Rating: 
Summary: Great Camera
Review: I reviewed several digital cameras before settling on this one. This one was rated very high by several people (check out this site and epinions.com). I have not been disappointed with my purchase. Picture quality in outdoor settings is indistinguishable from 35mm. On average, indoor shots with a flash are not quite as good as 35mm. However, the convenience of using digital far outweighs the slightly less accurate indoor pictures. I am extremely satisfied with this camera. I purchased it ... from Amazon on a since discontinued promotion. Buy an extra battery - life is good but still somewhat short. Don't buy this camera if you are not going to purchase a 128 megabyte card. You need the storage to hold a decent amount of shots at 4 megapixel resolution. I have one thing to say to the numbskulls who complain that this camera's controls are confusing and hard to remember: READ THE DIRECTIONS! The regular mode in this camera works for 80% of settings. The "scene" mode works well for the remainder of shots that are not going to be in a "regular" setting. I wish the camera had a higher optical zoom so that I could take better wildlife photos. However, its 3x optical setting is acceptable for 70% of the shots that I take. Buy this camera, you won't regret it.
Rating: 
Summary: Skip this four hundred dollar paperweight
Review: This camera stopped working after six days of use without any apparent damage (no droppage, water, etc.). Tech support tried to be helpful, but they couldn't even diagnose the problem. Hopefully the vendor will take it back and let me switch to a different manufacturer.
Rating:
Summary: Great camera!
Review: I bought this camera a couple of weeks ago and love it! The outdoor pictures are sharp and crisp, and I've taken a couple of close-ups and blown them up to poster size with no loss of clarity. My favorite feature is the "small pic" button that allows you to reduce the resolution of your photos for internet and/or email use. I used to have to get my software to do this and it was a bit time consuming. I love the idea that the camera will do it for me. I agree that the battery life is short, but I carry an extra charged battery with me, and it isn't a problem. You can also buy disposable batteries at the drugstore or grocery store, so you should never be left in the lurch unless you fail to plan. My biggest problem so far has been my indoor pictures. The photos I took recently at a couple of indoor parties were horrible and blurry. I used one of the pre-set scenes to shoot them. I will need to play around with the settings a bit, and I'm sure I will be able to figure out a good way to shoot these situations to improve the quality. It was pretty dark in the rooms where I was trying to take the pictures, but I'm sure I'll get it figured out.
Excellent value for the money!
Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely great point and shoot camera
Review: First of all, let's start with my needs: (1) $500 budget (2)4mp resolution, (3) optical clarity and color, (4)fast - very little shutter lag and quick sep-up for next picture, (5)compact size, and (6) good camera grip to minimize camera shake. For three months, I've researched the internet and magazines, queried various sales personnel, and took hands-on in-store test drives. And I finally settled on the Nikon Coolpix 4300. I have it for a week now, and this camera has exceeded my expectations. The daylight pictures are brilliant and the indoor shots are very good provided that your subject is no more than about 8 feet away. The shutter lag is on par with what I've experienced with point and shoot 35mm and APS film cameras and the next frame advance is about a couple seconds using a high speed 12x 128MB compact flash card (a salesperson recommended the high speed card since next frame advance speed was important to me - and it was only [a few dollars] more). Uploading the images to my Windows-based PC is very fast and simple. The only drawbacks I've encountered are: (1)indoor shots from a distance (>8ft) lack contrast and color, but I've found this to be a problem with all cameras with built-in flashes that I've used (even on a Nikon SLR). Right now, I'm researching for an inexpensive ... slave flash unit that's designed for digital cameras. (2) The battery life seems to be on the short side but adequate for most situations. I got 45 outdoor and 15 indoor shots with the monitor on (turning the camera off and on over a 4 hour period) before the battery died. An extra [$$$] for a back-up battery would be a good investment. (3)The picture editing software it came with is adequate, but not very robust. I'll still use my PhotoSuite for editing. One more thing about indoor shots - many of the reviews knocked this camera for low light focusing. Just for the heck of it, I took it into my dark kitchen with only indirect light coming in though the door, and the focusing was just fine. In summary, I love this camera and would whole-heartedly recommend this to anyone wanting a high quality point and shoot camera in the [medium] price range. (June 2003 - Since I wrote the review above in January 2003, I still love this camera. I've picked up a few accessories that I found to be useful. I bought a Digi-Slave DSF-1s flash unit. I don't use a bracket, I just hold it above my head and aim the flash with my left hand. I also got a UR-E4 Step Down Ring Adapter, LC-E900 lens cap, and the Nikon 28mm filter set. This provides added protection for the camera lens and allows the use of filters. I leave the adapter and UV filter on all the time. This also allows you to turn on the camera on without having to remove the lens cap. The downside is that you might accidentally take pictures with the lens cap on, the camera won't fit in the small cases, and 28mm filters are expensive and hard to find.)
Rating:
Summary: Perfect consumer digital camera
Review: If you do any research into digital cameras, you'll quickly find that this camera is just about the best value out there. These are the reasons I think it's great: 1) It has all the features an amatuer photo-enthusiast would want.
2) It is easy enough for my grandmother to use.
3) It is very compact but the controls are so well designed that they're still easy to use.
4) It has optional lenses like wide angles and extra zooms.
5) For "digital film" it uses Compact Flash cards, which are easy to find, cheap, reliable and supported by many other devices you may have at hoome.
6) The Nikon Coolpix line is a well-established line so you know support and parts are going to be available even when Nikon releases a newer model.
7) Picture quality is excellent.
8) Battery life is excellent.
9) 3x built-in optical zoom is a lot for this price range.
10) Great price for all the features. Here's what you may miss or be annoyed by with this camera: 1) No direct firewire to the camera. There is USB, though.
2) The camera is so small that when you attach some lenses (I have the 19mm wide-angle--WC-E68), the optical viewfinder is partially obscured. This doesn't affect the picture, of course. You just have to use the LCD viewfinder to see the whole picture. It's no problem for me personally.
3) Battery has to be removed to recharge.
4) An AC adapter for powering the camera while the battery's out is not included, although one can be purchased separately.
5) Two different adapters--UR-E4 and UR-E7--are required for some attachment lenses.... Most of these "annoyances", though, are comparable to what you'll find on other cameras in this price range.
Rating:
Summary: Picture Qualtiy Great
Review: Camera takes great pictures. The complaint by others about cap design must be better understood. It does take an easy manual removal to take off the cap. But this is only so that the camera is allowed an additional feature not found in most other small cameras. Using a special attachment you can attach regular Nikon large lenses to the camera. Buy a backup battery for this or any digital camera. The case made for this camera is a gret deal.
Rating:
Summary: The best 4mp compact digital available
Review: This camera is perfect for an enthusiastic amateur photographer. The pictures are razor-sharp, even in macro. It is small enough to fit easily in a coat pocket or purse. It is light enough to carry around all day without bother. Operating its many features is easy and often obvious - I'm no Annie Lebovitz, but I was able to figure out most of its abilities just messing around with it at a camera store. The manual does a fine job filling in any blanks that remain. The auto-focus performs well, but I love having the 12 optional scene modes - they are dummy-proof, and correspond to many situations in which I would actually seek to use the camera. Comes with a 16 mb compact flash and one rechargable battery (the charging unit, included, is fast and small). I bought a 256 mb cf and a second battery, so it's good to go on a long vacation. I enthusiastically recommend this camera.
Rating:
Summary: Stationed in Iraq......
Review: and this camera is everything I wanted! Even more. Extremely easy to use right out of the box. Very durable......so far. Pictures are perfectly clear and easy to send to my wife via e-mail. Two drawbacks: Camera is a bit loud. Maybe because it's always focusing on objects. 16 mb card is a joke. Luckily, I have a thumb drive and I can download them to it. Anyway, if you're looking for a great camera at a reasonable price, go with the Nikon 4300.
Rating:
Summary: good camera, but not terrific
Review: I bought this camera one year ago and paid mid $300 for it. It did produce several nice pictures. But I'm disappointed with two facts. First of all, it's hard to get a good picture of moving subjects. Many pictures of my baby girl, when she is waving her hands or rolling over on the floor, are blurry. Second, I haven't gotten any good prints yet. All pictures look vivid on the computer but dull on the print. Maybe it's because I developed them at Sam's club. But it sucks if the only way to get good pix is to develop them at somewhere else at higher price. I have read several good reviews of this product on this website and many others. I feel either those guys are smarter than me, or they just have relatively low expectation of digital cameras. I really hope that in the future when someone writes his enthusiastic reviews of this product, he can tell us whether he has experienced my problems, and if yes, how he solves them.
Rating:
Summary: REALLY pleased with this camera!
Review: I purchased the Coolpix 4300 back around Xmas. After using in heavily during the past 3 months, I can say that I am pleased and pleasantly surprised with it. The Coolpix is very easy to use. The instructions are clear, the controls make sense - even my technophobe wife has figured it out and takes good pictures. Picture quality is OUTSTANDING. I love the depth of color I get, especially outdoors. Once I figured out that pushing the "shutter release" button halfway down before taking the picture almost completely eliminates the shutter lag, my pictures have been great. It seems to take better pictures on the Automatic setting, as opposed to the various scenes or manual settings, but that may very well be operator error. And, of course, the real appeal of digital photography - with a couple of 256MB Lexar cards (for less money than I could believe), I can take 20 shots of the same thing with the certainty that 5 of them are going to be exactly what I want. Some other raves: The camera fits into your hand very well. It's small enough to put in your coat pocket. It's lightweight, but feels well-made. I've had good luck with battery life, although I'm glad I bought an extra battery for peace of mind. The software that comes with the camera isn't anything to write home about (not much here that isn't already included in Windows XP and Office 2003), but Nikon.Net is a VERY cool bonus. Overall, I couldn't be more pleased with the Coolpix 4300. I take many more pictures of many more subjects since I bought it, which is the whole point of buying a good camera. I enthusiasticly recommend this product!
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