Pro Photographer's Words
Written: May 06 '00 (Updated May 18 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent Image Quality
Cons: Eats batteries
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| bouffard's Full Review: Nikon Coolpix 990 Digital Camera |
I had my camera on order from the day pre-orders were being accepted. It arrived a few days ago and I quickly put it through its paces side-by-side my Coolpix 950. As with the 950, the 990 eats batteries. Nikon should supply NiMH batteries with the camera, but I'm not going to hold that against this fantastic camera. The new USB port is great for quickly downloading photos to your computer, which the 950 lacks. The included software is minimal, so if you are very serious about your digital photos, PhotoShop is highly recommended. In addition, you'll need to consider a larger than 16MB Memory card if you want to take high resolution photos.
On to my findings: The 990 and its additional mega pixel range over the 950 is very noticeable. Shooting at wide angle with both cameras (at the highest resolution) and then cropping the images within PhotoShop 5.5, I printed the cropped area on an Epson PhotoEx printer at 300 dpi as a 5x7 print. The 950 results showed obvious pixelling, while the image from the 990 was clearly sharper. The batteries drained equally with both cameras. One additional setting I really appreciate is the manual settings on the 990. ***UPDATE*** I took a photograph that contained great detail (The Harbor in Santa Barbara) and printed the images from the 990 as big as 16x22 with very nice sharpness. I think much bigger would have lost it. The camera setting was on manual, Hi quality (TIFF file), 1/125 sec @ f/8. The results are wonderful. Can't wait for this weekend to test some more!
I highly recommend this camera. It is as close to the Professional Nikon D1 you can get for several thousand dollars less.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
bouffard
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Member: Mike Bouffard
Location: Santa Barbara, CA, USA
Reviews written: 19
Trusted by: 5 members
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