Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 12 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 5Mb.

During the review, the Nikon Coolpix S4000 produced images of average quality. In natural light, colours were usually spot on, but indoors the auto white balance struggled (see the first example in the Sample Images section, which was shot in incandescent light and came out way too orange). Thankfully, the camera provides for a manual WB setting - a pleasant surprise given its positioning - as well as a number of presets. The lens is commendably sharp in the centre, less so in the corners and along the edges. The rendition of high-frequency, low contrast detail is problematic, as there is a lot of detail smearing due to noise reduction, even at base ISO. The pictures are nevertheless usable through ISO 400 - beyond that, noise starts to take over, with the highest settings of ISO 1600 and 3200 being really bad. On a more positive note, chromatic aberrations are very well controlled, we had to look really hard to find any evidence of purple fringing. Macro performance was a bit disappointing, and the camera is not particularly well suited to night photography, either.

Noise

The base sensitivity of the Nikon Coolpix S4000 is ISO 80, while the highest setting is ISO 3200.

Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.

ISO 100 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)
ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)
ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

TThe Nikon Coolpix S4000 has a limited but usable focal range going from true wide angle to moderate telephoto.

27mm	108mm

File Quality

There are two JPEG quality settings available at full resolution; normal and high. On the camera, the latter is denoted with an asterisk next to the megapixel count. The Coolpix S4000 doesn't shoot raw. Here are a couple of 100% crops that show the quality of the two options.

10M Fine (100% Crop)	10M Normal (100% Crop)

Sharpening

The Coolpix S4000 has pretty strong in-camera sharpening. You can of course add some more in a software like Adobe Photoshop, but as these examples show, this will not necessarily lead to more natural-looking results.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The Nikon Coolpix S4000 handled chromatic aberrations very well during the review.  In fact, we  had to look really hard to find any evidence of purple fringing. The examples below show what you can expect in the worst case.

Example 1 (100% Crop)	Example 2 (100% Crop)

Macro

The Nikon Coolpix S4000 has a somewhat disappointing macro mode. The close-focus point is 8cm, even at the wide end of the zoom, where most compact cameras can focus down to at least 3cm, and often 1cm.

Macro Shot	100% Crop

Flash

These shots of a white ceiling were taken at a subject distance of 1.5m. The lens itself doesn't vignette much, but engaging the flash can result in some corner shading, especially at wide angle.

Forced Off - Wide Angle (27mm)	Forced On - Wide Angle (27mm)
Forced Off - Telephoto (108mm)	Forced On - Telephoto (108mm)

And here are some portraits. The full range of flash modes include auto, auto with red-eye reduction, fill flash, slow sync and forced off. Note that some of these may not be available in every shooting mode. As you can see from these examples, the red-eye reduction setting had only a minimal effect.

On	On (100% Crop)
Auto/Red-eye Reduction	Auto/Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The slowest shutter speed of the Nikon Coolpix S4000 is four seconds in the Fireworks show scene mode, and even less in the other shooting modes, which is disappointing news if you are seriously interested in night photography. The following example was taken at a shutter speed of ½ second at ISO 400.

Night Shot	Night Shot (100% Crop)

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Nikon Coolpix S4000 camera, which were all taken using the 12 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample Movie & Video

As of February 2025, we are no longer providing full size sample images or videos for download.

Please contact us if you have any feedback on our new policy.

Product Images

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera / Lens Extended

Isometric View

Isometric View

Rear of the Camera

Rear of the Camera / Main Menu

Top of the Camera

Bottom of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The Nikon Coolpix S4000 is a pretty basic camera aimed primarily at snapshooters, but it has a few interesting tricks up its sleeve. One of these is a second-generation touchscreen interface that provides gesture support and a range of touch-based functions such as Touch Shutter and Touch AF/AE; both of which speed up the picture taking process and make for a more enjoyable shooting experience. The hike in screen resolution from 230,000 dots in the S230 to 460,000 dots in the S4000 is also welcome, as the former figure was a little on the low side for a 3-inch display. We also liked the addition of HD video, but could not approve of the lack of an HDMI connection port, as this means you cannot simply hook up the camera to an HDTV set to play back your movies on a big screen. On a more positive note, we liked the presence of a physical zoom lever, which worked a lot better than the touch- and gesture-based zooming solution of the Coolpix S70 we reviewed a few months ago.

As far as image quality is concerned, well, there are no wonders. A small sensor with a lot of pixels will be inherently noisy, which calls for some pretty heavy-handed noise reduction. This in turn results in a very obvious smearing of fine detail, even at base ISO. Having said that, the photos are still commendably sharp, at least in the image centre. Chromatic aberrations are almost a non-issue, and the colours are very accurate as long as you are using the camera in natural light. Indoors, the auto white balance struggles to compensate for the different colour of the various light sources, but the camera does at least provide an option to set the white balance manually, another pleasant surprise on an otherwise basic model. The macro mode is, however, quite disappointing, with the minimum focus distance being 8cm even at the wide-angle setting.

Given the lack of manual or even semi-manual exposure modes, the Nikon Coolpix S4000 is unlikely to appeal to the serious photographer, but truth be told it was probably never really meant for them. Those trading up from a camera phone will definitely like the optical zoom, the different autofocus options and the high-definition video recording capability, and will likely feel at home with the touchscreen interface. Priced at $199, it is fairly good value for money - at least in the US. The £239 price tag in the UK seems a bit steep for this camera though.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4
Features	3.5
Ease-of-use	4
Image quality	3
Value for money	4

Specifications

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