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June 2000


Digital Photography: Nikon Raises Bar Again With Coolpix 990
by John Rettie

Having been a very satisfied owner of a Nikon Coolpix 950 for the past year, I was particularly excited to try the new Coolpix 990. I was lucky enough to use a pre-production version of the new digital camera for several weeks before I had the opportunity to try a production version. I was tempted to describe my findings based on the pre-production camera last month, but elected to wait for the production version. As I suspected, there were some minor bugs in the camera that seem to have been taken care of in the production model. Overall it's a great camera and it has numerous improved features compared to the Coolpix 950. Primarily, the 990 has a 3.34 megapixel (2048 x 1536 pixels) CCD chip compared to 2.11 megapixels in the Coolpix 950, which allows for reproduction of bigger images.

The 990 has improved ergonomics and is housed in a slightly larger body with a more substantial hand-grip. It retains the revolving 3X zoom lens (equivalent to 38-115mm lens on a 35mm camera), which I have found to be a wonderful feature. Overall it has features, such as autofocusing, full aperture control and metering, that are increasingly reminiscent of those in Nikon's professional 35mm cameras.

The new camera operates at a faster speed than previously with about a two second wait between shots while the image file is written to the CF card. It is still not ideal for rapid shooting because of this wait, although it can capture five images in about five seconds in continuous mode when the shutter button is held down. Of course there is then a long wait of 6-13 seconds while the files are written to the storage card. Nonetheless, the most impressive improvement with the 990 compared to the 950 is this increase in operational speed.

Thanks to this improvement I found myself much more willing to try the camera in modes other than just taking single shots. Apart from the aforementioned continuous shooting mode, there are a couple of other high-speed modes, which are less useful to professional photographers as they capture images at lower resolutions. Finally, there is a movie mode which turns the camera into a simple video camera shooting at 15 frames per second, albeit without any sound as the camera has no microphone. The amount of video that can be captured is limited to a maximum of 40 seconds on one take and the total number of clips is limited by the capacity of CF card in the camera. Each 40 seconds of video produces a file of about 10 MB. The quality is okay for web use but not for regular video.

Like the 950 before it, this camera includes a Best-Shot Selection mode (BSS), which fires off five shots rapidly and then automatically chooses the sharpest image and discards the remainder. I tried it on some low-light subjects and sure enough, was able to capture a slightly crisper image than relying on my taking images one at a time. It's obviously not nearly as effective as using a tripod but it can be useful on occasions when a tripod is not handy and one needs a slow speed shot without using flash.

Some reviewers have complained that the 990 does not accept the larger CF Type II IBM Microdrive card. However, as I stated last month, I still think it's wiser to rely on a handful of regular solid-state CF cards than just one 340MB hard drive. For this reason I do not see the lack of a Type II card as being much of a disadvantage on this camera at the present time. The 990 now comes with a USB cable connection, which speeds up file transfer substantially if you choose to use a cable rather than a card reader.

At first I did not think the image quality on the 990 was significantly better, compared to that of the 950 I have owned for a year. But after using the camera for a while I realized that there is a worthwhile difference in quality. The accompanying screen shots show the differences between the two cameras, but it is not as dramatic as I expected. It surprised me as the 990 has 50% more pixels compared to the Coolpix 950. For this, one gets a bigger image with crisper detail, which means it can be used for producing larger images more easily. However there are still some artifacts and the appearance of purple fringes on the edges of highlights.

It suggests to me that perhaps we are beginning to reach the limits of the lenses and other components in these small cameras. The CCD is physically smaller in the 990 than in the D1 and other high-end cameras, even though there are more pixels in the 990 than the D1. The technicalities of the ins and outs of different size chips and number of pixels is extremely complicated but it appears to me that we are beginning to reach a plateau of improvements in prosumer cameras. Having said that, I'll admit that the improved speed and quality of the 990 is good enough to cause me to have already sold my "old" 950 and I will purchase a 990 as it is a worthwhile upgrade. However, I am still waiting patiently for a reasonably priced digital camera based on a 35mm body that will take interchangeable lenses. I, along with many others, cannot justify paying around $5000 for a Nikon D1. I might be sounding like a broken record, but I am still convinced that the sophisticated technology of these cameras can be integrated into digital cameras based on 35mm camera bodies and the economy of scale should lead to some decently priced bodies.

The race to produce the ultimate digital camera is still far from over, regardless of how one looks at it! In the meantime, if you don't need the speed or flexibility of interchangeable lenses, the Coolpix 990 can produce images just about as good as the D1 for one fifth of the price.
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Maha Charger
Sadly, Nikon only includes a set of four AA alkaline batteries with the 990, which are barely usable for capturing more than 20 shots or so. Other companies include rechargeable NiMH batteries that are a much better proposition. Like me, though, I am sure more and more people have a collection of these batteries so really don't need another charger even if another four AA NiMH batteries would always be welcome.

In the past I have used an external battery pack to power a digital camera but it is really inconvenient. Instead I have accumulated 20 NiMH batteries to use in all my electronic equipment, which allows me to have at least eight charged batteries ready to replace those that die while working. Recently I have been using the Maha MH-C204F charger that features a microprocessor to monitor charging, rather than working off a timer. It also features a built-in discharger to condition batteries before charging. The kit also includes an adapter cable so the charger can be used in a car cigarette lighter socket. This could prove very useful for photographers while traveling. Of all the charging systems I have tried so far, this one seems to be the best all-round system. The Maha Cell batteries included with the $30 (approx.) kit are rated at 1550 mAh, which provide a much longer time between charging than other batteries.

Lexar Digital Film
As part of a special promotion, Nikon is including a Lexar 16MB compact flash card with the 990. Although Lexar CF cards are compatible with other CF cards and readers, they include some unique features. First, they are rated at a faster speed. Ignore the ads, which say they are 4x or 8x times faster-that's confusing. In reality I found that the Lexar card included with the camera is faster, but certainly not four or eight times faster. It's really difficult to accurately measure the difference in speed between the Lexar card and a regular SanDisk card. As best as I could tell, the difference in speed from click to click was about half a second. Generally it took just over two seconds between shots while the data was written to the card. A more accurate measurement was possible shooting at the continuous shooting mode. With the Lexar card it took five seconds for the five shots to be taken and then another six seconds for the five files to be written to the card before more shots could be taken. With a normal CF card the times were six seconds and 13 seconds, respectively. Obviously, for anyone who plans to shoot a lot of pictures rapidly the Lexar could be worthwhile, otherwise the faster speed is almost unnoticeable in normal shooting.

The most unique aspect of Lexar cards is the inclusion of built-in USB capability. The card can be inserted straight into a special USB cable, which in turn is plugged into the computer. Once the special drivers are loaded on the computer, the card then appears as a hard disk drive for easy transfer of the images. Apart from the zero cost and the small size the cable adapter works no better than a card reader such as the more versatile Microtech CameraMate dual card reader. What's more the Lexar adapter will only work with Lexar CF cards whereas the CameraMate reader will work with any CF cards, including Lexar, as well as SmartMedia cards and the IBM Microdrive. Either way, transferring images by this method rather than using a cable connected to the camera is still far more convenient.

John Rettie is a photojournalist who resides in Santa Barbara, CA. He has been using a camera as a professional for 29 years, a computer for 19 years, and has combined his knowledge of both for the past seven years. Readers can contact him by e-mail at john@johnrettie.com or by snail-mail c/o Rangefinder.