Rating: 
Summary: Amazing digital camera
Review: Briefly put... This is the best digital camera to date for non-pro-photography use ($3000+ range). The feature list is complete, and the optics are excellent (you'll be amazed by the resolution).For WinNT (non-USB users), I would recommend a parallel port compact-flash card reader ($50 +/-). And don't forget some extra compact-flash cards.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Camera - Low Quality Support
Review: This camera just arrived from Amazon to me yesterday. Since I have used and owned several high-end consumer digital cameras I note the following should others be interested in this camera. 1. This camera is for a true enthusiast, a person testing high end consumer digital cameras before buying the professional line for business, or for I guess, a person who just has the bucks to have the latest. 2. I love it since I am constantly imaging events or children and need to have a camera that is fast (does not take for ever for it to focus and capture the image from the time you click the camera to the time it captures the image to put on disk. It records to disk (memory/digital film - whatever you want to call it), It needs to have capacity for high storage, fast downloads. 3. The camera itself in comparison to other cameras of this style and caliber is quite easy to use. (The swivel feature is really nice to get those angles that are harder to get) 4. Minimal weight and size for its features. Nice. 5. Getting the images to computer uses the drag and drop concept of windows. Since at the point of arrival, this camera did not have its software ready to make upload easy like most cameras have. Per the note packaged in the camera, it will not be available for Win 98 users till June 2000ish. The drag and drop is not intuitive. You should have reasonable windows knowlege to figure out that you need to open both the Nikon viewer and a window set on the location of where you want to put the images. DRAG and DROP. Copy and paste does NOT work. But once you get the idea using the camera with USB cable is so fast in comparison to that of serial.... this flies. 6. Though they do now have 24/7 cs....I was on hold for 2 hours 10 minutes before the line was cut off. Though I had them on speaker phone, was able to have dinner and dress the kids for bed, it was annoying. 7. So, since Nikon service is rather poor (unless you are talking about the sales dept), I reccomend that if you buy this camera, and are spending this kind of money on a camera, you need to have: good digital camera knowlege/experience, very good windows and windows imaging knowlege, wants to be able to have high quality prints made when that "oh so special" image is actually captured to disk and a really trustworthy dealer.
Rating:
Summary: Nikon's best digital yet
Review: In truth, this is the first digital camera that I have owned, though I have owned Nikons and Leicas for years. I tried the 950 and was very impressed, but the CoolPix 990s improved resolution, refinements, flexibility and ease of connectivity to my PC (plug & play using the USB cable supplied with the camera) make this a hand's down winner in all respects. I've purchased separately a larger capacity memory card since the 16MB capacity memory card supplied was inadequate for a day's worth of photos (approximately 20 normal shots). Notwithstanding the inherent demanding power requirements of a digital camera (keep a spare quad of AAs with you at all times), the CoolPix 990 is a must for any serious digital shutterbug.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent product for digital imaging
Review: I'd have to say that until this camera came out I'd been banking my imaging needs on 35mm that'd been scanned. With the 990 I feel the days of film development are long gone for this product serves my needs above and beyond what's necessary or even expected. I am running this product in a professional environment and it is performing exceedingly well. Some of my work has been in macro (e-mail me for a sample macro pic) and general studio work. The generous number of features makes this camera rival some high-end 35mm SLR's. If you photograph for the web (As I do) this product surely will not disappoint. The down side is that it came with only a 16mb Flash Card and a USB to plug into the camera. I will likely buy a USB card reader so that I can plug my cards in to my PC for uploading pics.
Rating:
Summary: Digital is a format commitment...
Review: When jumping into digital "film" you have to realize it is a format that requires support peripherils. You can't buy a digital camera and hope that is all you need. A flash card reader is a must. The uncompressed TIFF images are huge and transfer time through a serial cable would take for ever. A little research into the format would be smart (you are spending $1,000 on the camera). The 990 answered all of the problems, if you can call them that, of the 950. More pixels, side flash card access, fast imaging, manual focus... you get the picture. Definately THE mega-pixel under $1,000 to own. Disregard all other reviews and buy the camera! It is easy to use in auto mode and as difficult as you want in manual mode. A great camera that makes sense.
Rating:
Summary: Nikon has a winner, IF you have a card reader.
Review: Out of fairness to Nikon, I need to provide a sequel to my previous critical comments. When used with a CF card reader to communicate with your computer, this system is nothing short of astounding. This is the first digital camera I have used, and I expected to get a semi-toy that mainly lived because of the gee-whiz digital 'film'. This is no toy. It's got most of the features of high-end 35mm cameras, and is a legitimate professional tool. Of course, its 3.3 megapixel resolution can't compete with properly exposed 35mm film, but for many applications it is enough. I printed a full-size 8 1/2 x 11 page, and the detail was pretty respectable. The range of focus and exposure control options (including, of course, fully manual) make this a camera that can handle many of the oddball situations where I've had to burn lots of Polaroid film to get the setup right. It's a shame that Amazon's catalog pages fail to indicate how limited this system can be without the extra-cost card reader (not a lot of money, but it also burns a bunch of time to try to figure out how to get by with the cables it's shipped with).
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful instrument, with one major GOTCHA.
Review: I am amazed at the quality and feature set of thiscamera. While it is not up to the resolution of 35 mm film, you can doa lot of useful photography with the new 3.3 meg pixel count. The gotcha is that it does not ship with a serial (com1/2) cable... So unless you have Win 98 or 2000 installed on a computer that has NEVER had Win 95 installed (? This is what the Nikon manual says) so you can use the USB cable. My recommendation is to buy a SanDisk ImageMate for parallel port (about $50), and some extra memory cards; then you'll never have to be concerned about the data transfer time or OS compatibility. END
Rating:
Summary: The best just got better
Review: The Nikon 990 is a complete makeover of the Nikon 950. It manages to combine the best features of the 950 with many of the things people have been asking for since the original 900 first came out. The optics are superb and the 3.34 megapixel resolution produces a picture that rivals film. The layout of the camera is improved and the joypad on the back makes navigating the menus quick and easy. The programable function keys let you have the features you need under your fingers when you shoot one handed. The only way it could be better would be if it was waterproof.
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.
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