A Picture-Perfect Pocket Camera

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Call me a snob, but there's nothing I want to do less when I'm on vacation than look like a tourist with a camera dangling round my neck. I'm a digital guy who never wants to deal with a drugstore clerk smirking at my prints in the back room again. If I encounter something picturesque--say, a grizzly chasing campers in front of a charming waterfall--my dream is to casually pull from my shirt pocket a digital camera cool enough to elicit gasps of awe from the campers and, if possible, from the bear.

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The Nikon Coolpix 2500 ($379), due in stores next month, is the first camera I've tested that fills the bill. Indeed, it's the first Nikon camera to be engineered around the design, rather than the other way around. It's about the size and weight of a smooth-edged deck of cards, and its sleek blue-and-brushed-metal look really sets it apart from the pack. Call it the iPod of digital cameras, a comparison it deserves, not just for form and looks but also for its admirable ease of use.

Most digital cameras have daunting dials and pictographs to "help" you use your camera. Select the wrong icon, and instead of viewing the picture you just took, you shoot a 15-sec. movie of your feet. The Coolpix forgoes dials for a simple slider with only three settings: TAKE PICTURE, VIEW PICTURE and OFF. You can even navigate by touch, ideal for those grizzly-on-the-run situations. All the other functions are on the back, including that 15-sec. video, an unprecedented 12 scene modes (party portrait, night landscape, fireworks show and so on) and a picture-in-picture setting that lets you view the last shot you took while you size up the next one.

Nikon's Coolpix 990 was lauded by critics as the best consumer digital camera. Now for about $500 less, the 2500 duplicates in a smaller package most of the 990's features, including the swivel lens that lets you take pictures of yourself while you look at the results on the LCD screen. (One improvement over the 990: that swivel lens is no longer exposed to the elements when you set the camera down; instead, it rests comfortably inside the casing.) The starter flash card stores 32 high-resolution images (as usual with digital cameras, it's best to buy more memory yourself). The battery should give you 800 shots before it needs recharging.

Some users may be shocked that Nikon chose to leave out a manual viewfinder. But in my outdoor tests, I didn't miss it. The screen is so bright that even in direct sunlight on the Golden Gate Bridge, I could see myself grinning into the camera. My only real criticism is that the 2500's resolution is 2.1 megapixels, when 3.5-megapixel cameras have broken through the $700 price barrier. Most amateurs will not spot the difference unless they want prints larger than 8 in. by 10 in. Until I turn pro, the Coolpix 2500 is everything my shirt pocket and I need. Now if only I can figure out how to get a bear to say cheese.

Snappy questions for Chris? E-mail him at cdt@well.com