Rating: 
Summary: great camera, a few small flaws.
Review: overall i've been pleased with the 990, the only drawbacks are(1) disappointed in the manufacturers claims about standard AA battery life, usually 15mins is average, not the hour and half claimed. NiMHs are a must, I use 1600maH which usually lasts 12 hours at least. Get real nikon, ship at least nicads, sure its a cost issue, but its very environmentally wasteful and poor customer relations to ship batteries that last for 15 mins or less. (2) The manual is weak, but is typical of translated manuals. 3) accessories are hard to get hold of, and the remote release is expensive (although its feature loaded) an IR or RF based remote would be nice, most other camera makers offer them. (4) suffers from red eye a lot. (5) low quality software on the PC, even lower on the MAC, crashes often on win2k, even after the update to camera firmware and PC software, crashes on first time use everytime. (6) menu access is slow, camera could do with a faster cpu, latest software release helps things somewhat but it could be better. (7) one very small thing that would only affect a few people, is the inbuilt IR filter for the lens, which means you can't do the near IR style photography thats popular with other digicams. other than those small quibbles, its generally an excellent camera, its a lot of fun to use. Once you are setup with NiMHs and a decent sized CF card its easy sailing, we've had it for about two months and are still finding new things about it. Pictures taken are great, the jpg compression levels work well,the low is very low quality suitable for web pictures, but the high end is good, and the highest setting, with no compression is excellent.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty darn nice camera, but.....
Review: I just bought a Coolpix 990 last week and LOVE the camera. Out of the box, you just put the batteries and flastcard in, turn it on and, point and shoot. It's that easy. USB image transfer to computer is easy, just drag and drop. But the software included isn't that great, Nikon had to send me a backordered disk and the catalog software is a hassle to figure out. I just want to snap pictures. The camera eats batteries, about 60 shots (half with flash)per set of 4 bats, so get some rechargables, nimh are the best. And get an extra memory card too.. I edit shots in PhotoShop or MS Picture-it then print them out. Great resolution and color. Wonderful pictures. Bye bye 35 mm film. Now the negatives. My camera broke today, 8 days out of the box. I have to send it to the service center. Tech support must be hearing a lot of the same thing, (wont shut off, zoom clicks, no menu differientation) its like the program shorted out or something. SO am I satisfied? YES! I don't want a refund or another camera (I looked at them ALL), just the camera fixed and back in my hands. I highly recommend the camera to all, it's a great camera, easy to use, takes great pics, and I can do a lot of advanced stuff too, but not til it's back from the shop. Happy snapping. CJ
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome
Review: I've had mine for 3 years and it's just what I wanted for what I use it for. If anyone wants a great camera to use for just about any task or just fun? Buy it. Buy it now!
Rating:
Summary: Follow-up, 5 weeks later..
Review: I've had this camera now for 5 weeks and like it even better than when I first got it. In my first review (here)I sent my camera out for service, well it only took 8 days from out the door to back in. Nikon service is great and you can track progress along the way via an 800 #. All the review treads here are pretty accurate for this camera, so I'll keep this basic. The Coolpix 990 is an awesome machine. The pictures are beautiful! The camera has a swivel joint that allows you to point the lens assembly in one direction and swivel the LCD so you can see it, allowing for holding the camera overhead and focusing in on your subject over crowds. It allows for very creative pictures. I bought extra memory cards and 4 sets of rechargeable nimh batteries that last forever. I get 120+- pics per set of nimh vs 60+- with regular alkali bats, and all I have to do is recharge them to go again, BIG savings.. There are tons of add-on accys. for this camera; zoom lens, filters, external flashes, panorama brackets, you name it. I'm adding lenses and flashes myself. There is a photo book written for the 990 that details the manual settings, with examples, that allows you to take abvantage of the powerful control options built in to this camera. Your possibilities are enormus. Or you can switch into Auto mode and, point & shoot. There are BB forums dedicated to this camera that have lots information for accy. combos, shooting advice, or knowledge sharing. Before I bought this, I read all the reviews and visited camera stores to physically check all the options available. The 990 has a great feel to it; very solid, an easy menu to navigate, and the control buttons are laid out for a comfortable, quality, feel. Competing cameras are too small for my hands and/or don't take as good a picture. I download my digital pics to on-line developers who mail photo prints back to me. No more bad pictires, and you can't tell the difference between digital vs 35mm film. However, i find that printing the photos on my printer with good paper yields photos that (when framed) rival photo finishing from a developer. This technology is truly amazing. I now find mysely going on lots of picture taking hikes experimenting with the different settings on the camera. I can see the results immediatly in the LCD, learn from my mistakes, delete the bad, make adjustments, and take more good pics -vs- taking a roll of film, getting it developed, spending lots of $ for film and processing, forgetting what settings I did in the first place, and having lots of bad pics. THe savings will pay for the camera and accessories! Oh, and in the 5 weeks I had this camera, I took almost 2000 pictures. Do the math and save the money! (2000 pics / 24 pics per roll = 83 rolls. $15 (film & developing costs) per roll and I would of spent $1,250. and had lots of bad pics to boot over the last 5 weeks. This is Really cool stuff. I don't know what else to say, Great camera, great support from Nikon, and endless resources to improve on your camera skills. You'll never be sorry you got this camera. Once you step into the digital world, you'll never go back to film. Try it, you'll like it.
Rating: 
Summary: Read before you buy.
Review: This is a review for users of 35mm cameras who are thinking of moving over to their first digital camera. (Gadget junkies can safely ignore this post.) Let me start by saying that this is a great camera. For my purposes the 3M pixel resolution is as good as film. But if you are just moving over from a 35mm for the first time you are in a for a few rude surprises. Some which are endemic to all digital cameras, some Nikon 990 flaws. 1. The built in flash is worse than useless for indoor portraits. The redeye problem is horrendous and unsolvable with the built-in flash. You'll find yourself buying an external flash (~$150)and bracket (~$50). Why they didn't put a hotshoe on the camera is beyond me. 2. If you bought the camera for it's 3m pixel resolution you will find the 16M card supplied as useful as a 16M Windows machine. You need at least one 128M card (~$250) which holds ~80 pictures (unless you plan to tether yourself to a computer.) 3. The LCD display and autofocus eat Alkaline batteries for lunch. You'll go through a set every 1.5 hours. At minimum you need rechargable NiCad's. If you're going to be outdoors for awhile consider a rechargable external Nicad pack (~$50) 4. Shutter lag time seem a lot longer (worse) than 35mm cameras. About 1 1/2 seconds from when you push the shutter to when the camera goes "click" in auto mode. Ouch. 5. If you are used to "motor drive" on your 35mm this camera will drive you crazy. There is a 1.5 second delay between photos for the first two photos and 7 (yes seven!) seconds for the following one. You simply cannot shoot a series of "action" pictures at high res. 6. Oh, hope you didn't expect a carrying case when you bought your camera. It's ok because once you buy the external flash and bracket you need a larger one anyway. 7. Getting pictures into your PC via the compact flash cards are a no brainer if you have either a) USB or b) PCMCIA adapter for a portable. In either case you need an compact flash adapter (~$50 for the PC ~$10 for a portable computer). Of course you can connect your camera directly to the computer, but trust me, get an adapter. Make sure your USB port works before buying the camera. 8. Hope you bought an Epson 1270 or a printer with equivalent quality (~$450)to print your photos. If not, get a cheaper (less resolution) camera. 9. Get familar with Shutterfly.com to send photos to your relatives. Summary: Great camera. If you're happy taking pictures of the family on a 35mm the resolution of this camera won't disappoint or embarass you. However, the amount of work and manual reading may. Plan on spending another $500+ for peripherals. Learn battery management skills. Learn how to make every shot count.
Rating:
Summary: Great Camera!
Review: This camera is great. For those of you who are new to photography, it operates as a point-and-shoot. If you are looking to advance your skills, it offers manual ability (apeture, shutter speed and focus). This camera has all the features of a Nikon SLR. This camera takes sharp and clear pictures, and is definately worth the price! The only downfall to the camera is that is is prone for causing redeye due the close proximity of the lens and the flash. Nikon just introduced the Nikon Coolpix 995 that is essentialy the same as the 990 but with a pop-up flash. That should eliminate the red eye. I would expect the 995 to drive down the price of the 990. If the price between the two camerasis incidental, go for the pop-up flash to elimate the red eye. If the price difference is alot, stick with the 990 - you won't be disappointed, and editing software makes it super easy to remove redeye. I upload my images to photoworks.com. Their software allow you to edit the picture before you send it - their red eye reduction is a snap. The quality of the pictures is tremendous - noone ever knows the image is digital! Good luck with the camera - you are guarenteed to love it!
Rating: 
Summary: Old and tired
Review: This product, if still available, isn't a great camera. Look up the canon G2 or G3 or a newer Olympus model.
Rating:
Summary: Better than average, but not stellar.
Review: I picked up this camera used to do some assignment work for an online publication. I specifically wanted full manual control and the ability to use an external flash (the internal flash is almost useless). The large handgrip is a welcomed change from most other digicams out there. It feels nice and solid in your hand while the no-slip surface does its job admirably. The shutter release button is solid and the mode jog dial is placed perfectly. The user interface could benefit from minor usability improvements, but for the most part is easy to use and learn in seconds without consulting the manual. And to echo what everyone else mentions, battery life lasts me about 40 shots with the monitor and flash turned off. I take along a spare set of AA batteries for short outings. For longer outings, I mount a DigiPower DPS9000 external battery pack into the tripod mount Overall picture quality is good, but not to the level of my 35mm film cameras under moderate scrutiny. For web content, picture quality is awesome, though. Resolution and sharpness are perfectly acceptable for 4x6 prints. Nice to have the 3:2 ratio to let you print uncropped 4x6 images. Macro capabilities are great. Since I prefer to print my personal images, I feel the Coolpix's weakness is in its color reproduction. Photos printed on a Fuji Frontier 370 system seem to lack a certain saturation or 'punch' in various colors - things seem to be on the dull or compressed side and not very vibrant, even if the original scene was. This is especially noticeable when you hold a digital print next to a film print when both have used the same exposure and focal length and have been printed on the same machine. Sure, I can spend time in PhotoShop adjusting curves and levels, but that's more time consuming than it's worth if you ask me. For a few photos, no big deal. But if I just shot 50+ images that are keepers, I'm not going to spend countless hours tweaking each one. I found that a semi-decent shortcut is to get the ICC profile for my target printer and batch up all the images in PhotoShop to have the profile applied automatically. I then spend $0.29/print at my local camera shop getting them printed. Inexpensive, fast, sharp, and durable -there's no way I can print at home at that price or time savings, and I doubt anyone else can. PROS:
Sharp images (provided you keep the sharpness setting on Auto)
Easy user interface
Inexpensive on the used market
Decent build quality CONS:
Condensed color range
Slow to focus and fire shutter (2-3 sec.)
Supplied software is almost useless
Viewfinder shows too little of actual image (85%?)
Rating:
Summary: A bit bulky, but takes beautiful high quality photos
Review: Technology may have passed this camera by as you can buy a smaller 3+ megapixel camera for less money, but I've used this camera for 2 years with nary a problem. You may be able to get a good deal on a used model. I use it as camera that is shared by many departments where I work, so it gets heavy use. The quality of photos taken in bright light on the "fine" setting is stunning and prints well as 8 x 10s (you can even get away with larger sizes, if you don't mind a little pixelation). The camera's auotmatic mode is adequate for most shots, but you can adjust the shutter speed and other customizable features. The pivoting lens body is also handy to get into tight spaces. The LCD screen is bright, but can be hard to read outdoors. Battery life is 40+ photos with rechargables. I don't recommend using Alkalines with this camera, but they work in a pinch. The biggest drawback with this camera is the flash. The proximity of the lens to the flash means you'll be correcting lots of "red eye" on your PC or Mac. The flash is also very weak in low to medium light situations, and you can't add an external flash to the camera. This camera sometimes fails to start when turning it on, or shuts off after a few seconds on, but turning it off and on again seems to help. I attribute these glitches to age and abuse due to heavy use rather than poor manufacturing.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent pictures lead to great prints
Review: This is a fantastic camera. I routinely use the second or third highest resolution setting and I am able to take pictures that have excellent detail and color. My preferences are close-up shots and panoramic views and this camera excels at both. The 3.34 megapixels is more than sufficient to print off non-pixelated 8x10 photos from my Canon s900 photo printer (also very good). I've used this camera at night to get some good city-scapes (especially considering that I don't have a tripod) and for shots ranging from dreary days in Ireland to sunny mornings in Santa Fe and the camera is great. I picked the brains of camera-philes before purchasing my digicam and Nikon was repeatedly recommended as one of the best cameras in the price range, regardless of extra features (Sony) and higher pixel concentrations (Olympus, HP, Epson). That advice proved correct. If you can't find this model, look into the CoolPix 4500, which is essentially the 990's replacement.
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