Nikon's Live view for one, has a few second lag, and also (as of now) "corrects" with something like D lighting(even wen D-lighting is turned off) and flattens the look of your shot leading to slight "inaccuracy". While very useful for many I assume, I still prefer laying on the ground and looking through the viewfinder because it doesn't strain my eyes and is always crystal clear and is also not affected by the light reflecting off the screen. Also I defiantly would take separate controls for the SS and F-stop over a flip screen because I often need to adjust both at the same time rapidly and program mode never gives me what I want...

What do you mean by accuracy Kyoshi? I find swivel screens are very useful. Many high-end news and movie video cameras have them so why not still cameras? Yes the resolution quality is less but I'm sure soon they will be at the same level as "traditional" screens.

The screen quality and accuracy has turned me away from wanting a flip screen to begin with...

I, personally, think the flip screen is a bad idea. As NSX-TypeR mentioned, the flip screen is merely a weakness. I also find it makes the camera design highly convoluted. Plus, it would add to production costs, wouldn't it? Thus making the camera ultimately more expensive. It's silly to me. I don't like Live View, anyway. Point-and-shoots come to mind.

I can already see ppl calling Nikons support, ooooooh I just got my new d5000 and my f kid broke that niFty new feature of yours ... flip screen
what do I do ? do I need to get a new camera or can you fix this one

lol : )

willis - not necessary, as there is always the possibility that some dirt (mostly sand that I'm afraid of) will go between the camera and display and then, even that You don't use it,the screen might be scratched.

The ability to flip it such that the screen faces the rear of the camera is a nice touch. Keeps the screen from getting scratched in Transit.

I just wouldn't trust one (a tilt screen). Especially looking right now at my d60... which has gone places that it was probably not designed to go.

flip screen is good. if you don't like it, dont' flip it. it's like people whining about 51points being too many AF points when with a few clicks you can use 21 or 9. It's certainly better than being locked with no choice!

mb, I have to disagree with You, in some ways it's really very convenient feature - especially if You shoot macro, low or high angle pictures, as it gives You the possibility to improve the composition. Try taking over head pictures, and You will see how hard it is to get the good composition when You don't see the viewfinder or the screen. although, the think I care most is the build quality, as I'm a little bit afraid that it's gonna be very easy to separate the screen from the camera permanently.

If the question is: “What is the Purpose of Flip Screen” I should say not much whatsoever, except to sell it to ignorant crowd for a couple of hundreds more.

I don't thing that we will see dual screen setups in near future, as monty wrote, they will take too much energy. However, viewing histogram on one and 100% crop on the other is very tempting.
As for the flip screen, I think that sooner or later we gonna see them in the whole range of DSLR, from amateur to pro bodies. Personally I really don't care, as I'm using this screen mostly for camera setup - learn a good lesson some time ago, that not using the auto review option will save You a lot of energy, especially when You are in a field.

Have you given any thought to where that second screen would be? Under the flip screen?
This would also (with the present screens and batteries at least) a heavy blow at the power consumption of the camera, weight and perhaps also size.
I somehow doubt in this setup and how much people would actually use it. When I had the Canon S3 I seldom used it turned out as it was a very easy way of getting rid of it and I couldn't really be bothered to flit it out every time I shot something.
This unless the second screen is a dedicated small histogram (displaying a single or superimposed RGB histograms) as you really don't need that much details for it. Something like the small info screen below the main one on the D3 that could switch to histogram during viewing the taken shots and at other times it would just show the basic info.
Talking about off topic :D

I've always thought a dual screen setup would be cool. During playback you could have it show the picture on one screen and the settings \ histograms on the other. Alternatively, it could do the picture on one screen and a 100% crop on the other... maybe one day. Of course, that might get really distracting.

When you need to shoot on ground level or even have the camera tilted upward, which means that you yourself have to be in the ground to peek in the viewfinder, then I use a right angle viewfinder (http://www.bccamera.com/images/DR-6.gif). You can rotate it in all directions and it has a 2x zoom for better focusing. Though I took the cheaper road and got a Seagull angle viewfinder that was more than two times cheaper.

The only issue with a flip screen that I can see is a weakness. You definitely do not want to snap it off accidentally. Plus it won't be as waterproof as you probably want it to be.

The flip screen could be useful when you cannot get behind the viewfinder - such as when shooting from the ground level. I use Live View when shooting tethered in the studio - and sometimes when I have the camera tight against the back wall to get the widest view possible from the D300 - it is a great help. I can see the image on the Mac screen - and use that to position the camera. A flip screen would do the same for shooting without the computer tether.

I wonder what else will be in the package?

Dick

I think you have the basic idea. It is expressly for live view, which the camera will certainly have. It's for shooting at angles which would otherwise be either difficult or awkward. It can help with shooting from the hip, or doing very low angles where you couldn't get your eye to the viewfinder. It's certainly not for every situation, but it can be very nice to have at times.

Maybe I'm just not really seeing it, but what's all the fuss over a flip screen? I honestly don't see how it could make my shooting experience any better Maybe I'm just an idiot on this one (it's happened before so I wouldn't be surprised), but it seems like without live view capabilities, the flip screen doesnt seem all that useful. I guess if I were shooting macro real close to the ground it might be nice, but other than that I don't get the excitement. I'm far more interested to hear what the D400 would have to offer.