As soon as you take the Nikon Coolpix S4000 out of its box you just know that it is primarily aimed at the female market. Call us old-fashioned but it is extremely slim, elegant and lightweight (even with battery and SD card installed it's only 131g and is a wafer-thin 20.4mm), will slip effortlessly into a handbag and comes in shades of pink, red and black.

Despite its size, the Coolpix S4000 feels quite sturdy with its solid metal casing and, because this is a touch screen compact digital, there's a minimum amount of external controls. Along the top is a small, recessed (and thus slightly fiddly) power button next to the much larger shutter with encircling zoom control. On the back there are only scene mode and playback buttons because the rest of the space is dominated by the 3-inch LCD display which boasts 460,000 pixels (twice the number of its predecessor, the S230).

The layout at the bottom of the camera is somewhat peculiar, though, because the tripod mount has been shunted to the far left and in its place in the middle is the AV out which connects via USB to your computer. Not only should this be on the side, but when you learn the camera records 720p HD video at 24 fps (for which we applaud loudly), why has Nikon missed a trick and not included an HDMI port?

The lens is a wide angle 27-108mm equivalent with 12-megapixel resolution using a 1/2.3 type CCD image sensor. In addition there's a 4x optical zoom (which doesn't function when recording video) and a 4x digital zoom. Unfortunately there's no optical image stabiliser to counter camera shake: instead Nikon relies on a combination of electronic Vibration Reduction, high ISO settings (up to 3200), motion detection technology and Best Shot Selector which automatically chooses the sharpest of up to ten sequential shots.

In practice even this anti-blur quartet is not always sufficient to keep the images completely stable, especially in low light conditions where grainy pictures are commonplace except at the lowest ISO settings. Where this camera really excels, though, is in normal daylight, where the colours are rich and bright.

The touch screen generally performs well, too, whether you make use of the supplied stylus or not. There are four basic settings to choose from: Auto, which still allows you to alter white balance, AF and exposure compensation manually; Scene (18 varieties including Scene Auto that picks from six presets); Smart Portrait which snaps smiley faces; and Video.

What should definitely prove popular is the Touch Shooting menu where you can fast focus and take a snap by touching an area of the screen, track a moving subject and isolate one area of the frame to focus on. After the pictures are captured you can then indulge in some fun editing effects, the best of which is the Draw capability where you can really let your imagination roam.

We can't end without mentioning one important note about the price of the Coolpix S4000. Although the official price is a rather off-putting £249, we have already seen one major online retailer selling it for around half that amount, and at that price this is a snapper not be ignored.

Verdict
Although the Coolpix S4000 is not at its best in low light circumstances, this is a chic, well-constructed point ‘n' snapper that has efficient touch screen operation, some fun Touch Shooting options, HD video and good quality outdoor pictures.

Company: Nikon

Contact: 0330 123 0932

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