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Split body swivel
I personally am glad to see that Nikon has decided to keep its line of split-bodied Coolpix's alive. When they announced the 5000 there were some who thought that camera spelled the end to the split body, not at all. The ability to twist the LCD portion and lens portion of the camera independently makes all sorts of shooting easier, low level macros, waist level shots, eye level or even over head. Just like the 995 the 4500 has a swivel lock which stops the lens from moving past the 90 degree horizontal position (second image below).
The images below represent the full range of movement of the swivel (-90 to +210 degrees) as well as some of the more commonly used swivel angles.
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Lens
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The 4500 gets the same 4x optical zoom capability but the lens is a newer and more compact design than that of the 995 (and lets hope better). The lens provides a 35 mm equiv. focal length range of 38 to 155 mm. Maximum aperture is F2.6 at wide angle and F5.1 at telephoto. Which, by today's lens standards (certainly for a high-end digital camera) is slow, especially at the telephoto end. |
Many existing Coolpix owners will be pleased to see that Nikon has stuck to the same lens format and lens thread meaning that the Coolpix 4500 supports existing Coolpix 950/990/995 add-on lenses (both Nikon and third party).
Pop-up flash
With the advent of the 995 Nikon attempted to solve the red-eye flash problem which had long been a problem with compact digital cameras. They did so by placing a pop-up flash on the top of the lens unit, unfortunately this turned out to be less than elegant. On the 4500 we still have a pop-up flash, but you wouldn't know it until you take your first flash shot. The new pop-up flash is cleverly concealed in the lens portion of the camera and pops-up electronically when the flash is required (or selected). This is a much neater solution and should also provide good red-eye reduction (due to the large distances to the lens).
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Base / Tripod Mount
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The 4500 keeps a tiny bit of the rubber foot from 995. However I personally found it to be too small, the camera tending to rock from side to side on it rather than resting firmly. For my liking the metal tripod mount is too close to the front of the camera, its location also means you won't be able to change the battery when the camera is on a tripod. |
Optional "Macro Cool-light SL-1" accessory
As a new add-on accessory to the Coolpix line Nikon has announced the Macro Cool-light SL-1. This white LED ring light screws on to the 28 mm thread on the 4500's lens, you can then slacken the thread grip using the thumb screw on the top of the unit. This allows you to rotate the entire unit independently of the camera. This light is most useful for taking very close macro shots which were historically difficult to light.
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Box contents
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Box contents may vary by region: |
Nikon Accessories
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| Coollight NEW SL-1 |
LCD Hood NEW LC-E4500 |
Camera Case NEW CS-E4500 |
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Lithium-Ion battery |
Remote Cord MC-EU1 [buy] |
Slide copying adapter ES-E28 [buy] |
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| Fisheye converter FC-E8 x0.21 [buy] |
Wide angle converter WC-E63 x0.63 [buy] |
Wide angle converter WC-E24 x0.66 |
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| Telephoto converter TC-E2 x2.0 [buy] |
Telephoto converter TC-3ED x3.0 [buy] |
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