Perfect for an amatuer photographer

I guess one might call me a camera snob. I am extremely critical and picky when it comes to my digital images. So for me to rate this as a 5 means a lot to me. I like to do a lot of photoshop work and artistic shots so pixel quality is extremely important.
This camera makes the 3rd digital camera that I have personally owned and is actually a supplemental camera that I am adding to my collection. My first camera was a Ricoh RDC-5300 from 1999, it was my faithful sidekick until I dropped it and damaged the lens. It set a very high bar for me after that. I replaced it 1 1/2 years ago with a much higher end camera, my Minolta DiMage 7i. My Minolta has all the bells and whistles on it and is for the most part a digital SLR and I paid a pretty penny for that. I however discovered that there was a penalty for buying a nice camera... I never wanted to take it anywhere casual. The size of it (it's a full sized slr) and the weight made it bulky for carrying around on a vacation/trip and the price of it hindered me wanting to take it anywhere that might put it at risk of being grabbed. So that is where the Nikon came in. I realized I had a strong need for a more "casual" camera, one I could easily tote around and get great pics from and not worry about it being stolen (like on my upcoming cruise in December).

I started researching all of the current 3-5mp cameras and was trying very hard to stay around $200 in price. I quickly became discouraged as I looked at pictures on Steves-Digcams and saw that the current models were taking lesser quality pictures than my old Ricoh that only was 2.3mp! Most of the cameras I looked at took grainy pictures with lots of noise or color distortion. I knew I would not be happy with a lower end camera if the images were not good enough for a high quality prints or being edited. Then I discovered the Nikon Coolpix line. This camera takes much higher quality pictures than even my friends 5mp camera! I must say that I am extremely satisfied with my decision.

About the features:

Where do I begin? It may not have f-stops and apertures and fancy ISO settings... but this camera does amazing tricks for the little amount of cash I spent on it.

**Auto Mode - I've tested this in many lighting conditions (bright light, room lighting, and low lighting) and each time I was impressed. Pictures of grass blades come out clear and sharp with well defined color. Animal fur is well defined not softened or blurred. Pictures of shadows come out solid with no jaggies or purple distortion. Bright sun did not fade out my pale face self standing next to a white fence.
**White balance - The ability for it to measure the exposure in a room is impressive as well, you can go into the settings and easily let it measure the colors in the room to get optimal contrast.
**Macro Mode (extreme closeups) - The camera had no pixelation or color distortion when I took pictures. The blades of grass in a pond and each pine needle of a tree were very colorful and well defined. The general response I got from people that I showed them too was "wow" and "that little camera really took those?"
**Scene Modes - I have played with only a few of them so I will just name the features I have played with.
**Indoor party mode - great for taking indoor pictures with lighting effects (like candles on your childs birthday cake).
**Panoramic mode is so simple to use and once you combine it with the Arc software that comes with the camera I think you'll be amazed. You start by taking one picture, then on the LCD you'll see an outline of the last 3rd of the picture you took on the side of the screen... line it up with the next shot and repeat as many times as needed. The software they supply effortlessly seams the pictures together for you making beautiful panoramic pictures.
**Scene guides - The guides available in portrait modes and landscape modes are wonderful for the amateur and take the worries out of focusing on the subject properly.
**Continuous Shot - Very handy and took about 1 photo a second for me.
**Auto-Focus - The camera actually projects a red light on where it is going to auto-focus so you know in advance if you are going to get the shot you want. For those that want to use the half click focus and then move the camera this can come in very handy.

Summary:
At first I was a little put off by the size (I'm used to holding a nice slr size camera) but quickly became accustomed to it. I suffer from hand shaking on a regular basis and the first day I tested it was having problems with it... the camera didn't even seem to notice most of the time. The pictures snapped so quick that my movement didn't even affect it. I highly recommend this camera to anyone that is picky about the pictures they take of their loved ones and their vacation shots. This is so much camera for the money that you can't possibly go wrong.