Title : Nikon Coolpix 990 - High Quality Imaging
Review : I have had this camera for almost 7000 shots, and have loved every minute of it. It has a lot of highly technical settings, capabilities to shoot small mpgs, black and whites, 3 shot ’best shot selector’ where it writes the best (most detailed) of 3 shots, continuous frames, and the list goes on. You can shoot apperture priority, shutter speed priority, manually adjust many particulars such as contrast, brightness, image density(all the way up to 3.2 Megapixel), or simply shoot on automatic.
You can select from a number of light meter configurations, i.e. spot, center weighted, area, matrix, etc. and the minimum image size will easily sail across the internet, while the largest can be blown up to as large as 11 X 14 with no visible grain.
The camera uses smart cards and includes excellent software for photo editing, particularly in the latest update.
The camera has a digital zoom and built-in flash, but there are accessory lenses and lighting systems also available at some truly startling prices. I found some offbrand lenses and have been quite unimpressed with their capabilities. Certainly they fit the camera, and they adjust focal ranges, but the glass just doesn’t cut the mustard with these lenses. One of Nikon’s selling points has always been the quality of their lenses.
The flash that is built in is the other major problem for this camera, producing a guaranteed red eye in its flash mode.
The swivel body allows for some unique shooting opportunities. And the service is professional.
Battery use on most digital cameras is just going to be atrocious. That’s life. But there is a solution I have found quite economical. I bought 3 or 4 sets of NiMH AA batteries and keep them recharged. I bought these sets within 6 months of the camera purchase, which by my best guess has been at least 4 years ago.
None of these sets, or even a single battery has diminished significantly in recharge capacity. NiCads will lose the ability because of something called ’memory’. However, even NiCads may do alright since you usually drain your sets to the bone before taking them out and putting in another fully charged set.
Nikon, if I’m not mistaken, has come out with a lithium pack and recharging unit... but Nikon can be very proud of their name. I haven’t priced them because when it ain’t broke I ain’t fixin’ it. But Lithium batteries charge very quickly. Usually for the cell phone or our VHS-C it takes about 2 to 3 hours.
Roughly, the video camera will last just about 2 hours of continuous use (i.e. one typical high school soccer game) IF I don’t use the color LED screen and stick with the ’thru the camera’ black and white view. That is about as equivalent a comparison as I can make. The NiMH batteries last around 70 - 100 shots at the next to highest image quality. Shooting a soccer game, again as a comparison, I would go through one fully charged set, but I have 2 girls, both of which used to play in a local city league, and often their games would fall on the same day. So I needed at least one backup set. Then on tournament days, or playoff days, they might play 3 games each. When those days came around, I would purchase some regular AAs for additional backup.
This system seems to work for me. Takes about a little over a day to recharge one set of 4.
For you, the consumer, you are not likely to find the Nikon Coolpix 990 anywhere but a second hand store or camera shop. Because they are superceded by other newer models and those models have come down from the original price range of $1000, this camera should be able to be picked up at below $500.
Pros : Tremendous variety of shooting modes
Cons: May be overly complicated, produces red eye on every flash shot