The smartphone market is in a race to develop folding smartphones – but long before the smartphone was a thing, Nikon created what’s possibly the coolest folding gadget. The Nikon Coolpix SQ was a 3.1MP camera introduced back in 2003, but what’s unique about the retro cam is that it actually folded back before foldable tech was cool.
The Nikon Coolpix SQ, as that SQ in the name suggests, is a square-shaped camera when folded and not in use. But, when ready to shoot, the SQ’s lens swivels out towards the front. The Coolpix SQ feels like a mashup between the old folding bellows film cameras and an early 2000s-era digicam.
Reading the instructions for the Nikon Coolpix SQ is a time machine back to what was considered pretty excellent for a consumer camera twenty years ago. The SQ’s 3.1MP camera was the old CCD type, producing images that are roughly 2,000 pixels on the longest side. The LCD screen was a tiny 1.5 inches, though sadly, the folding design was more for storage and not an early iteration of the modern tilting LCD screen. It used Compact Flash for storage and came with a dock for charging.
I love a good retro camera and browsing through the Nikon Coolpix SQ is taking me back to the compact camera’s heyday. The SQ was a risky design then, but that makes it a quirky retro camera today outside the usual rectangular-shaped cameras. Although, of course, I can’t exactly say that brands don’t take risks like this any more – because the oddball design reminds me a bit of the Canon PowerShot V10 vlogging camera.
Perhaps what I’m most nostalgic for are the days when you could pick up a great brand new camera for $500 – most retro Nikon Coolpix SQ listings on eBay are going for at least that.
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