Had the features I preferred
Written: Jan 05 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: See list of 10
Cons: no sound on video capture... small memory card
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| jayson's Full Review: Nikon Coolpix 990 Digital Camera |
Here is the list of features I looked for and found in the Nikon Coolpix 990... if any of my list hits close to home, read on...
1. good picture quality: 3.34 Megapixel/Nikon lenses, good color capture
2. expandable: accessory lenses and filters available (fisheye, wide angle, telephoto)
3. configurable: variable film speed 100,200,400
4. image inspection: slew of features to assist with viewing images on the LCD
5. control: Fully manually, or fully automatic, and all in between
6. metering: off center, center weighted and various other light metering options
7. focus: off center focus/pre-focus available.
8. post capture image touchup... good internal software.
9. viewfinder: 270 degree rotation/optical viewfinder
10. quick startup/shutdown
I was initially rather hesitant to jump into the digi-cam market, fearing to give up on beloved picture quality, however now that I've made the plunge I'm well beyond satisfied with my Nikon 990. For a sacrifice in picture I barely notice, I've made up for it many times when lighting, or focus, or framing was just a little bit off, and I got to delete a picture, and manually readjust, tweak a menu selection or move the camera just right in an attempt to skillfully (or so I like to think) craft the exact photo I wanted. I love how if I don't have time I can just quickly snap a shot, or if I do have time I can continually re-shoot and alter various settings until I have my 'masterpiece'. The Nikon definitely has some good features to assist with viewing your pics, making sure you captured what you wanted, and even allowing you to see those wonderful little surprises that sometimes you didn't even anticipate.
Way back in the day (ok, not *that* long ago) I started with an older Nikon SLR 35 mm (aperture priority, manual focus) camera. I loved all that it offered me. When looking into digital cameras, I wanted all the features I used to have with my old camera. After some quick initial research I thought I would have to spend a few thousand dollars on either the Fuji pro pix or double that amount on the Nikon D1, or some similar digital SLR. Even after the purchase, you would still have to buy more lenses if you didn't have any Nikon f-mounts around, and of course more memory cards, possibly external flashes... you see where I'm going. Then, after thousands of dollars... you would now be lugging around a 2 pound almost professional digi-cam. Those cameras were really out of my budget, and I like to have a more portable camera, so I scanned around listlessly hoping I could find a good compromise with all the features I was used to without totally breaking the bank. The 990 still is not in the cheap budget range, but I feel it was well worth the money, especially now after I've taken it with me on a few trips, and already snapped off around a hundred pictures I consider keepers. I'm now going to go into more detail about what I was looking for in a camera.
First off, for my camera I wanted some flexibility. I really like to have fun with some unique shots, and to be tied to a lens that only zooms from a normal angle to a magnified shot (like most digi-cams) wasn't impressive to me. I more often find myself wishing I could have opened up more scenery rather than scanned in on a specific subject. But if your taking photo's of your fav celebrity from far away the 990 still won't disappoint. It ships with a 3x optical zoom, and 4x digital zoom. Basically, you can get pretty dang close. For me, I was most impressed by the accessory lenses which can be added onto the camera. I've already purchased the fisheye lens and I've had plenty of fun with it already. And if you want more optical zoom there are 2 accessory lenses out for the 990 which might accommodate your taste.
The second feature I really like that I haven't used maybe as much as I should have is the variable film speed. The camera permits you to toggle between 100, 200, and 400 speed film (of course... if you want, it can also automatically choose film speed). How many times have you been in the middle of a roll of film and wished you had different film speed in your camera... or have you ever carried around 2 cameras so that you would have different film speeds already available and loaded up ready to use. If so... you know exactly what I'm talking about.
The third feature or set of features are all the functions that you can use to view your pictures on the cameras LCD screen itself. There really is a lot to go over here... I would check out the owners manual for more detail. When looking at the image, you can peruse through every possible setting the camera had configured for the picture when it was taken, so if you want info on flash, shutter speed, aperture, focus, you can look through the list of settings for the image, it even has more digi-cam specific info (i.e.: file size). It also has the wonderful ability to zoom into your image on the LCD screen itself... up to 4x. The screen on any digi-cam is usually around 2 inches (1.8 for the 990), so this feature is *very* handy. For many shots, after looking over the picture on the LCD, and using the zoom I would find things were out of focus (maybe I'd left the manual set to infinity for a close-up... oops), lighting wasn't as I had anticipated, etc. It was much better to use the tools provided during viewing to determine the shot was poor before going home to look at the pics on a computer or TV. Numerous other features are also available, including a histogram which displays a handy graph to let you know how many pixels of each color you've captured, and on the histogram screen, you will see that your white's flash. There have been times where I've saved myself from a picture being totally washed out, or lighting being much to light when I was examining the picture, and noticed that too much of it was flashing.
More features I enjoy include the ability to take manual control over pretty much every aspect of the camera, or that with the same camera, I can also switch it to fully automatic, and let the camera do the thinking for me. The basic options the 990 provides are to switch between fully automatic, aperture priority, shutter priority, or fully manual. For those of you who want to focus it yourself, that option is also available, by spinning one of the dials while holding the focus button, you can toggle between a number of positions for distance of the subject from the camera. I would like to call to attention one of my favorite features of aperture priority on this camera. It can cause it to select shutter speeds of up to 8 seconds in length, and according to the manual (haven't tried this yet), you can manually hold the shutter open for up to one minute. I can't tell you how many times I tried this feature on my old camera and got some good long exposure shots at night, or got some that I wish that I had known were garbage before I had developed the film (thanks to digital I have the handy delete button).
The viewfinder et al is the final major feature set I enjoy. If you notice the interesting design for this camera you can see that it has the ability to rotate the direction the lens points 270 degrees relative to the viewfinder. This allows extra flexibility for taking shots and being able to see the viewfinder. One interesting example of taking advantage of this feature is with self portraits while holding the camera. You can view yourself on the LCD screen, and even capture the precise background you want. With this rotation, you can take pictures over people's heads and still see the LCD view finder. Also for those really bright days when the LCD viewfinder is difficult to see you still have the optical viewfinder. The optical viewfinder is good for conserving batteries, as you can disable the use of the LCD screen, and just use the viewfinder.
If that weren't enough above, the camera still has numerous other wonderful features. One of these that I'm still playing around with is the ability to shoot video of up to 40 seconds. Unfortunately the camera does not have it's own device to capture sound like some other digi-cams, but the moving picture is a definite bonus. While you are shooting video, you do have the ability to zoom in and out. Another feature I like is the ability to do various metering configurations, including spot metering off the center of the frame. Focus can also use a point off the center, but often times I've used the pre-focus feature by depressing the shutter button halfway to capture focus and light, and then I move the camera from there, so I can pre-focus in the center, and then move. I like the pre-focus for two reasons... one I can focus on a specific distance before the subject arrives to that point, and 2 it reduces the time from when I completely depress the button to when the shot is taken to about 1/2 a second (normally somewhere around a second+). And one of the final extras I like is that when reading reviews about this camera from professional digital photographers, they seemed to agree that it was difficult to beat the image touchup done internally with the camera than with software applications like PhotoShop. I like that thought that I can just download the picture to the computer, and be done with it.
The final quick comment to add is a quick startup and shutdown time. As the lens is internally telescoping, you can instantly put the camera away. No need to wait for the lens to retract. When you want to put it away, just cover the lens, switch to off... no waiting. The startup time seems to be quick to average compared to other digi-cams I was considering in a similar price/feature range.
So to recap my rather lengthy exercise in typing I bought my camera for the following key reasons. If you agree that these are key reasons to purchase a camera you too will probably enjoy the Nikon Coolpix 990
1. good picture quality: 3.34 Megapixel/Nikon lenses, good color capture
2. expandable: accessory lenses and filters available (fisheye, wide angle, telephoto)
3. configurable: variable film speed 100,200,400
4. image inspection: slew of features to assist with viewing images on the LCD
5. control: Fully manually, or fully automatic, and all in between
6. metering: off center, and various other light metering options
7. focus: off center focus/pre-focus available.
8. post capture image touchup... good internal software.
9. viewfinder: 270 degree rotation/optical viewfinder
10. quick startup/shutdown
Negatives:
No sound on video capture.
Batteries are not removable while mounted on a tripod (but you would probably use the AC adapter in this situation).
little memory on the shipped memory card (I think every digi-cam fails here)
Recommendations with purchase:
Case to protect the camera and LCD screen.
Rechargeable batteries (digi-cams in general eat them)
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
jayson
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Member: Jason Huffman
Location: SF Bay Area, CA
Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 18 members
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