Rating: 
Summary: Great Digital Camera!
Review: I have read, with interest, most of the reviews of this product. This is my third Coolpix Digital Camera. (Coolpix 900 and Coolpix 950.) Each generation has been a significant improvement over the previous generation, and, from my perspective, well worth the upgrade. I agree with much of the other reviewers comments: 1. Definitely purchase NIMH rechargeable batteries. They last much longer than anything else. I keep 3 extra sets with my camera at all times. 2. It was necessary for me to not only have a larger CompactFlash Card (64MB and 96MB) but to have two or three extras. It is an issue like carrying a couple of extra rolls of film. However, since the CompactFlash Cards are almost infinitely reusable, the more pictures you take, the quicker you recover your costs. 3. Whereas the 990 takes great pictures by itself, you can improve them significantly by using a photo editing program such as Photoshop. I have found this to be true for both print film and slides. You get a much better picture when scanned and edited in your computer. 4. If the quality of the final prints is important, some form of dye sublimation printing process is essential to avoid the pixelation inherent in (particularly older) inkjet technology. Epson's Photo printers seem to have solved the problem, but I prefer the dry media printers. I use an Alps MD 5000, which unfortunately is no longer available in the USA. When it comes to the drawbacks noted by several of the other reviewers, I believe familiarity with the camera and the digital system of photography will alleviate most of them. One of the reviewers seemed to have had a defective product, rather than anything inherently wrong with the 990. The only real complaint I have about the 990 (and I believe it is a problem with any digital camera that depends on an LCD view screen) is that it is very difficult to see the images in bright sunlight. I think Nikon should design a hood to shade the screen. I have done makeshift things without great success. Overall, I am well pleased with my 990. I rarely use my Nikon film cameras, and then usually for long lens shots. I can't recommend this camera too highly.
Rating:
Summary: The 990 is jaw-dropping
Review: First of all, I've owned the Olympus D-220 digital camera since it came out 3 years ago and had a great time with this 1/3 megapixel camera at home and at work combined with an Epson Stylus Color 600. I've taken about a thousand shots in this time, remarkable since my film camera still has undeveloped rolls from 4 years ago (just too lazy to get it developed). My 3x5 printouts came out surprisingly good, both for baby pix as well as for my office brochure. After extensive research online (including reading all these Amazon reviews) I decided to step up to a multi-megapixel camera, and the 990 has not disappointed. Certainly this is not a point and shoot like my old digital camera. However, it has a nice automatic as well as manual setting; it behaves like a point and shoot if you want it to (and takes amazing shots on this setting). After spending a few days reading the comprehensive manual, I am amazed at the finesse you can now apply to photographs if you have the time and inclination; 8 second exposures, grey scale photos, rapid-fire mode (I get up to 10 shots at 1.5 exposures a second), a macro feature allowing shots as close as 1 inch...it goes on. The size of my photos has jumped from a 72k jpeg to 700+k jpeg for an average shot, and now my hard drive needs upgrading, but thats a different story. I haven't been able to tell the difference between FINE and NORMAL setting at 2048x1056, and hence my 128M Lexar compact flash that I bought gets me about 160 photos per outing. I am still printing with an Epson 600, and plan to upgrade when Epson gets it right with its 870 and 1270 series printers and the color fade issue. With a few very minor tweaks with Photoshop on my Mac, these are eye popping photos. Couldn't be happier.
Rating:
Summary: Know Digital First, then buy the right camera
Review: Read www.dpreview.com before you start down the path to purchase a digital camera. The Nikon 990 is a good camera, no question. It is not the best choice for a point and shoot family camera, but is good for ther person that desires a good deal of control over the image captured. The 990 does have quirks. Besure that it has the features you want first and that images will suit your use. There is no good reason to be surprised by your digital camera purchase.
Rating:
Summary: NIKON's CoolPix 990 is VERY-VERY Cool. More than Cool!
Review: As a semi-professional commercial photographer, I know what quality is and how much it costs. Bottom-Line for starters, the Nikon-990 makes great color shots with very (not so suprising) High-detail. The Advertisments say "good" for 8x10 photos; as a very picky guy, NIKON is telling the truth. The 5x7 prints are shockingly clear with brilliant colors. Since not many prints are not made larger than 5x7, the superlative colors in this print size will likely give the Film Camera buffs a challange. This camera is easy to use & small, however has an exhaustive number of features. My wife and our 13 year old, carry it on all vacation locations; And when I don't want to carry my larger and heavier commercial camera. I was truly shocked at the excellent picture quality of the NIKON 990 which also includes great software, so after a picture taking day/nite, one can easily connect to the yellow video plug on your TV (or Hotel TV) for a slide show of the days activities. I would recommend purchasing two (2) 80MB memory card with the camera purchase, so you'll get plenty of picture opportunities (an 80MB card has room for 50 shots per card at max its resolution) without having to worry about running out of memory. So for a day's shooting two 80MB cards will give the equivalent of four (25-shot) rolls of film. Since you can erase shots that you don't like, take MANY, MANY shots and then pick the best ones you like to save, and for printing or e-mailing. I bring my laptop with me on trips, so in the evening, I can copy the photo-files to the lap-top's hard disk, and erase the camera memory card, so there's room for another 50 photos available in preparation for the next days photo activities. NIKON provides serial, USB cables, and software to accomplish this simply. Definitely do NOT buy a digital camera with less than 2,000,000 pixels. (The older models, presently having good sale prices, are technology of 3 years ago, and you'll wish you spent the extra money for a higher resolution camera). Since NIKON has been the camera business for many, many years, its no surprise that they have created an electronic imager (the CCD Chip) with EXCELLENT Color quality and detail. This is must have, you'll not be dissappointed. If you're on a tighter budget check out the KODAK-280 at less than $500 which takes excellent photos for a 2,000,000 pixel camera. If you have another few hundred dollars, check out the SONY or OLYMPUS dye-sublimation printers, which produce actual photo quality continuous tone prints up to 4x5 sizes; These printers are not dot-matrix's with all the little dots. The camera and the printer makes for a great combo family gift for under $1,500, that anyone in the family can use without having to even turn on a computer, as the printer prints directly off the camera memory card. Don't make yourself craze, since DIGITAL Cameras are slightly different than a typical film point-and-shoot cameras, be sure to read the instruciton booklet, before pushing all the buttons. The documentation NIKON provides is very easy to understand. So take it slow when you open the Box for the first time. It's intuitive to use, after the first 2 outings, you NOT need to keep going back to the booklets. My wife and 13 year old son love this camera (as do I)and they have no trouble dealing with the camera's features, which are exhaustive. This 3.340,000 pixel camera is one of the best I've tested yet. ONE more point, the camera can twist at its middle (permitting the lens to point up or down, with the LCD Pannel staying directly in-line with your eyes) which is an amazing engineering idea which gives the photographer a whole new perspective for taking pictures without having to have the camera pressed against your face. The LCD screen is bright even out doors. JLW/2000/08/25.
Rating:
Summary: First digital camera that can keep up with a 135mm camera!
Review: As a french advertising agency, we were waiting for a digital camera that would be able to keep it up in quality with a 135 mm camera. Tired of having to run to get slides scanned, films processed, we finally were told by a friend professional photographer that the 990 seemed to be the first camera that could help us jump those annoying and long processes. We bought it and, oh! What a great piece of hardware. Buy it with lots of memory on the compactcard, an extra rechargeable battery pack and there you go. This camera makes fabulous quality (specially in HI/fine mode) top quality photos, finally usuable for A4 print and use in Xpress or Indesign. The colors look great (even in studio use, as the menu proposes a choice of different artificial lighting sets -tungstene, neon, etc...).
Rating: 
Summary: Great Digital Camera w/ some drawbacks
Review: Let me start out by saying the CP 990 is a great "digital" camera but it is by no means a replacement for an SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera. Below is a list of the good and bad... Good: 1) The 3 million megapixel output is terrific and I have used services such as ofoto.com and shutterfly.com to print out high quality 8x10s. 2)The option of full automatic or manual control (including white balance, metering, aperture, shutter speed, film speed, etc.) is very convienent. 3)The USB connectivity (lacking on the CP 950) makes downloading photographs onto your desktop unit a breeze. 4)Will accept filters, teleconverters, and wide angle adapter 5)Lightweight with unique design 6)The compactflash card loads from the side (older CP models load from the bottom - very inconvienent when using a tripod) 7)Lens is the equivalent of 28-80mm (on a 35mm format)giving you good versatility Bad: 1)Drains batteries quickly 2)Using the highest quality setting (i.e. 3 million megapixel) allows only 10 shots to be taken with the 16mb CF card included 3)When using a teleconverter or wide angle adapter lens - the flash turns off automatically and you are forced to use the LCD in order to frame the photograph 4)Flash is incredibly weak. 5)Software included is virtually useless My suggestion for anyone buying this camera is to invest in rechargeable batteries and charger (preferrably NiMh). Also invest in a larger compactflash card, at least an 80mb if you are going to take a lot of shots without the convienence of being able to download each hour/day. Another reviewer suggested buying a CF Card Reader to use with this camera rather than downloading from the camera to the desktop. This is an excellent idea, however, I have a solution to buying both a larger CF card and reader. Buy a Lexar CF card and receive a jumpshot cable for free. I have an 8X USB jumpshot cable that came free with a CF card I purchased. I plugged that into my computer and it now acts as a removable external drive. Additionally, Lexar CF cards are comparably priced to Sandisk and other manufacturers'. Finally, I recommend buying a decent software package, like Photoshop. Overall this is a very good camera and one that I am extremely happy with and recommend to anyone interested in a high quality digital camera.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Camera, Skip the Extras
Review: ... I've previously been using a JVC digital camcorder (which flaked out on us - if you ever get one, be sure to get a good extended warranty to cover complete equipment failure), so I find myself comparing the Coolpix to the camcorder. Picture quality on the Coolpix is excellent, although it seems to not perform too well under low lighting (at least, not without using the flash). The optical zoom isn't that spectacular, either (only 3x). Daylight pix are great though, sharp and clear, and there are none of those JPEG "artifacts" you see from cheaper cameras. I found the Coolpix to be quite usable right out of the box. It comes with 4 AA batteries, which don't seem as short-lived as I'd been fearing. Then again, I'm more used to the camcorder whose battery only lasted 15-20 minutes, so the Coolpix seems far superior there already. I did, nonetheless, order a set of NiMH batteries + charger. Save your money on the extras, though - if you're only taking photos for the web, you probably don't need a bigger compact flash card - the 16Mb card included with the camera will hold 40 "basic" quality images, which are 2048x1536 pixels. And forget about buying an expensive card reader. ... Or you could just buy an a/c adapter for your camera and run off electric while you download images from the camera.
Rating:
Summary: Hit and miss
Review: Boy - when this camera can get a good focus lock, there's enough lighting, the planets are in alignment, and angels sing, the pictures that come out of this camera are OUTSTANDING. The only problem, though, are those pesky angels and planets. They just don't cooperate. I've used an Olympus C2000-Z for the past year. I found the pictures to be of somewhat consistent quality - some better than others - maybe 3-5 out of a "roll" (16MB smartcard) to be worth sharing with my family. I bought the Nikon 950 before I got the Oly - and had to return it out of frustration with the user interface and the inability of the camera to obtain a focus lock - and take the picture. And that's if the camera didn't lock up. Heck - it's not Windows. You shouldn't need to "reboot" your camera. In a week, the 990 locked up (requiring me to take the batteries out) five or six times. The 950 was just as bad. I found a better UI with the 990 - but similar frustrations with focus. In low light situations, you better be on a tripod, and have a flashlight handy to let the camera get a focus lock. From what I understand, there are cameras coming out (Fuji has one) that have what SLR owners are used to - a low light focus assist illumination lamp. This camera desparately needs one. If you need to take a picture of something moving - get a focus lock BEFORE your subject gets into view - or the camera becomes very confused, and you're left staring at the viewfinder's blinking green "I'm not ready to take a picture - I can't focus" light. And your subjects look at you, smiling politely... "Did you get it?" "No." "Boy, that camera is slow, huh? I thought the box said 'superhigh performance'?" "Ha ha. Very funny. Where's my old Oly? I want this shot." Anyway - make sure you buy it at some place that has a 30 day money back guarantee. You may need to exercise that guarantee. (Besides the bad focus and system hangs, I also found Nikon's Windows software to be buggy. You'll want to get a standalone USB card reader. And why didn't Nikon embrace SmartCard Type II? I want to use that IBM microdrive, gosh durn it!) BTW - Digital photography is GREAT. I'm hooked.
Rating:
Summary: Great Equipmnet - download software needs help
Review: As a longtime Nikon groupie I expected an excellent piece of hardware and that is what I got. I am annoying my friends and co-workers no end. However, one suprise was that the download software does not include a TWAIN interface - a major disadvantage for us Photoshop users, and the supplied software appears to have a major memory leak with Windows98. Even though I have 256 Meg of ram installed, shortly after transfering photos from the 990, I get an 'memory is low' message and always have to reboot. This is an excellent camera, but the software needs a major overhaul.
Rating:
Summary: Great camera with outrageously bad telephone support
Review: I bought a Nikon Coolpix 990 camera on June 23. When I unpacked the camera, I noticed that some of the software that was supposed to be in the box was not there, but--in its place--was a piece of yellow paper referring the buyer to a "24 hour, 7 day telephone support number" I called the number at about 8:25 PM, EDT and got a series of recordings that told me that "...your call is important; please continue to hold and we will be with you shortly...." I continued to hold for 50 minutes and, finally, a live person answered. After giving him my name, address, phone number and the serial number of my new camera, he said that there was nothing he could do for me and that I would have to call *the same number* again, Monday through Friday, during normal business hours. I replied that this level of "customer support" was unacceptable, especially since I had paid over $1,000 that same day and would not be able to use all of the camera's features without the missing software. This way of handling customers is outrageous. I would suggest to anyone even remotely considering buying any Nikon product that they call Nikon USA prior to buying and ask for Nikon's assurance that some *real* customer support will be forthcoming.
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