Nikon Coolpix 950

This digital camera is by far the best in the sub-$1000 market at this time (June 1999). Yes, this is a bold statement, but I feel it's true and can back it up. It is imPortrant to remember that I have never been a fan of the Compact Flash or Smart Media cards and have been set against purchasing a camera which used them. Because of that and a few other issue with the camera, I had basically decided that this camera could never live up to the role of best-in-class. A few days with it and I changed my mind.

We'll start off with some of the problems I have with this camera. The foremost problem is the speed at which it chews through batteries. It took 2.5 sets of normal Duracell batteries to fill my 96MB Compact Flash card with 1600x1200 images at fine compression. The Duracell Ultra batteries do live through most of one card though. I have hope for the NiHM batteries but have only recently dropped the first batch into the camera and don't know how long they will last. The next problem is that the manual focus is annoying. The control is not responsive enough to be useful in situations when you typically would need to quickly switch to manual focus. At least it does have the control however and the autofocus on this camera is particularly quick and accurate.

Pros:	Fabulous image quality Colors similar to Kodachrome Sharp enough to read text on footboard of locomotives Ability to over-ride most automatic controls Small size Light-weight Durable magnesium body Support for external speedlight (flash) Support for multiple lenses (including fisheye) Rangefinder for shotting with the LCD Flexibly metering Digital zoom improves range at low resolutions
Cons:	Sucks alkaline batteries dry quickly Uses strange 28mm filter size Compact Flash cards are expensive Tripod mount isn't level No full manual mode No support for PC sync based strobes LCD is not fine enough resolution to focus manually Manual focus has only 10 steps Controls have a steep learning curve for beginners Digital zoom pixelates too much in 1600x1200 resolution

Another severe problem on the CoolPix 900/900s/950 is that it uses a strange 28mm filter size. Though step-up converters to 37mm can be found, they are not easy to come by. So far I have only found them through mail-order operations and the step-up is not cheap after you pay their shipping fees. My next complaint is true of all Compact Flash based cameras. If you don't plan on purchasing a SCSI or USB reader (I highly recommend the USB -- cheap and fast), you'll dream of the high speed transfer of floppy disks (and that's really bad). The serial connection included on the camera should only be used when SCSI or USB is not an option -- don't torture yourself by actually attempting to transfer a 40MB or better card through serial! Finally, I wish that the camera would have a full manual mode (shutter and aperture control) rather than just priority modes. I think the decision to omit this feature was based on the lack of input controls though. If someone at Nikon happens to read this, please, add it to the next version of the camera.

The most imPortrant feature of a camera is it's image quality. The CoolPix 950 has the high resolution (1600x1200) and color saturation I have been looking for. 1600x1200 is high enough quality to print an 8"x10" image off a continuous tone device without the pixels being obvious. The noise level, even at low light, is incredibly low. The color quality is absolutely incredible. Overall, there's still a distance to go before digital can close the gap between the quality and versatility of 35mm film, but this camera certainly has the best quality I have seen.

Perhaps the best feature from the technical aspect is that the CoolPix 950 can be flash upgraded. The 900 and 900S were lacking this feature and required firmware upgrades (like most digital cameras). This time around Nikon provided the ability to flash the camera's software and provide extended features and bug fixes through files on the Nikon Tech web site (BTW -- I really like their tech site -- techs are quite responsive.). When Nikon recognizes something that people are not pleased with in the may the camera is functioning, in many cases is will be fixed through a change in the software. This is especially nice since many of the little quirky issues on the camera have already been identified and should be resolved in the next revision of the software. When it is, Nikon will post it to their site and we, the users, can download it to our cameras without sending them out for lengthy upgrades.

Links for the Digital Camera User Steve's Digicams is one of the best sites on the web for information about digital cameras. PIE (Picture Information Extractor) allows veiwing of the EXIF information

There are many other smaller features I really like. Any photographer who has attempted to enter one of the many contests will recall being asked for the film, camera, and exposure information. The Nikon (and most other digital cameras) record that information directly into the JPEG file using the "EXIF" format. This information can be read back years later either in the camera of through third party software (such as PIE which is a shareware program for less than $20). Also, the size of this camera is great. A little wider than a typical point-and-shoot 35mm camera, the CoolPix 900/900S/950 has a rotating lens/viewfinder making it more natural to hold it you're conditioned to working with SLRs. A neat feature of the rotating lens unit is that it supports has a "self portrait mode" where the lens can be flipped around to point back towards the operator and flips the image to be right-side-up (probably not worth the development time that went into it, but cool never the less). Unlike the SONY, this has both an LCD and an optical viewfinder. Though the LCD gives a more accurate view, it sucks power and is difficult to see in bright sunlight. The optical viewfinder does take any power (except to zoom) and can be used in any lighting condition. The CoolPix 950 also has a diopter adjustment to correct for minor vision imperfections. Nikon was also smart enough to place a LCD on the top of the camera similar to what you might find on film still cameras with exposure, frame, and camera information. This is great for when the monitor is shutoff or unviewable and you need to check or change one of the settings. No, there are still more features I enjoy on this camera, but I'm getting tired of writing about them rather than using the camera.