affordable square format digital cameras?

Once in awhile I wondered what a photo would look like with a square format. Of course, you can always crop to a square on the computer but that doesn't help with the original framing of the shot. So, I spent several hours yesterday searching for information on square format digital cameras and thought I'd post some of the information, for those interested.

There are very expensive square-format digital cameras (Hasselblad, for example). I was looking for something very affordable, just to experiment with. First, I found the "toy camera" Minidigi Rolleiflex, but it lacked other features I wanted (I don't remember the price). Then I read about the Ricoh cameras (GX100, GR Digital II, R7, R8), all of which have a 1:1 aspect ratio option. This seemed great, except I didn't really like the feature set on any one of these (though a combination of the R8 and the GX100 would be nice). Ricoh seems to be a popular choice for people who like the square format. Finally, I googled for digital cameras with aspect ratio options. This was the key. Lots of cameras have different aspect ratio options, though not always 1:1. In fact, it was because of this google search that I discovered that my Nikon p5100 has a square format option!

I was both happy that I already owned a camera with that option and chagrined that I spent so much time on the computer searching for something I should have known. In any case, it was under the "image size" setting in the camera's menu. Apparently what it does is darken a portion of the LCD screen, so that you see a square image. I'll try to post some examples after I next go out shooting.

I'd be interested in hearing if any of your cameras have unusual aspect ratios.