The Principle of Flexibility.. NIKON SQ (Nikon Coolpix SQ)

Member Name: jazzwillie

Product:	Nikon Coolpix SQ
Date:	30/05/04 (189 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Preset Modes, Great design

Disadvantages: Hard to use, Requires Skill

I own a Nikon Coolpix SQ and I must say it has served me well as an architecture student.

First few general things I would say about this camera is the reason behind it. I wanted the flexible view which normal cameras do not have. The other one which Nikon made which was the forefather of this model was too bulky and expensive. This one fits in the budget range of about £200 which is perfect for general users. As an architecture student different views are required and it's very easy to compose pictures with the rotating lens.

Advantages in detail:
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1. The preset modes which includes portrait, night portrait, landscape, night landscape, closeup, museum, sports, paranoma assist, backlight, indoor are all very very helpful for those who need to take a picture in a professional way without having to know how to fiddle around with manual cameras to set the required settings. This function of preset modes does the trick, giving you what you need, ALTHOUGH, it doesn't always work. The preset modes I find most useful would be musuem (take multishots without flash until you get a good and sharp picture), paranoma assist (can take paranomic pictures which u later combine them in the computer), and the superb landscape (inifinite focus without flash)

2. Macro. The macro lens featured in this camera is up to 4cms. Which is good enough for those who require the macro feature but not to a professional standard. Taking closeup has been quite easy for me, only problem is that i require something better than just 4cms. If you're in to taking closeup pictures of details of small objects/insects.. food.. this might not be the one you're looking for.

3. Rotating view up to 225 degrees. Now this is what I enjoy most about this camera. You can rotate it to take picture of yourself while you see yourself in the viewfinder, and you can rotate it to take pictures of the sky while you're looking to
the front. It looks really cool, very convenient if you're the architecture photographer type of person like myself. Gives u varied angles without having to bend or twist a muscle. Only setback is.. use it carefully, I'm not sure if the rotating mechanism will loosen and it starts getting lose and out of hand. It's still fine for me and I'm a heavy user, and have used it for more than 1 year now.

4. Zoom The optical zoom up to 3x is quite useful. However today not many people will find it sufficient and would like zooms up to as many as they can find. Note to readers: make sure you understand properly what optical zoom and digital zoom is. Do not get cheated by other cameras saying they offer up to 10x digital zoom because that is just absolutely hopeless. Digital zoom will diminish the quality very drastically and just enlarge the pixels of the picture; Optical zoom is what you're looking for. It zooms and magnifies because of the lens, not because of the computer chip.

Disadvantages:
1. The video mode is absolutely hopeless. It captures 40seconds ONLY and it's in MOV files. You can't play it with the standard media player. The quality of the movie is not good, doesnt have a optical zoom but digital zoom instead which is really not ideal for video taking. If you are planning to take a lot of movie clips, get something which gives you up to 3minutes or so.

2. Flash - Don't play with this. It's absolutely horrible in terms of its exposure. This is worst at night when you're trying to take night pictures. You just simply get ghostly faces when everyone's faces turn white and you see nothing in the background. I have however found ways of overcoming this, but it requires a knowledge of a manual camera user. The preset modes of night portrait and fireworks work well, but you really need a tripod for this to work. It's really a shame but this remains the biggest fault with this camera.
r>3. Respond time - Although it claims to be one of the fastest responding time camera ever to be made, it still seems pretty slow to me. Especially when you have a large memory card installed and you want to take pictures quick one after another. You will find that it takes quite long to read. lf you're a casual user, this should be fine. If you're a sports photographer, no way.

4. Skill - this camera needs to be practiced to be used. Very hard to ask friends to take for you because first of all they'll have a problem holding the camera because they've never held one like this before. The preset modes require skill and practice as well, tripod is essential if you want to take good pictures. It's troublesome to take it out and in when the thing which closes the lens is a manual cap, which means everytime you want to shoot, you have to open a manual cap, apart from just switching the camera on. I wouldn't recommend this to people who often ask others to take pictures for them. You really have to teach people how to use it.

5. Picture quality - suitable for again casual users, but not for those inspired to take more professional pictures. It's not fine enough in my opinion and if you set it to the highest and finest quality, the interval times between pictures increases, and you're memory will run out before you even begin to enjoy your tour wherever you are.

General Comments:
This camera might not be as good as what people think, although many friends are impressed with the body and aesthetic of it. However if learnt and practiced to perfection this will suit most casual users. Afterall, photography is a skill, and like any other skill, it requires practice :) Hope this helps!