Coolpix is Cool Piece!!. Review on Nikon Coolpix 2200

Being an amateur photographer, I used to hold digital photography in contempt. It was only when I had to leave for UK for a long period that I had to take the decision of buying an alternative to my old faithful SLR Nikon F-801. I didn't want to miss out on the growing up of my 1 year old daughter back in India & that's the time I realised the advantage of digital camera.

Digital camera was the need of the hour as a fast, cheap & easy means of photo sharing over the net; something not feasible by conventional photographs.

After a lot of market research, including reviews on this site, I decided in favour of Nikon Coolpix 2200. I won't deny my bias towards brand Nikon having been a great fan of my SLR which had given me company for over 4 years. While planning to buy the digicam, I tried out all the popular brands in the market. Comparing the features offered versus the price, I found it value for money. Only Sony proved to be some match, in quality but not in features, that too at almost double the price.

This camera is loaded with features (practical ones, that too!) It is provided with internal memory which means no need for a memory card if you take few photos at a time & have easy access to PC. The standard Audio-Visual lead, USB cable with software CD is included. It has 3x (38-115mm) Optical zoom (true zoom) & an additional 4x Digital zoom (phoney zoom!!) . The advantage of optical zoom is that it magnifies the image by altering the focal length just like SLR cameras without compromising the picture quality. While digital zoom just blows up the image electronically & the pixels show up.

The camera comes with 15 picture modes, Auto mode being the most commonly used but I find the Backlight mode to be the unique. This makes the photos taken against light (including sun) a child's play. The results are simply awesome. Another handy feature is the Crop function where one can modify (resize) the photos in the camera itself without recourse to a P.C.

The ease of use was another of my essential requirements as this camera had to be used by my not-so-techno-friendly parents (no offence meant!) who had previously been used to an Auto-focus Point-n-Shoot camera. The rechargeable Li-MH (lithium metal hydride) batteries really last long, even with the LCD display on (actually switching it off is a chore!). The batteries have never let me down on outings & parties - I click up to 200 snaps on a single charge. Its handy grip (fits very snugly in your palm), cute looks & light weight beat all other brands hollow.

On the downside, the features I found to be annoying are :

 Red eye in indoor photos - The means to overcome this is the Nikon software. Once downloaded on computer it is a one click job!

 Delay in capturing a photo after you press the button. So you have to be alert & anticipate an action, or else you'll end up being a second just too late! - specially in case of small kids. I found this problem to be a universal phenomenon in digital cameras until very recently.

 The camera requires a few seconds before you can take the next photograph. This can be frustrating at times.

An advice - don't spend unnecessarily on higher resolution (more megapixels) unless you are a professional or require large prints. 2 megapixel gives good prints up to 5'' x 7''. If your aim, like mine, is sharing photos on net then you have to reduce the picture quality further so that u can attach it to your email. Even if you have to upload on a site, you quickly run out of disk space if you keep the highest quality. (This I am sure would not be an issue in the coming years.)

Overall, I found it a handy piece of technology providing me the versatility I needed. My satisfaction can be gauged by the fact that I bought another one after a month of using it - this time Coolpix 3200 - to take it along with me. The only advantage apart from higher resolution is its ability to record video clippings with sound. But I would strongly advice against keeping this feature as criteria for digital camera selection as the quality of movies is good enough for viewing on the LCD display, not on TV or monitor.

If video is what you are interested in then go in for a handycam!

lots of love