looking away)
Overall, I have had this camera for 4 months now, have taken it to a wedding, a family reunion, and a honeymoon, and I have been overly pleased with everything. All my pictures and mini-movies turned out great, except the ones from the church, (no flash, as mentioned above). I know Nikon is known for great cameras, but this is my first digital camera, and I am very impressed.
Since I am a Digital Camera Newbie, I would rate his Camera 8.5/10.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 260.00 This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.