I think you've got an exposure problem (nothing personal, I mean with the camera)
, it sounds like you're in Manual exposure mode with Fixed Aperure set and getting massive overexposure ending up with a white screen.
Try shooting in Aperture Priority Mode and when you first turn the camera on in this mode make sure the zoom is at minimum and the aperture is reading f2.6, you won't have to alter the aperture from now on it will change with the amount of camera zoom you use and should give you a correct exposure.
Here's a list of the settings I used to use with the 4500, they worked very well for me, give them a try and see how you get on.
Coolpix 4500 setings
Shooting menu
White balance - Auto works very well.
Metering – spot AF area – combines the area being metered with the focus area.
Shooting – continuous – you can still take single shots but it’s there if needed.
Bss – off
Image adjustment – normal
Saturation – normal
Image quality – fine
Image size – full 2272 x 1704
User settings – some parameters can be set to other options for different conditions
Image sharpening – high - some use no sharpening but I prefer to use the quality of the lens and give less sharpening in your image editor ie photoshop etc.
Lens – normal - only change this if adding a converter
Exposure options – AE lock off
Focus options – AF area mode – manual – this allows you to move the focus area to one of 5 points on the screen, shown by the red brackets, useful when the bird is not in the centre of the screen or you don’t want it in the centre.
Auto focus mode - single AF
Zoom options – digital tele - off, choose select last position if you want the zoom to start up at the position the camera was turned off instead of at zero zoom.
Speedlight – pop up - manual, variable power 0, control int & ext active
Auto bracketing – off
Noise reduction – off
Set up menu
Monitor options – display – monitor on, brightness central position but adjust up or down if required
Func controls – leaving the Func button set to exposure compensation is the most useful option here, adjustments can be made easily for over/under exposure without having to go into the menu.
Auto off – camera switches off after the preset time selected, I go for 5mins.
Seq numbers – on – this gives continuous numbering to shots instead of resetting to 1 each time you use another CF card, can cause confusion when trying to find your pics on the computer afterwards if set to off.
Shutter sound – on – useful to have a little beep when taking shots
CF card format – use to format your CF cards for your camera, it pays to reformat your cards every now and then, can also be used to wipe all images off a card instead of using delete all.
Date – set date and time for pic information, gives you a record in the shooting data
Shot confirmation – off
Info text – on – this stores the shooting data of each shot taken and can be really useful for analysis afterwards.
Video mode – pal for most if not all Europe tv’s
Language –
Disable delete – off
Usb – mass storage
Use the ISO button to select ‘film’ speed, for best quality keep at 100 unless really necessary, i.e. light is so poor you need the extra shutter speed 200 will give you.
Manual Focus – practice a lot with this, it is really useful when foliage, etc. is in the way of the bird, also it speeds up shooting as you don’t have to wait for the camera to autofocus. I set the distance scale just below infinity which seems to give me the best results.
Regards
John