Film? We don't need no stinkin' film!
Written: Jun 01 '00 (Updated Jun 01 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Sharp, contrasty lens, 3.34MPixels, neat twist body.
Cons: Limited zoom range, limited to 400ISO, not constant aperture zoom.
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| bitnaut's Full Review: Nikon Coolpix 990 Digital Camera |
For my first digital camera, I wanted something that didn't force me to give up too many of my film camera habits: manual control of focus, aperture and shutter speed, use of external flash, and interchangeable lenses.
On the other hand, I wanted a camera that gave me all the digital camera advantages and features such as in camera preview, histogram exposure view, manually settable white balance, and in camera picture editing.
With the exception of interchangeable lenses, the Nikon Coolpix 990 gave me all these and more...features such as 5 point focus/spot/matrix metering system similar to my Nikon F5, manually settable ISO equivalent film speeds, Quicktime movie capture, and an interesting split swivel body that allows me to see the LCD without having to contort myself like a gymnast when shooting from weird angles.
Despite it's vast array of features, I found, for my first digital camera, the 990 quite easy to use without even looking at the manual. The menu system, including the icons, seemed intuitive to me and easy to follow.
Hooking up my Nikon SB-28 flash with an SC-18 cord to the 990 allowed me to take TTL (thru the lens) flash photos quite easily. I found myself trying out different ways of using the flash since I could easily delete the ones I didn't like and try something different yet again. The builtin flash on the 990 seems a bit useless to me since it's underpowered and way too close to the lens which leads to your typical "point and shoot" snapshot pictures complete with red-eye despite the red-eye reduction feature in the 990. Through the extensive menu system however, you can turn off the builtin flash and rely solely on your external flash's output which is adjustable via another menu item from +2.0 to -2.0 stops beyond the TTL reading.
Another interesting feature, which is quite a departure from the film world, is the concept of "white balance". Basically, through this setting, you are telling the camera what white should look like given the current lighting of the environment. The 990 gives you some factory presets for flourescent, incandescent, cloudy, etc. lighting conditions but the most useful one is the White Balance Preset. Through this feature you can measure something white given the current lighting conditions and get great color every time! I found this feature quite useful in mixed lighting conditions (incandescent and flourescent for example) which would have driven me nuts had I used film. One complaint in connection with all of this is that the 990 allows you to shoot available light interiors quite easily but I wish they could have bumped the sensitivity of the ISO to 1600 instead of 400. It would have made shooting some indoor sports ALOT easier.
On top of all these features and "neato" things is the fact that the 990 takes great pictures. The lens is sharp and contrasty and the only gripe I have with it is that it's not a constant aperture zoom. That means its aperture varies between f/2.5 and f/4.0 depending on whether you are at the wide or telephoto end of the zoom. Also, the range of the zoom is not that great...equivalent to 38mm - 115mm in 35mm world. Something wider (like down to 24mm) would have made the camera just that closer to perfection.
Of course, owning an F5 makes me wish it had interchangeable lenses and this probably would have offset the gripes I have about the 990's lens but then that camera is called a Nikon D1 and I didn't have $5000 kicking around just so I could have a digital camera that takes different lenses.
Two accessories you won't be able to do without, if you plan on shooting seriously with this camera, is a rechargeable external battery pack and an AC adapter. Two things that should have been included with the camera. With the included batteries, the 990 lasted about an hour of constant shooting, previewing, deleting, and reshooting pictures. With an external battery pack I was able to last 5 hours!
The AC adapter is handy for when you connect the 990 to your computer at home (assuming you're not lugging a laptop around everywhere). No point in wasting battery power for that.
All things considered, I think the camera is great for what it allows you to do. It takes sharp pictures and has pretty decent pixel resolution (3.34MPixels). I would have preferred better low light capabilites, constant aperture zoom, and a wider range zoom but for $850 or so dollars, I really can't expect it to compete with the D1. I think I'll keep it! :-)
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
bitnaut
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Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 2 members
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