Nikon COOLPIX 4300 Digital Camera [4MP 3xOptical]

Product Information

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 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. The shot at right was taken with a +0.3 EV exposure compensation adjustment, which brightened the midtones while losing only the brightest highlight detail. I chose the Daylight white balance as the most accurate, as the Auto and Manual white balances both resulted in warm images. (The Manual setting produced the warmest of the two, with a strong yellow cast.)

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Optical distortion on the Coolpix 4300 is about average (which is nonetheless too high in my opinion) at the wide-angle end, where I measured approximately 0.8 percent barrel distortion. The telephoto end fared a little better, where I measured a 0.2 percent pincushion distortion. Chromatic aberration is moderate, showing only about three pixels of coloration on either side of the target lines in the corners of the image. (This distortion is visible as a very slight colored fringe around the objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target.) The extreme tonal range of this image makes it a tough shot for many digicams, which is precisely why I set it up this way, and why I shoot it with no fill flash or reflector to open the shadows. The object is to hold both highlight and shadow detail without producing a "flat" picture with muddy colors, and the Coolpix 4300 did a good job. 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.

Viewers of you have had an idea about the fact that a lens performance falls off if the lens is stopped down too much, haven't you? Light has a corpuscular nature that light goes straight, whereas light has a wave nature that light diffracts a bit around the edge of the aperture stop. As the lens is being stopped down, a component of diffracting light is in increase relatively and thereby definition falls off. A perfect lens f/4 with no aberrations has a resolving power of 400 lines per 1mm, but when the lens is stopped down to f/16, the resolving power is reduced to 90 lines per 1mm.

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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. For example, it has a function to change white balance, gradation compensation, edge enhancement and sensitivity manually, so this makes it possible to change a setting responsive to a subject and ambient situation just like changing a roll film loaded in a film camera. 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.)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.

Nikon Coolpix 4300 review: Nikon Coolpix 4300 - CNET

Slightly low flash power, with a range closer to 8 feet in our tests than the 12 feet of Nikon's specs. 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. 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. inch in a diagonal length and the CCD size of the compact COOLPIX 3100, SQ and 3700 is just only approx. 1/6.5 inch in comparison with the 135-type film. Thus, this small sized CCD enables to make the lens compact and produce new features that are not found in the film camera. This Agreement is governed by and shall be construed in accordance with the laws of Japan without regard to its conflicts of laws principles. In the event a dispute arises under or in connection with this Agreement, you hereby consent to personal jurisdiction of Japan and waive any objection that such forum is inconvenient. You further consent to service of process in any action arising from this Agreement by regular mail or other commercially reasonable means of receipted delivery. If any provision of the Agreement shall be determined invalid for any reason, the remaining provisions shall not be invalidated and shall remain in full force and effect. This Agreement sets forth the entire agreement and understanding between you and Nikon, and supersedes and replaces any other agreements relating to the subject matter of this Agreement. The failure of any party to insist upon strict performance of any of the terms or provisions of this Agreement, or the exercise of any option, right or remedy contained herein, shall not be construed as a waiver of any future application of such term, provision, option, right or remedy, and such term, provision, option, right or remedy shall continue and remain in full force and effect. The headings of the sections of this Agreement are inserted for convenience only and shall not constitute a part hereof or affect in any way the meaning or interpretation of this Agreement. Except as otherwise expressly provided herein, the provisions of section 3 and section 4 together with any provisions that by their express terms apply to periods after termination of this Agreement, shall survive termination of this Agreement for any reason.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. The Coolpix 4300's optical viewfinder is very tight, showing only about 81 percent of the frame at wide angle, and about 79 percent at telephoto. The LCD monitor is much more accurate, showing approximately 98 percent accuracy at wide angle and telephoto. Given that I like LCD monitors to be as close to 100 percent accuracy as possible, the Coolpix 4300's LCD monitor performs well here, but the optical viewfinder leaves a good bit to be desired. Flash distribution is fairly even at wide angle, with just slight falloff at the corners and edges of the frame. At telephoto, flash distribution is more uniform, but dimmer. 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.

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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. As another example, Fig.2 shows a lens of the COOLPIX SQ. In a spiral type lens like the SQ, the focusing group as the group 1 is moved by the electric cum and the macro photography is realized by using the surplus lens movement amount of the group 1 available in-between the wide angle and the telephoto.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. 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. 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. The Coolpix 4300 offers variable ISO settings ranging from 100 to 400. Noise at 100 is pretty low, but as always increases along with the ISO. At ISO 400, it's quite pronounced, but no worse than the majority of consumer-level digicams out there. Excellent low-light performance: Great color balance, fairly low noise, but no AF assist light, and no distance readout in manual focus mode.