I was going to say resale value, but heck, even that is less than 40% of sale nowadays.

Horrible focus. Very slow, you''ll never catch the shot you wanted. Never. Buttons and switches all over this thing that don''t do anything useful. Must use the menu. Goes through batteries like poop through a goose. Agonizinly slow zoom (see above about missed shots). Freezes from time to time, requires reset. Has options for apeture priority, shutter priority which are worthless. The only way to run this camera is fully automatic.

This camera is a bad joke. I''ve finally just had it with this thing. I''ve put up with it for 2 years because I knew I paid almost a grand. This camera is reliable - in that you can count on it to fail on expensive vacations, meeting celebrities etc.

Customer Service

Not bad. Went back to factory twice in last few years, focus, zoom, etc.

Similar Products Used:

Canons, Olympus, Kodak

handgrip, comfort to use, easy control, color and contrast of images,

still, the shutter lag. Can''t tell the meter setting when LCD is off.

Overall, I am happy with the camera with the expectation that this is not a professional level camera. with that expectation, the camera stands out surprisingly well for me. The color and contrast of the camera is well above my expectation. The lens range is good but I hope it can be a little wider - perhaps a 28mm or even a 24mm on the wide end. The grip is great and the camera in general well fit in my hand. The control is well laid out and easy to operate. I use manual control only so that made things fairly easy for me. I wish Nikon will give me a over/under exposure indicator when I am not using the LCD panel which I hardly do. Overall, as I said, it''s a wonderful camera.

Customer Service

none

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Olympus C3030z

Image quality, wealth of user settings, compact easy to hold shape, plenty of accessories to do almost anything you want.

Poor excuse for a flash. I suggest you use an auxillary flash on a bracket and turn the camera''s flash off.

Moved up to this camera after my initial positive experience with the Nikon 950. I have not been disappointed with the results. Given the limitations of cameras without interchangeable lenses, this one handles its zoom range ably, and the availability of auxillary lenses makes it easier to get creative. One of the best features, and one that makes Nikon somewhat unique, is the swivel lens head. If you let your imagination loose, you find all sorts of interesting ways to change your point of view. It also makes framing more precise when shooting over the heads of other people in a crowd. I''ve read other reviews where there has been a problem with the zoom mechanism. I''m not surprised to hear it since I did exchange this camera 3 times at the store until I found one that did not make a grinding sound when zooming. I did call Nikon shortly after I returned home to let them know that there is a problem out there. They asked for the name of the retailer and took other details of the problem. Whether they did something about it or not I do not know. I own many other 35mm Nikon products and have never had to get anything repaired.

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None

Color and image quality met my expectations

NOT reliable. Exceptionally poor quality for a Nikon product. Warranty for repairs totally unsatisfactory.

The Coolpix 990 is a nice digital camera. It takes great pictures for the most part. It is impossible to tell how well the captured image will be by reviewing the inadequately small LCD. For example, focus problems are very hard to detect there. The first problem I had was with the USB ports. This is documented below under "Customer Service". I corrected this in spite of Nikon tech support. 9 months after purchasing the camera new, the focus failed - right in the middle of a two week trip to Hawaii! I had taken less than 1000 images with the camera! Nikon replaced everything left of the pivot - lens, focus mechanism, etc. They only had enough confidence in their repair to warrant it for 6 months! THIS is Nikon QUALITY? And they would not warrant the repair to a buyer if I sold the camera. The first time I attempted to use the camera following repair (which included "Adjst CPU PCU Unit" - from their invoice) it generated the equivalent of a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) on two different Windows 2000 systems when I tried to connect the camera to download images. This resulted in an extremely frustrating episode with "tech support" (Again, documented under "Customer Service" below) after which I boxed up the camera and sent it back to Nikon in NY. In the letter I enclosed with it, I told them I did not want to pass off ongoing reliability problems to an unsuspecting eBay buyer. I felt the best thing to do with the camera was to donate it to a Nikon manager so they could see first hand what Nikon quality and reliabilty is like. Perhaps I got a "lemon" assembled on a Friday afternoon. Judging by other reviewers here, I''m not the only one who experienced focus and lens problems. I was just fortunate enough to have it occur within the warranty period so I did not have to throw any more money at the problem. Value for money - definitely not based on this experience. Quality - I would rate it low based on the problems I experienced. When it worked, the camera did take good images. The included software did an acceptable job of transferring and managing images. Certainly no better or worse than other software I''ve used with other digicams. Purchase again - I''m afraid not. I think I got a much better price than most for the Coolpix 990. Even so, it is a lot of money to spend for a digital camera. As a Nikon customer, I expected more from Tech support also.

Customer Service

As bad as it gets. On first call to tech support, "technician" told me USB ports on my desktop were not supported by Windows 2000! I wote Nikon a letter into which I printed screen dumps from the Wind

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Sony Mavica, Olympus digital

Macro, adjustable features, using NiMh batteries is the way to go.

slow to write to compact flash card, poor focus in low light, questionable lens assembly.

My 990 is a replacement for a Canon A50. So far I am pleased with the results. It is true what others say that it has trouble focusing in darker situations. Nikon should have added a focus light to the camera, that a user can opt to turn off if not needed. My Canon A50 had one, and it never had trouble focusing in any lighting situation. Even with the internal buffer, I still feel that it is slow to save the taken image and ready itself for the next shot. The macro is fantastic, nothing comes closer to this without using additional lenses, etc. I''ve tried AA alkalines, they lasted 5 to 10 shots with the lcd on. Now I use NiMh batteries and get at least 200 to 250 shots per charge with the lcd on. I also have the Maha external power pack, but find it cumbersome to use with the power cord dangling. One major problem with my unit was the lens assembly had to be replaced. Right after the warranty expired the lens assembly started making noise when zooming out towards the digital mode. As I stepped the lens closer and into the digital mode it would click like crazy and then go out of focus. Bringing the focus back to full wide it would stay out of focus. Turning the unit off/on would bring the focus back, but the same scenario could be repeated every time. Another reviewer mentioned the same issue, so I wonder how many of these units were built with this defect. I had to send it to Nikon for a complete lens replacement....at least that is what they say was done.

Customer Service

Expensive given that the work done is probably due to a manufacturing defect.

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Kodak 120, Canon A50.

This is about as good as it gets in today''s digital technology. (tomorrow, of course, is another story)

Enormously expensive compared to film cameras. 40-second movie mode is awkward and terribly slow.

Best feature of this camera is the unique design. You can rotate the lens 180-degrees and take self-portraits ... and see the results right in front of you in the viewfinder. No more asking strangers to get that shot of you in front of the famous monument.

Similar Products Used:

Kodak digital

sharp image, versatile lens, dust-free images

short battery life, slow cycle time, shallow color depth

The coolest feature of the Nikon 990 is that it seems to have no minimum focusing distance. I took a picture of a housefly from about 3 mm away and it autofocused perfectly. The resulting image looked like I took it with a microscope. It renders flesh tones perfectly, but at the same time suffers from serious limitations that are common to all digital cameras. Specifically, 8 bits per color channel is only about half of what color slide films and the human eye can differentiate. Shadows come out solid black and bright areas solid white, though flesh tones are perfect. Nikon''s idea of white balance for normal daylight looks blue to me. I set the 990 for "overcast" on clear days to get rid of the blue, then the images look right. Two other problems it has, which are common to all digital cameras: it eats batteries like gumdrops, and can''t keep up for real-time action shots. By this I mean, 4 new AA alkaline batteries last about 20 minutes in the 990, so a belt pack battery is essential unless you carry a suitcase of fresh batteries around. You can shoou about 10 frames in 10 seconds in its XGA fine mode, but then you have to wait about 60 seconds for it to write them to compact flash. At a sporting event, you may find nothing happens when you push the button a lot of times. The best thing about the 990, however is that the lens is NOT removable. Why? I hate dust specks on my images. Film cameras have a little felt strip on the film canister that eliminates dust if you keep the inside of the camera clean. Digital cameras with removable lenses don''t have film that moves, so dust psrticles are not brushed off the image sensor by mechanical motion of the film. Digital cameras must be hermetically sealed in my opinion.

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None