Awesome Camera for the price

I bought this camera for my parents who reside in India. The main factors I looked for were:

1.Ease of use, since my parents are not technically savvy
2. Good quality pictures, that we can later develop at least 8 x 10 photos
3. A camera that uses regular AA batteries, since those are the type of batteries easily available in India,and also I don't have to spend $20-$30 every time for custom batteries
4. Also a camera that uses the cheap SD memory card. Office max had them on sale, and that worked for me

This camera met all the above expectations, and exceeded a few as well. The image quality cranked out by the camera is excellent, and we can easily print flawless 11x14s with the pixel resolution. The buttons on the camera are very intuitive, and the menu navigation is a breeze, even for my parents. The LCD screen is a pretty good size, and gives a nice preview of the pictures to be taken. and surprisingly, for a screen this large, the battery consumption is not all that bad. The camera also comes in attractive colors,and is perfectly sized to fit regular folks hands. They are neither clumsily big, nor annoyingly tiny, thereby hindering practicality.

From a cons perspective, the only two I could think of was the video quality, and the cover for the battery/SD card. The video quality is still a little choppy and grainy, for an 8 megapixel camera, but I always say, you wanna take movies, go get yourself a camcorder. I have never been a fan of all in one gadgets anyway. Video quality is still passable, but don't expect to make a 1 hr DVD out of it. The second issue I saw was that the battery lid design is a little clumsy. My parents had trouble closing it everytime to change batteries, or replace memory cards. Hopefully future versions will be able to get out improved designs.

For people who are like me, who would just take pictures, hook up the camera to the computer, and after a couple of clicks, voila, its on the internet (Thank god for Google's Picasa), this camera is a boon. I had no problems whatsoever to connect to my computer (Mine's running XP, and Nikon's USB cable is included)....

Overall, this camera gives excellent value for money, and would make a great gift item for folks travelling internationally, since it has a broad range of standard features. This would also make a great gift item for children who are just getting into photography. Given Nikon's image, this is one camera that does not disappoint!