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Nikon Coolpix S4

Digital Camera Review

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Physical Tour

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Design / Layout
December 16, 2005 By Patrick Singleton
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Viewfinder (0.0)
The Coolpix S4 does not have a viewfinder; a viewfinder would not work well with a split-bodied design.
 
LCD Screen (5.5)
The Coolpix S4's LCD screen is a pleasant 2.5 inches diagonally, but, at 110,000 pixels, it's about as low-resolution as we've seen recently. In playback mode, it's possible to magnify images up to 10x, which allows a fair evaluation of image sharpness, but this evaluation can only occur after the shot is taken. It would be much more useful to have an LCD that offered better views while shots are being captured. The LCD also offers a limited angle of view. It darkens, gets washed out, and solarizes as one turns it even moderately off center.
 
Flash (5.5)
The Coolpix S4's flash has a number of strikes against it. It's designed as a tiny rectangle and is small enough it could hide behind a dime. A small light source creates high contrast, specular lighting that is unflattering to human skin, and accentuates pores and blemishes.

The fixed unit is positioned close to the lens. Nikon says it's effective out to approximately 10 feet. Our shots at 10 feet were a bit underexposed.
 
The position of the flash is unfortunate too, for a couple of reasons: first, the flash will cast ugly shadows in horizontal shots, because it is next to, not above, the lens. When users shoot verticals with the Coolpix S4, they should hold the camera with the lens below the rest of the camera, so that the flash will be above the lens – that way, the shadows will fall below the subjects, not above them. It's not likely, though, that many users will hold the camera that way, because in this position it feels awkward in the hand.
 
Second, the closer the flash is to the lens, the more likely it is to produce red-eye.
The Coolpix S4 offers two strategies for red-eye reduction. The standard one is very common: the flash goes off just before the picture is taken, as well as during the exposure. The first flash should force the subject’s pupils to contract, limiting red-eye. The second method is more unusual. Software in the Coolpix S4 looks for red eyes, and retouches them automatically. In our test shots, red-eye was controlled effectively.

Lens (7.25)
The 6.3–63mm Nikkor zoom on the Coolpix S4 is heir to the common flaw of long zoom lenses: it shows significant barrel distortion at the wide angle end of its range. We also noticed color fringing at various focal lengths.  Fortunately, it didn’t seem bad enough to mar snapshots, but it would be visible on an 8 x 10-inch print.
 
The lens's maximum aperture is f/3.5 throughout the 10x zoom range. The Coolpix S4 can achieve the equivalent of a minimum aperture of f/13.6 through a combination of aperture and a neutral density filter.
 

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Nikon Coolpix S4
Digital Camera Review
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Physical Tour

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Design / Layout