Can't say enough - Very good quality

I am an IT guy, someone who works with computers and graphics every day. I also enjoy photography as a hobby. Digital cameras pretty new and I never got one until the Nikon 4300. I could say that I am overly satisfied since I am a detailed person looking for quality.

PROS

1) Lets just say that for this little camera, it has many advanced features. The display screen has many menus making this camera more than just an average digital camera. You can do close-shots pretty well without any additional lenses. It has scene modes to adjust to all situations including snow, parties, beach, museum, firework shows, etc. This along with the basic scenery such as landscape covers most all lighting situations.

2) Easy to hold. This camera unlike common square cameras fits in the mold of your hands. IT feels more like a Nikon professional camera due to the fact that the body design is more like their professional cameras, just much smaller.

3) The pictures are very sharp if you don't reduce the size before taking the picture. The resolution is one of the best features. Not just the resolution makes them good here. Keep in mind you are using the industry's top notch lenses, the lens comes from the industry leader in photography - Nikon. The digital picture will only be as good as the lens and how the lens can perform. If you have great mega pixels but lousy lens, you will loose some clarity and color. You can never go wrong with Nikon lens that is what the pros use. I tested some actual prints and sent my pictures to Snapfish.com. Alternatively, my fiancé sent pictures in from another digital camera and the Nikon definitely was clear, had vibrant color, and great resolution when we got the developed pictures back.

All we had to do is upload our JPG pictures to SnapFish. I was amazed at the quality of this camera's prints since I very critical of digital cameras. I feel that standard cameras have much better resolution but this camera shocked me when I got the prints back....you can't really tell much, the grain of the photo was very good due to this camera's ability.

4) Can add attachment lenses such as fish-eye. While I have not tried them on this camera, the camera is still flexible in that you can add 2-3 lenses.

5) The battery life seems to last pretty good for a camera of this size and that has so many features. It takes a while to charge so you need to charge it a night before you are ready to use it again but the life of the battery will last you a whole day on a trip.

6) Easy to import into your computer. This camera like most cameras comes with software. You really don't need to use the software unless you are planning on doing some cropping or resizing. All you have to do with camera is plug in the USB cable that comes with it into the camera and then into your USB port on your computer. When you go to “Explorer” (to get to explorer, right-click on the start button and choose “explore”. This is the best way to navigate all files on your computer) in Windows, it automatically creates a virtual drive....meaning that when you go to either the “My computer Window or “Explorer” Window, you will see a new letter such as F in addition to your C drive, etc. Then you just click on the drive letter it created and you'll see a couple of folders. In one of the folders, you will see all your pictures in JPG format. Just copy and past or drag them to a folder on your desktop. That's it! Then you can simply double-click on the pictures in the folder that you dragged them to on your desktop. Or, if you prefer, before moving them to your hard drive (desktop), you can double-click the pictures right from that virtual drive letter in the “My computer” Window in Windows.

If you want to delete the pictures off your camera, simple select all the pictures in your drive letter and click delete on your keyboard or you can right-click the pictures and choose "Delete" in Windows.

No need for software, usually, it only complicates things because you have to learn their software. Just use Windows and let it do the work for you.

7) Has a powerful flash

8) The LCD screen is clear and colorful, not blotched out with too much brightness

9) Easy navigation controls to navigate through the menus.

10) Ability to make short films. Ability to see a grid of pictures on the screen that you have taken all at once, sort of like a filmstrip which makes it easier and quicker to find pictures that you have already taken in your LCD screen


CONS

1) After taking a picture, it is slow to be ready again for the next. This isn't a fast camera at all.

2) If you choose the option to reduce the size of the picture before taking the picture (reduce the image size since most pictures are huge) then you loose resolution and quality. I did this and the picture came out choppy after moving it to my computer. You will want to keep the image size large to keep the resolution and quality.

3) The camera lens is slower to expand every time you turn on the camera. When you turn on the camera, the lens protrudes out but I wish it did this a little faster. However, once the camera has done this, the zooming speed is decent.

4) The batter takes quite a long time to charge


All in all, the PROS are much more numerous than the CONS. I would tell anyone to get this camera....I would not go with another unless it was a higher up Nikon. While Kodak does have some nice ones, I ended up with this one and would never go back.