Customer Reviews

Nikon Coolpix 2000 2MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is my first digital camera but I had the chance to compare this against other cams owned by friends & family. I've been using it for a little more than a month now, here are my "results" ;)

Positive notes go to...

Picture quality:
Great. Details are crisp & colors are natural.
Ok pictures are a little overexposed when the flash goes on in a mildly lit environment, but I had this problem with my old-fashioned "analog" camera as well and advanced photographers can use the exposure settings to minimize this.

Features:
Great. This camera has every feature I need. It has a wide variety of settings & option, you can record "animations" (no sound), etc... In addition the user interface is clear & user-friendly.

Design:
Looks ok, handles great. A little bulky but not oversized.

Negative aspects...

Battery:
Battery life is low. This is the main drawback: as you can't switch the TFT view off (no optical viewfinder), batteries die rather quickly. They don't last more than 1-2 days under moderate use. Maybe using rechargeable lithium batteries might help, but I haven't tried it yet. So if you use this while traveling, be sure to bring in 2 sets of 4 rechargeable batteries with you. You'll probably have to change batteries every day. Because of this, you'll have to carry spare batteries everywhere you go... Grrrr...

Software included:
Nikon's software was really lame. My brother's Sony has much better software. I uninstalled everything and now I'm only using XP's built in features.

Overall...

This is a great camera if you don't mind the battery life that might fall a little short. But my brother's Sony doesn't last much longer either. This is maybe a common problem among all digital cameras. But it's worse here because you don't have the alternative to use an optical viewfinder...

Still if you don't want to spend much and if excellent quality pictures are more important than long battery life, give it a try!

Nikon's line of digital cameras has been good, and the 2000 is a great bang for the buck. The camera is not the sleekest around, nor the lightest, but it gives you a lot of features and control for not too much money. You can point and shoot, or take more control over the photos you take. Right out of the box, you can start taking pictures, and then expand to higher capacity memory cards and longer life batteries. The optical zoom is superior to the digital zoom that you find on many cameras in this range. Most of the controls are on the right hand side of the camera, with a large open grip space in the front so pictures can be taken with one hand. And the picture quality is exceptional for a camera at this price point. Overall this is a very good bargain for the hobbyist who wants to record the family vacation or experiment in the world of digital images. A solid leader.

This camera has many good features I have used so far and many I haven't learned yet. The camera is easy to use if you don't want to spend a lot of time with the CD's and included manual. But the extra features are there if you want to get a little deeper, which I plan to do when I have the time.

Sharp pictures, ease of use, TV out, and enough extra settings and features to keep you going for a while. The only reason I didn't rate this five stars is because the batteries that came with the camera lasted about an hour. I bought a charger and some NiMH batteries and they seem to do the trick.

I've had my camera for about two weeks and love it. Excellent pictures. It is extremely easy to use. I was able to use it without reading the manual. Easy to review your photos, delete if you want, etc. The manual is very concise and easy to understand, and gives lots of useful tips. The more advance features are very easy to use and easy to remember so you don't have to cart your manual around with you everywhere.

It does suck up the non-rechargable batteries. I got two sets of rechargable batteries and haven't had to go into the 2nd set yet even though I've taken lots of photos and a few little movies. Very easy to download onto the computer. I haven't yet installed the software that came with the camera. Accessories are pretty inexpensive. ... The card reader is nice to be able to move your photos off the card onto the computer really quickly.

The only drawback is the LCD viewer is the only way to see what you're take a photo or movie of. In bright light and at certain angles it's a tad hard to see but I'm getting used to it quickly and probably won't mind it at all later. I can hold out the camera and take a decent photo even if I can't really see clearly what I'm taking a photo of.

I got this thing on special at $... That came with a 32m flash card free on promotion.

When I finally received this baby, I just could not put it down. I played with it until I could not find anything to photograph.

It's fairly easy to figure on the buttons as well, without having to read the manual. I started taking picture and transfering them to my notebook before I even read the manual.

The manual is very nice written, precise and written in an easy to understand language. Once I read the manual, which took less than an our, I was using my Coolpix 2000 like I have owned it for a year.

This scene modes make it easy to take quality pictures under any type lighting. With the right sceme mode, I have yet to take a picture that's too bright or too dark.

The red eye reduction works pretty well too. I turned off all the lights at my place and took pics of my girfriend in the dark. The results were good. I noticed though that from the side it does not work too lekker. Anyway, it's red eye redution not elimination.

I did not use the software that came with the camera. I think it's not necessary if you're using Windows XP. It's just another package that fills up much needed drive and memory space.

The LCD display is very clear, even under bright light. The screen updates very quickly as well, so you can move the screen around a lot and still not have to wait while it catches up.

For an amateur, this camera is an excellent buy. It pretty much does everything for you and still takes excellent quality pics. I was not too impressed with the sticker that Nikon has put on the front of the camera and I could do without th noise from the zoom lens.

This camera is great. UPS delivered it today and I have been bowled over by all the features that I didn't know it had. The photos are very sharp--I can't imagine needing more than 2 megapixels. The 20-second video mode is neat, too. The camera does use batteries like crazy though. Using the LCD instead of the viewfinder takes some adjustment, but is superior in my opinion. The LCD is super-bright and crisp. After using it for a short time today, I have already gone through the supplied Panasonic batteries! I recommend some powerful rechargable batteries for this unit.

Nikon Coolpix camera is the way to go, if you don't want to spend a fortune on a camera. You can preview pictures, change settings, but the only thing I don't like about this camera is that it eats up batteries! Please consider getting a Battery Pack with it!

The Coolpix 2000 is a easy-to-use digital camera with two important features: 3x optical zoom and great picture quality. However, it lacks an optical viewfinder, so you must use the LCD screen to shoot pictures -- which is awkward and annoying. I thought this problem was gone on all but the cheapest DCs. Guess not. Also, the CompactFlash memory card is hard to remove. Another problem is that the path to deleting photos is a little confusing at first. Be FOREWARNED: Battery life is the worst I've ever seen, and this is the third digital camera I'ved owned and about the sixth or seventh that I've operated on a regular basis. It's a good camera to keep in the car for emergencies or to use for work. If you're serious about digital photograpy, though, spend a little extra on a [more expensive camera]. You'll be happy you did. My wife owns a 2300 and I bought this, so I'm a bit disappointed.

This is the first digital camera I have ever bought and it was totally worth it. Ive only had it for 3 days. Even without the rebate the price was reasonable. It would be great for a beginning photographer and for the experienced. The photos come out very crisp and colorful, its easy to use, has lots of great features (including the different light settings and macro mode...Im obsessed with it), the menus are easy to use...even without browsing through the manual before hand. Ive read other reviews complaining about the memory card being a little difficult to remove...nonsense. Theres no viewfinder but the LCD screen is great...very clear and sharp. One warning though...battery life. If you buy this camera, BUY one set of NiMH rechargables and a charger. I went through one set of 4 AA's in one day because I had no idea how fast the camera would drain them. If youre like me and cant afford to buy the batteries & charger yet, another item I would defintely recommend is the EH-53 AC power adapter...its excellent for uploading the pictures and not having to use batteries. It seems like a lot of extras youve got to buy but its completely worth it.I installed all of the software on Windows 98 with no problems at all. If you want to edit your photos I suggest downloading Paintshop Pro or some other image editing program. Overall, this camera is excellent and Im sure it will be even better once I get a little more practice with it.

The Coolpix 2000 is my first digital camera. For the money, I can't imagine a better camera out there. I bought it at Amazon.com, and with the low price they have on it (then figure in the rebate from Nikon) how can you beat it? It is a Nikon product, and has their usual quality.
If you go through the manual, and view the info CD that comes with it, you will be taking superb pictures in no time.
I had a little trouble with blurriness when taking pictures in low light at first, but all you need to do is use the correct setting, and use a tripod. There is a little "hand shake" symbol that pops up in the display whenever you run into a situation that a steady hand is required to achieve a sharp picture. I found that a tripod is the ticket for those situations. Tripods are a cheap and wise investment.
As for the battery life...no big deal. It will accept an external power pack plug-in if you need to use it for extended periods. I bought a 7.5 volt Digicom model and it works great. You can take a TON of pictures on it without fear of it going dead. You will still need to pick up a charger and a couple of sets of rechargable AA batteries for the times where you use it for only an hour or two at a time. Forget about using any non-rechargable batteries. You would go broke in a hurry!
Just set it so that it will automatically shut itself off after 30 seconds or one minute (there are a few settings for different auto shut off durations available).
Compared to the way we used to go about it (buy film, pay for development, then sort through and save only the "good" shots), this is a far better way to go.
If you want to view the pictures on your tv (like the old projector slide shows we used to sit through as kids) you can just plug it into the TV, and run through any shots stored on a card. We find ourselves doing this a lot after family outings to help determine which pictures we want to print out. There is never a shortage of opinion!
By the way, You will want to pick up a bigger capacity CF card or two. I went with a 128 mb card, and that is enough for my usage. You can take about 132 pictures in the highest quality settings with it. It will store well over 200 on the second highest quality settings (still extremely good quality for 5 X 7 photos).
I suppose there are a few flaws as expressed in some of the other reviews, but why worry? This a great camera from a great company for a great price. In its price range, I doubt if you can touch it (and I shopped). Buy one!