A Nifty Bit Of Kit (Nikon Coolpix 2100)

Member Name: Peter_P

Product:	Nikon Coolpix 2100
Date:	19/01/04 (123 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Compact and affordable

Disadvantages: No audio with movie clips

Most digital cameras aimed at those on a budget are bulky and uninspired in their design and, more often than not, they use four AA batteries to satisfy their hunger for power. This is not true of the Nikon Coolpix 2100. It is compact, nicely weighted and not at all the eyesore some budget-priced cameras can be.

It's a two-megapixel camera with a top resolution of 1,600 x 1,200 pixels. The supplied 8MB card will hold eight images at high compression or 15 images at normal compression at this resolution. The 3x optical zoom lens zooms quickly and has a delay between optical and digital zoom ranges. From there, the digital zoom advances at about the same speed as the optical zoom. Macro mode brings the minimum focus distance down to a mere 4cm. If you use the flash in close proximity to your subject it tends to bleach out the photo, but it performs well at other times. The Coolpix 2100 has a fast shutter speed of up to 1/3,000th second, which is faster than most. Its ISO settings range from 50 to 200, which means it likes as much light as possible to maintain image quality. In lower light some image noise is recorded, although no more than you might expect to see from a film camera set at ISO 200.

The mode dial on the top switches between four automatic program modes for portrait, sports, landscape and night. There's also a fully automatic mode, a manual mode, a movie mode (unfortunately clips are without sound) and a position for setup adjustment. One other mode, accessible through the camera's menu system, can be set to one of nine 'scenes' that most appropriately match the subject you want to capture. Change the scene to one of these presets and the camera will optimise its settings - the results are usually better than with automatic settings.

Controls are nice and simple, with a four-way pad to navigate the camera's menu. The zoom controller sits comfortably under your right thumb and there's a dedicated d
elete button for fast removal of images. The Review button is also on the rear of the camera and when pressed it's quick to switch from record mode and display the last recorded image.

Two AA batteries are required to power the Coolpix 2100 and Nikon supplies two high-power nickel metal hydride (NiMH) rechargeable batteries as well as a charger.

For this camera, £175 is a pretty reasonable price - only the low-capacity CompactFlash card shows signs of cost-cutting. Otherwise, it's compact and easy to use and produces quality images.

Summary: