Nikon Coolpix 900

Reliability problems- flash stopped working, Nikon basically said "too bad" Sure wish I hadn't spent another $200 on accessories.

Great pictures when it worked.‰

Lousy customer supportô

Olympus$

Not very helpful or accessible.»

My field is press and sports photography. For this work I use the professional 35mm and Digital products from Canon and Nikon. However these cameras have proved of little use at parties, family gatherings or other less high profile events. This is where my Coolpix 900 is a god send !. It is small, light, quiet and unintrusive. Unlike my bulky and loud Canon + Nikon Pro gear. If, you e-mail me I will send you sample Pix

Well Built Classy Silver Finish Good results up to 10 x 8 Decent zoom range Good Skin Tones Simple Software Flash Modes

No Lens Cap Limited Flash power Slow AF AF does not work in low light Continuous Firing speed is too slow !

Canon, EOS 1, 1N, 1V, D2000, 3 Nikon, F3H, F4e, F5, D1, D1H

First Rate

I inherited this camera from a relative who purchased a Nikon 990. I am really glad he thought of me! I have seen it on the Nikon Online Outlet for $379.00 which is a true bargain. After the addition of a 32MB flash card and card reader, I am really happy with the camera. I am using MGI Photo Suite for editing photos, so I am not using the Nikon software at all.

Ease of use. Especially easy to use as a point-and-shoot camera. Excellent images, even in the low-res mode. High-res pictures are suitable for framing even at 8X10 size. Seriously consider this camera for $379.00 over other brands. Manual controls are good and fairly easy to use. Swivel body makes taking pictures above eye leve, below eye level, and behind you easy. I get some really unique images.

Serial cable is slow. I purchased a 32MB card and card reader and this has made digital photography much more enjoyable for me. Can't take out flash card while on tripod. If not using NIMH batteries, take out home equity loan for batteries. Camera goes into sleep mode too quick, and takes a long time to wake up, often causing missed shots.

Nikon 950

Haven't had to use.

The swival body design is what intrigued me, and after using it for 6 months now, I am sold - especially in crowd settings. I do a lot of work at parties, receptions, family gatherings, etc., taking candid photos of the event. The camera can be held above your head, with the lens pointed at the subjects and the LCD pointed down at the you. In general, I prefer to shoot at eye level (for getting the best looking perspective on people). However, sometimes you just can't get the shot any other way, because others are in your way. Along a similar vein, photographing children can be done at their eye level by holding the camera body down at their height, lens pointed at them, and LCD pointed up toward you. You don't have to do body contortions to get a great shot. Last, but not least - even when no one is "in the way", you can hold the camera out in front of you, pointing AWAY from a subject you want to capture on film - the lens is swiveled to point at them, LCD is pointed to you. If they happen to notice you, it appears you are looking at something besides them, so they remain natural and don't go into a "pose", or worse, turn away, or hide. There are gizmos you can buy to do a 90 degree turn of the lens for the same purpose on other cameras, however, they don't have the flexibility of the swivel body on the Nikon. Of course, you get the quality Nikon lenses, and even though the boxy design of the body is not going to win any camera beauty contests, it is small enough to fit in your pants pocket (although somewhat bulky for that purpose).

Swivel body design. Easy to use. Auto everything for the beginner. Manual controls for the more experienced. Compact body. Quality pictures. Good if output is primarily for small prints, or web.

Scene captured is not always what you see in the view finder, especially up close. LCD is thru the lens, but reduces battery life significantly. Picture size is limiting. Quality prints can only be done up to 5x7.

Nikon Coolpix 990 Olympus D-340R

Not used.

This camera is two years old, and I may try to get another, faster, hgihger resolution oine in the future, but some feature of the Nikon 900 will be of interest to those considering newer nikon models and those getting used 900 cameras. I use a 48M CF Sandisk card which gives 73 highest res pictures. Hundreds if lower resolution is used. I plug it into a PCMIA slot for really fast downloading but have used the serial connection which was flaky for me. I use lithium batteries and get around 100 shots per set. The weaknesses are the speed is slow enough that it is easy to motion blur an image. The camera does not do well in low light. On the other hand the images are pretty impressive. The twist design takes a bit of getting used to, but it is really easy to use and allows for some fantastic shots. You can compose a shot right from the ground since the lcd and len are independent. Take a look at a low resolution shot http://www.lafayette.edu/~reiterc/photo_symm/mtree.html also, the wide angle lens allows awesome shots and great close up macro shots some general images (not full resolution!) can be found at http://www.lafayette.edu/~reiterc/hikes/1999_05/index.html

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