Customer Reviews

Nikon Coolpix 990 3.34MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(65)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

My needs in a digital camera were simple, or so I thought. I take a lot of photos, 10-15 or more rolls at a time, which can get very expensive when you take into account the cost of film, developing and printing. It is also time consuming, as I scan the best ones and print them out as 8 x 10s. Not to mention a pain, carrying lots of film, lenses, filters, etc. around with me. My aim was to save money and time, but I didn't want to sacrifice quality, either.

The Nikon Coolpix 990 takes excellent photos, and 8x10s print very nicely. I added a $400 flash card and that has plenty of room for lots of pictures (about 80 at fine quality), as poor shots can be deleted immediately. Downloading the pictures to my laptop is a breeze with the included usb cable (another review said that cut and paste doesn't work, but it works fine for me). It's rather heavy on batteries, but once I switched to rechargeable AAs there was a big improvement. One plus digital cameras have over film is being able to adapt to current lighting conditions - no fiddling with filters if taking photos indoors without a flash, for example. So far, I was very pleased.

The major flaw, for me, came when I used the optional 2X lens (bought at the same time as the camera). Nowhere in the literature I read before I bought the camera did it mention that attaching the lens disables the flash. You can't even use an external flash with it. I take many shots in poor light and at a distance, and this renders the camera unusable in those circumstances as I am often also unable to use a tripod. I was more than a little annoyed to find that after spending close to $2000 total, I still had to take my 35mm camera with me. I don't know if this is peculiar to the Nikon or common among digital cameras, but I didn't see it mentioned anywhere.

Despite this, I am pleased with the camera, and would recommend it, especially if most of your photos are taken outdoors or in bright indoor lighting. On my last trip I shot only two rolls of 35mm film. At this rate the camera will have paid for itself within the year in film and film developing savings, and it's worth its weight in gold for the time I save on scanning and retouching photos.

First off, let me say that this camera is incredible, and worth every penny. I've owned mine for about a week, and I've taken some incredible photos that look like they came out of a magazine (and I'm an amateur at best).

Now, let's get realistic about the camera. I want to provide enough factual information to allow people to make their decisions about whether or not this is the right camera for them. TheCoolpix 990 has tons of great points. Most notably, it's 3.34 megapixels (3.24 effective), and thus produces top-quality images with incredible sharpness. Another thing that was had me sold was the fact that you can go into full manual mode with this camera. You can choose either shutter priority, aperture priority, or full manual (including fully manual focus). This aspect of the camera should appeal to the professional or "artsy" photographer who wishes to customize the camera to get the exact effect they want.

After you upgrade the firmware to v1.1, the speed of certain camera operations are a bit faster, but the camera is already originally very fast. Reviewing photographs in "Play" mode is a breeze, and there's not much delay when paging through them.

Buy rechargeable NiMH (nickel metal hydride) batteries and a charger before your camera ships. The alkaline batteries that ship with the camera will die within hours,guaranteed. Also, grab the amazing Maha C204F charger. It allows you to leave the charger plugged in with batteries in it indefinitely, without ruining the batteries at all. The charger will save you several hundred dollars in batteries.

A few drawbacks about the 990 (yes, they do exist): BSS (best shot selection) feature is kind of weak. It's supposed to let you take 10 shots and it chooses the best ("the one with the most detail" I believe the manual says, whatever that means). On some occasions it has actually chosen blurry photos over the sharp ones. I've no clue how this works, but Nikon needs to reevaluate this function. And a warning: don't rely on this camera for good long-exposure shots. Shutter times of 4 seconds and longer in a dark setting will sometimes show a lot of noise in the photograph. This is a very noisy camera (audibly and graphically), so try to limit your exposure times. Also, please note that you will NOT be able to access the "info.txt" file that people in other reviews have mentioned. Yes, the camera saves all photo details (shutter speed, ISO, flash, aperture, etc.) to a file called "info.txt", but you CANNOT access the file unless you're using a card reader. The NikonView software will only let you pull photos from the camera, nothing else.

I'll conclude this here because I could rant on for a while on other great points. The camera is truly amazing, buy it now. Yes, it has drawbacks, but no camera is perfect--and this one comes pretty close to perfection. This camera is comparable to the Olympus C3030, so check that out as well. The features of the C3030 are similar, and in some ways the camera is a little better (the movie mode actually records audio!), and a little worse (uses SmartMedia only).

This is a review for users of 35mm cameras who are thinking of moving over to their first digital camera. (Gadget junkies can safely ignore this post.)

Let me start by saying that this is a great camera. For my purposes the 3M pixel resolution is as good as film. But if you are just moving over from a 35mm for the first time you are in a for a few rude surprises. Some which are endemic to all digital cameras, some Nikon 990 flaws.

1. The built in flash is worse than useless for indoor portraits. The redeye problem is horrendous and unsolvable with the built-in flash. You'll find yourself buying an external flash (~$150)and bracket (~$50). Why they didn't put a hotshoe on the camera is beyond me.

2. If you bought the camera for it's 3m pixel resolution you will find the 16M card supplied as useful as a 16M Windows machine. You need at least one 128M card (~$250) which holds ~80 pictures (unless you plan to tether yourself to a computer.)

3. The LCD display and autofocus eat Alkaline batteries for lunch. You'll go through a set every 1.5 hours. At minimum you need rechargable NiCad's. If you're going to be outdoors for awhile consider a rechargable external Nicad pack (~$50)

4. Shutter lag time seem a lot longer (worse) than 35mm cameras. About 1 1/2 seconds from when you push the shutter to when the camera goes "click" in auto mode. Ouch.

5. If you are used to "motor drive" on your 35mm this camera will drive you crazy. There is a 1.5 second delay between photos for the first two photos and 7 (yes seven!) seconds for the following one. You simply cannot shoot a series of "action" pictures at high res.

6. Oh, hope you didn't expect a carrying case when you bought your camera. It's ok because once you buy the external flash and bracket you need a larger one anyway.

7. Getting pictures into your PC via the compact flash cards are a no brainer if you have either a) USB or b) PCMCIA adapter for a portable. In either case you need an compact flash adapter (~$50 for the PC ~$10 for a portable computer). Of course you can connect your camera directly to the computer, but trust me, get an adapter. Make sure your USB port works before buying the camera.

8. Hope you bought an Epson 1270 or a printer with equivalent quality (~$450)to print your photos. If not, get a cheaper (less resolution) camera.

9. Get familar with Shutterfly.com to send photos to your relatives.

Summary: Great camera. If you're happy taking pictures of the family on a 35mm the resolution of this camera won't disappoint or embarass you. However, the amount of work and manual reading may. Plan on spending another $500+ for peripherals. Learn battery management skills. Learn how to make every shot count.

I've had this camera now for 5 weeks and like it even better than when I first got it. In my first review (here)I sent my camera out for service, well it only took 8 days from out the door to back in. Nikon service is great and you can track progress along the way via an 800 #. All the review treads here are pretty accurate for this camera, so I'll keep this basic. The Coolpix 990 is an awesome machine. The pictures are beautiful! The camera has a swivel joint that allows you to point the lens assembly in one direction and swivel the LCD so you can see it, allowing for holding the camera overhead and focusing in on your subject over crowds. It allows for very creative pictures. I bought extra memory cards and 4 sets of rechargeable nimh batteries that last forever. I get 120+- pics per set of nimh vs 60+- with regular alkali bats, and all I have to do is recharge them to go again, BIG savings.. There are tons of add-on accys. for this camera; zoom lens, filters, external flashes, panorama brackets, you name it. I'm adding lenses and flashes myself. There is a photo book written for the 990 that details the manual settings, with examples, that allows you to take abvantage of the powerful control options built in to this camera. Your possibilities are enormus. Or you can switch into Auto mode and, point & shoot. There are BB forums dedicated to this camera that have lots information for accy. combos, shooting advice, or knowledge sharing. Before I bought this, I read all the reviews and visited camera stores to physically check all the options available. The 990 has a great feel to it; very solid, an easy menu to navigate, and the control buttons are laid out for a comfortable, quality, feel. Competing cameras are too small for my hands and/or don't take as good a picture. I download my digital pics to on-line developers who mail photo prints back to me. No more bad pictires, and you can't tell the difference between digital vs 35mm film. However, i find that printing the photos on my printer with good paper yields photos that (when framed) rival photo finishing from a developer. This technology is truly amazing. I now find mysely going on lots of picture taking hikes experimenting with the different settings on the camera. I can see the results immediatly in the LCD, learn from my mistakes, delete the bad, make adjustments, and take more good pics -vs- taking a roll of film, getting it developed, spending lots of $ for film and processing, forgetting what settings I did in the first place, and having lots of bad pics. THe savings will pay for the camera and accessories! Oh, and in the 5 weeks I had this camera, I took almost 2000 pictures. Do the math and save the money! (2000 pics / 24 pics per roll = 83 rolls. $15 (film & developing costs) per roll and I would of spent $1,250. and had lots of bad pics to boot over the last 5 weeks. This is Really cool stuff. I don't know what else to say, Great camera, great support from Nikon, and endless resources to improve on your camera skills. You'll never be sorry you got this camera. Once you step into the digital world, you'll never go back to film. Try it, you'll like it.

I received my 990 about 2 weeks ago, and I take it everywhere with me. I share the view of many of the reviewers -- you NEED rechargable NiMh batteries (in the first 3 days I went through 3 sets of alkelines) and a bigger memory card (one reviewer says that you can take only 10 pictures at the best quality on the enclosed 16 Mb card -- in fact, ONE picture at the top quality takes about 9 Mb, so you have to download one before you can get another on.) These petty complaints notwithstanding, the quality of this camera and the control you get are remarkable. One excellent aspect of the camera is that it's a wonderful camera to learn photographic technique on. Every photo taken generates a 5 page data file that records the settings of the camera. Take 4 pictures of a subject at different settings and you can instantly check to see which is the best, and then check what settings you were using -- f. 4.0 at 1/60th of a second, using spot metering, etc. If I wanted to do this comparison on my 35 mm I would have to take notes of every setting, then shoot a whole roll of film and have it developed, before I could view the pictures side-by-side. Now I can take pictures and immediately compare them.

I have used 35mm SLR cameras for over 20 years. I was hesitant to delve into the digital realm. Here are the pros and cons of this camera with respect to 35mm SLRs.

Pros:

No film to deal with. You can view the results of your photos immediately. This is great for playing with framing or bracketing (over/underexposing), or other creative things: you can delete the shots that just did not work. The others you can save for printing or for use on the computer. This feature is great for any picture you take. You can see how it turned out. You will know if so-and-so had their eyes closed or if things were moving too fast for the shutter speed. I can not stress how convenient this is. You can delete and then retake bad shots!

The lens on this camera tilts every which way. I use a tripod frequently: I do not have to adjust the tilt angle of the tripod with this camera--I just tilt the camera lens.

The LCD display frees your eye from being stuck to the viewfinder. This is incredibly convenient. You can hold the camera at arms-length and still see what's in the viewfinder.

Compact size. The Coolpix is smaller than most SLRs and the memory cards are so much smaller than film.

Ability to control "white balance". No more yellow indoor shots.

Cons:

Lack of lens flexibility. With a SLR you click-and-twist one lens off and click-and-twist a different one on, period. You have limited screw-on choices with this camera. Also you have to change the camera's computer settings to use these lenses. It takes about 30 seconds (or more if you have to drag out the manual) to make a lens change with the Coolpix.

Aperatures are more limited on this camera. This is especially troublesome for portraits or other photos where a very wide aperature/shallow depth-of-field is often desirable.

Color print quality is subject to the quality of your PC printer. And yes, you can have professional printing done--it's just an extra hassle. If you have a poor quality printer you may need to buy a NEW printer to get the results you want.

I don't know how to explain it, but Coolpix digital pictures are just not the same as film pictures. Some aspects are better, some seem worse.

Battery issues and other issues as mentioned by other reviewers.

Conclusion:

I WILL NOT get rid of my 35mm SLRs--they cannot be completely replaced by the Coolpix for all situations.

I WILL use my Coolpix 990 for many, many snapshots and many kinds of "creative" pictures, as well.

As a semi-professional commercial photographer, I know what quality is and how much it costs. Bottom-Line for starters, the Nikon-990 makes great color shots with very (not so suprising) High-detail. The Advertisments say "good" for 8x10 photos; as a very picky guy, NIKON is telling the truth. The 5x7 prints are shockingly clear with brilliant colors. Since not many prints are not made larger than 5x7, the superlative colors in this print size will likely give the Film Camera buffs a challange. This camera is easy to use & small, however has an exhaustive number of features. My wife and our 13 year old, carry it on all vacation locations; And when I don't want to carry my larger and heavier commercial camera. I was truly shocked at the excellent picture quality of the NIKON 990 which also includes great software, so after a picture taking day/nite, one can easily connect to the yellow video plug on your TV (or Hotel TV) for a slide show of the days activities. I would recommend purchasing two (2) 80MB memory card with the camera purchase, so you'll get plenty of picture opportunities (an 80MB card has room for 50 shots per card at max its resolution) without having to worry about running out of memory. So for a day's shooting two 80MB cards will give the equivalent of four (25-shot) rolls of film. Since you can erase shots that you don't like, take MANY, MANY shots and then pick the best ones you like to save, and for printing or e-mailing. I bring my laptop with me on trips, so in the evening, I can copy the photo-files to the lap-top's hard disk, and erase the camera memory card, so there's room for another 50 photos available in preparation for the next days photo activities. NIKON provides serial, USB cables, and software to accomplish this simply. Definitely do NOT buy a digital camera with less than 2,000,000 pixels. (The older models, presently having good sale prices, are technology of 3 years ago, and you'll wish you spent the extra money for a higher resolution camera). Since NIKON has been the camera business for many, many years, its no surprise that they have created an electronic imager (the CCD Chip) with EXCELLENT Color quality and detail. This is must have, you'll not be dissappointed. If you're on a tighter budget check out the KODAK-280 at less than $500 which takes excellent photos for a 2,000,000 pixel camera. If you have another few hundred dollars, check out the SONY or OLYMPUS dye-sublimation printers, which produce actual photo quality continuous tone prints up to 4x5 sizes; These printers are not dot-matrix's with all the little dots. The camera and the printer makes for a great combo family gift for under $1,500, that anyone in the family can use without having to even turn on a computer, as the printer prints directly off the camera memory card. Don't make yourself craze, since DIGITAL Cameras are slightly different than a typical film point-and-shoot cameras, be sure to read the instruciton booklet, before pushing all the buttons. The documentation NIKON provides is very easy to understand. So take it slow when you open the Box for the first time. It's intuitive to use, after the first 2 outings, you NOT need to keep going back to the booklets. My wife and 13 year old son love this camera (as do I)and they have no trouble dealing with the camera's features, which are exhaustive. This 3.340,000 pixel camera is one of the best I've tested yet. ONE more point, the camera can twist at its middle (permitting the lens to point up or down, with the LCD Pannel staying directly in-line with your eyes) which is an amazing engineering idea which gives the photographer a whole new perspective for taking pictures without having to have the camera pressed against your face. The LCD screen is bright even out doors. JLW/2000/08/25.

I owned this camera for about 4 months, and in the time took over 1000 photos with it (yeah, I know, too much free time!). I used the photos for on-screen presentations, as well as 8x10" printouts. The camera takes just incredible photographs, with accurate colors, and very sharp definition. Here are some other points I saw:

* autofocus was fairly quick during the day, but can bog down and become very indecisive in low light

* flash: powerful, but nothing you do can get rid of red-eye in virtually any shot (red-eye reduction mode is useless)

* camera can store photos in separate folders, which is useful for multiple occasions

* no support for Microdrive is a fatal flaw

* metering system is extremely accurate; found virtually no need to use the spot meter

* macro ability is second to none

* for dentistry, takes wonderful intraoral photos, utilizing the chair light and the built-in flash; not terribly good, though, if you want to focus on ONE tooth, since the flash will wash things out. The resolution is good enough, though, that you can focus on a quadrant, take the shot, and crop it later.

Overall, found it to be the perfect camera, minus the red-eye problems and lack of microdrive support. So I sold it and bought a Canon Powershot G1 (review forthcoming)...

Keeping this short and sweet (well shorter than most I hope), I just wanted to share with any person interested in this camera some valuable information to consider while shopping for a digital camera. About 4-5 months ago I gave my Nikon 950 to my better half itching to jump on the 3.3 Mp bandwagon. Right off the bat there were only 2 cameras to consider (the Sony DSC-S70 and the Nikon 990), all other 3.3's were just not up to par with these two. After a month of research I decided that the S70 would be the better of the 2 because of the sleek point and click design and sony's proprietary memory stick. Both camera's are true 3 megapixel cameras unlike the predecessor DSC-505V, both cameras have viewfinders (a must-have for day photography), and both cameras deliver exceptional pictures. But with the far stylish look of the S70 at $200 less the S70 was my choice at the time. I then spent the next 2 months trying to locate the camera in stock and at a good price, fortunately Amazon began to sell DCs which allowed me to start pricing cameras again. However, the Sonys were all backordered, which ended up to be a blessing in disguise. A few weeks later a relative purchased the 990 and allowed me to tinker with it. Still a believer on the S70 I was reluctant in accepting the bulkier design of the camera, but after a few hours I found the 990 to be the true champ of the 3.3's. During my tinkering I found a couple facts to consider for both cameras:
1. Both cameras come with an inadequate amount of storage, so getting extra memory is a MUST.
2. 1 battery (or 4 for the Nikon) will not do the job while you are on a trip.
3. Zoom on both are extremely low, so they will never truly replace a 35mm.

Taking those into consideration along with the offer Amazon had on the 990, it was hands down the better of the two for these reasons:
1. The 990 uses CF cards which are a standard in several cameras unlike the proprietary Memory Stick, also you get 16mb with the 990 compared to the 8mb with the S70.
2. A 64mb stick costs as much as a 96mb CF card.
3. The S70's memory write times were significantly slower than the 990 (due to the memory stick again).
4. The 990 uses AA batts which can be found anywhere.
5. The Manual Options for the 990 gives the photographer so much control over their photo conditions.
6. The 990s swivel design is fabulous, something totally impossible on the S70 unless your workaround happens to be your "swivel-neck".

Now does this make the 990 a great point&click? Probably not (dont get me wrong, the 990 is an unbelievable on its "Auto" mode) you will thoroughly enjoy the camera more because of the configurable nature of the camera, if you plan to truly take digital photography seriously then this is your camera. Also, a few quirks you need to adjust to with the camera (all DCs have them, but these I found were actually minor since you can find workarounds for them):
1. Batteries, the 990 inhales them... get a set of at least 4 to a recommended 8 rechargables, they cost a lot, but you will need them, the NiMH rechargers work great.
2. Get at least 32-64mb of memory, 16mb = 1 picture at the 990's absolute highest setting.
3. Upgrade the firmware to 1.1 when you get the chance, the autofocus upgrade is noticable.. quite noticable.
4. The software with the camera is weak, very weak (basic app to download pictures), get a picture editing package.
5. Built-in flash not the best for distant shots, which can be compensated with an external flash.
6. Red-eye is there and red-eye suppression doesn't do the trick most of the time, but get a red-eye removing pen at your local camera shop, they work wonders.

Like I said, every camera has quirks, but if I listed the quirks I discovered about the S70, I would never end this review. Finally, I assume that you can guess which camera I finally purchased off Amazon. I've been messing with it for this past week and I am now a Nikon believer (was one with the 950, but more so with this camera). I'm so eager to take pictures with it these holidays and hope that if you purchased the 990, that you find what I wrote true to your experiences as well. To those who are considering, I hope you find what I wrote informational. Merry Christmas everyone!! :)

The Nikon Coolpix 990 has been a great camera-I'm extremely pleased with it. This is a good choice for an experienced or ambitious amateur photographer. Most of my previous experience has been with a Panasonic that cost a little over half what this one did. In comparison to that camera, the Nikon has better color saturation, is quicker at the draw, and of course has more features.... I've been very pleased with the way that the 990 allows control over both shutter speed and aperture, color balance, focus and metering points and several more obscure settings.

All digital cameras are battery pigs, and this is no exception. A good optical viewfinder (including support for zoom) is important in a camera like this for two reasons. First, the color screen is useless in bright sunlight, but second, it provides you with a battery-saving option of turning off the monitor. An LCD screen on top of the camera provides a readout on the most common settings (aperture, shutter speed, resolution & quality, storage, 'ISO', flash settings, manual focus distance). Japanese electronics tend to have lots of features, reached through obscure combinations of buttons. While I would hardly categorize this camera as being 'completely intuitive,' most of the functions are pretty easy to operate. The more advanced settings are reached through a tabbed menu on the monitor, which is reasonably easy to use. I've also found that the monitor is very accurate in both brightness and tone. The monitor has several different modes-if you leave it turned on, the default mode is to superimpose some of the most-used camera settings over the picture. This is similar to but not a complete duplicate of the readout on the top LCD screen. You can also leave the menu on, superimposing it over the image. While this covers part of the image, it also makes menu options available for immediate use. Unless you are in very bright light, what you see on the monitor after taking a picture is what you get-I've never been disappointed that a picture didn't turn out like it appeared on the monitor (brightness and hue are adjustable). Although the monitor is small, the view feature lets you zoom in and scroll around on stored images so that you can look at them more closely.

The configuration of the camera is unusual, splitting the viewfinder, lens and flash from the other half of the camera and allowing their separate rotation. I usually don't rotate the lens, but sometimes it is convenient to do so, allowing you to take pictures over your head or around corners. I bought a small minipod and found that the rotating lens assembly provides some extra flexibility when clamping the camera to whatever happens to be available. The on-board flash is OK, but the red-eye reduction facility doesn't work very well. If you don't use an off-camera flash, you're living with substandard lighting anyway, but there are more effective red-eye reduction systems on other built-in flashes.

It doesn't matter how slick the controls are, or how good it looks if it doesn't take acceptable pictures. I've been quite please with the camera's performance in many different light conditions. I've had fun capturing the Christmas lights in Zürich, and my best picture was a misty Fall scene on Mt. Pilatus with yellow and red leaves. It took me 6 tries to get the exposure right (that's why you buy a camera like this), but it perfectly captured that dreamy backlit scene and its Autumn colors. Pictures don't always come out as rich as negative film, but they aren't bad and when they are good, they can be very good.

I've found that close-ups work well, and macro mode is fun. I've even used my 990 to copy signs or even pages in a book. It is a quick way to capture text that you need to refer to later. After you've taken a picture of a diagram or text, view it and use the zoom function to make sure that what you've just taken is legible in the monitor.

The camera has more continuous shooting options than I know what to do with. The multi-shot 16 feature lets you create a single collage that consists of 16 pictures. That's the kind of gimmick that you can't use very often without wearing out your audience's patience. If you want to create a short movie, though, you can do that too.

Speaking of night pictures, I had a terrible time figuring out the self-timer. When you put it in self-timer mode, the close-up icon (flower) comes on, and so does the red eye icon. It turns out that you are stuck with this configuration, which isn't really optimal for night scenes. ... Given the availability of multi-second shutter speeds, and a sensitivity adjustment providing an effective speed of ISO 400, some owners will undoubtedly pay for the MC-EU1 release, and the bulb setting is pretty much useless without it.

I like the USB cable. Once you've loaded Nikon View on your computer, connecting the camera to a USB port and turning it on automatically makes the camera accessible as if it were a removable drive. I've been traveling with just the USB cable and find it a very convenient way to pull pictures into my laptop and delete them from the memory card. Connection of the USB cable automatically turns off the color monitor, and subsequent battery drain seems to be low.

... I think most Nikon owners would appreciate a more advanced text than this, but it is comprehensive and has helped me better utilize my camera.

In summary, automatic operation is very good, and if desired, this camera offers the ability to control every aspect of the photography process. It has less waiting time than many other digital cameras I've used, it is relatively easy to use, and it takes good pictures. It's a winner!