Nikon COOLPIX 4300 Digital Camera [4MP 3xOptical]

Product Information

The Coolpix 4300 performed well on our "laboratory" resolution test chart. It started showing artifacts in the test patterns at resolutions as low as 800 lines per picture height in both vertical and horizontal directions. I found "strong detail" out to about 1,050 lines per picture height in the vertical direction, and about 1,100 lines horizontally. "Extinction" of the target patterns occurred about 1,300 lines. From a viewpoint of optical designing, the pupil position is optimized for CCD by adding the positive group to the zoom lens of the two groups used in a wide-angle zoom lens, and then the group 3 reduces spherical aberration produced by the group1 and 2. Thus this optical design realizes a high performance most suitable for the digital camera. The focus adjustment by the group 3 has a characteristic that the lens is focused to the close distance with a slight lens movement on the wide-angle side in comparison with the telephoto side. Then, moving by an electric cum with a stepping motor, the group 3 enables the macro photography of 4cm just in front of the lens by focusing with full use of a surplus lens movement amount of the group 3 available on the wide-angle side. important differences which are detailed below. Coolpix 5700 compared to Coolpix 5000 (differences only) Excellent low-light performance: Great color balance, fairly low noise, but no AF assist light, and no distance readout in manual focus mode.

Nikon | Download center | COOLPIX S4300 Nikon | Download center | COOLPIX S4300

Due to available space limitation, that's all for tonight although I would like to introduce to you a converter lens attachable to this camera. Let's carry it over to next time. Although the lens of the COOLPIX 4300 is f/2.8 on the wide angle side which is a fast speed lens in the film camera, it can render the picture in acceptably sharp focus all over from the close to the far distances even when taken with the maximum aperture. There are several sizes of CCD available used in the COOLPIX, and even the largest screen sized CCD for use in the COOLPIX 5000 and 5700 is just approx.

is a case where a performance on the edge is not on a par with the one of the micro lens, so please make sure to take some trial shots in a case of precise reproduction. The Coolpix 4300 offers an interesting Image Adjustment menu, with a wide variety of options, letting you adjust contrast, lightness, and color. The COOLPIX 4300 has only two aperture stops, the maximum and minimum. A part of the reason why there are only two aperture stops is that the sufficient depth of field can be obtained even with the maximum aperture as described before. Another reason is an effect of light diffraction. The lens of the COOLPIX 4300 is equivalent to 38 to 115mm by conversion into the 135-type film, but due to the small screen size, the focal length is in fact equivalent to only 8mm on the wide angle and 24mm even on the telephoto. The lens focal length of the digital camera is definitely short when compared with the one of the film camera. Therefore, the depth of field becomes deep. (see sample 1)

Side-by-side camera comparison - Digital Photography Review

What is a big difference between a 135-type film camera and the compact digital camera like the COOLPIX ? In a word, it comes down to the fact that the screen size is small. The Coolpix 4300 turned out to be an excellent low light performer, capturing bright, clear images all the way down to the 1/16 foot-candle (0.67 lux) limit of my test, even at ISO 100. (This is quite dark, only 1/16th as bright as typical city streetlighting at night.) Its full manual exposure control,maximum exposure time of 1 minute in "bulb" mode, and functional noise reduction system make for great low-light photos. The one limitation is that there's neither an autofocus assist lamp nor a numeric readout on the manual-focus distance scale. It can thus be a little problematic achieving accurate focus under low light conditions. This shot is always a very tough test of a camera's white balance capability, given the strong, yellowish color cast of the household incandescent bulbs used for the lighting. The Coolpix 4300's Manual white balance clearly produced the best color, but its Auto option did much better than average. ( Incandescent really had trouble though.) Marti's skin tone is pretty good here, and even the always-difficult blue flowers turned out pretty well. Here again, quite a bit of exposure compensation was needed, as the camera's default exposure produced very dark images. (All the shots at right were snapped with an exposure boost of +1.3 EV.)He has also written for a wide range of publications including T3, BBC Focus, Empire, NME, Radio Times, MacWorld, Computer Active, What Digital Camera and Rough Guide books. You can power the camera with either the included rechargeable lithium-ion battery or a disposable lithium 2CR5 cell. The Nikon Coolpix 4300 is a digital camera that was made by Nikon. It was first released on October 1, 2002, and is no longer in production. At 4.0 effective megapixels, it is capable of delivering 2,272 × 1,704 pixel images. An included lens cap protects its Nikkor 3× optical Zoom lens, with a focal length of 8 to 24mm (equivalent of a field of view in 38 to 114mm lens), as well as an aperture of f/2.8–4.9 and shutter speed of 8–1/1,000 sec. It is capable of ISO equivalents of 100, 200, and 400. Gavin has over 30 year experience of writing about photography and television. He is currently the editor of British Photographic Industry News, and previously served as editor of Which Digital Camera and deputy editor of Total Digital Photography.

Nikon Coolpix 4300, four megapixel - Digital Photography Review

When a small subject is taken with a close-up shot, the lens needs to be considerably stopped down for focusing on the overall subject in the film camera. But, the subject can be shot in a bright condition since even the maximum aperture lens of the COOLPIX produces the same depth of field as with the stopped-down apertures f/13 ~ f/24. Furthermore, there is no need for hassle and annoying operations for computing an aperture value suitable for focus on the whole subject.Save some room in your budget for a reasonably large CompactFlash Type I card to replace the 16MB "starter" card that Nikon includes. Fig.1 is a lens structure view of the COOLPIX 4300. The lens is consisted of three groups including the first group of a negative lens as a whole, the second group of a positive lens as a whole and the third group of a single positive lens element. Wherein the lens is zoomed by moving the group 1 and 2 and is focused by moving the group 3 as indicated in the figure. The Coolpix 4300's Manual white balance setting produced the best results here, with the most accurate overall color. Though slightly warm, I preferred the warmer cast to the Daylight setting's cool tone. The Auto setting was just a little too warm here. All white balance settings were close enough to neutral to be considered usable though. Resolution is very high, as the tree limbs and shrubbery show great detail. Details are also sharp throughout the frame, though the corners betray a hint of softness. The COOLPIX 4300, which was released in September 2002 and designed as a sister camera of high-end COOLPIX series 950 to 4500 of which a distinctive swivel design enabling the lens to point anywhere you want got many attentions, has almost all features of the high-end camera like exposure compensation and manual exposure although it has a scene mode convenient for a novice. We got good battery life out of the Coolpix 4300, even though the LCD indicator showed a deceptive half-power icon for most of our shooting time. The included rechargeable lithium-ion battery held out for about 200 shots with heavy LCD use and continuous autofocus engaged. This Coolpix can also be powered by a disposable 2CR5 lithium battery--a boon to travelers. Nikon maintains its reputation for producing high-quality photos with the Coolpix 4300. Its photos showed realistically rendered colors and balanced exposures, and although they're not the sharpest or most detailed we've seen from a 4-megapixel camera, they're certainly among the best in their class. Noise in low-light situations is kept to a minimum, even without the additional help of the camera's selectable noise-reduction feature.