Digital Cameras Ratings

this camera takes wonderful, striking photos, good color, excellent macro mode, compact design. i haven’t spent enough time yet studying the modes and the quality of auto makes me put it off. it is a battery and memory hog.the 16 mg card that comes with it is not even close to being enough, i would recommed a 64 at least, 128 would be preferred, or both. a battery charger andone at least rechargeable battery is a must, two batteries would be preferable for more than casual shooting and to keep up with more memory.
as my fourth digital camera, it is impressive and will last me i hope until there is a digital slr with 4+ megapixels for around $1000. shop around for the best price of course.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Nikon Coolpix 885 3MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

First off, let me say that this camera is incredible, and worth every penny.I’ve owned mine for about a week, and I’ve taken some incredible photos that look like they came out of a magazine (and I’m an amateur at best).

Now, let’s get realistic about the camera.I want to provide enough factual information to allow people to make their decisions about whether or not this is the right camera for them.TheCoolpix 990 has tons of great points.Most notably, it’s 3.34 megapixels (3.24 effective), and thus produces top-quality images with incredible sharpness.Another thing that was had me sold was the fact that you can go into full manual mode with this camera.You can choose either shutter priority, aperture priority, or full manual (including fully manual focus).This aspect of the camera should appeal to the professional or “artsy” photographer who wishes to customize the camera to get the exact effect they want.

After you upgrade the firmware to v1.1, the speed of certain camera operations are a bit faster, but the camera is already originally very fast.Reviewing photographs in “Play” mode is a breeze, and there’s not much delay when paging through them.

Buy rechargeable NiMH (nickel metal hydride) batteries and a charger before your camera ships.The alkaline batteries that ship with the camera will die within hours,guaranteed.Also, grab the amazing Maha C204F charger.It allows you to leave the charger plugged in with batteries in it indefinitely, without ruining the batteries at all.The charger will save you several hundred dollars in batteries.

A few drawbacks about the 990 (yes, they do exist): BSS (best shot selection) feature is kind of weak.It’s supposed to let you take 10 shots and it chooses the best (”the one with the most detail” I believe the manual says, whatever that means).On some occasions it has actually chosen blurry photos over the sharp ones.I’ve no clue how this works, but Nikon needs to reevaluate this function.And a warning: don’t rely on this camera for good long-exposure shots.Shutter times of 4 seconds and longer in a dark setting will sometimes show a lot of noise in the photograph.This is a very noisy camera (audibly and graphically), so try to limit your exposure times.Also, please note that you will NOT be able to access the “info.txt” file that people in other reviews have mentioned.Yes, the camera saves all photo details (shutter speed, ISO, flash, aperture, etc.) to a file called “info.txt”, but you CANNOT access the file unless you’re using a card reader.The NikonView software will only let you pull photos from the camera, nothing else.

I’ll conclude this here because I could rant on for a while on other great points.The camera is truly amazing, buy it now.Yes, it has drawbacks, but no camera is perfect–and this one comes pretty close to perfection.This camera is comparable to the Olympus C3030, so check that out as well.The features of the C3030 are similar, and in some ways the camera is a little better (the movie mode actually records audio!), and a little worse (uses SmartMedia only).

Click Here to see more reviews about: Nikon Coolpix 990 3.34MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

I have been using the Coolpix 5000 for the past few weeks, just enough time to shoot 1,000+ photos. My 3rd Nikon and 1st digital, it’s lived up to my expectations: I’ve been more than pleased with the quality of the images, my ultimate criterion. While you’ll hear a lot of wasted drivel on feature A,B,C and comparisons with model X,Y,Z, you need to decide what you’re trying to achieve before investing this much on a new gadget. If you want to capture quality digital images for selected printing in 8×10 sizes or larger – and are willing to invest the time in learning how to make that happen – then this could be the camera for you.

This is no simple point-and-shoot, which explains why some users have been apprehensive. Personally, I prefer the multitude of options it offers, including these (all of which I have used so far):
- Ability to manually override nearly every automatic setting, including: exposure mode (S,A,P,M), focus distance, AF focus areas (5), flash level compensation, sharpening, white-balance, etc.
- ISO sensitivity from 100 to 800, manual or auto, enabling hand-held shooting indoors
- Spot, center-weighted, and matrix (256 segment) metering
- Hot shoe to connect external flash for more lighting options
- Wide angle lens (28mm equivalent) is wider than most ’standard’ lenses on similar cameras
- 3 User Set configurations let you adjust quickly to different shooting situations/styles
- Shutter speeds short (up to 1/2000s) or long (8 sec)

If you do like novel features, then don’t worry, you’ll also get red-eye reduction, self-timer, movie mode (QuickTime up to 60sec @ 15fps, 320×240) and “best shot selector”. Rumor has it BSS is a cool feature that rattles off 3 frames and stores only the ‘best’ – the one with the most information, i.e., sharpest & best exposed (but I haven’t used it). I did like discovering after I played back the first movie that the camera even has a built-in speaker for audio during playback. I also like the ability to zoom into images up to 6.0x during viewing to examine carefully whether you captured what you wanted. The buttons and menu settings, while overwhelming at first, really are intuitively designed – once you’ve figured out a feature, you don’t have to keep returning to the manual.

I’ve been really pleased with the images I’ve captured so far. Fleshtones are realistic, sharpness of images is pleasing (not excessively sharp, or ‘digital’), and metering is accurate. There’s plenty of data to work with in the 5 megapixel images, which I shoot in FINE .jpg mode yielding a 1.5-2.0 MB image at 2560×1920 pixels. The lens glass on the CP5000 is the largest of the Coolpix’s so far, which probably explains the higher image quality.

The typical ‘knocks’ on the CP5000, and my opinion:
-”85mm is too short!”: so is 200mm. If you want to shoot models on South Beach, get an SLR and a 400mm lens instead.
-”32mb CF card is too small!”: if you rely on only one CF card, you shouldn’t be spending this much on a digital camera.
-”images are soft!”: I prefer mine stirred, not sharpened, and do the rest in Photoshop. If you let the camera over-do it for you, there’s no getting back the lost/interpolated data.
-”battery life’s too short!”: you’ll run out of card space first (I use 128mb CF). You just spent a grand – stop whining and buy a 2nd battery.

So, what are its real “issues”?
- No way to screw in a UV/protection filter. For some reason, Nikon opted not to put threads over the glass. You have to buy the lens attachment mount (UR-E5) and attach filters to it. An inconvenience, since you can’t replace the lens and really should protect it with a clear filter.
-It’s slow to autofocus, especially in low-light situations, as there is no AF-assist illumination. I generally use manual focus or set the Single AF mode in such situations, and it seems to work just fine.
-My indoor pictures using the built-in flash sometimes over-saturate the reds in fleshtones. I suspect this is because the bulb is a bit blue/green, and the white-balance logic on the camera over-compensates. I have kept the WB setting on “Auto”, but I may fiddle with this a bit to see if another manual setting produces better results. When this has happened, I just tweaked the Saturation of Reds in Photoshop and they look fine.
- It feels smaller than it looks in the promo photograph. If you have big hands, you need to break the habit of groping the camera with your right hand. Otherwise, you’ll cover the flash sensor and over- or under-expose your flash shots.

Should you buy one? Qualified YES! It’s not for everyone. You can pull it out of the box and start ’snapping photos’, but you might end up with snapshots that you could have made with a cheaper alternative. If you give it a little time and really learn how – and when – to use its many features, then I think you will produce even better images than you’d imagined.

You’ll really like the CP5000 if:
-you like the convenience of Auto-Everything features, but want the creativity that only comes with Manual settings;
-you like the idea of plugging your CF memory card into an Epson/HP photo printer and spitting out snapshots, but you’d prefer to ‘tweak’ them yourself in an image editor like Photoshop.
-you can’t afford a digital SLR right now, but you can’t wait to start experimenting with digital photography

I like it, and I think you will, too. Make an informed decision, and be sure that whatever you buy is the right tool for the job.

Product Description
The 5.2 megapixel sensor creates 2,560 x 1,920 images for prints at 11 x 14 .3x optical (plus 4x digital) zoom lens with autofocus.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Nikon Coolpix 5000 5MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

This is an awesome digital picture-taking machine, which heralds the imminent death of 35 mm film.The D-100 does pretty much everything that a high-end film SLR does, and it does it beautifully.A 512MB CF card will enable the D100 to take hundreds of high-quality pictures that are indistinguishable in quality from those taken with film.The Six-megapixel images in Large/Fine or RAW mode are quite competitive with their film counterparts for almost all purposes.The advantage of digital, of course, is that the consumer, equipped with pretty much any computer, can process and print the pictures him or her self with far more power and flexibility than one had in a darkroom processing film.The digital darkroom has arrived.

The D100 can use Nikon’s entire line of autofocus lenses and many of the older manual focus lenses, allowing the photographer to easily migrate from film to digital.The camera has spot, matrix, and center-weighted exposure options, a programmed mode, apature priority or speed priority, as well as all of the manual options.Autofocus is crisp, fast, and works very well in low light.This camera is nearly as powerful in terms of its focusing and exposure options as the Nikon F5, which is the film camera I used for years before replacing my F5 with the D100.

Perhaps the greatest testimonial for the D100 is that it is notorious that the vast majority of photographers who I know who have bought a D100 never (or at least rarely) shoot film ever again.

The D100 takes OK shots right out of the camera, but to get best results most photographers will want to “process” the pictures through either Nikon’s own program “Capture 3″ or an aftermarket program like Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.I and probably most others have found that some of the post-processing settings on these programs really improve the images produced by the D100.This is a deliberate design “feature” of the D100 in that the D100 anticipates that serious photographers wish to retain a certain amount of control over their images.Accordingly, rather than making all of the decisions for you, the D100 produces images for which final exposure and contrast decisions can and should be made in a post-processing program such as Adobe Photoshop Elements or Capture 3.That having been said, the D100 can and does produce fine images without using a post-processing program.But almost all users have probably found that the best results are achieved by using such a program.In my opinion this is true of pretty much all of the high-end digital cameras out there, and is not confined to the D100.This is the power of digital photography–the photographer, at little cost (a low-end PC and $100-200 program are all that are required) can have a powerful “digital darkroom” which yields tremendous control over how the images turn out.

Physically, the D100 is ruggedly built.The rear LCD is bright and clear.The menu systems on the D100 are very well designed and quite intuitive–after familiarizing myself with the manual for several hours, I now find that I do not need to refer to the manual at all even for very complex “custom” situations.The menus are not overly “layered” as is the case with some digital cameras.The on-board flash is fine for snapshot portraits and the like, but most serious users will want to spring for either the SB-50DX or the SB-80DX flash, both of which are more or less designed for the D100.

Negatives on the camera are few.I mentioned above the post-processing issue, which in my mind is not a negative, but instead is just Nikon giving the photographer as much power and flexibility as possible.The matrix metering is not as powerful on the D100 as on the top-of-the-line F5, inasmuch as in tricky lighting situations the D100s center-weighted or spot metering will sometimes yield better results.Having said that, after several hours of experimenting I can now confidently take consistently good pictures with the D100 in fill-flash conditions.In common with the exposure issues, the D100 more or less requires photographers who want very “sharp” images to apply “sharpness” post-processing.Most of us have probably found that this produces better results than setting the sharpening in-camera, for reasons that exceed the scope of this review.

By the way, the battery life in the D100 is phenomenal.The on-board proprietary Nikon battery lets you take many hundreds of pictures, and serious shooters can buy at modest cost the MD-100 accessory which lets you shoot with either 2 Nikon batteries or a bunch of AAs.Either way this allows you to literally shoot all weekend likely without needing to recharge.The Nikon batteries recharge in a bit over an hour.

For good reason the D100, retailing now (October 2003) below $1,500, has put powerful digital photography in the hands of serious amateurs.It is a well-designed and sturdy camera that is a delight to own and use.

Product Description
Developed to meet the growing needs of the advanced digital SLR market, Nikon D100 digital SLR camera provides compact and lightweight design, and is loaded with exciting high performance features. Taking its place along side the successful D1H and D1X models, the D100 appeals to customers ranging from advanced amateurs who enjoy both great pictures and the process of making them, to people with needs for photography in their business profession.Nikon D100 features sophisticated digital image control technology. Included among its many advanced features are: CCD with 6.1 effective megapixels, advanced image-processing algorithm, and an enhanced Auto White Balance system. The D100 inherits exclusive, high-performance Nikon features such as 3D Matrix Metering, Five-Area Dynamic Autofocus with Focus Tracking and Lock-on, plus the convenience and performance of a new built-in Speedlight which features D-TTL flash control capability. And of course, D100 provides full compatibility with more than 40 AF Nikkor lenses, as well as numerous other Nikon accessories, including a new Multi Function Battery Pack and a new Nikon Capture 3 software. Capture 3, together with the Multi-Function Battery Pack, will enable remote control of the camera body, and Nikon Electronic File (NEF) format images are available for superior image management and outstanding quality. All of these features are packed in a stylish, com-pact and lightweight body for convenient and comfortable handling. With so many innovations in such a practical design, the Nikon D100 is certain to attract countless new digital SLR users to the world of Nikon digital SLR photography.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Nikon D100 6MP Digital SLR Camera

Strengths:

1. 4x optical zoom.Most digicams in this price range only have 3x, and most lower-priced cameras only have a 2x or no zoom at all.

2. Pop-up flash.Many owners of the Coolpix 990 and 950 have significant red-eye trouble.Popping up the flash on the 995 gets it far enough away from the lens to eliminate most red-eye troubles.

3. High resolution.3.3 megapixels in a quality camera like this is more than enough for most serious amateurs.The only time this will become a limitation is if you want to make obscenely large prints (probably 16″ x 20″ or larger, and even then I don’t think it would be a significant degradation) or if you want to crop significantly and make an 8″ x 10″ or something in that range.I have been very pleased with my results, even in…

4. Auto mode.The 995 has a steep learning curve if you want to really take advantage of its full feature set.But its auto mode is intuitive enough that you can take the camera out of the box and start taking quality shots immediately.The auto mode is no more complicated than any point-and-shoot camera.Excellent feature.

Weaknesses:

1. 16 mb CompactFlash card.This one is really a joke.Nikon should have included at least a 32mb card and probably a 128.I strongly suggest purchasing a larger CF card immediately.Most CF cards have fallen to the 50 cents per meg range now (January 2002), so you should be able to get a good name-brand 128mb CF card for $60 or so.Do it.Now.

2. Digital zoom.Worthless.The pixellization is horrendous, and unless you have a huge amount of light the lens speed is such that you really need a tripod to avoid camera shake.

3. Lens speed.With no zoom the aperture is f/2.6.The further you zoom, the worse it gets.If you don’t have a tripod, I strongly suggest one (the 995’s mount is sturdy and well-made, by the way).

4. No case included.Again, something you definitely need.I’ve had very good luck with LowePro, and they’re reasonably priced.

5. Complicated menu system.To take advantage of all the features of this excellent camera, you really need to spend significant time reading the manual and exploring the extensive menu system.Not for the faint of heart.

I’ve given 4 out of 5 stars, with one star removed due to the above weaknesses.But this is a fantastic camera.I’ve had mine for only about three weeks and I’ve already taken more than 300 shots, many of them excellent.I highly recommend it.

Product Description
Set your sights on a higher level in digital photography. Designed for the person who is passionate about photography, the Nikon Coolpix 995 merges the well-known Nikon Coolpix-style camera body with all the advantages of digital technology. Its 4x Zoom-Nikkor lens gets you close to the action, and the 4x stepless digital zoom let you capture intricate details missed by other cameras.At any distance, Coolpix 995 takes sharp, clear pictures with brilliant color through its 3.34-megapixel CCD. High-resolution images contain a wealth of information that result in pictures with exceptional clarity and detail. Versatile exposure controls and multiple flash modes maximize your creative potential in any shooting situation. Tailor image resolution levels to meet your exact needs, and download images with a few simple mouse clicks through the standard USB interface for Plug and Play compatibility with the latest PCs and Macintosh computers. Nikon Coolpix 995. Simply a higher standard in digital photography.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Nikon Coolpix 995 3.2MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom