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The Nikon Coolpix 2500 is a 2.0 megapixel, digital point-and-shoot camera. It
is targeted at the consumer who now uses a camera like the Olympus Epic Zoom or
the Canon Elph / Ixus, but who wants to go digital. The camera is small, offers a
high degree of automation, and is easy to operate. In June 2002, the Coolpix 2500
costs approximately $350.
The main features of this camera are:
2.0 megapixel (1600 x 1200 pixels) CCD
3x optical zoom: 37 - 111 mm (35 mm film equivalent), f/2.7 - 4.8
15 seconds movie mode (without sound)
Compact Flash type I storage (16 MB starter card included)
USB interface
Storage
Images created with
this camera, in JPEG Fine mode at maximum resolution, are roughly 700 kB each. A
64 MB Compact Flash card can hold approximately 90 images, which is most likely
enough for one day shooting. For fairly typical tourist-style photography, 256 MB
memory should be enough for a week-long trip (assuming a few review sessions at
night).
The camera can also store images in lower resolutions, down to 640 x 480
pixels, but I think these should not be considered given current memory prices.
There is no RAW mode available, but I think the average Coolpix 2500 user is not
going to miss that.
Power
The Coolpix 2500 is powered by a single, small, rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery
(type EN-EL2). Nikon provides an MH-60 recharger for this battery with the
camera. It can recharge the battery in two hours. The charger requires you to
remove the battery from the camera and insert it into the charger (i.e., you
cannot plug the charger into the camera).
I found that the EN-EL2 is capable of powering the camera for one day shooting
(filling a 64 MB card), with very moderate reviewing and no use of flash.
Obviously, power consumption depends on your shooting style, so it may be safer
to bring a spare battery. Fortunately, these batteries are small enough to carry
in your wallet or pocket.
Lens, autofocus and exposure
The 5.6 - 16.8 mm built-in
zoom lens performs fairly well. There is some noticable barrel distortion at the
wide end of the zoom. At the telephoto end, the resulting photos were not always
as crispy as I would have liked. A tiny bit of motion blur, caused by the slow
ISO 100 sensor speed and a maximum f/4.8 aperture, may be the main cause of
this.
The 2 megapixel resolution of this camera is somewhat disappointing: while
great for viewing on a computer, it is not enough for really capturing small
details. Furthermore, 1600 by 1200 pixels do not leave a lot of room for small
adjustments as rotating and cropping. Please consider carefully if this is good
enough for you.
Autofocus with this camera is fairly indeterministic. If you are used to
manual focussing, or the autofocus of a modern SLR, this Coolpix is going to
disappoint you. All you can do is aim the camera at your subject and press the
shutter release. Nikon states the Coolpix 2500 has an "Auto 5-Area AF" system,
but you cannot manually select an area. You can, however, lock focus by pressing
and holding the shutter release halfway. I should add that while the focussing
system appears extremely limited, I never encountered any real problems with
it.
True to Nikon tradition, the Coolpix 2500 has an excellent exposure system. In
most situations, the camera will choose the right White balance as well as the
proper exposure. Contrary to the AF system, manual overrides (i.e., exposure
compensation and manual white balance selection) are available.
Handling
The first
thing I noticed when I started using this camera is that the clever tilting lens
design really is not so practical. It seems unavoidable to get your finger prints
on the front lens (which really looks to be just a protective filter). Obviously,
I may just be a clumsy hack, but most of my friends seem to agree: turning the
lens from the 'safe' position to the shooting position without getting finger
prints on it, is tricky at best. During a few weeks of testing, I have wiped
prints from Rajeev, Ruud, Marijke, my father and myself from the front lens.
All interaction with the Coolpix is done via the LCD screen on the back.
Nearly all functions (flash, self timer, programmed exposure mode etc.) use the
screen. Some of the options, notably the flash options, disappear rather quickly
from screen.
There is no optical viewfinder and you are forced to use the LCD screen.
Although I find a viewfinder (with proper eye cup) more comfortable to use, this
LCD screen works very adequately. Only in bright sunlight was working with
slightly problematic.
Manufacturers of digital cameras do not read photo.net reviews. If they did,
the Coolpix 2500 would surely have included an orientation sensor. Instead, the
user is forced to use ACDSee, or a similar program, to rotate all images shot
vertically.
The Coolpix 2500 has 12 programmed modes, including portrait, landscape and
close-up. When using the camera, I hardly ever used these specific modes and
almost always used the general program mode. The notable exceptions are
illustrated below:
Museum mode
no flash, braced against gate
Close-up mode
no flash, hand-held
General program mode
manual exposure compensation
Speed of Operation
As
with all digital compact cameras, the Coolpix 2500 is a fairly slow camera. It
takes just under 6 seconds from switching the camera on to actually taking a
picture. If it has gone into power safe mode, this takes approximately 4 seconds.
The tilting lens design is not much of a hindrance here, because you can turn the
lens while the camera is getting ready.
In continuous mode, the Coolpix keeps taking pictures until it buffer is full.
Depending on the amount of compression it can apply, this may be limited to 3
photos. Note that the camera does not refocus or re-evaluate exposure in a
continuous shoot (unless you release and press the shutter).
As a result, the Coolpix 2500 is unsuitable for action and decisive moment
photography.
During a week-long trip, I found that the camera became progressively slower
as the CF card filled up. In the end, simply trying to delete one or two images
would require thirty seconds. Next time I would certainly bring some extra memory
just to avoid this annoyance.
Flash photography
A small built-in flash,
located right next to the lens is your only option for flash photography. Nikon
does not provide a guide number, but it turns out the flash is pretty weak and
very prone to red-eye. The red-eye reduction feature works by emitting a series
of pre-flashes before taking the actual picture. In practice, most subjects tend
to move after the pre-flashes because they think the picture has already been
taken. A lost photo is the result.
The Coolpix 2500 also has a special "Party/Indoor mode" in which it uses a
long shutter speed combined with flash. Invariably, whenever I tried this, my
shots were lost due to motion blur.
I suggest you do not rely too much on the built-in flash.
Of course, my friend Ruud proves me wrong by
creating a lovely image of his mother, shown above. Red-eye reduction, low
ambient light.
Connectivity and Software
The Coolpix 2500 uses a USB connection to a PC or Apple computer.
The "One Touch Upload" feature works as promised, but my Athlon 500 / Windows
98SE computer crashed whenever I did not strictly follow the procedure specified
in the manual. I expected the combination of hardware and software to be more
fool-proof.
Nikon includes the following software with this camera:
Arcsoft PhotoImpression;
VideoImpression;
Panorama Maker;
Nikon View 5.
Except for Nikon View, I did not use the bundled software and kept using
Photoshop. Nikon View version 5 now also supports files on hard drives, making it
much more useful than version 4 which was bundled with the
D1H camera. I like the fact that it immediately shows
exposure data of the selected image, but the program appears to be slower and
less intuitive than ACDSee.
Competition
The market for ultra-compact digital cameras is constantly
evolving, and you will have do some shopping yourself as well. My main complaint
about these cameras is handling: they can be too small to use comfortably, so
make sure you actually try a few models in a photo shop before you decide.
Here is a list of competitors for the Coolpix 2500. None of these cameras has
the tilting lens design of the 2500, and all have very comparable specifications
(2 megapixel, 3x optical zoom and a very compact and lightweight design).
The Coolpix 2500 is a nice, small camera. It is quite affordable and easy to
use. The tilting lens mechanism is a nice touch, making shooting from different
angles than eye-level easier. If you can live with its limitations (2 megapixel,
slow operation and no optical viewfinder are the most important ones), I think
this is a good choice.
About the photos: as usual, the thumbnail images in this article link to
larger, HTML-wrapped versions. These may have undergone some Photoshop editing to
achieve a good web-quality image. In all cases, a link is included to the
original file as produced by the camera.
Except for a possible
lossless rotation with
ACDSee, no other manipulation was performed on these files.
