Labs

The 4200's photos conjure up words such as 'consistent' and 'dependable'. It didn't take a single bad photo during the course of our tests, but neither did it produce an outstanding one. Outdoor photography looked natural but not quite as vibrant as the best here. Indoor photography was good when using ambient light, but the flash made skin tones a little pasty.

This camera has a rather unusual set of manual controls. On top of the usual exposure stops, white balance presets and ISO settings, there are some quite advanced features: automatic bracketing takes an over- and under-exposed shot as well as the main one, allowing you to choose the best one later. Best Shot Selector also takes multiple shots, but chooses the best one for you. You can increase or decrease contrast, adjust saturation, perform white balance bracketing,

ADVERTISEMENT

set the camera to continuous auto-focus to reduce the time lag before taking a shot, and plenty more besides. While all this is commendable, most of these functions are buried deep within the camera's menu. One strange omission is the lack of direct control over aperture and shutter speed.

The camera's 12MB internal memory is not nearly enough to store a reasonable number of photos. Other features, such as the high-capacity lithium ion battery and capable video mode, are more welcome.

The curved front of the camera means it's a snug fit in the hand, but although the controls are well laid out, they are convoluted to use. There's a dedicated button for the macro function, for example, but pressing it doesn't switch it on and off. Instead, it brings up a menu with two options - on and off - which you must adjust and press Enter before the setting is changed. Another frustration is the size of the screen. At 1.5in it's by far the smallest here. A translucent grey bar at the bottom makes on-screen text easier to read, but hides part of the photo you're composing. On playback, photos are almost obliterated with onscreen information unless you go into the menu and select the Slideshow function.

None of the CoolPix 4200's weaknesses are critical, but image quality isn't strong enough to excuse them, especially as this camera is a little more expensive than most of the others on test.