Nikon Coolpix S4000

Viewfinder

Nope.

LCD

The 3-inch LCD is large for a small camera, and the 460,000-dot resolution is a nice step-up from the more common 230,000-dot spec, providing a display that's both colorful and crisp. And, as shown below, you can adjust the screen brightness to suit the setting or your personal preferences.

The S4000 touch-screen is higher-res than most.

Of course, this screen has to do more than look pretty: it has work to do as the camera's chief control mechanism. Here, working with a pre-production camera, we found responsiveness to be OK but not great. Fortunately, Nikon has set up virtual on-screen buttons that are large enough and far enough apart to prevent accidentally pressing the wrong control. We would like to see a slightly faster response time in the final camera, though.

While shooting, pressing the on-screen INFO button toggles between a few on-screen displays, including the option to have a grid pattern overlaid on the live view for more precise alignment, which we find helpful.

Flash

The built-in flash is a tiny thing, probably adequate for filling in shadows in a harshly lit environment, but not likely to do much good when trying to capture a party full of friends in a dim indoor setting. The flash can be set to automatic, use pre-flash red-eye reduction, fire every time you press the shutter, or shoot in night portrait mode.

The small flash won't be much use in a large room.

Lens

The 4.9- 19.6mm lens is equivalent to a 27-108mm on a 35mm camera. With a maximum aperture of f/3.2 at the widest setting and f/5.9 at full zoom, it's not the fastest lens on the block, but for a $200 camera it's acceptable.

The 5x lens runs from a decent wide angle to a good portrait length.

One feature missing from the S4000 is mechanical image stabilization, either optical or sensor-shift. Instead, the camera relies on digital processing (Electronic VR Image Stabilization) and bumps up the ISO and shutter speed when camera shake is detected.

Jacks, Ports & Plugs

You may be able to shoot at a high-def resolution, but that doesn't mean you'll be able to watch high-def straight out of the camera. One of the compromises made here when compared to more full-featured (and expensive) cameras is the lack of an HDMI port for direct connection to an HDTV set.

Sorry, HD movie lovers -- no HDMI here.

Battery

The slim Nikon EN-EL10 Lithium-ion rechargeable battery shares a compartment on the camera bottom with the SD memory card. We were pleased to see that, in addition to using the included battery charge, the battery can also be charged by connecting the camera to your computer's USB port, making one less piece of gear you need to remember while traveling.

A cozy spot for battery and memory card.

Memory

The S4000 accepts SD and SDHC memory cards; Nikon hasn't started supporting the higher-capacity SDXC memory cards yet.