Howard_Creech's Full Review: Nikon Coolpix 990 Digital Camera
My first opportunity to try the Nikon Coolpix 990 was in June of this year, and I was really very excited, since I had heard a lot of good things about this new Nikon Digital Camera. I spent about an hour scanning the manual and getting familiar with the camera and its capabilities and then I headed out to shoot wildflowers “up close” in Iroquois Park. Louisville is fortunate to have one of the best City park systems in the United States. The core of this system of parks and connecting parkways, was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, America’s most famous Landscape Architect. Iroquois Park covers a large hill that rises more than 800 feet in Louisville’s south end, once inside the park, it is easy to believe that you are "out in the country" rather than completely surrounded by a large city. Olmsted designed a wildflower meadow with a small wetlands area near the the top of the hill. This hilltop refuge had recently been restored to its late nineteenth century appearance, and I was anxious to check it out. The area is a photographer’s paradise, especially in the spring, with a wide meadow filled with dozens of varieties of colorful wildflowers, and a small swampy area with several tiny pools of open water, hundreds of leopard frogs, and gorgeous wild iris displays; the perfect place to try out a new camera.
OVERVIEW
The Nikon Coolpix 990 is an updated version of Nikon's popular Coolpix 950. The 990 incorporates all the best features of its predecessor, and adds lots of neat new ones too. The camera starts out with 3.34 megapixel resolution, this provides a true 2048x1536 non-interpolated image, with lots of room for cropping and manipulation. The camera sports an “on board” 32mb SDRAM buffer for a 2 second cycle time and the 3x “swiveling” optical zoom (38-115mm 35mm equivalent) covers the moderate wide angle to short telephoto range quite well. This allows the photographer a great deal of creative freedom, and combined with Nikon’s proprietary 256 element matrix metering and automatic white balance, the 990’s images are consistently well exposed and color balance is always outstanding.
Factor in light weight, great balance, 1.5v re-chargeable “AA” size batteries, 1.5 FPS, logical controls, a built in speedlight, a “real image” zoom optical viewfinder and you have a package that is capable of professional quality results. From the introduction of the 1.3 megapixel Nikon Coolpix 900 less than three years ago, to the introduction of the 3.34 megapixel Coolpix 990 earlier this year, Nikon has set a standard for image quality, technical innovation, and marketplace leadership in digital imaging that is the envy of the industry.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Image Size/Resolution: 2048x1536 (3.34 megapixels)
Lens: Optical-3x Zoom Nikkor 9 elements in 8 groups (38-115mm 35mm equivalent)
Digital: 4x Zoom (steeples)
Aperture: f3.5-f9.8
LCD Monitor: 1.8 inch TFT LCD
Digital Image Storage: Uncompressed TIFF, Compressed JPEG
Media Type: Compact Flash (1 16mb CF card included)
Metering: four mode 256 element Matrix, Center Weighted, and Spot
Shutter: 8 seconds to 1/1000 of a second
Exposure Modes: Programmed Auto, Flex Program, Shutter Priority Auto, Aperture Priority Auto, and Manual
ISO/Sensitivity: 100 ISO equivalent (200-400)
White Balance: Matrix Auto (with TTL control), 5 mode manual
Flash (Built in): Guide Number 30, auto flash, flash off, anytime flash, red-eye reduction, and slow synch
Flash (external): Multi flash synch terminal for (optional) Flash Bracket. Compatible with SB28, SB28DX, SB26, SB25, SB24, & SB22
Power: 4 1.5v “AA” alkaline, 1.5v Lithium or 1.5v NIMH re-chargeable
Included: Lens Cap, Neck Strap, video cable, 16mb Lexar CF card, USB cable, 4 1.5v “AA” batteries, NikonView 3 CD-ROM
OPERATION AND HANDLING
The Nikon Coolpix 990 provides the serious digital photographer with a fantastic platform for creating professional quality images. In automatic "program" operation, the camera faultlessly handles all exposure chores. In manual operation, the 990 allows the photographer to control every step of the image making process with maximum creative flexibility. The swiveling lens is really a lot of fun, offers almost unlimited movement, and is also very good in dealing with low light situations. Like most digital camera zoom lenses the 990’s lens has some “Moire” distortion (straight lines become curved lines at the extreme wide angle and telephoto ends of the zoom range) although the problem is far less noticeable in the middle of the range. Controls are logical, well laid out, and once the user is familiar with the menu and operational layout, one handed operation is relatively easy. The optical viewfinder is bright, zooms in synch with the lens, and is well corrected. The LCD, like most digital Camera LCD’s, suffers from contrast loss under bright light. The included NikonView3 software is not the best I’ve seen, but it isn’t the worst either. Overall the Nikon Coolpix 990 offers a tremendous balance between features and cost.
A Few Concerns
The first time I used the camera, to shoot wildflowers in an open meadow under beautiful late afternoon light, I had severe compatibility problems with a Nikon SB22 speedlight (although an SB26 worked perfectly) and the LCD proved virtually useless for shooting in open sunlight, the contrast loss was so severe it was hard to compose images effectively. The optical viewfinder worked beautifully and my images were all well exposed and the color balance was excellent.
My second adventure with the Coolpix 990 (in August of this year) provided a significantly more upsetting experience. After filling two 16mb CF cards with “street” images shot on Louisville’s busy Ohio River waterfront, I returned to my friends store to download the images to his computer. As soon as I hooked up the USB cable and tried to move the images, I kept getting “unknown device” readings, the camera would not allow the images to be moved. We finally had to use a card reader to download the pictures, and the camera had to be returned to Nikon for service. This was a brand-new “just out of the box” Coolpix 990. I spoke with a Nikon tech rep and he told me that this was not a common problem, but that it had been happening more often than Nikon felt was acceptable.
Conclusions
My third test with the Nikon Coolpix 990 (in late September) went flawlessly, everything worked perfectly and the images were stunning. My friend and I shot some stuff at a little weekend farmers market on Bardstown Road. Small stands loaded down with colorful harvest season fruits and vegetables; a wonderful cast of charming and slightly eccentric “Highlands” neighborhood characters talking and shopping animatedly, cobalt blue skies and a lovely fall day made for a wonderful and productive photographic outing.
Overall, I was very impressed with the Nikon Coolpix 990. Image quality, which is my number one criteria, has been consistently excellent. The camera’s build quality is very good, and I have no reservations about recommending the Nikon CoolPix 990 to potential buyers. I have spoken with a few other people who have had isolated compatibility problems, mostly with the optional flash bracket and the USB cable transfer. My friend (who is a Nikon Dealer) tells me that the 990 runs just a little bit higher than average for "product" returns.
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