problematic issue is the inability to see the view screen in bright sunlight. There is no optical viewer, only the view screen. A shading mechanism would be helpful. ________________________________________________________________

          
Great Zoom says it all, March 5, 2006
Reviewer: Sami Paskin

Zoom was the main reason for me to upgrade my camera to this one. Being a Nikon was the second reason.
It's the MOST POWERFULLL ZOOM in the market and this is very, VERY usefull to any picture you want to take. I mean REAL zoom, not that digital one that you can do on your computer and that you should NOT do with your camera, because it sacrifices quality of the original, which is a nonsense.

It's a very high quality and beautifull lenses.
I just criticize the way Nikon still uses the pre-defined (scene) options. They indicate the scene options as basic black icons, while other brands already shows a PICTURE of the expected result, so you REALLY have an idea on what each scene server for.
If that's not important to you (if you are a beginner, it IS, believe me), this camera is a MUST.
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Battery problems, focusing problems, March 3, 2006
Reviewer: Ashwin Kulothungun "Chs"

The camera's great otherwise - excellent zoom, resolution, and overall good clarity and color in the images produced. The two things that detract from it though, are the battery and the focusing mechanism.
My batteries lasted for barely 40 shots before I had to replace them - this happened thrice before I finally replaced them with li-ion rechargeables. These were almost worse to begin with, but I knew you had to wear them in, and after the third recharge, they started improving - but not by much - it still gets only about 50 shots before it dies ( or sometimes it doesn't die, but it gives you an out of juice error and comes back to life when you restart it).
My focus apparently had a problem too - it barely ever worked. Often, I'd have to wait up to 20 seconds just trying to get it to autofocus properly.
I also wish it had image stabilization.
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Nikon, Detroit and Dinosaurs, March 1, 2006
Reviewer: Cecil Fox

Nikon is like the almost defunct Detroit auto industry. They don't give you what you want but rather what they want you to have. Their marketeers have taken the Coolpix 900 series and removed most of the desirable features and added what they think is appropriate for dummies. Gone is the view finder. No place to put an accessory finder a la Leica viewer. Instead, you have the option of trying to guess at the picture, not an easy task for the near sighted in bright light. THEY will tell you by an ikon when your picture is in THEIR idea of focus. There doesn't seem to be a manual setting, but instead you are presented with a baffling display of what Nikon thinks will improve your pictures to Nikon's (not your) satisfaction called the "Scene Mode". In other words you have abdicated any and all control of the pictures. The battery situation is back to rechargable AAs. In addition, Nikon was having trouble with people using Coolpix for other things, like microscopes. Well no more, the accessory threads no longer exist so you are out of luck. The flash options are ridiculous and it is impossible to use an accessory flash. Clearly this was an interrim solution for the Nikon Nazis who want to force you into their high end like the D200. I could find only two reasons to own this camera, the bump in the chip to a putative 6 megs and the tiltable lens. Its impending demise is certain, and the price is already dropping.
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basicly, it's a good 10x optical zoom DC, February 23, 2006
Reviewer: Chih Chang

I like the old coolpix turnable lense desigen. And the 10x optical zoom is useful, too. But the battery life is sort and the LCD is too big to leave space for your hold finger and the hand will touch it all the time in eye level shot.
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Great Camera, February 18, 2006
Reviewer: R. Stearns
This is my fourth Coolpix camera starting with the original 950 in 1999. They are great cameras packed with lots of features. The swivel is a great feature, allowing for stealth photos and different angles while composing the shot. Picture quality is good and S4 has a much better flash, and indoor capabilities than previous models. I have taken over 10,000 images with the Nikon Coolpix family and, obviously very happy with the cameras.

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