Nikon Coolpix 4500 Review

To enter Playback mode you now press the Quick Review button twice. The last image stored is displayed in full screen mode. Press the Left or Right portion of the 4-way selector switch to scroll backwards or forwards through the stored images. Press the FUNC button to record up to a 20-sec audio note to go with the picture.

Rotating the Command Dial lets you select any one of four screens of exposure and camera settings or a histogram as shown in the following frames.

While displaying a picture full screen you can press the Telephoto zoom control button and magnify the image. There are 25 intermediate magnifying steps all the way up to a maximum of 6x. At any magnification step you can scroll around inside of the image using the 4-way selector.

To enter the thumbnail (index) playback mode just press the flash mode button. The number of thumbnail images can be toggled between 4 or 9 per page by pressing the button again.

The QuickTime MOVies that you record can be played back full screen on the color LCD or a television set if the A / V cable is hooked up. The audio portion can be heard through the builtin speaker when played in-camera, the zoom lens T and W buttons control the volume level.

The Play mode menu lets you delete images, change the folder, start a slideshow, adjust image perspective (see next frame), create a smaller image, protect / unprotect images, hide images, set DPOF printing information or use the Auto Transfer feature to copy images to the host computer.

A new feature found in Play mode is Perspective Control that lets you adjust for wideangle barrel distortion or telephoto pincushioning. This is not going to replace Photoshop but it is a very quick and handy way to correct common focal length photographic errors.

Setup Menu (Record and Playback modes):

Monitor Options - LCD on/off/review/preview or adjust the Brightness or Hue of the monitor screen.

Controls - Set the camera features that should be memorized from power on to power off (drive mode, quality, white balance and metering). And set the AE-L AF-L when shutter is half-pressed (both AE-L and AF-L, AE-L or AF-L).

Auto Off - Set the Auto Off time value (30s default or 1, 5 or 30 min)

Seq. Numbers - Enabling sequential numbering of images. Reset the numbers.

Shutter Sound - On, Off

CF Card Format - Format the CF card

Date - Set the time and date

Shot Confirmation - If enabled it blinks the red light on front of camera after each shot.

Info txt - Enable creation of the info.txt file on the CF card

Video Mode - NTSC or PAL

Language - Menu language

Disable Delete - Disable the ability to delete images using the "trashcan" button on the back of the camera.

USB - USB mode: PTP (Windows XP) or Mass Storage (Windows 98SE, Me, 2000 or Mac OS 9)