And it could put you in a poor frame of mind for judging the rest of this camera’s design. Even the most forgiving users are going to agree that the grey rubberised finish of the buttons on the backplate is unappealing, and that the four-way navipad feels generally stiff and ‘dead’. However, it’s a body shape that Nikon has been using for some time (in its Coolpix 880, 885 and 775), so it must be popular.

Nikon Coolpix 4300 Photographic results

And that’s a great pity, because the first set of shots you take with this camera reveal that it’s a cracker. The lens and the 3.3-megapixel CCD in the outgoing 885 model seemed little better or worse than those in any number of other 3.3-megapixel digital cameras, but the swap to a 4-megapixel CCD in the 4300 has changed all that. Indeed, despite the higher 5MP resolution of the Coolpix 5700, the 4300 produces the crisper shots.

We know what you’re thinking: maybe the 4300 uses some kind of super-aggressive in-camera sharpening that also brings unwanted noise and edge effects? Not as far as we can see. Indeed, you can run a Sharpen filter over the 4300′s images and make them that little bit crisper still without the image edges breaking up unduly.

This outright image quality makes the Nikon’s handling problems even harder to bear. You have to shift your right hand away from the optimum gripping position to get your index finger on the shutter release. Whether it’s this, or the button’s fairly heavy action, we don’t know, but we got more camera shake with the Nikon than with any of the other cameras on test. Bright light won’t pose any problems, but when the shutter speeds fall to 1/60sec or below, you could face problems – camera shake will creep in before the Nikon’s auto-ISO function starts ramping up the CCD sensitivity.

Round the back of the camera, things aren’t a lot better. The optical viewfinder does the job, but it’s not especially big and the same can be said for the 1.6-inch LCD. It’s crisp and responsive, though, and lacks the alarming reddish hue of the Coolpix 885. It needs to be good, mind, because the lack of a separate mono LCD status panel (more and more digital cameras are dropping these now) means that you’ll rely on it for all the Nikon’s various settings and photographic options. And because this is a pretty sophisticated camera, there are a lot of settings.

The main mode dial is pretty straightforward to use, and hints at how this camera’s controls have been categorised for different types of user. In auto mode, for example, you don’t need to do anything except point the camera and shoot.

The scene mode’s guite interesting. Most digital cameras have a small selection of scene settings for portraits, night shots, landscapes and the like, but the bracket for white balance and use Nikon’s clever Best Shot Selector. Using the latter, the camera keeps taking shots for as long as your finger presses the shutter release, then compares them all for sharpness and saves only the sharpest to the memory card, which is handy, given the
Coolpix 4300 has no fewer than 12. These include portrait, party/indoor, night portrait, beach/snow, landscape, sunset… the list goes on. With each of these settings, the focusing, white balance, saturation and exposure are carefully set to match that specific subject. The scene modes offer an element of photographic control that is missing in simple point-and-shoot mode, but without requiring any real photographic knowledge.

We have to say, though, that even with its 12 scene modes, Nikon Coolpix 4300 can’t come close to matching the amazing Casio QV-R4, which offers 33 scene modes, each with attractive thumbnail representations, brief notes/instructions and the ability to add your own modes.

Scene modes are all very well, but keen photographers will want to keep a much closer tab on what the camera is actually doing, and that’s where the manual mode comes in. You can use the 4300 for point-and-shoot photography in this mode, plus you can apply exposure compensation, auto-bracket on your shots, controls, the Coolpix 4300 really is a very good digital camera. But it all comes down to the handling and ergonomics, and this is where it starts to get very subjective.

Nikon CoolPix 3100

That shape looks as if it’s going to be more comfortable to use than it actually is. The moulded handgrip where the fingers of your right hand curl round the front of the camera proves too small to be useful. Indeed, a flat-fronted design would be easier to hold.

This is where the 3100′s batteries are stored, though, and this represents a slight departure for Nikon because it’s gone for a pair of AA cells rather than the lithium-ion cell used in cameras a little higher up the range. Although spares are inexpensive and disposable (AAs are available everywhere and okay for an emergency), even NiMH types don’t have the power characteristics of lithium-ion cells. It’s not their capacity, but their tendency to drain slowly – even when not in use – and give up suddenly as they run down. On the other hand, you do get two rechargeable NiHM cells with the camera, plus a charger, which is a lot further than most other makers will go. It’s also interesting to see Nikon sticking with CompactFlash memory card storage, while most other low-end cameras seem to be opting for Secure Digital (SD) cards.

Nikon CoolPix 3100 is mainly designed as a point-and-shoot camera, and while the mode dial does offer a Manual setting, all it does is let you adjust white balance, image sharpening, drive mode (single/multi-shot/continuous shooting modes) and apply the Best Shot Selector. This is a feature that is unique to Nikon and found on just about all of its digital cameras. The camera keeps taking shots for as long as you hold down the shutter release, then compares them all and saves only the sharpest.

There are 14 scene modes, offering customised settings for Party/Indoor, Beach/Snow, Sunset, Dusk/Dawn, Night landscape, Close up, Museum, Fireworks show, Copy and Back light shots.

What’s interesting here, though, is that Nikon has added four ‘Framing Assist’ modes. These go a little further than the scene modes, in that as well as adjusting the camera settings to suit the specific subject type, they also display framing guidelines on the LCD. There are Framing Assist modes for Portrait, Landscape, Sports and Night Portrait shots. Adults might find Framing Assist a bit silly, but it may prove handy for kids, who can often produce the most bizarre and wildly-framed photos.

Having said that, Casio produces a Best Shot system for its snapshot cameras that doesn’t just offer more options than Nikon’s, but presents them far more attractively, too.

The CoolPix 3100′s menus seem a bit of a step back. We’re used to Nikon menus being compact and neat, with very legible text and a logical structure, but here the designers have opted for a semi-graphical interface with bigger text. It doesn’t work. The text is bigger but the font is less readable and, in some Instances, with more wordy menu options.

Nikon CoolPix 3100 Features and handling

At least the 3100 is pretty handy to use, though. The start-up time’s okay at around three seconds, and the AF system focuses most shots in no more than half a second – though telephoto shots will take a fraction longer.

There is a movie mode, but the Nikon doesn’t record sound to go with them, but it will shoot at a surprisingly high resolution of 640 x 480. You can also cut the start and end of your movie clips. This allows some judicious in-camera editing, which has the benefit of chopping out bits you won’t want to see later and freeing up space on the memory card.

The 3100 will carry out a number of in-camera functions on saved still images. You can resize and crop your images, produce black and white or sepia copies, and even generate a ‘halo’ soft-focus effect for portraits. I wonder how long it will be before we get a portable version of Photoshop for digital cameras…

The LCD display is pretty good, with crisp detail and fast, blur-free refresh rate. It works just as well indoors as outside, too. However, the navipad on the back is small and, like others with a combined four-way action, it can lead to errors and vagueness. It does at least offer shortcuts while shooting to the flash mode, macro mode and self-time, and the macro mode’s 4cm minimum focusing distance is especially impressive.

While Nikon CoolPix 3100 is a bit on the plasticky side, it works pretty well. Image playback performance is particularly good in a digital camera of this price. The images it produces are good quality, too. In fact, it produces the some of the best results you’re likely to see from a 3.2-megapixel camera, with sharp detail, good colour, plenty of saturation and a level of contrast that, altogether, gives images real ‘punch’.