Reviews for Nikon Coolpix SQ 3 Megapixel Compact Camera - Silver

Nikon Coolpix SQ 3 Megapixel Compact Camera - Silver

Strengths: Compact Elegant Design.

Weakness: Poor Picture Quality.

I have used a Nikon 2020 for over 15 years, and bought a coolpix SQ recently to compliment my digital gear. Something that you can take along anywhere for the interesting moments. But I am extremely disappointed by the picture quality. Even in the broad daylight, the blue skies came out like indian quilts. There are just too much noise and snow, even under great conditions. You can not use the pictures at all.

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Nikon Coolpix SQ 3 Megapixel Compact Camera - Silver

Strengths: slim design fits into pocket, great picture quality. The swing joint on the lens.

Weakness: dang camera DIED after 1 short drop, after warranty expired. Don't buy this without an extend warranty.

I've taken around 3,200 photos with this camera, mostly on two, month long trips in Italy. I loved the ease of keeping this camera in a jeans skirt front pocket, ready to use and secure from Roman pickpockets. (O.K., so while in Rome I used a safety pin to secure a longer strap to the inside of that pocket to be safe.) The only time I had difficulties with the focus was for some close-ups, especially in lower light situations were there was no way of bracing the camera.

The swing joint allowed me to find a wide variety of braces, such as the sides of walls, tops of church pews, steps, etc. The viewfinder was very useful for "shooting from the hip" - that is, shooting from waist level, without a camera plastered onto my face. This is helpful for being less obvious to pickpockets, small crowds of people, or to half-asleep museum guards. The swing joint was also very useful for taking pictures in cramped plumbing pipe access areas in my hi-rise apartment building, to incorporate in reports to my co-op building's board. The flash always provided enough light for close quarters shots.

I always shot at the highest resolution and had no trouble with grain (except in extremely dark medieval churches). I often had to run the pictures through Photoshop, unless they had been taken in good, sunny light to correct or bump up the color a bit; this seemed to be more necessary towards the end. There was some distortion at the sides of the lens, similar to what I've had from film point-and-shoot cameras. I composed the pictures to avoid having taller buildings on the extreme right or left sides of the picture to avoid the leaning building effect. I found the 3x optical zoom a bit limiting, but this is a small camera, seemingly tons lighter in weight than my old Nikon SLR.

Battery comsumption. Since I almost never use the flash I had reasonable battery life. I was able to extend it by turning the camera off frequently, or just pointing the lens against my skirt to cut out the LCD display temporarily while composing shots in museums. I always carried an extra, charged battery when going out for a full day.

Memory usage. I have a 1GB CF card, and 2 - 250GB cards. These were not enough for the 1,400 pictures at 3MB that I shot on each trip, but this is a bit more than most people might need. The docking station was not all that inconvenient to bring with on the trip; besides, I could leave a battery to charge while out shooting.

I paid $150 for this camera, and given the relatively short time until it died, it equals what I would have spent on slide film and processing. I am not returning to film-based cameras. I will see if I can have this camera fixed at a cost efficient price. Will I buy another one like this? Not without a LONG term warranty, and probably not, despite it's having allowed me to take hundreds of the best pictures I have ever captured. I was sorry to read that others had difficulties with this camera, but until it broke I was a big enthusiast of the Nikon Coolpix SQ.

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Nikon Coolpix SQ 3 Megapixel Compact Camera - Silver

Strengths: very good image quality and ease of use

This is my first digital camera and I was quite impressed with the ease of use. Its very easy to take pictures, trasnfer them to the PC and even edit them using the Nikon supplied softwares. I also found the image quality to be good and fast operation speed.

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Nikon Coolpix SQ 3 Megapixel Compact Camera - Silver

Strengths: Swiveling lens.

Weakness: Unacceptable picture quality for price.

I am disabled and I find that the swivel lens helps me to aim the camera more easily from my wheelchair. When purchasing, I also thought that the 8 or so 'scenes' that set up the camera for night landscape, fireworks etc. would help me take a better picture. None of the 'scenes' presets work - all of them lead to noisy, blurred (even on a monopod) or yellowed images, depending on the scene. Auto mode shots are filled with noise and artifacts from the flash - utterly unacceptable.

The dock is a nice idea, but it's annoying if you travel because you have to take the whole thing with you to charge the battery. As well, the attachment location for the lens cap tether puts it right in the way when you want to put the camera on the dock - what was Nikon thinking?

This camera tarnishes Nikon's reputation and should not even be considered for purchase, especially at the asking price. My stepfather's Kodak 6430 was cheaper, has the same # of pixels, 4X optical zoom and takes fantastic pictures compared to the Nikon.

I wish I could give this camera zero stars.

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Nikon Coolpix SQ 3 Megapixel Compact Camera - Silver

Strengths: Ergonomics, portability, styling, auto focus and flash, & super docking station. The retro design is makes this cool camera the VW Superbug of compact digital cameras!

Weakness: software is minimalist, does not come with Photoshop but a small price to pay for the benefits.

Having owned several digital cams, I was looking for a user friendly high quality camera with good features and a small portable design. The SQ is "art nuevo" with its aluminum cube design, fold out swivel style lens armature, ample controls for even big hands and typical Nikon quality. While I need a digital SLR for other projects, the "CUBE" fills a niche with great pixel strength, a reasonable 3x optical zoom along with reciprocal digital zoom, a good sized LCD and a foolproof auto focus and flash feature. IMHO, this Nikon will fill the bill for most users in that it provides great imaging with ease of use and best of all, a docking station with one touch image downloads to file of your choice, I have it dump raw images right to my Adobe Photoshop for editing, a great feature. If you are looking for a great all purpose simple camera for a great price, the SQ is an outstanding choice. Be sure to read my feedback concerning the buying experience from PC Video. All in all, a very good choice for my daily shooter and fun to look at :o) Happy imaging, Johnny

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Nikon Coolpix SQ 3 Megapixel Compact Camera - Silver

Strengths: The rotating lense.

Weakness: If you don't keep still during ur snapping, the pictures will be blured.

It's a great camera but takes alot of practice to get the pictures right. The AUTO flash makes pictures less blurry, compared to if taking pictures with one of the scenes mode. When using the scenes mode, the camera gets real hot.

Batteries need to be charge after close to 200 pictures are taken. For me that's almost every other day. Spare batteries would be a good idea.

The rotating lense though helps you in taking all those weird angled pictures. You can set you camera on the ground to have a group photo, so it's handy. I like this aspect alot.

You cannot charge the batteries or download pictures from ur camera to the pc without the Cool station dock. This makes travelling more difficult. They should have included a case for it as well.

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poor camera

Strengths: Great fancy design

Weakness: Very very poor picture quality often times with grids, red eye and dust spots

I purchased this camera when it launched in market with full confidence since it is from leader NIKON and a Japanese make too. I am completely disappointed with its very very poor picture quality. I would not recommend to buy a Nikon Digital camera, though they could be leaders in SLR styles

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Nikon Coolpix SQ

Nikon Coolpix SQ receives an overall TopTenREVIEWS score of 1.52 out of 4.00. It is ranked the #413 standard digital camera of all time. The overall rating represents an intelligent balance of features, value as a function of price to features, and a summary of reviews from a variety of sources. The TopTen REVIEWS' formula gives a picture of important consumer features, market value, and a...

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Nikon Coolpix SQ

It was a surprise that Nikon's ease of use deserted this model, but give its replacement and audition and see if there's been a recovery.

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Nikon Coolpix SQ

Nikon's Coolpix SQ shows great style and good color, but at some expense in sharpness and image noise. Note though, that this review was based on a late-model prototype, so some of my conclusions may be revised once I can get my hands on a production model. All in all, an interesting and very appealing digicam, with the best LCD I've yet seen.

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