Almost as good as film

I've had the Coolpix for about 2 months now. As time goes by more and more pictures are taken with this digital camera. My previous digital unit, a Kodak DC215 with less than 1 megapixel per image, hung in there for a long time, but this Nikon has retired it. Learning how to use this camera can be a bit of a job. It has many settings, and accessing these settings can only be done when you're in a certain "previous" setting mode, i.e. not all of the menus appear on the screen when you think they should!! The manual is good, but explains the manipulation of the many buttons poorly. I have found the battery life to be acceptable when compared to the Kodak. My recommendation is to have a second battery, or take that charging unit along with you. One charge can easily last a day, which is fine with me, so I have no battery complaints at all, even though the Epinions system feels that this is not so hot.
Overall, I'm very pleased with this unit, but my main camera, a Nikon N6006 35mm SLR (10 years old) does a better job of metering the exposure. The 4500 has a difficult time with bright Arizona Sky and shadows at the same time, so some patience is needed in composing the shots. I expect that in the future, some kind of firmware release by Nikon will fix this problem. The lens on the camera is completely enclosed. (I like this very much) The zoom motor is smooth and sounds good, but lordy, is it ever slow!! The range of the lens is also a bit strange, having little or no wide angle capacity. So this is NOT a camera for car shows or action shots.
Detail in the pics is really excellent.
While my review sounds a bit critical, don't get me wrong. This camera is excellent. Its metal body is top notch. Installing a better compactflash card gives me 80 exposures. My plans are to purchase a wide angle add-on lens for improved flexibility. The software that comes with the camera allows rapid downloading over the USB port. Unfortunately, Nikon has NO SOFTWARE that allows the camera to be operated from a PC. I find this baffling as even the old Kodak DC215 had this software. Overall if you like taking outdoor pictures and have some patience for reading the manual and pre-adjusting the camera to your preferences, you will find this unit to be a film-killer.
Also, when buying this camera (At Best Buy) I found that many of the advertised mail order"better" prices evaporated when the shipping costs were added in.
UPDATE: Its now almost December of 2004 and the Coolpix has seen very heavy abuse. I've gotten used to the metering which is actually very, very good and learning to avoid bright/dark conditions which cause sensor bloom. The result after climbing the learning curve were much improved photography. Its a slow camera so scenes where much speed is NOT needed are this camera's strong point. Unfortunately, a heavy drop and heavy use have left the unit ready for serious repair work. The lens zoom buttons are broken and the USB terminal no longer works...STILL AN EXCELLENT camera, and probably a good buy as a used unit.