The Nikon Coolpix S4000 is a sub-$300 digital camera, and as such you shouldn’t expect miracles from it.

Although it looks like it could be an expensive camera - thanks to the glossy finshes, sleek form factor and 3-inch touchscreen - the S4000’s performance could only be described as average at best. For starters, it’s somewhat slow, both to start up and in continuous shooting mode. Image quality is only so-so, even at low ISO levels. You’ll definitely notice issue with image sharpness and colours.

And then there is the touchscreen itself, which has usability issues of its own. It can be somewhat difficult to use at times, though on the plus side, the navigation itself is fairly intuitive.

On the positive side, the S4000 features a 27mm wide-angle lens with 4x optical zoom and a 12-megapixel CCD sensor. If you’re looking for a camera that’s cheap and cheerful and are willing to overlook some performance issues, this may be enough for you.

The Nikon Coolpix S4000 is available in Australia for $299.

Buy a cheap Nikon digital camera on sale in Australia

By Caroline Warnes