Digital Camera Review:
Five New Nikons

Nikon Coolpix 4600

Nikon Coolpix 7900

March 7, 2005--Nikon recently announced the introduction of five new Coolpix digital cameras--all compact, all point-and-shoot. The 4600, 5600, 5900, 7600, and 7900 are all designed with portability, picture quality, and ease of use in mind. They range in price between $199.95 (for the 4600) and $449.95 (for the 7900), and any one of them would make a fine point-and-shoot for anyone who enjoys taking pictures, or a great pocket camera for a professional with a bagful of gear.

The first thing that struck us about these cameras is that all five are super-compact, measuring a tiny 3.5" x 2.5" x 1.5" and weighing in at a feathery five ounces. They are all equipped with a variety of automatic and manual focusing modes, as well as the usual profusion of automatic exposure modes--16 at last count, ranging from full auto to portrait, landscape, indoor, panorama, and underwater. (Given that the cameras are not waterproof, use of the underwater mode is only possible with the optional waterproof case.) All come with a built-in flash, 14 Mb of memory, and Nikon's PictureProject photo management and editing software.

One of the things that home users will appreciate the most about these cameras is the great lengths to which Nikon has gone to make it easy to take great pictures. This begins with redesigned menus offering both text- and icon-based navigation; continues with the litany of shooting modes designed to render particular kinds of scenes with the greatest possible verisimilitude; and winds up with a barrage of sophisticated features like red-eye reduction software, automatic compensation for underexposed areas of an image during playback, blur warning, and others. The other thing that home users will enjoy is the many methods that the cameras offer for displaying and printing your pictures. You can view them on the cameras' built-in LCD screen, play them back on a television, or download them to a computer for editing, printing, and archiving; you can also print pictures online, at camera shop kiosks, or directly to PictBridge-enabled inkjet printers.

While the 600 and 700 series differ slightly in ergonomics--including the size of their LCD screens (1.8" on the 600s vs. 2.0" for the 700s) and the location of the mode dial (on the back on the 600s vs. on top for the 700s)--the principal differences among the cameras fall into four areas:

• Lens: The 5900, 7600, and 7900 are all equipped with 7.8-23.4mm zoom lens (roughly equivalent to 38-114mm in 35mm terms) made of Nikon's legendary extra-low dispersion (ED) glass, which produces sharper images that standard optical glass. The 4600 and 5600, by contrast, have a slightly wider-angle 5.7-17.1mm lens (35-105mm in 35mm terms) made of standard optical glass. The larger you print your pictures, and the pickier you are about sharpness, the more you want the ED glass.
• Resolution: The 4600 is a 4.0-megapixel camera; the 5600 and 5900 come equipped with 5.1 megapixels; and the 7600 and 7900 boast a trend-setting 7.1 megapixels, far more than your typical compact point-and-shoot camera. How much resolution you need depends on how big you print your pictures; see the box below for some guidelines.
• Body construction: The 600 series is made of silvered plastic, while the slightly heavier 700 series is made of black anodized aluminum. In theory this should make the 700s more durable under tough shooting conditions, but we still wouldn't recommend dropping it on the sidewalk. Ultimately, however, we just prefer the feel of a metal-bodied camera.
• Power supply: The 700 series runs on Nikon's rechargeable EN-EL5 battery or a single disposable CP1 photo battery. The 600 series, by contrast, runs on two standard or rechargeable AA batteries, making it easier--in principle--to replace dead batteries on the road. If your shooting does not take you to remote places, however, the 700s will do fine as well: CP1 batteries are available in most pharmacies in the United States.

On the whole, we like these new additions to Nikon's Coolpix line of digital cameras. There are only a few things we wish Nikon had done differently:

• Controls: The tiny controls may require nimble fingers, and may make it difficult for some people to operate the camera. We wish they were slightly larger.
• Memory: Like all digital cameras, the current Coolpixes are memory hogs, yet they come with only 14 Mb of built-in memory--enough to store only seven shots at highest quality on the 4600, or only four on the 7600. The statistics are a bit better at lower resolution, clocking in at 14 to 17 shots depending on which model you choose, but still less than half a roll of film. For best performance, you will undoubtedly want to buy an SD memory card.
• Shooting modes: Among the plethora of modes available on these cameras, there is no manual mode. Although it's now possible to do just about anything with a decent digital capture in Photoshop, we still miss a manual mode for when we feel the creative urge.
• File format: The 4600-7900 cameras can save pictures as JPEG files at several resolutions and quality settings, but unlike Nikon's pricier digital SLRs they cannot output raw digital files. JPEGs are great for most uses, but at their best they cannot match raw files for quality or flexibility. We wish these cameras could export raw files.
• Filters and accessories: A few compact digital cameras offer users the ability to attach polarizers, filters, and other accessories that will appeal to more advanced photographers. The Nikon 4600-7900 series are not among these cameras, and given their strengths in other areas we wish they were.

Visit Nikon's web site for a full list of features and specifications for these cameras.